LC Section One 10 2021

SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Larchmont Chronicle

Delivered Monthly to 76,439 readers in Hancock Park, Windsor Square, Fremont Place, Miracle Mile, Park La Brea, Larchmont VOLUME 59

NUMBER 10

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OCTOBER 2021

LARCHMONT CELEBRATES !

H T 50TH ANNIVERSARY 0 0 1 From Barley Fields To Affluent Suburb

The year is 1921 . . . women are bobbing their hair and wearing skirts an inch above the knees . . .

F. Scott Fitzgerald coins the term “The Jazz Age” while strains from the voice of Bessie Smith and trumpet of Bix Beiderbecke are filling the airwaves. . . Rudolph Valentino is creating a cult of fans and young marrieds are buying dictionaries to win crossword puzzle contests. . . President Harding has signed a peace treaty with Germany and World War One veterans are using their overseas allotment checks to buy

Ford’s Model T for only $950 . . . .

The neighborhood shopping center concept is the perfect answer for suburban families and Larchmont Village is “born” . . . in an era of breathless, energetic, superactive times . . . in the Roaring ’20s!

Larchmont, patterned after the suburbs of New York City — like the affluent Larchmont, N.Y. in Westchester County — is being developed as a business district to serve Windsor Square, New Windsor Square and Han-

cock Park.

Etched out of barley and bean fields, this acreage is far from overpopulated downtown and is fringed with evergreens, sycamores and willow trees. The streetcar runs down Third Street to Larchmont and up to Melrose Avenue.

Tourists come out on Sundays in their Packards and Pierce Arrows to visit the mineral baths on Melrose Avenue.

Developers of this business center and surrounding areas are James Baldwin, J. J. LaBonte [Continued on Page 2]

2 Centennial

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Larchmont Chronicle

From Barley Fields To Affluent Suburbs [Continued from Page 1.] and Tracy Shoults. James Baldwin Co.’s adver tisement in the Los Angeles Times for Larchmont Heights says, “We can vouch for the tract itself. It is admirably located, the transportation facilities are excellent, the improvements are ever ything they should be and last, but not least, it is in the direct path of the best and most rapid growth in population and proper ty values.” Prices range from $1,500 to $2,100 and “are exceptionally low considering the location of the proper ty and the favorable conditions surrounding it.”

But J. J. LaBonte is the man who sees the need for an active commercial center to sell and ser vice the residents of these fine mansions in Windsor Square, Ridgewood Park, Wilshire Heights, Larchmont Heights and Hancock Park.

In September, 1921, the Los Angeles Times heralds constr uction of 30 stores on Larchmont Boulevard between First Street and Beverly Boulevard.

“In two months, this whole business district was practically sold out . . . the splendid system of floodlights established on each of the railway power poles in the middle of the street and 100 ft. apar t, each 1,000 candle power, makes this one of the best illuminated sections in the city.”

ON THE BOULEVARD: — 1920s — J. J. LaBonte signs up tenants in record time at the of fice he and R. Ransom open.

H. Von Stein brings movieland to Larchmont with a new movie theater and its $40,000 organ; Hughes Market opens along with Ira Richardson Hardware, Windsor Square Pharmacy at

ABOUT THE COVER Larchmont’s senior statesman Ross Stratton is seen looking at the Boulevard of bygone years, when streetcars clanged down the middle of the street and customers were chauf feured to the Village in Packards and Pierce Arrows (photo cour tesy of Jack and Charlotte LaBonte Lipson).

Photo at right shows Larchmont Boulevard in 1971, site of the Golden Jubilee Family Fair on Fri., Sept. 17 from 7 to 10 p.m. (photo by Barbara Transue).

the corner of Beverly and Larchmont, Larchmont Cafe, Larchmont Electric Co., Larchmont Market, A.A. Carpet Company and Larchmont Motor Ser vice Station which sells Richfield gas at the corner of First Street and Larchmont.

We notice the Huntsburgers, Mr. and Mrs. Gilber t Wright, the Thomas O’Neills, Lincoln Dessers sending their chauffeurs and maids to Larchmont.

In 1923, residents and merchants open accounts at Citizens National Tr ust — Barber Tony Yapelli has account #4. Ira Bermant and Harr y Wallace take in a new par tner, Alber t Dippell, who is finishing his education at University of Southern California.

Alber t Balzer, a for mer Iowa merchant, purchases the Hughes Market a few years later and brings it to a larger facility further south on Larchmont where he begins his quality grocer y and deliver y ser vice to the area’s carriage trade.

Mrs. Webster Holmes makes plans to decorate her lovely English Tudor home at 365 South Hudson Avenue which Jonathan Ring, a New York architect, is designing. Bill Ledendecker, who recently purchased Wilshire Studios and moved it across the street to 103 Nor th Larchmont Blvd., is helping with the interior decoration. He has worked for Robinson’s before star ting out on his own.

Banking executives employed by Pacific Southwest Savings Bank in 1925 urge the opening of a convenient neighborhood branch and help in designing the facility which is located near the Larchmont Movie Theater. Van de Kamp’s plants its famous windmill on Larchmont in 1925. Larchmont Printing opens and we see Mrs. George Piness, Mrs. Earl Moody and the Elton Isbells shopping there for calendars and pens. Poinsettia Cleaners provides customized ser vice with Mr. and Mrs. E. R. Boyd behind the counter and three deliver y tr ucks to ser ve the neighborhood.

Sweet shops on Larchmont include the Larchmont Sweet Shop, where movie-goers devour hot fudge sundaes after seeing [Continued on Page 4]

MUIRFIELD ROAD HOME of the Philip L. Wilson family was built in 1924 as one of the first Hancock Park residences.

THE BEGINNING OF LARCHMONT VILLAGE in 1921 (shown at First and Larchmont) shows LaBonte Building housing some 20 stores at right in distance, real estate office at left. Several other buildings further north, plus elegant new movie theater, will help new shopping center rival Western Avenue (Photo courtesy Bruce Torrence Historical Collection).

Captain Hancock Transforms Ranchos into Fine Residences

By Diana Rosen Chronicle Staf f The evolvement from barley fields and oil wells to lush estates in Hancock Park and its surrounding areas began with the vision of one man, G. Allan Hancock.

His father, Major Henr y Hancock, had first come to the area in 1852 as a Mexican war veteran. In 1854, he sur veyed the LaBrea Tar Pits for the government. There, he made the first discover y of prehistoric bones: a saber-toothed feline. Undaunted by lack of suppor t from other scientists, Major Hancock purchased the huge estate from the government in 1860.

Development of 4,440-acre Rancho LaBrea, where Hancock was born on July 26, 1875 as Allan Richard George Hancock, star ted with a search for oil for Rancho LaBrea Oil Co. What resulted, in addition to 71 oil wells, was a real estate development that remains the established hear t of the City of Los Angeles.

THE SUBDIVISION STAR TED at Rossmore Avenue and moved west to Highland Avenue to form what is still known as Hancock Park. Wilshire Countr y Club’s golf course covers the Third Street oil sumps of the Hancock estate.

Capt. Hancock’s real estate of fice, Wilshire and LaBrea, sold lots for both private homeowners and building speculators for $10-15,000 in the late ’20s. Demand for lots skyrocketed to the point that salesmen sat on Wilshire Blvd. cor ners under sun umbrellas selling lots to passersby. Aiding Hancock in these sales were Shay and Logel and S.P. Lepplem. By 1930, approximately 85 percent of the development was completed.

Hancock intended to build himself a home on the familyowned lots on Hudson Avenue overlooking the golf course.

However, the tragic death of his 23-year-old son Ber tram and his near death when the hotel they were staying in was demolished during the July 29, 1925 Santa Barbara ear thquake left deep scars of grief.

The family, wife Genevieve Mullen whom he mar ried Nov. 12, 1901 and daughter Rosemar y, moved to the 400acre Rosemar y Far m in Santa Maria. There, he conducted scientific far ming and raised cattle. He also invested in a

vegetable packing plant, ice plant and the Santa Maria Valley Railroad.

HANCOCK EARNED his title “Captain” for his license to “master any ship of any tonnage on any ocean.” This love of the sea led him to many discoveries particularly the bethograph which photographed the first color pictures of the ocean’s bottom at depths of more than a mile.

Hancock gave funds to build the College of Aeronautics in Santa Maria in 1928.

USC was also the beneficiar y of Hancock’s philanthropy.

More than $7,000,000 in gifts were allotted from 1939 to 1954 when he ser ved as chairman and member of the board of tr ustees. He established the Hancock Foundation on Jan. 3, 1941 as a West Coast Center for the Advancement of Marine Biological Research and Allied Ar ts and Sciences.

A vast repositor y of marine lore and objects, it includes the Foundation building at 36 St. and University Ave.; the Velero IV marine lab ship; and educational television station KTHE established in 1953.

Upon his retirement from the board of tr ustees in June, 1954, Hancock gave a final gift of $2,150,000. This ended the long-time span of philanthropy that began with 175 acres of income proper ty, roughly bounded by Fair fax and Cochran avenues, to Third and Sixth streets, which he gave the school in 1940. The area was purchased

by Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. to constr uct Parklabrea Towers and Gardens.

After his wife’s death in 1936, Hancock married Mrs. Helen Leaf Morgan. The brief marriage ended, and on Oct. 5, 1946 he wed the former Marian Mullin. Hancock died May 31, 1965 at his Rosemar y Farm, where his widow now resides. His granddaughter, Mrs. Thomas L. Brennan, Rosemar y Hancock Smurr’s daughter, is the mother of Hancock’s three great-grandchildren.

Chronicle Thanks Area Historians

(from the 50th anniversar y special section in 1971) The Larchmont Chronicle extends its grateful appreciations to the many persons who contributed information to make this historical supplement possible.

Our special thanks go to Dr. Harr y M. Kur tzwor th, who has been providing historical drawings and ar ticles about this area since the Chronicle first began in 1963.

We would also like to thank Joseph Harker, Loomis Johnson, Bob Landis, Cutler and Howard Dippell, Mrs. Donald McGrath, Mrs. A. Lincoln Desser, Dr. and Mrs. E. Earl Moody, Mrs. Virginia Browning, Mrs. Victor Winnek, Mr. and Mrs. Elton Isbell, Rober t Selleck, Tracy Beaumont, Mrs. Lester Hibbard, Mrs. David Witmer, Ralph Templar, Tom Waters, Ben Benson, Ross Stratton, Johnny Johnson and the many others who supplied their recollections for these pages.

VILLA DE MEDICI in Florence, Italy was the inspiration for the Vermont and Wilshire palatial estate of G. Allan Hancock. In 1939, several of its rooms were dismantled and reinstalled in the USC Hancock Hall as a memorial to Capt. Hancock’s mother, Ida Haraszthy.

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Centennial 3

In the 1940's…

We Got Our Start

on Larchmont Boulevard

Since 1981, Ritz Dry Cleaners has been owned and operated by Raj Patel and his family, with the support of a dedicated team.

