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South Arden Boulevard
400 block




400 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 24
  • Built in 1918; BPs for house and garage issued 11-15-1917
  • Original commissioner: attorney and sportsman Ralph Bandini
  • Architect: Henry J. Knauer
  • Contractor: Philip Gresham






401 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 9
  • Built in 1923; BPs for house and garage issued 11-28-1922
  • Original commissioner: building contractor Clarence W. Bean as his own home
  • Architect: Whiteley & Brin (Harry H. Whiteley and Alfred N. Brin)
  • Contractor: Clarence W. Bean
A second view of 401 South Arden Boulevard
from West Fourth Street, and, below, the house as featured
in the Los Angeles Times on 1-21-1923.








410 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 23
  • Built in 1925; BPs for house and garage issued 9-15-1925
  • Original commissioner: Elinor W. Huntsberger, wife of obstetrician Raymond W. Huntsberger
  • Architect: Philip J. Brinckerhoff in the office of S. M. Cooper Company
  • Contractor: S. M. Cooper Company (Sanson M. Cooper)







411 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 10
  • Built in 1923; BPs for house and garage issued 6-21-1923
  • Original commissioner: contractor George Taylor, on spec; no architect specified on BPs
  • The first owner of 411 was attorney Clare Woolwine and his wife, Portia, who had moved from his parents' house at 4040 Wilshire Boulevard; after the Woolwines' divorce and her remarriage in 1928, he returned to his parents' house and then briefly rented 90 Fremont Place


Before remarrying two months later, Mrs. Woolwine disposed of her booty in an
auction held at 411, as advertised in the Los Angeles Times on 4-29-1928.







418 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 22
  • Built in 1924; BPs for house and garage issued 12-4-1923
  • Original commissioner: Reeve Gartzmann, Southern California distributor of Oakland cars
  • Architect: Clarence J. Smale
  • Contractor: Leonard C. Woelz
  • Gartzmann remained at 418 for 15 years before selling it to urologist Jay J. Crane







419 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 11
  • Built in 1924; BPs for house and garage issued 10-21-1924
  • Original commissioner: contractor George Taylor, apparently on spec; no architect specified on BPs
  • John Wallace Mapel, president of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company of California, died at home at 419 on 11-4-1933; Clyde H. De Acres, president and treasurer of J. J. Haggarty Stores, Inc., the department-store chain he bought after the death of its founder in 1935, was living at 419 at the time of his suicide on 3-30-1941; Charles E. Joannes, chairman of Ben-Hur Products, Inc., local distributors of coffees and teas, died at home at 419 on 10-6-1943







426 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 21 and northerly 5' of Lot 20
  • Built in 1916/1917; BP for house issued 9-15-1916; for garage 2-14-1917
  • Original commissioner: attorney Leonard B. Slosson
  • Architect: Arthur R. Kelly
  • Contractor: Albert L. Walters
  • In 1921, Leonard B. Slosson became the law partner of George E. Farrand, who built 322 South Windsor in 1923; Slosson died at 426 South Arden on 6-4-1946


As with many Windsor Square blocks, the 400 block of South Arden Boulevard would not fill out
until the boom of the '20s. The Slosson house, completed in 1917 and seen here in
1920, would sit conspicuously among former beanfields for quite a few
years before neighbors arrived and landscaping matured.






427 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 12
  • Built in 1915; BPs for house and garage issued 5-15-15
  • Original commissioner: contractor Forrest Q. Stanton, as his own home; Stanton was in the building business with his brother Herbert W. Stanton and their father, Chappel Q. Stanton. Their concern, C. Q Stanton & Company, evolved within a few years into the Stanton-Reed Company and then into Stanton, Reed & Hibbard
  • Architect not specified on original BPS; as in many such cases, the designer was likely a draftsman in the contractor's organization
  • Contractor: Forrest Q. Stanton
  • The house was sold by Stanton to retired physician George Knapp in early 1918; Knapp hired Stanton-Reed to add a second story to the original garage to accommodate additional living space including a billiard room (BP issued 3-15-1918); Knapp additions during the '20s included a two-story wing for servants' quarters
  • Stanton returned to live in Windsor Square when he built 332 South Lucerne Boulevard in 1920


Forrest Q. Stanton's project at 427 South Arden Boulevard was one of the first to be built in
 Tract 2136 of Windsor Square; it appeared in the Los Angeles Times on 2-13-1916,
 above, and again on 2-10-1918 at the time of its sale to Dr. George Knapp.