If you care about your clothes and fine linens, then it’s only natural to care about how they are cleaned. When it comes to delicate, valuable, or treasured items, professional dry cleaning and French hand laundry services are the best possible choice.

We Love Larchmont!

"Congratulations" to all our neighbor merchants and customers for Larchmont's 100 years!

Ritz

Dry Cleaners

& French

Hand Laundry 306 N. Larchmont Blvd.

(213) 464-4850

4 Centennial

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Larchmont Chronicle

From Barley Fields to Affluent Suburb [Continued from Page 2] the exploits of Theda Bara and Buster Keaton; See’s Candy Store; Elizabeth Bailie Candy and Van de Kamp’s Baker y at 225 1/2 No. Larchmont which was opened by Theodore J. Van de Kamp in October, 1926.

Billiards fans are attracted to Larchmont Pool Hall which opens in 1926 and closed the next year. Weaver Jackson Beauty Shop opens a branch at 202 Nor th Larchmont so now local women don’t have to travel to Wilshire Boulevard or the Ambassador Hotel for their business.

Ross Stratton’s radio shop has a loudspeaker system so that shoppers can hear music as they promenade along the sidewalk.

The day of the Dempsey-Tunney fight (September 1927), even the fellows from Larchmont Pool Hall were over by Strat’s listening to Dempsey lose the fight by giving Tunney the “long count.”

Brothers Elton K. and Clarence R. Walker buy a two-pump gas station at Olympic and Western in 1926. They discuss plans to add on American Motors dealership, ser vice depar tment in the near future.

NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS: The talk of the neighborhood in 1925 is the moving par ty interior decorator Howard Verbeck held aboard his house as it was moving from 2619 Wilshire to a lot at 637 South Lucerne Blvd.

Larchmont Flowers is delivering color ful bouquets to the George Machris home at 244 So. Ir ving Blvd. to decorate for the many par ties they hold for friends.

Attorney Neil McCar thy has built a palatial home at 465 South Muir field. A former resident of Ardmore Avenue, we understand from his Rimpau neighbors that McCar thy practices his polo shots while riding a wooden horse — in the unused swimming pool.

The Christmas tree lights in front of the John Bullock home at 627 South Plymouth Blvd. draw admirers from all over the city. W. M. Petitfils builds a home on the nor thwest corner of 6th Street and Plymouth that awed neighbors call “The Bank of Windsor Square” because of its stone fence and large stone facade. He heads the Petitfils Confiserie.

Guy Scholten sees the need for complete electrical ser vice

and in 1920 opens his Scholten Electric Co. at 214 So. Western.

Guy carries a shotgun to get a rabbit or two as he drives to see customers who are erecting homes in the barley fields near Marlborough School.

SCHOOL NEWS: Los Angeles High School is graduating its first class to spend all four years in the beautiful brick building at Rimpau and Olympic boulevards.

Principal W. H. Housh brags about his 2700 pupils — largest enrollment in the City. “When the site of our present building was selected and the building star ted, the people looked askance at the idea of building a school so far away from houses and school children,” Housh says. “But what happened? The place . . . where there was open countr y is being built up with homes and new subdivisions open to the West. Los Angeles High is still the pioneer school . . . Thus does civilization follow in the wake of the school house,” he concludes in his yearbook message.

Beth Ward, Charlene Mock, Harley Hubbard are among the grads — leaving legacies to the junior class with such luminaries as football star Horace Bresee, scholars Joe Crail, Warren Pallette, Henr y Duque, Warner Henr y, Oscar Trippet and Huber t Boisver t.

Stanton Rippey is president of the House of Representatives, and other student leaders are Edward Pallette, Felix Chappellate, Joy Peterson and Josephine Poor.

Headmistress Mar y Caswell, who star ts each day with a canter (sidesaddle) along the barley fields surrounding Marlborough School for Girls, speaks at the graduation ceremony while the 18 graduates look elegantly beautiful in their white dresses, thinking no doubt of upcoming trips to Europe and college enrollment.

The Har vard School for Boys celebrates its 21st bir thday this year at the corner of Venice and Western under headmaster Dr. Rober t B. Gooden.

Two educators and former militar y of ficers see the need for a local school to train young men for leadership and they found Black Foxe Militar y Academy in 1929. Major Earle A. Foxe and Major Harr y Black lay out designs for the day and boarding school south of Melrose with two imposing str uctures on either side of Wilcox Avenue.

THE SPANISH tiled roof of Citizens Trust & Savings Bank, forerunner of Crocker Bank, comes to Larchmont Blvd. in 1924.

ROSS STRATTON opens his Larchmont Radio Salon on the boulevard in 1927 to handle the growing record and radio business.

FIRST LARCHMONT Boulevard home, built in 1924 by the Ballard family, was designed by Harley Bradley, Buffalo architect brought here by Larchmont Boulevard developer John Woodruff.

TWO-STORY HOMES COMPLETED IN WINDSOR SQUARE SUBURB 1926 — Windsor Square, an elegant residential tract of twostor y homes, celebrates its 15th bir thday this year.

Developed by the R.A. Rowan Company, Windsor Square is the first residential tract restricted to homes in Los Angeles.

R. A. Rowan has furnished underground public utility and electric lines so that unsightly wires will not mar the attractive landscape.

The Rowan firm has invested $500,000 in improvements, including the underground lines, for the 100-acre residential area.

The company also has furnished wide green parkways between the sidewalks and the curb, and planted palm trees to enhance the tract. It has also provided the street lighting.

HOMES BUILT ON THIS TRACT, just 12 minutes from downtown, are restricted to two stories. Home sales are almost completed in the area where prices star ted in 1911 at $15,000.

The proper ty, which has been sold at $100 and up per front foot, was selling at $400 per acre in 1902. At the time it was barley fields and vegetable ranches.

Claiborn Saint of the Rowan Co. pointed out that the area has attracted many homes built further east; Benton Van Nuys has moved his father’s home from 6th St. and Loma Drive to 4th St.

and Lorraine Boulevard (Lorraine was named for Rowan’s daughter.)

The Vogel home was moved from West Adams to Windsor Square; and the O’Melvaney home from Wilshire and Rimpau to Windsor Boulevard.

AMONG THE HOMES being built here are the English brick residence at 6th St. and Windsor Blvd. for Milton Getz; it has a tapestr y brick exterior surrounded by gardens and enclosed by a wall of old bricks.

John and Nellie Powers have built a $50,000 English Tudor home at the nor thwest corner of 6th and Windsor. The Milwaukee Building Co. has erected a 12-room English-style home for Eugene F. Kline. Philip Ridely built a large colonial home for his family at 515 South Windsor Boulevard in 1915.

S.M. Cooper, a retired minister from Cincinnati, has built several homes in the Square, all with basements. He and his family are living in a large home at 435 South Lorraine Blvd.

The Rowan company has designated the proper ty from Third to Sixth Streets and Plymouth to Ir ving Boulevards as Windsor Square. The firm has sold adjoining proper ty to subdividers such as George B. Ellis, James Baldwin, Tracy Shoults and J. Woodr uf f.

BARBER SHOP Then

We Salute Larchmont’s 100TH!

Now

For appointments until 4 p.m., call (323) 464-6659 Hours: Mon.-Fri. 8:30-5:30

•

Sat. 8-4:30

•

Sun. 9-2:30

©LC1021

401 1/2 S. FAIRFAX AVE., 90036.

Ad from 1971

Still serving Larchmont customers from our new location:

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Centennial 5

6 Centennial

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Gowns of Brocade, Lace Seen at Ambassador Debut

The highlight of the 1921 social season — the opening of the Ambassador Hotel — was matched in glamour and glitter by the gorgeous gowns of women guests.

The parade of fashion was led by Mrs. William G. McAdoo, wife of the former Secretary of the Treasury, who wore a gown of white and silver brocade cut short and topped with a bodice of pearls. Setting off the gown was a corsage of orchids.

A necklace of diamonds decorated Mrs. Hancock Banning’s silver brocade dress, and pearls accented the black and gold brocade gown of Mrs. William May Garland.

Pearls appeared in the unique creation worn by Mrs. W.W. Mines, whose rich dress of cream lace was

blended with a girdle and shoulder straps of hand-sewn pearls.

Mrs. I.N. Van Nuys had a company of 18 at her table. She was regal in an imported black satin gown and jet with which she wore a pearl necklace.

Mrs. Richard Jewett Schweppe was handsomely attired in sapphirecolored velvet trimmed with Point de Venise lace.

Mrs. James Rathwell Page was wearing green chiffon and silver lace.

The sparkling gowns were part of the overall charm of the dinnerdance celebrating the Ambassador Hotel’s opening.

Nearly 3,000 people attended the affair, including the scions of society and out-of-town visitors of note.

Los Angeles Tennis Club Hosts First Western Meet

Sept. 1927 — The most prized possessions among tennis enthusiasts this month are tickets to the first annual Pacific Southwest Tournament at the Los Angeles Tennis Club at Clinton and Cahuenga avenues.

The club, only seven years old, has grown from 27 founding members to several hundred. It was founded on Nov. 1, 1920 by Thomas C. Bundy, a U.S. National Doubles Champion (1912-14), who bought 5 1/2 acres between Melrose and Clinton, Wilcox and Cahuenga, for $11,000 from Capt. G. Allan Hancock. Maurice McLaughlin, real estate developer and tennis ace known as “The California Comet,” helped arrange the sale. McLaughlin was the first to introduce the big serve and the volley to tennis.

In 1922, a portion of the Melrose frontage was sold to pay for building a clubhouse, a championship court with bleacher seats and six other courts. This year an Olympicsize pool and 10 other courts were added.

Tennis stars expected to compete in the first annual tournament, Clifton Herd, tourney manager announced, are Bill Tilden, Francis Hunter, May Bundy, Molla Mallor y, Kean Bouman of Holland and Manuel Alonzo of Spain.

Bill Henry, Club president, said box seats have already been purchased by Norma Talmadge, the Bennett sisters, Jascha Heifetz, Vilma Banky and Rod La Rocque and Gloria Swanson.

THE FACE OF LARCHMONT has retained its grace and loveliness, as evidenced by this photo of Plymouth Boulevard, between 1st St. and 2nd St., taken in 1921. Joseph Harker of Harvard Blvd., who contributed the picture, has been a witness to the growth of Larchmont for more than 50 years.

Young Sturges Meets Actress 1924 — Young Dain Sturges received the thrill of a lifetime last week at a special premiere at Larchmont Movie Theater.

He tells us what happened: I was at the preview of the motion picture “Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall,” starring Mar y Pickford, which featured the personal attendance of Mar y Pickford and her husband Douglas Fairbanks.

Mar y Pickford said to me as she walked out of the theater, “Did you enjoy the picture, little boy?” I was the only one she talked to.

Douglas Fairbanks was standing on the running board of their luxurious chauf fer-driven car, looking out for persons cor wded around the car as it was backing away from the curb in front of the theater as they were depar ting.

Mayor Cryer Rules Over Half Million George E. Cryer takes over as Mayor of the 576,673 residents of Los Angeles in July of 1921, succeeding Meredith P. Snyder.

City Council president Ralph L. Criswell presides over meetings with fellow members F.C. Langdon, Frederick Wheeler, Robert M. Allen, Walter Mallard, Winfred Sanborn, Othello Conaway, W.C. Mushet and R. S. Parks.

Police judges include Joseph Chambers, Hugh Crawford, Ray Chesebro, G.S. Richardson and William Frederickson.

Among the City Planning Commissioners are Linden E. Behymer, Eugene Biscailuz, Fred Blanchard, Mrs. Werna Cobel, Claude L. Welch, Mrs. C.B. McClure, Albert Lee Stephens, Lyman Farwell and Paul R. Williams.

Serving with John W. Mitchell, head of the Board of Municipal Art Commissioners, are Mrs. Sumner Hunt, Mrs. Cecil B. de Mille, Edwin

Bergstrom and John J. Backus.

Board of Public Service Commissioners is occupied by Howard Robertson, R.F. Del Valle, Lester Robinson, E.R. Young and John R. Haynes. William Mulholland is Chief Electrical Engineer, Bureau of Power and Light.

H. Wagner Takes Wilshire Y Post 1929—A community of fice to house the Wilshire District YMCA has been opened at Sixth St. and Western Avenue with Harold A. Wagner as executive secretar y.

The local YMCA of fice, which will ser ve the area west of downtown, excluding Hollywood, will become an of ficial branch of metropolitan YMCA next year, Fred L. Cook, chairman of the board of managers, announced.

WILSHIRE W E COUNTRY COU NTR Y CLUB CLUB WIILSHIR RE UN RY Established Established 1919 1919

Extends Extends our our heartfelt heartfelt appreciation appreciation to to the the

Larchmont Laarrcch h mon Com m u n y hm ntt Community mm mu un niiittty on on its its

100 100

th th

Anniversary Anniversary

WE WE THANK THANK YOU YOU FOR FOR YOUR YOUR DEDICATION DEDICATION AND AND COMMITMENT COMMITMENT TO TO OUR OUR BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL NEIGHBORHOOD. NEIGHBORHOOD.

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Centennial 7

Marlborough Catalog Advises Simple Dresses, Chaperones In its 1921 general catalog, the Marlborough School for Girls advises mothers that dress for their daughters should be simple and inconspicuous, consisting of two school dresses, a street suit and a suit for church, concerts and opera.

“Although two dresses of silk or wool are suggested for dinner, they are not to be low-cut and should have elbow length sleeves. Occasional dances necessitate a simple evening gown which could be cut half low; expensive jewelry is wholly out of place and should not be brought to the school.”

When attending matinees, in public parks or railways, the students are warned not to be unattended, especially in automobiles. Chaperones are necessary and tickets for them were shared among the party of girls.

“The school seeks to deal realistically with the natural diversions such as parties and dances. However, parents are cautioned that it is up to them to change the jitters before and after such events and the exhaustion after parties that disturbs and even stops school work.

“Many a mother, puzzled at present to know why her daughter is less successful than another mother’s daughter of equal capacity with hers, would find that regular study of at least two hours a day, everything else giving way for that purpose, would make a visible change for the better,” the catalog states.

Marlborough’s excellent academic standing in 1921 enabled its graduates to enroll at the University of California and Stanford University with only a certificate of graduation — no entrance exam was required.

MASONS TO BUILD TEMPLE TO HOUSE LOCAL LODGE 1925 — E. H. Newland has of fered to build a three-stor y edifice on a lot he owns on Larchmont Boulevard to house the new Larchmont Masonic Temple Lodge #614.

Newland and other Wilshire Lodge members are among the char ter members of the new groups, which includes Dr. J. Q. Scroggy, Herman Bennett and David J. Reese.

The Masons will use the second and third stor y of the building at 230 No. Larchmont for meeting purposes. The building is expected to be completed in September, with Grand Master Reese conducting opening ceremonies.

REALTOR ACTIVE in sales of local homes is Loomis Johnson, salesman with R.A. Rowan Co.

THE SCHOOL WAS FOUNDED in 1889 by Mrs. Mary S. Caswell as the first independent girls school in Southern California. Housed in a family hotel in Pasadena, it was first a boarding school, then changed to a day school with 125 girls in 1916 when it moved to its present site at Third Street and Rossmore Ave. It only handled grades nine to 12 then, but added 7th and 8th grades in 1928.

During the 1920s, the school

was on five acres of land with a view of the Sierra Madre and San Bernardino mountain ranges and provided opportunities for walking, horseback riding and other forms of country life. The street cars ran only to Larchmont Boulevard so a wooden plank from Larchmont to the school porch was provided for the students’ convenience.

The late Mrs. Caswell, who died in 1924, left the school to her daughter, Mrs. George Caswell

MARLBOROUGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS was built at Third Street and Rossmore in 1916.

SHOOTING HIGH for Marlborough School for Girls’ basketball team in 1925 were, from left, Vee Dale, Rosalie Vance, Susan Jeffrey, Jean Stewart, Nelda Jeffrey and Virginia Thom.

Overton. She appointed Miss Ada Swazey Blake, who served as headmistress for 18 years until her retirement in 1942.

During the war years, 1942-48, Mrs. Overton directed the school and it was transformed to a complete day program. Mrs. Kenneth Mitchell, former dean of women at UCLA, and her husband leased the school and purchased it in 1958.

In 1960, the Marlborough Foundation was established as a nonprofit

institution and Mrs. Virginia L. Jennings was appointed director in 1962 after Mrs. Mitchell’s retirement.

Currently, Robert Chumbrook is headmaster for more than 400 girls in grades seven through 12 in the school’s $2 million twostor y building which replaced the 1916 structure in 1969. Designed

by William Pereira, architect and father of an alumna, the white brick building was financed by private contributors.

8 Centennial

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Ebell Club Ball Marks Move to Wilshire Blvd.

PROUD OWNER of this Lucerne Boulevard home is Verner B. McClurg, who built the house in 1923.

CULTURAL CLUB SET INTERESTING MEETING TOPIC

HONEYMOONING at Mission Inn, Riverside, Calif. 1921 are Mr. and Mrs. (Corinne B.) Frederick C. Warren.

RUSKIN AR T CLUB “Ar t in America” will be the topic of study for the 121 members of the Ruskin Ar t Club for the 1921-22 season, Mrs. W. J. Council, president, announced.

On Oct. 5th, Mmes. L. M. Witmer and Ralph Har tley will chair a discussion on architecture in Washington, D. C. Local members par ticipating include Mmes.: Walter J. Hadley, Rosewood Ave.; Ralph R. Har tley, Nor ton Ave.; Ella P. Hubbard, Wilton Place; Frank L. Kennedy, Wilton Place.

Also, Frank J. Marshall, Westchester Place; Herber t Peer y, Ingraham; John Show, So. Lor raine; Victor E. Stork, So. Wilton.

A FLEET of trucks stand ready to answer carriage trade from Larchmont’s quality market, Balzer’s.

1927—The international ball will celebrate the opening of the Ebell Club’s new 4400 Wilshire Blvd. clubhouse on Oct. 22, Mrs. William Read, president, announced.

Honored will be consuls from 32 countries with Ebell members decked in costumes representing those countries. Two orchestras will play and a supper party from 10 p.m. to midnight is planned following a musical program in the auditorium.

A movie of the event will be made.

The Ebell Juniors, founded in 1921, will have its first benefit affair Saturday, Nov. 5, with a buffet supper followed by a bridge party.

“The Gay Nineties” is the fashion show / luncheon to be staged Nov. 15 by the charter members

COWBOY WONDERS WHERE STUDENTS WILL COME FROM

From the diary of Daniel P. Tafe, 1923 . . .

“I remember seeing Los Angeles High School from Wilshire Boulevard. (At the time there wasn’t a house from Wilshire to Washington boulevards). I asked a fellow in a cowboy hat what the building was — I thought maybe it was a college.

He said, “the ‘durn fool Board of Education — just because a plot of gound was given to them they have to spend a million dollars to build a great big building. I want to know where in the tarnation are the people who are going to send their kids there!”

Ed. Note: Eleven acres, valued at $55,000, was donated to Board of Education by the Rimpau estate in 1915. Cost of school construction was estimated at $500,000 in 1916.

Larchmont Chronicle Delivered monthly to 76,439 readers.

with Miss Peggy Hamilton, fashion editor of the Los Angeles Times, offering the commentary. The noon luncheon will be held in the main dining room.

Proceeds, donated by charter members, will help pay for the 2,000-piece wrought iron portals door designed and made by John Williams Chard. Approximate completion date of the arched doorway is July, 1928.

Publisher and Editor John H. Welborne Managing Editor Suzan Filipek Deputy Managing Editor Billy Taylor Contributing Editor Jane Gilman Staff Writers Talia Abrahamson Helene Seifer Advertising Director Pam Rudy Advertising Sales Caroline Tracy Art Director Tom Hofer Classified and Circulation Managers Rachel Olivier Nona Sue Friedman Accounting Jill Miyamoto

From 1971:

Larchmont Chronicle A California corporation

Dawne Goodwin & Jane Gilman Co-publishers Published the first Monday of each month.

Mailed to Wilshire Center families in Hancock Park, Windsor Square, Fremont Place, Parklabrea and general Larchmont area. Additional paid subscribers bring total circulation to 15,046.

Offices 418 North Larchmont Blvd.

HOllywood 2-2241 Editor .................................... Jane Gilman Advertising Manager .........Dawne Goodwin Production Manager ............. Robert Wolulik Advertising Representative .......Adele Young Assistant Editor ....................... Diana Rosen

606 N. Larchmont Blvd., #103

Los Angeles, CA 90004 323-462-2241 larchmontchronicle.com

100

LARCHMONT VILLAGE THE CENTENNIAL CHAMPIONS Tradition l Excellence l Service l Resilience

The Consuls General of Belgium H.E. Gunther Sleeuwagen

Japan H.E. Muto Akira

Los Angeles Fire Department Firehouse Centennial Celebration LAFD Fire Station 29 February 21, 2019

Thailand H.E. Mungkorn Pratoomkaew

wish to send their Congratulations to the Larchmont Community on its

100 Anniversary! th

137 N Larchmont Bl #468 Los Angeles, CA 90004 firstinfirefoundation.org

(323) 933-8164

Make new friends, but keep the old.

One is silver, the other is gold. (“Make New Friends”)

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Centennial 9

10 Centennial

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

1930s — From High Spirits to Depression President Hoover tries to stir the sagging economy as the new decade begins by expanding the Farm Loan Banks and initiates the Home Loan Bank; he contributes his of ficial salar y to charity.