432 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; southerly 70' of Lot 20
  • Built in 1920; BPs for house and garage issued 2-4-1920
  • Original commissioner: real estate and insurance executive Harry S. Freiberg
  • Architect: Robert D. Jones in partnership with Sanson M. Cooper acting as contractor
  • Freiberg was in business with his brother-in-law Milton W. Lowenstein, who built 325 South Arden a block away at the same time as 432, by the same builders; their father/father-in-law built 333 South Arden, next door to Lowenstein, also at the same time and also by the same builders. All three houses are very similar, with façades that vary only in detail
  • Freiberg remained in the house until at least 1942; it was purchased circa 1945 by attorney Eugene L. Wolver, whose family remained in possession for more than 60 years.
  • A BP was issued to Wolver on 11-7-1945 to add a 16-by-22' room and to "change entrance hall & living room entrance"; this would account for the current awkward façade. The exterior walls, currently stucco, are described in BPs as "wood", presumably clapboard







433 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 13
  • Built in 1925; BPs for house and garage issued 2-27-1925
  • Original commissioner: real estate investor Walter L. Morrow, for resale
  • Architect: Everett H. Merrill
  • Contractor: Walter L. Morrow
  • Original garage demolished 1991; BPs for demolition and a replacement garage issued 8-15-1991. A BP for an "irregular shaped (sic)" addition to the house issued 9-3-1991; COOs for new garage and house addition issued 1-22-1993







440 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 19
  • Built in 1917; BP for house issued 3-27-1917; for garage 5-16-1917
  • Original commissioner: chemist, bacteriologist, and real estate investor Clarence B. Hersey
  • Architect: Arthur R. Kelly
  • Contractor: Stanton-Reed Company (Forrest Q. Stanton and Harold E. Reed)
  • In 1921, Hersey moved to a new house in Beverly Hills; building contractor Clair L. Peck purchased 440. Peck, whose company would build more than 40 structures on Wilshire Boulevard including the Dominguez-Wilshire Building and Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, as well as the Capitol Records building in Hollywood, remained at 440 until circa 1950, when he moved to Beverly Hills
  • Peck made additions to 440 including a greenhouse in 1933 (BP 7-20-1933)






441 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 14
  • Built in 1923; BPs for house and garage issued 12-1-1922
  • First owner was clothing manufacturer Melville Norton, partner with his brother Benjamin C. Norton and brother-in-law Saul N. Morris in the firm Norton Bros. and Morris. Saul Morris also lived in Windsor Square, building 532 South Windsor Boulevard in 1924; Ben Norton was living there with the Morrises when he died in 1959
  • It is as yet unclear if Melville and Lucille Norton commissioned the house themselves or bought one of many built on spec in Windsor Square during the 1920s. The identity of the architect of 441 South Arden is also as yet unclear; the Morrises employed architect Arthur R. Kelly to design 532 South Windsor, while a cousin, the in-demand architect Samuel T. Norton, was issued a building permit to build his own home at 66 Fremont Place just seven weeks after permits were pulled for 441 South Arden. All three houses were of Mediterranean design, a style that was then reaching its peak of popularity
  • Melville and Lucille Norton were divorced circa 1934; the house was then sold to hardware merchant Dean Kellogg Barris
  • Barris and his family remained at 441 through the 1940s
  • In residence by 1950 was Jack Bradshaw, whose family had been in the dog-show business since 1898 and continues to be; Bradshaw's wife, Claire, appears to have still owned 441 at the time of her death on 10-6-1990
  • The house was advertised for sale as a "stately original" in the Times during January 1991, erroneously identified as being, as was the habit of real estate brokers, in Hancock Park; the price was $1,095,000