Local residents are tr ying to avoid bread lines in favor of salar y checks while some eight million fellow Americans are unemployed. Eddie Foster of the staf f at Wilshire Countr y Club bids farewell to some of his favorite customers who just can’t pay the dues anymore.

The tragic death of Knute Rockne, Notre Dame football coach, killed in a plane crash in Kansas in March, 1931 sent the R. S. MacMillan household at Hudson Avenue into a tailspin.

MacMillan, owner of KMPC, r ushes to the studio to get a special news stor y on the air waves.

Real estate and motor car sales are still flourishing, however, and G. Allan Hancock’s sales of fice at Wilshire and La Brea is putting “sold” across most of the signs in the Hancock Park subdivision.

Residents line up at Larchmont Movie Theatre to see Academy Award winner Fredric March in “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Warner Baxter, who earned an Oscar for his role for “In Old Arizona” in 1928, treats local kids to ice cream cones at The Snowball.

The handsome actor lives on nearby Beachwood.

Balzer’s delivers groceries to Mrs. William Heberling of Muir-

field Road who is hosting a spring benefit card party for the University of Michigan Women’s League.

Mrs. Walter Leimert, president of the Junior League of Los Angeles, wins a blue ribbon in the photography section of the Arts & Interest Exhibit at the League’s annual conference in Cincinnati.

Howard Hughes has rented a home on Muir field Road overlooking the golf course and Ross Stratton makes house calls to deliver repaired radios to the aviator-inventor.

Former Marlborough classmates of Virginia Thom are receiving invitations to a bridge luncheon honoring the brideto-be, daughter of the Cameron Thoms of Muir field. Hostess is Betty Jean Caldwell, daughter of

Greater than Gold:

100 Years of Success!

Happy Anniversary, Larchmont!

100!

Mel Miyamoto & Associates 323-462-4845

100!

the William Caldwells of Windsor Boulevard.

Another bride-to-be in the news is Catherine Newell Wilson, daughter of the Philip Wilsons of Muir field Road. Miss Elizabeth Young has invited Miss Ruth Jones, Helen Hillman, and Mrs. Dur wood Browning to her Fremont Place home to honor Catherine before her Sept. 17th wedding to Victor Charles Winnek.

We see Virginia Richard and Don McLarnan enjoying a steak at Tip’s of Hollywood; Bob Landis takes his dates to the Beverly Wilshire where you can dance all night for the price of a Coke from the bar (25¢).

Fred Alber tson, head of the Alber tson Co. motor car company, is completing his family’s home of 20 rooms at the corner of Four th and Hudson Avenue for a cost of $275,000. The Kellogg designed English-style home will house Fred and Hazel Alber tson and daughters Barbara and Jean.

Enjoying the $1.50 buffet at Perino’s before attending an afternoon concert at the Philharmonic staged by L yndon Behymer are Mrs. John Hall, Mrs. Charles Wright and Ann White; Mrs. Hall, active with the Ebell Club, sends her sons John and Bruce to Elisa Ryan’s Dancing Classes held in the Ebell dining room.

Local residents enjoy spending their vacations at Talley’s Glen Ranch in L ytle Canyon or The Squirrel Inn at Lake Arrowhead.

Larchmont Chronicle Popular dining spots are Victor Hugo’s on Sunset Blvd. and Lucey’s Restaurant on Melrose where you can see movie stars dining with full make-up on, between filming sessions at Paramount Studios across the street.

Mother-daughter combinations shopping on the Boulevard include Mrs. William Dunlap and daughter Sue Betty and Mrs. H. Bennett Cooke and daughter Dorothy.

ON THE BOULEVARD — Patrons at Weaver Jackson’s Beauty Shop are letting their hair grow long. At Weiburg Drugs, girls are buying Lux Toilet Soap and Elizabeth Arden cosmetics “for skin like the petals of the lily.”

Juana Neal Levy, society writer for the Los Angeles Times, describes the elegant wedding of Virginia Sevier, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Laurence Sevier of Muir field to Ranson W. Chase.

The bride was given in marriage by her uncle, Dr. A.H. Giannini.

The Landis family opens a depar tment store in 1933 next to Citizens Bank and Trust, and young Bob, who’s a student at Los Angeles High School, helps out in the store. Training for the school’s swim team are Ralph Templar, Jack Murietta, and Jackie Coogan, who get in swim time at the Ambassador Hotel.

Loomis Johnson sells a lot at 227 Muir field Road to J.A. Brown, president of General Petroleum, in 1933 for $30,000.

Because the banks were closed, the deal is handled through the title of fice.

On Saturday mornings The [Continued on Page 16]

Congratulations to Larchmont Village on its 100th Anniversary Proud to be a part of Larchmont Village and the surrounding neighborhoods since 1936.

We celebrate Larchmont and continue to serve all of your real estate needs.

251 N. Larchmont Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90004 | 323.464.9272 Real estate agents affiliated with Coldwell Banker Realty are independent contractor sales associates, not employees. ©2021 Coldwell Banker. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker and the Coldwell Banker logos are trademarks of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. The Coldwell Banker® System is comprised of company owned offices which are owned by a subsidiary of Realogy Brokerage Group LLC and franchised offices which are independently owned and operated. The Coldwell Banker System fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act.

Larchmont Chronicle

Friendly Flavor of Larchmont Draws Generations of Shoppers Clerks from Larchmont, as well as golden-haired Jean and por tly Lindy, ducked into Theo Aer t’s Beauty Shop to warn ladies of impending ticketing. Out dashed women in curls and caps to upbraid the minions of the law and sulkily move their cars.

It was a few years after this that the law dared to scold Larchmontians for the mortal sin of jay walking. Up until that time, casual meanderings back and for th across our main ar ter y were the accepted custom, and many a news item was discussed in the middle of the block by rendezvousing friends.

CHRISTMASTIME of yore was Christmastime indeed on Larchmont! Out came bedraggled garlands, worn and tarnished by many years of wear. Each store did its part to maintain the festive feeling.

From Strat’s Record Shop were boomed the lugubrious strains of hymns. When Strat stepped out at noon, his handyman seized the opportunity to remove the hymns, records and tune in “yah-deda-da” and “boop-dee-doop” of the latest jazz.

The tempo of the whole street accelerated. Four generations felt the beat. Mrs. Edwin Rowley rolled up the Venetian blinds in her limousine.

Her daughter Mrs. Thomas Ridgway made her selection at Balzer’s in double quick time with Bob Balzer’s knowledgeable help. Her daughter, Mrs. Luppe Luppen popped into Beams’ with her Black Foxe student son, Ridge, to grab a quick Christmas present, and her daughter Kathy joined a group of Marlborough girls about to invade Strat’s to learn the title of their boy friends’ current favorite record. Strat always knew.

Larchmont is the kind of shopping place where everybody knows each other’s politics and frequently argues about them. The Beam sisters, for instance, were for General MacArthur for President.

So was most everybody else, but when Eisenhower got the presidential nomination from the Republican Party they switched their allegiance for practical purposes.

Not so the Beam sisters.

They clung fiercely to their candidate MacAr thur. After repeated remonstrances and reproaches from ladies in the community, the Beam sisters

closed up and moved out.

So Larchmont goes on changing with the years, but never really changing. Ar t Landis is no longer “minding the store” at Landis, but his son Bob is. We still have a pet show where ever y mongrel wins a ribbon reading “Honorable Mention.”

We still have scores of station wagons bulging with small fr y. We have bikes and

Hollywoodland on Beachwood.

Established 1923

babies and barefoot boys. The old store, Grancraft, is no longer there to of fer the sewing and ar t work of aged suppliers. But there are longtime residents and their of fspring whom we know and love who still sell us needlework, antiques and other goodies.

The spirit is the same — the spirit of co-operation, friendliness and small town concern for each other.

Hollywoodland on Larchmont.

Since 1963

Ed Carroll and daughter Patti.

Times change, but legends endure!

From one legend to another,

©LC1021

By Lucy Tober man To those who live in this community the Larchmont area is synonymous with the legendar y Shangri-La. Its boundaries are somewhat ephemeral. Its traditions are manifold. Its inhabitants are united by a fierce sor t of loyalty that transcends political par ty, business af filiation and college rivalr y.

It is a tiny, but sophisticated village untouched by the sprawling megapolis that surrounds it and which laps at its shores.

SOMETIMES IT IS HARD for longtime residents of Larchmont to accept its changes with the years. Many remember when the boulevard boasted giant telegraph poles marching down the middle of the street. They recall the trolley car that rattled up the tracks — long since discarded as the street widened.

Matrons can recall with pleasure the movie theater on the west side of the street where most of us spent Saturday afternoons watching comedies, westerns and serials at the Children’s Matinee for 10 cents.

Businessmen mention the fact that on summer days they might make as many as 10 bicycle trips over to Larchmont Boulevard to get in on the action! The pink, white and violet uniforms of Marlborough girls have been blossoming there for as long as anyone can remember, often interspersed with the formal blue uniforms of Black Foxe cadets.

Said one of the crisply attired salesgirls of our vanished Van de Kamp’s, “the death of Black Foxe was one of the most paralyzing catastrophes that ever hit our neighborhood. We loved to see those boys come in. They were always so polite, cooperative and honest, and had such shiny-clean faces.”

MANY REMEMBER the first time that motorcycle policemen sternly invaded the area. Citation books in hand, they stalked the street tagging cars for over long parking — a matter never considered relevant by Larchmont shoppers.

Consternation reigned!

Centennial 11

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Hollywoodland Realty salutes Larchmont’s 100th Anniversary.

Hollywoodland Realty • 323-469-3171 • 213-268-3171

LARCHMONT ANIMAL CLINIC

Your Trusted Neighborhood Vet for over 40 Years!

Sends Warm Congratulations to the Larchmont Community on its

100th Anniversary!

DR. JAN CIGANEK & STAFF (323) 463-4889 AERIAL VIEW shows Larchmont Boulevard looking north from Second Street.

316 N. Larchmont Blvd.

©LC1021

larchmontanimalclinic.com

12 Centennial

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Happy 100th, Larchmont Blvd.!

Larchmont Chronicle

Scene on Larchmont by Marty Murphy

"It seems the new clock is becoming a favorite meeting place."

"I don't know about you guys, but I'll be glad when Halloween is over."

"Of course I'll marry you, you silly goose! But right now I'm about to get a parking ticket!!!"

"Here's breaking news, folks! There's an SUV leaving a parking spot on Larchmont and First!"

©LC1021

from your neighbor,

Happy Anniversary, Larchmont!

Larchmont Village Florist Michelle & Gina Kim 420 N. Larchmont Blvd.

323-464-8146

pediatric and adolescent medicine

Amaka Priest, MD • Neville Anderson, MD, FAAP • Courtney Mannino, MD, FAAP Board-Certified Pediatricians

323.960.8500 321 N Larchmont Blvd., Suite 1020 . Los Angeles . CA . 90004 . www.larchmontpediatric.com

©LC1021

Happy 100th, Larchmont!

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Centennial 13

your NEIGHBORHOOD corner store SINCE 1934.

Kaylin + Kaylin Pickles Scott Kaylin

Marconda’s Meats Lou and Tyler DeRosa

Roxy & Jo’s Seafood Grill & Oyster Bar Jo and Stephane Strouk

Rick’s Produce Rick Dominguez

For over 87 years, our community of independent, family-owned grocers, restaurants and retailers have represented a cross-section of Los Angeles history and culture.

We invite you to meet our newest merchants and revisit your favorites.

See you at Third & Fairfax!

Kip’s Toyland Don and Lily Kipper

The Gumbo Pot Clinton and Elizabeth Thompson

Farm Fresh Produce The Puente Family

6333 W. THIRD ST. • LOS ANGELES • 323.933.9211 @FARMERSMARKETL A • FARMERSMARKETL A.COM 90 MINUTES FREE PARKING IN FARMERS MARKET LOTS WITH MERCHANT PURCHASE VALIDATION.

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Wilshire Country Club Begins 6th Decade In New Building As the twenties were flapping away, the social set of Los Angeles gathered to dine in elegance and dance till dawn at the Wilshire Countr y Club, built in 1919 at the intersection of Beverly at Rossmore on the Hancock fields. The dining room, open daily then, has now cur tailed its activity to daily luncheons and twice weekly dinners, but the ser vice and style remain the same.

When the club was first built, no roads or street lights existed in the area except on Rossmore Avenue, which was paved only in front of the club. What is now Beverly to Melrose and June to La Brea was 105 acres of undeveloped land and oil wells from Capt.

Hancock’s Ranch La Brea estate.

The 50 char ter members, of

whom only Charles Toberman still remains, paid a $500 membership fee, often paid out on time. Today, the rate is as high as $15,000.

THE FIRST PRESIDENT was Marion R. Gray and the second, Norman MacBeth, laid out the grounds, including the golf greens, which covered the oil sumps installed during the early 1900s.

During those early years, the Helsian Club and For tnighters had weekly and monthly dances with live bands and dinners.

“Those days are gone, however,” Men’s Grille manager and 45-year club employee Eddie Foster says. Enter tainment is dif ferent today, he said, reflecting the tastes of the children and grandchildren of those ear-

Adobe House Provides Solid Investment 50 Years Later The house built of adobe has a rich and color ful histor y which Larchmont shares with other areas in Southern California.

Dr. E. Earl Moody, who built an adobe home at First Street and Arden Boulevard in 1920, first learned of the adobe while a boy in South Pasadena.

He played near a one-stor y adobe residence then known as La Casa de Jose Perez, but now called Adobe Flores. It was here that General Andrews Pico held his last council of war before surrendering to General John C. Fremont.

In 1919 Dr. Moody purchased a lot from Tracy Shoults and decided to build an adobe home in keeping with the early Souther n Califor nia-Mexican heritage.

Dr. Moody found a Mexican man who was an exper t brick maker. The excavation of adobe from the cellar, plus one wagonload of adobe soil from the grading operations at First Street east of Larchmont, was the source of his building material.

The adobe soil was thoroughly dampened and formed into a soft pliable mud. A proper amount of stable manure and straw was worked into the mud to give the dried bricks the proper binding power.

When blended, this mud was placed into a wooden mold 12 inches by 22 inches and 4 inches deep. The mold had wooden strips to provide an indent in the bricks to give them better binding power. When the mud was firm, the form was removed and the bricks were dried in the sun.

The Moodys were one of five families in the area to receive a city permit to build a home of adobe. Specifications required by the city were so strict that today it would be too expensive to use adobe, Dr. Moody said.

The foundation had to be

two feet thick, one foot below ground, and walls had to be covered with cement stucco and water-proofed to keep the rain moisture from the adobe bricks, which would swell if wet and would crack the plaster.

The Moody house has withstood all the ear thquakes -- even its adobe chimney. The other adobe homes still standing are on the west side of Arden below First Street and two two-stor y homes south of Third Street.

ly members.

Conser vative from the beginning, the club made headlines

when it refused to admit Bing Crosby because he was an “actor,” but admitted Bob Hope as a “philanthropist.” They did relent later and admit two movie directors, Scotty Dunlap and George Marshall.

THE DEPRESSION hit the club too, as many members

Larchmont Chronicle couldn’t pay their dues. But the war years and prosperous ’50s brought many of them back.

The club is currently experiencing a healthy comeback because of its $2.2 million clubhouse, built to provide more facilities for enter tainment and recreation.

Dunn Property Group BUSINESS REAL ESTATE SOLUTIONS

HAPPY 100th ANNIVERSARY, LARCHMONT! Michael J. Dunn (213) 580-1400 | www.dunnpropertygroup.com 1200 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 208 | Los Angeles, CA 90017

© LC 1021

14 Centennial

2021_GAF_BevPress_100thAnniversary_HR.pdf 1 9/8/2021 6:51:50 PM Larchmont Chronicle

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OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

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Larchmont Chronicle

BRIDES OF THE ’30’S

THE LOVELY WEDDING of Virginia Thom, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cameron Thom, to Durward Browning of Arizona was an evening ceremony at All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills. The Marlborough graduate was entertained with numerous pre-nuptial parties.

High Spirits to Depression [Continued from Page 10]

Three Stooges invade Larchmont Boulevard to use the street as background for their movies. Carl Sischo opens his jewelr y shop and Bond Cleaners opens with Harr y and Rae Neiger greeting their new customers.

Johnny Johnson is selling ground round at three pounds for 25¢ to the Rober t Lord family at Keystone Market; he gives free frankfur ters to the neighborhood kids, except for Marge Heilman, who prefers baloney.

Pitt’s Restaurant and Bar on Larchmont is among the places to celebrate the end of prohibition in December, 1933. Ann Marie Pitt r uns the beauty shop next door to her husband’s cafe where Rae Neiger and Anne Stratton have their hair done.

HOLLYWOOD STAR-NEWS MAKES its debut in 1936 with Lou Dresser, 12, of South Plymouth Boulevard as publisher.

Lou and his friends comprise the staf f and conver t the family’s chauf feur quar ters into a newspaper of fice. The 24-page mimeographed journal’s staf f consists of Eugene Deitch, Marshall Chlavin, Don Engster, Bud Collette. Balzer’s is the paper’s first adver tiser and close to 350 neighborhood families subscribe to monthly News.

The same year, Dan Silverman, a deliver y man for Safeway, opens a grocer y store with Larr y Fikes called Larch-Mar t. Silverman, who puts in a produce stand, meat and grocer y depar tment and of fers free deliver y, also worked in a produce market.

Daniel Duggan has joined the local Coldwell Banker of fice and announced that it will be expanded to include residential income and commercial sales as well as home sales. He is joined

by Charles Detoy Sr. and William H. McAdam.

WEDDING PARTY at the marriage of Catherine Wilson to Victor Winnek are pictured at the reception for 350 guests in the Wilson home on Muirfield Road in 1932. The new bride is shown with, from left, Misses Edith Shankland, Mary McCardle, Helen Hillman, Eleanor Davidson, Ruth Jones and Alberta Williamson.

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Centennial 17

Sisters Find Larchmont Is Perfect for Families

“Our friends and the Hancock Park area have grown up together,” says Betty (Mrs. Lester) Hibbard, one of the three daughters of Mrs. Brian Welch and the late Mr. Welch.

“My parents’ first home in the area was at 301 S. Arden, which we moved to in 1921 when I was nine years old.

All three of us went to Third Street School where we all par ticipated in the Oppor tunity Room, an experimental program which gathered the top 10 percent of the students from the fifth and sixth grades and permitted the students to lear n at their own speed and on various projects.

“Saturday after noon was the big time; we’d get some candy at the local store and with our dime head for the matinee at the Larchmont Movie Theater.

Although the area hasn’t changed much, we do miss the theater.

“One of the more cr ucial times was taking the ter rible lesson in social dance at Elisa R yan’s School of Dance. The assistant instr uctor, Mr. Sheheey, appeared to us to be 1,000 feet tall, but probably was only about six-foot-four. He seemed to slide around the dance floor with the girls, often the wallflowers. It was the usual situation, boys on one side, girls on

the other. I would hide in the restroom with other girls so I wouldn’t have to dance, but the instr uctors would come in to get us.”

After John Burroughs, the three sisters attended Marlborough School for Girls. Los Angeles High was the place to meet boys, however, and ever y football game was packed with spectators.

Betty’s sister, Jane (Mrs. Roy) Williams also remembers the Larchmont Movie Theater, especially the serials, which kept the neighborhood kids coming back each week. They also would tr y their hand at bubble gum blowing and yoyo contests.

“The area has built up so much since we were chil-

dren,” Mrs. Williams said.

“I remember shooting rabbits with my father on the land where Park La Brea now stands.”

The Welch and Arden Day lawns were the scene of many games of football, kick the can and hide and seek and kids from all over would come play.

The sisters’ third member is Marjorie (Mrs. Rober t) Sears.

She agrees that the area is still wonder ful for children. They cite that reason for making their homes here in Larchmont.

SWIMMING TOWARDS championships for Los Angeles High School at the Ambassador Hotel in 1931 were, from left, John Murray, Jackie Coogan, Jack Murrieta, Ralph Templar and Arnold Pann.

Wilshire Rotary Elects Mathews 1932 — Ar thur Mathews has been elected president of the new Wilshire Rotar y Club.

The new group, which meets at Wilshire Countr y Club for weekly luncheon meetings (75¢ a plate, including parking), was formed to ser ve businessmen in the Wilshire-Western-Larchmont area. Other of ficers are: Dr. Laurin L. Wood, vice president; Ernest Riley, secretar y; Lee Greene, treasurer; Stuar t McHaf fie, George Pauli and Dr. Hardy Potter, directors.

TROOP TEN CAMPING OUT at Big Pines, summer, 1930. Top row: J. E. Hampton, Frank Bailey, Laurie Rice, Howard Forester, Mel Dike, Walt Wayman, Tom Waters, Dana Walker, Ray Medberry, Harry Sanborn. Bottom row: Phil Swanson, Paul Minning, Steve Pratt, Don Benton, Chauncey Medberry, Bob Casady, Doug Stinson, Andy Rose, Bud Crispin, Bill Waters.

Happy Anniversary

LARCHMONT VILLAGE Celebrating 100 years FROM PETE BUONOCORE & THE CORE GROUP LA REALTY TEAM

118 N. LARCHMONT BLVD. | WWW.COREGROUPLA.COM | DRE #01279107

18 Centennial

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Larchmont Chronicle

Shadows of War Darkens New Decade – the ’40s As the Depression becomes a dim memory, the threat of war pervades the dawn of a new decade.