448 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 18
  • Built in 1920; BP for garage issued 10-3-1919; for house 10-6-1919
  • Original commissioner: real estate investor William A. De Groot
  • Architect and contractor: Stanton, Reed & Hibbard (Forrest Q. Stanton, Harold E. Reed, and Lester H. Hibbard)
  • De Groot had built 316 South Arden Boulevard four years before
  • Acquired by surgeon Isaac H. Jones in the summer of 1920; Jones also purchased Lots 47 and 48 of Tract 2136 adjoining his property but facing Lucerne Boulevard. He appears to have moved 448's original garage to Lot 47 (according to Sanborn insurance maps) or 48 (according to a BP issued 4-8-1921) for conversion of this building into servants' quarters
  • On 10-26-1922, Mrs. Jones was issued BPs for a "garden house" and a "dressing room" to be built on property address 449 South Lucerne Boulevard, corresponding to Lot 47; on 12-8-1923, she was issued a BP for a "private clubhouse on tennis court"
  • Mr. Jones was issued a BP on 9-5-1923 to add an organ loft and expand the kitchen of 448 
  • Mr. and Mrs. Jones left 448 in 1925; it was acquired by meat wholesaler Rolfe M. Hays, who added a new garage (BP issued 2-19-1926). On 12-20-1928, the Los Angeles Times reported that Mrs. Hays, while on a steamer from San Francisco to Los Angeles, had found her husband in another bunk, not alone, and was seeking a divorce. Katherine Hays got the house and remained in it for another 25 years
  • The original three-lot property was subdivided in the 1930s, the various outbuildings meeting different fates; the northerly 45' of Lot 47 would become part of 441 South Lucerne; the balance of Lot 47 combined with Lot 48 became the site of both 459 South Lucerne, built in 1941, and 4763 West Fifth Street; according to Department of Building and Safety records, the latter residence appears to be a remodeling of a structure built during the Jones ownership







449 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 15
  • Built in 1922; BPs for house and garage issued 4-12-1922
  • Original commissioner: contractor George Taylor, on spec; no architect specified on BPs
  • While the Los Angeles Times of 2-25-1923 reported the sale of 449 to ENT physician Robert W. Miller, it appears that either the sale did not go through or that Miller flipped the house having not moved in. By the next year, it became the home of Edwin J. Whitney, developer of Catalina with his brother-in-law, George Shatto. (Mrs. Whitney is credited with naming the town of Avalon; Clara Whitney Shatto was a prolific residential developer on her own of the Wilshire corridor.) Mr. Whitney died at 449 on 5-18-1931; Etta Whitney remained in the house until not long before her death in 1950


The BP for a 1950 remodeling noted that changes would be made to the façade of the house;
it appears that a wide banding was added and the Juliette balcony removed.
The illustration above appeared in the Times on 2-25-1923







456 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 17
  • Built 1920; BP for garage issued 2-18-1920; for house 2-20-1920
  • Original commissioners: brothers and real estate investors Harold K. and Ralph F. Huntsberger, for resale
  • Architect and contractor: Stanton, Reed & Hibbard (Forrest Q. Stanton, Harold E. Reed, and Lester H. Hibbard)
  • Sold to investment banker James R. Martin in 1921; Martin died  in his sleep in the house on 12-22-1944  


As seen in the Los Angeles Times on 1-9-1986







457 South Arden Boulevard


  • Tract 2136 addition to Windsor Square; Lot 16
  • Built in 1906 at 667 South Berendo Street
  • Original commissioner: Charles O. Wearin
  • Builder/contractor: Clayton A. Holden, who is credited in his 1945 obituary in the Los Angeles Times with having supervised the construction of the 1911 clubhouse of the Los Angeles Country Club and with having been its manager for 20 years
  • Wearin sold the house to mining executive George W. Johnson circa 1913; Johnson sold it to civil engineer, banker, and manufacturer Arthur C. Platt circa 1918
  • House and garage relocated from 667 South Berendo to 457 South Arden in 1923 by Arthur C. Platt for continued use as his own home; relocation BPs issued 6-21-1923. Contractor: Kress House Moving Company
  • Mrs. Platt (Laura Arkell Platt) was the sister of William J. Arkell, who had been the publisher of Judge and Leslie's Weekly magazines and who lived at 337 Lorraine Boulevard; another brother, Bartlett, was a founder of the Beech-Nut Packing Company. Mrs. Platt was still living at 457 South Arden when, at the age of 95, she was issued a BP to add an elevator to the rear of the house on 2-6-1962. She died at 457 on 3-14-1964, age 97
  • Attorney Sidney A. Adair bought 457 South Arden after the death of Mrs. Platt; he moved in with his wife Martha in 1965. Mrs. Adair died in November 1972. Sidney Adair married divorcée Beverly Corley in January 1975, he and his two sons moving to her house at 321 Muirfield Road in Hancock Park. 457 South Arden was on the market that same month







Illustrations: Private Collection; LAT