President Franklin Roosevelt tells the nation at his third inauguration on the Capitol steps that the U.S. will pledge “all aid short of war to nations fighting the Axis.”

Don McNeill takes the U.S. Lawn Tennis title away from Bobby Riggs in 1940 and the Cincinnati Red Legs win the World Series over the Detroit Tigers four games to three.

Chevalier’s Library can’t provide enough copies of Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” and “Gone with the Wind” is breaking box office records at Larchmont Movie Theater.

Then, early on a Sunday morning, residents pour out of their homes to confer with neighbors over the shocking news that Pearl Harbor has been bombed by the Japanese. The Dec. 7, 1941 calamity has resulted in 104 soldiers dead and 300 wounded along with countless civilians.

Local boys enlist, women take over some of the men’s jobs and volunteers at Los Angeles High include Rose Dresser teaching social studies. Gas rationing is enforced, causing Balzer’s and Larch-Mart to curtail delivery service.

Balzer’s installs extra counters and order desks to take care of the former carriage trade who are now walking in for supplies. Mrs. Hal Baldwin and Mrs. James Page stop by to select a wedding gift in Balzer’s new gift shop for Betty and Ralph Templar.

Mrs. Elton Isbell is driving a USO truck to deliver coffee and donuts to canteens for servicemen and the A. Lincoln Dessers hold barbecues at their Plymouth Boulevard home for lonely G.I.s. Mrs. Haidee Stewart helps out at the Roslyn Hotel U.S.O. Canteen downtown.

Virginia Bekins and Dick Daum are among the couples enjoying the dance tunes supplied by Freddy Martin at the Cocoanut Grove; Bob and Betti Landis announced the arrival of a son, Thomas.

Larchmont Boulevard sees a rising influx of businesses which

include English and Johnson Insurance, Dain Sturges Insurance, Phil’s Poultry, Stockhold Cleaners, Russell Voice Studios, Ritz Hand Laundry and Stacy’s Camera and Hobby Shop.

Patsy Peppers is elected president of Marlborough School for Girls in 1942 and UCLA’s football team makes its first appearance in the Rose Bowl.

The Weaver Jackson Beauty Salon has been purchased by European hair stylist Theo Aerts, who has provided coiffures for many leading movie actresses and local matrons.

A capacity audience hears Dr. Frederick Woellner address the Ebell Club’s 50th anniversary party in 1944 with Mrs. Justus Kirby, president, officiating. He speaks on “Ebell is the Oasis of Los Angeles.”

Claiborn Saint of June Street takes over as president of Los Angeles Realty Board in 1945; he is a vice president of R.A. Rowan & Co. The “war to end all wars” is over and Larchmont is rejoicing over the returning servicemen. The area grieves its fatalities too, including young Bill Coberly.

The neighborhood becomes the center of nationwide publicity when Shirley Temple, 17, marries John Agar, 24, on Sept. 17, 1945 at Wilshire Methodist Church. Plymouth and Wilshire Boulevards are lined with thousands of residents waiting to catch a glimpse of the storybook couple who were married by Rev. Willsie Martin.

Tress Journey opens Wagon Wheel Nurser y on Cahuenga Boulevard and New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth is guest at the home of Elton Isbell’s of Larchmont Blvd. while playing at Gilmore Stadium.

Judge A. A. Scott, presiding judge of Los Angeles Juvenile Court, warns that California’s drive-in restaurants may be centers of adverse influence on teenagers. YMCA executive secretary Ken Zinn counteracts this by registering hundreds of local youngsters for Camp Round Meadow at the Wilshire Y office at Third and Larchmont.

National Charity League holds its first Debutante Ball in 1949, two years after the 22-year-old philanthropic group is incorporated by Mrs. Paul William Lawrence. The Bookworms of Assistance League begins its first fund-raising sale of Christmas cards; Junior leaguers

are meeting at the Lorraine Blvd. home of Mrs. Hugh Evans to discuss art history.

Larchmont Radio Salon is able to show residents one of the first television programs – a wrestling match. Albert Dippell, vice president of the Wilshire Chamber of

Commerce, hosts a meeting featuring a talk on “Make Mine Freedom”

by Lt. Gov. Goodwin Knight at the Nikabob Cafe.

The decade comes to a close as Ohio State and California prepare to do battle in the Jan. 1, 1950 Rose Bowl contest.

LaBonte Pioneered on Larchmont

By Dr. H. M. Kurtzworth Chronicle Historian The stor y of Larchmont Boulevard, an exclusive six blocks long, extending only from Third Street, north to Melrose Blvd., should be easy to unravel and explain!

But who knows where it got its name? Has anyone ever seen any larch trees in the vicinity or knew any of the first settlers? Someone must have the records, but thus far, they are mostly secrets!

Beginning about 1920 the Third Street car line extended its double tracks up Larchmont so that people could ride to the mineral well on Melrose to enjoy the health benefits offered.

FACES &

PLACES

Los Angeles was growing so rapidly that many downtown home owners felt they were being crowded and began looking westward with the idea of moving their homes.

In 1921, Julius La Bonte, then 43, arrived from Grand Rapids, Mich., bought some land and opened up the first real estate office at the corner of Third and Larchmont.

“Larchmont Boulevard gets better all the time,” says the developer-builder, who is responsible for some 70 percent of the structures on the boulevard.

Buildings also bearing the LaBonte stamp include Poinsettia Cleaners, the two-story facility next to Jurgensen’s, the stores where Beverly Larchmont Pharmacy now stands, the movie theater that is now where Security

Bank is located, the Van de Kamp’s building, Landis Department Store building and a store complex which is now the Shell Station site.

LaBonte’s 250-foot frontage building at 126 North Larchmont is the second commercial building on the Boulevard, built in 1921. He used to look out the window of his home at 340 So. Arden and see nothing but barley fields.

The firm previously had seven offices through the city, doing $1 million in sales each month.

A charter member of Wilshire Countr y Club, LaBonte has had a real estate of fice in Larchmont since 1925. A resident of Parklabrea, LaBonte also lived in Countr y Club Manor. He and his wife were married in 1910.

Julius J. LaBonte pioneered development of Larchmont Boulevard in 1921 with construction of several buildings including one bearing his name shown in sketch.

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Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

1940s Draws Families Back to the Big Homes Co McGrath and her husband, Don moved to Ir ving Boulevard in 1932 and have been obser vers of the scene ever since. Here are Co’s comments on the neighborhood in the ’40s: The gas rationing period of World War II created the necessity of “closer-in” living, and the sons and daughters of the older generation returned to the Larchmont district. Though they moved back because of necessity, they remained to rebuild and reface the home of their childhood.

There was influx of new capital and in a relatively shor t time, homes and gardens were restored and proper ty values boomed. On the large and welllandscaped lots was room for swimming pools and patios, and a second generation was established in the old home environs.

The Larchmont business district also took on a new look.

The telephone poles that stood in the middle of the Nor th Boulevard area were removed; street cars outlived their need; and the tracks were taken out.

New buildings were constr ucted and old buildings were renovated and improved.

Larchmont Boulevard is the gathering place of the neighborhood – the countr y store, the town hall. Ever ything is there, and at some time of the day, practically ever ybody is there.

On the street corners, world af fairs are discussed, business deals are made, and the gossip

Metropolitan Adds High Rise At Parklabrea

1949­­— Constr uction has begun this month on 18 high-rise towers, each 12 stories high with 153 apar tments each, for a total of 2754 units at the Parklabrea complex. The buildings are par t of the first high-rise, multiple-unit buildings in the Wester n United States.

The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. bought the land between Third and Sixth streets and Fair fax to Cochran avenues from USC, which had received the land as income proper ty from Capt. G. Allan Hancock.

First established for priority housing, Metropolitan built 1399 garden units in 1943-44.

Until that time, only single units and duplexes were built.

NAT KING COLE MOVES TO PARK Sept. 1948—Pianist singer Nat “King” Cole and his bride of several months, Maria, have purchased the former William Lacey home at 401 South Muirfield Road.

The ivy-covered English-style home is valued at $85,000.

A neighborhood committee, who of fered to reimburse Cole for the purchase price if he would relinquish the proper ty, were rebuf fed by the recording ar tist and nightclub performer.

of the Los Angeles west side is passed from one to another. Los Angeles takes on a new impor-

tance being the big city that surrounds the small town – Larchmont.

THE GREAT BABE RUTH takes time out from filming his life story to chat with Mrs. Helen Isbell in 1948. The Elton Isbells, So. Larchmont, hosted Babe during his Los Angeles stay.

Centennial 19

New Home Owner Unit Seeks To Stop Commercial Zoning June, 1949—Continued and active opposition to any rezoning of Wilshire Boulevard for commercial purposes was pledged today by Joseph C. Cannon, general manager of the Hancock Park Property Owners Assoc.

Although organized only since last September, the Hancock Park group strongly opposes the petition of Andrew Swanfeldt to rezone his property at Highland Ave. and Wilshire and will continue to resist the plea when his appeal is considered by City Council, Cannon said.

Founded in September, 1948, the association’s offices are headquartered at 5410 Wilshire Blvd., in the Dominguez-Wilshire Building and headed by president Col. Andrew J. Copp, Jr.; Robert J.S. Breyer, vice president; Henry M. Bateman, treasurer; and Garcia L. Johnson, secretary. On the board of directors are Hugh M. Kice, Dwight L. Clarke, Clay Robbins, Harold C. Morton, and Stuart L. Lapp. Cannon conducts the business affairs of the organization.

The issue is whether to open the zone to commercial development or to continue it as a residential area. The other three corners at the WilshireHighland intersection have been rezoned and are now occupied by a gas station and other commercial enterprises. Residents claim a gas station is not as bad as converting residential property to commercial use. Swanfeldt admitted he had been approached by real estate interests promoting an auto agency, professional building and restaurant.

The disputed tract constitutes the end of the mile-long strip from Bronson Ave. to Highland Ave., zoned for residential use and is the scene of some of the finest residences in the district. Swanfeldt’s corner property is the site of zoning controversies which have raged for nearly 20 years.

Councilman Harold Henry offered a compromise of the zoning issue by the establishment of modified commercial zoning restricted to “high class” business and multiple dwellings.

The purpose of the Association is to protect and enforce deed restrictions of the 1700 single family dwellings in the high-priced residential district of Hancock Park.

20 Centennial

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Larchmont Chronicle

Fabulous ’50s Start on Note of Optimism, Hope The fabulous fifties begin with a r ush of war veterans taking advantage of the G. I. Bill to finance their education at the campuses across the countr y.

President Tr uman tells the nation about the Japanese Peace Treaty on the first transcontinental television broadcast in September 1951. General Douglas MacAr thur is recalled from the Far East by Tr uman, and another general is being promoted as presidential timber for the 1952 elections.

Census figures state a population rise of 1,366,044 residents produced a 48 percent increase from 1940 to 1950, and no let-up is in sight. Alber t Dippell does a landslide business finding homes for their growing numbers.

Local matrons are talking about the Marion Pike ar t exhibit from Palos Verdes Librar y Ar t Galler y that earned the Junior League substantial monies for the Lucia Albanese Scholarship Fund at the Los Angeles Conser vator y of Music and Ar ts.

And the Assistance League is saddened along with thousands of local residents to hear of the death of founder Mrs. Hancock Banning on Dec. 2, 1951.

The Dodgers leave Brooklyn, and KMPC broadcasts their first games. Minneapolis loses the Lakers to Los Angeles, which gains thousands of spor ts enthusiasts. Local spor ts are r unning high as coach Horace Bresee’s Los Angeles High basketball quintet slams University High with an unheard-of 92 points to win the league’s firstplace honors in 1951.

The Korean Ar mistice is signed in 1953 and local residents seek relaxation at one of the final Larchmont Movie Theater’s showings, “A Streetcar Named Desire” and C. B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments.”

Remodeling on Larchmont Boulevard includes the nor thwest corner, providing new looks to Larchmont Plumbing, Larchmont Cycle Shop, Peck’s

REMODELING PLANS for Larchmont Boulevard are announced by Councilman Harold Henry, seated, and local merchants, from left, Lee Ethridge, Security Bank; Joe Chevalier, Chevalier’s books; Frank Mann of Business Committee, Wilshire Chamber of Commerce; Jack Killingsworth, Citizens Bank; Robert Balzer, Balzer’s Grocery, and Al Dippell, Dippell Realty.

Beauty Studio and Wilshire Studio. Businessmen are congratulating Alber t Dippell for winning the Los Angeles Realty Board’s 1955 William May Garland Award for outstanding ser vice. The following year, congratulations are extended to Henr y G. Beaumont, awarded the Gold Canon Trophy for being the outstanding cer tified proper ty manager in California.

Brighter than New York’s “White Way” is our own Wilshire Boulevard, which completes installation of the $270,000 404 mercur y vapor twin light fixtures in spring, 1957.

A new children’s shop is opening on Larchmont with Beth Morris, Los Angeles High School alum, as proprietor. Mrs. Morris has four children and two grandchildren.

Local resident Ruth Tracy has decided to go into the real estate business on her own. The lovely blonde realtor has opened an of fice above Beverly-Larchmont Pharmacy at the southwest corner to of fer residential sales for the area. She holds an American Red Cross citation for her out-

standing work overseas after World War Two. A new publication hits the mailboxes of local residents: brothers Frank Anthony and John Hatfield of Nor th Larchmont Blvd. are publishing a monthly newsletter called “Hi Neighbor” as a shopping guide and director y for the Larchmont District – “The last frontier of leisurely, friendly and quiet happy living.”

Neighbors are bemoaning the loss of the Larchmont Movie Theater, a landmark on the boulevard since 1921. Security First National Bank will move into the site of the fire-damaged theater in a modern one-stor y building with a parking lot for (Continued on page 22)

FIRST PARKING METERS on Larchmont in 1959, whose revenues will help finance off-street parking sites, are admired by Councilman Harold Henry, Larchmont businessmen Bill Schulhof of Beverly Larchmont Pharmacy, Albert Dippell of Dippell Realty and Miss California.

REPAVING, REMODELING GIVES NEW LOOK TO LARCHMONT BLVD. 1955—The modernization of Larchmont Boulevard and improvements of its commercial buildings are currently under way with an $80,000 allocation from public funds acquired from City Council, Harold A. Henr y Four th District Councilman, said. improvements Boulevard include removal of streetcar tracks and power line poles, complete street repaving, installation of new curbs and gutters.

Citizens National Tr ust and Savings Bank is completely remodeling its 245 No. Larchmont branch; the five stores and second-floor apar tments at 137-143 No. Larchmont are being modernized, and a new

two-stor y air-conditioned of fice building is planned at 346 No. Larchmont. The Fernando Alfalfa Milling Co. will build and occupy the building in addition to other tenants. The Masonic Hall also plans remodeling.

A store and of fice building will replace a market at 101-105 No. Larchmont under the direction of owner Alber t Dippell, Dippell Realty Co. Dippell has been active with the Wilshire Chamber of Commerce in establishing the boulevard improvements. Chamber members: A. Lee Ethridge, Joseph Chevalier, Frank Mann, chairman of the small business committee, and Cy Midwor th, executive secretar y, also aided the improvement program.

Cheers to Larchmont on its 100th Anniversary!

Larry Gillham, CPA, and Larchmont Data began here on Larchmont in 1979. We purchased our office building at 428 N. Larchmont Blvd. in 1994. We retired to become landlords, renting our building in 2013 to the present.

We have been and still are present 42 of the last 100 years ….YIKES!

We’ve been around for 119 years and we salute our younger sibling from our home here on Larchmont Blvd.

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Elsa and Larry Gillham

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

VISIT WBTLA.ORG FOR membership, High Holy Days, schools, camps, and programming

Centennial 21

22 Centennial

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Larchmont Chronicle

LARCHMONT LANDMARKS

FABULOUS ’50s

Drawings by Harry M. Kurtzworth

(Continued from page 20)

24 cars. The bank is now at 219 No. Larchmont; Dippell Realty Co. handled the transaction.

We see Co McGrath in the Cof fee Cup Bake shop at 118 1/2 N. Larchmont congratulating Al and Elaine Turk for winning the “Gold Cup for Pies” at the 10th annual Baker’s For um of Southern California.

Jim Bar to’s gift shop is attracting many customers including Madelaine Crawford, Aileen Pauley, Isabelle Wadssor th and Rev. Melczer.

Dippell Realty repor ts a number of address changes – the Hugh Evans Jrs. to South Irving; Dr. and Mrs. Eugene Zador to South Arden; the Glen McComas family to Nor th Van Ness.

Naomi Price Gar y opens her exclusive dress shop at 205 No. Larchmont and customers include Mrs. Leonard Radford, Mrs. Melville Courson

Page Military Moves to Area

Page Militar y Academy moved to 565 Nor th Larchmont in September, 1959, as it celebrates the school’s 51st anniversar y. The school, founded

by Major Rober t A. Gibbs and his wife, Della Page Gibbs, is directed by Major and Mrs. Earle R. Vaughan and Capt. Russell Gibbs Vaughan.

Art Center College of Design

LARCHMONT BOULEVARD in mid-’50s adds Christmas decorations to bring holiday spirit to street. and Mrs. Henr y William Abts.

The war babies are in grade school, and television in classrooms repor ts the most astonishing scientific event so far: Soviets launch Sputnik I Oct. 4, 1957 and compound that with a passenger satellite carr ying the dog Laika Nov. 3, 1958. The U.S. doesn’t wait long to catch up. Explorer I zooms from Cape Canaveral Jan. 31, 1958 and the space race is on.

G. Allan Hancock, former officer and director, is honored guest in 1958 when the 18-stor y UCB building at Sixth and Spring is dedicated. The bank had merged with Hiberian Bank which Hancock had cofounded.

Los Angeles Rams’ star Les Richter gives an autographed football to Jim McGowan, Wilshire YMCA Boy of the Year, at the 29th annual meeting which also sees the installation of Dr. John M. Fer nald as chair man of the board of managers.

It’s now a “family af fair” at Dippell Realty Company—1955 is the year both his sons join the family firm. Cutler, a former teacher and UC Santa Barbara graduate, and his brother Howard, a recent graduate of USC, add their talents to the firm their dad star ted in 1923.

Alaska and Hawaii gain statehood in 1959, the states number 50, the post-war baby boom shows no let up and the Fifties whistle on.

John C. Fremont Library

Los Angeles Tennis Club

Congratulates Larchmont Boulevard on its

Centennial Anniversary!

We are pleased to announce the opening of our new studios & theater for in person-classes & performances at our new location: The Equitable Plaza building, Second Floor 3435 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 200, Los Angeles, CA 90010 www.maratdaukayev.com • 323.965.0333

Classical Ballet Classes for boys and girls ages 3 -18, Pre-Professionals, and adults Beginning – Advanced.

Photo: Virginia Oxford-Fleming

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Centennial 23

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24 Centennial

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Larchmont Chronicle

Soaring ‘60s Bring Man To Moon, Return to Nostalgia John Fitzgerald Kennedy is given the reins of the Presidency in gala ceremonies on Jan. 21, 1961 and pledges that this will be the decade in which man lands on the moon. That same year, Commander Alan Shepard Jr. is launched by rocket 116 miles above the ear th in this countr y’s first manned sub-orbital flight.

Closer to home the Mandeville Canyon fire takes a gigantic toll of homes and Angelenos are seeking the flatlands again.

The Ralph Chandlers are building a large colonial style home on Rossmore Avenue with Wallace Nef f as architect. The Fritz Burnses move from June Street to the Marion Kerckhof f Holmes house on Hudson Avenue, and the William Pereiras plan a contemporar y home on the golf course with two dining rooms to enter tain their many guests.

The neighborhood gets its own exclusive newspaper when the Larchmont Chronicle debuts in 1963, with Dawne Goodwin and Jane Gilman as co-owners and publishers.

Hancock Park Home Owners wage a campaign to prevent the proposed Beverly Hills Freeway route from dissecting the area; Fremont Place home owners weigh a proposal by Welton Becket and Associates to develop the area into a 21-building residential high-rise community – but later vote it down.

Marlborough School turns 75 years old with the announcement that the landmark building at Third and Rossmore Avenue will be completely replaced by a Pereira-designed two-stor y building. Local residents and merchants honor Louis Rich on his 100th bir thday. The Gower Street resident still conducts his real estate business daily from his Larchmont Boulevard of fice.

South Hudson Avenue neighbors congratulate Max Green, Jr. on his election to the presidency of Los Angeles Realty Board in 1965. Floyd Clymer donates a ride in his 1911 Maxwell to help ensure success of California Hospital Ser vice Guild’s Antique Auto Show, and Mrs. Ruth Armstrong is named principal of Third Street Elementar y School.

Wilshire YMCA will open its third location in 36 years, at 225 So. Oxford Avenue in 1965.

A double move is announced

by Coldwell, Banker & Co.’s Wilshire Center of fice manager Rober t Selleck. The of fice, which has grown in 30 years from 9 to 52 salesman, will move its commercial branch to a new building in civic center; the residential staf f is going to the firm’s Beverly Hills of fice to service the Hancock Park, Windsor Square, Fremont Place area.

The community is grieved by the sudden death of Councilman Harold A. Henr y, 70, who passed away in May, 1966. An ef fective spokesman in City Council, Henr y was a Lucerne Boulevard resident and personal friend of

many local residents. Appointed in late May to fill Henr y’s seat is insurance executive John Ferraro, 42, of Lorraine Boulevard, long active on the Los Angeles Police Commission.

Some 5000 persons attended the first Larchmont Family Fair in September 1966 where 14 local charity groups set up booths of fering games and refreshments.

Henr y and Tracy Beaumont tell plans to build a regencystyle building at 541 N. Larchmont to house both Mr. Beaumont’s proper ty management firm and his wife’s real estate company. Toyorama opens a branch store on Larchmont the same year, 1968.

Realtors are designing an apar tment-house complex for the former Black Foxe School proper ty – the school closed its doors after almost 40 years of educating local boys in 1968.

Wilshire Countr y Club, celebrating its 50th bir thday with an anniversar y dinner at the Club in 1969, shows members renderings of its all-new $2.2 million building to be completed in mid1971. The face of the “village” and its environs continues to change – always for the better, and always to provide a better way of life for its residents.

As Bob Balzer wrote, in summing up Larchmont’s charm and character: “Please wander over to Larchmont. Choose a day when you’re not in a hurr y. Meander up and down the street.

You’ll find much to make your life happier, richer, more beau-

50 YEARS ON LARCHMONT Boulevard is record Mr. and Mrs. Elton Isbell have chalked up. The couple is shown in front of home they moved to from Third and Catalina in 1921. tiful, more economical and flavor ful. This little community of Larchmont is dedicated to better living. When you discover it

. . . you’ll have found, as thousands have, a little world that really cares about you and your family.”

For its entire history, there have been Days on or around Larchmont Boulevard.

Happy 100th to Us All!

Larchmont Boulevard Assoc.

Aids Community Improvement

Through the LBA’s efforts in conjunction with the Fourth Dis-

trict Councilman, confusing walk blinkers have been removed from boulevard crosswalks and wrought iron benches and litter baskets have been placed along the street for shopper convenience.

Former owner of Beverly Larchmont Pharmacy Bill Schulhof was the first president of LBA from 1964-65; with Mickey McCullough, Poinsettia Cleaners, 1966-67 and 69; Cutler Dippell, Dippell Realty, 1968; and Dawne P. Goodwin, Larchmont Chronicle, 1970-72.

Day — A trusted name in Los Angeles since 1879

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MEDICAL BUILDING— Newest landmark in the Larchmont skies.

One of the most constr uctive forces in preser ving the quality of friendliness and community spirit in Larchmont village is the Larchmont Boulevard Association founded in 1964.

The Association has sponsored such community events as the Family Ar t Show, Pet Show and Family Fair. LBA also provides Christmas decorations and a director y of merchants mailed to 15,000 residents yearly.

Bob Day 323-821-4820 BobDay@coldwellbanker.com

A Trusted Name in Los Angeles since 1879

COLDWELL BANKER HANCOCK PK • RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL • 351 N. LARCHMONT BLVD.

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Centennial 25

Back cover ad from 1971

Larchmont Chronicle

26 Centennial

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Reproduction from the 1971 Special Edition

Larchmont

.Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Reproduction from the 1971 Special Edition

Centennial 27

28 Centennial

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Larchmont Chronicle

Boulevard’s charm has been a cinema backdrop for 100 years ley cars and sidewalks, such as in “Punch Drunks” (1934), “Hoi Polloi” (1935) and “Pop Goes the Easel” (1935), in which the Stooges hurriedly hopscotch in front of 107 N. Larchmont Blvd. (now the Buck Mason store). The Larchmont Theater, at 147 N. Larchmont Blvd., where local residents got to watch finished films in person, also is visible in “Hoi Polloi.”

Bob Hope Bob Hope in “Off Limits” (1953) is a boxing manager who vandalizes a car at “Ashton Super Service,” which actually is the Richfield Service Station at the northeast corner of Larchmont Boulevard and First Street (now the Bank of America building). Bob Hope returns to the Boulevard again for “Eight on the Lam” (1967), where his character hides at his job site in the “First National Bank” (actually the latest, and last, Security-Pacific National Bank branch on Larchmont) at 147 N. Larchmont Blvd. Hope dashes out to the alley and down to First Street to escape the cops, who are searching for him on the Boulevard, and he then attempts to blend in with a protest crowd at First and Larchmont.

Baby Jane and Elvis Larchmont Boulevard transitioned away from car chases and cop comedies as the street developed. Horror film “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” (1962), with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, was filmed almost exclusively in Larchmont Village and environs, and characters regularly leave the haunted 172 S. McCadden Pl. mansion to run errands at Larchmont shops.

In “Live a Little, Love a Little” (1968), Elvis Presley as “Greg” follows motorcycle cops at Larchmont and Beverly.

Television As time marched on, Larchmont also entered the world of television. It appeared in TV series “Dynasty,” in episodes The Mortgage (1984) and The Man (1985). Although only during the second (1986-1987) season, Angus “Mac” MacGyver was able to call Larchmont Boulevard home while he lived in an apartment above the hardware store.

And, of course, the late, longtime Rossmore Avenue resident Huell Howser chats with owner Steve Cohen of Village Pizzeria in “Visiting . . . with Huell Howser” (2007). The following year, in season 5, episode 10, of “Entourage,” Eric “E” Murphy gets stood up at Village Pizzeria.

Since 2010, Larchmont Boulevard has been the backdrop for at least 140 productions.

Commercials span everything from ESPN and Chipotle to Geico and T-Mobile. The street has remained popular for movies and TV shows, such as “Hangover 2,” “Private Prac-

THREE STOOGES on Larchmont Blvd., from the film “Hoi Polloi,” 1935. The Larchmont Theater is in the upper right corner. Note original stores and lampposts.

Photo from the book “The Three Stooges Hollywood Filming Locations” by Jim Pauley.

Photo copyright Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

tice,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “The Voice.” Recently, songwriter Olivia Rodrigo shot a music video at KasimoffBlüthner Piano Co., and the still-unnamed new Amazon TV spinoff series of “Bosch” shot a

scene in front of Le Pain Quotidien at the end of August.

Even though neighbors sometimes grumble about the inconvenience of on-location film shoots, the shoots can be lucrative for property owners

and cost-effective for production companies.

Commercial cinema definitely has been an effective means to preserve historic images of Larchmont Boulevard throughout its first century.

“MACGYVER” EPISODES often included Larchmont Boulevard, because the titular character lived in an apartment above the late lamented Larchmont Hardware, at right.

is so proud to be

part of this iconic Larchmont Community for 29 years!

Happy 100th Birthday, Larchmont!

204 N. Larchmont Blvd., 90004 • (323) 466-5822

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By Talia Abrahamson Locals have enjoyed Larchmont Boulevard for a century, and so have audiences from around the globe. The Boulevard’s irresistible charm since the beginning has made it one of the foremost filming locations since the start of Hollywood’s movie industry.

Larchmont Boulevard was popular for films even before Julius LaBonte developed the street in 1921.

Langdon, Keaton, Lloyd In 1917, vaudeville actor Harry Langdon, in “Lonesome Luke, Messenger,” is in haste to deliver packages, and he falls off his bike in front of the homes at Clinton Street and Larchmont Boulevard. The Keystone Cops, a clumsy police team popular during the 1910s, often were chased along the Boulevard.

In “Sherlock, Jr.” (1924), thugs chase down comedian and Hancock Park resident Buster Keaton, who hops onto the handlebars of a motorcycle while being chased down the Boulevard. That same year, comedian Harold Lloyd plays Hubby in “Hot Water,” and while bickering with his family, is reprimanded by a police officer for forgetting to drive around an old-fashioned traffic island in front of an “automobile repair shop” at Larchmont and First.

At that same intersection, but one year later, Langdon in “His Marriage Wow” (1925) asks an exasperated traffic cop for directions, after finding himself at the wrong church on his wedding day. Later, he and a crazy wedding guest, played by actor Vernon Dent, nearly smash into the center trolley poles on the Boulevard while on a wild ride to the hospital. Yellow streetcars on the Los Angeles Railway Line No. 3 used to wheel up and down the center of the street.

Langdon does in fact smack into a trolley pole in front of 221 S. Larchmont Blvd. (now vacant; formerly Pickett Fences) in his film “Saturday Afternoon” (1926), having filled the gap between two moving trolley cars and fallen asleep.

Later, he and Dent also argue about their failed double dates in front of a “chocolate” shop at Larchmont and First.

Harold Lloyd returns to the Boulevard in 1926 for one of his most successful films, “For Heaven’s Sake,” which sees him comically trying to shove his inebriated friends into one of the running trolley cars.

Other film shoots on Larchmont, such as for “All for a Girl” and “The Movies” (1925), “For Heaven’s Sake” (1926) and “Better Behave” (1928), crown the silent film era.

Stooges The Three Stooges, a slapstick comedy trio, filmed at least nine different locations on Larchmont. Their movies showcase the Larchmont trol-

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Centennial 29

The 1970s bring change; mom-and-pops threatened?

By Jane Gilman and Suzan Filipek The 1970s brought years of change and technological advancements. Inflation replaced decades of unbounded growth, and the Vietnam War came to an end. The decade included the passage of the Clean Air Act and the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18, and Beatles fans mourned the disbanding of the popular foursome.

Bellbottoms were a dominant fashion for the age, which pulsed to a disco beat.

Locally, Larchmont was the place to be, according to this excerpt from the Larchmont Chronicle, January 1971, in “On The Blvd.:” “Larchmont … not really a place but a state of mind … where people dress up to do their shopping because it so often becomes a social occasion.”

The decade started with a bang, literally, in February 1971, when a 6.6 earthquake shook Los Angeles, causing major damage in some areas of the city. Local homes gen-

erally suffered little damage.

However, Los Angeles High School’s signature brick 54-year-old main tower, plus classrooms and auditorium, were hard-hit. A new school opened in 1977 at the same site at a cost of $9 million.

In May of 1971, Councilman John Ferraro was re-elected to his second full term on the City Council with an overwhelming 84.2 percent of the vote in the Fourth District. A year earlier, civic leaders had gathered at Harold Henry Park at 9th and Lucerne to dedicate a statue of the late councilman, Harold A. Henry.

In September 1971, a Roaring ’20s-style Family Fair was held to celebrate Larchmont Boulevard’s 50th anniversary.

Mayor Sam Yorty and 10,000 well-wishers attended the festivities.

On a more somber note, “If forecasters are on cue, 1971 will be the year of the adding machine…” (computers were on the forefront, but personal use was still in its infancy).

State and local budgets would need to be balanced amid increased inflation, according to the Chronicle.

In Hancock Park and Windsor Square, homeowners received property tax bills showing a 20 percent rise in valuations as a result of the first reappraisal of properties since 1965. The seeds of 1978’s Proposition 13 revolution were sown.

End of mom-andpop shops?

A Chronicle ROMAN TOWER TO FALL. Los Angeles editorial asked if High School principal Norman Schachter the era of momdiscusses temporary move to Fairfax High and-pop shops was School for his earthquake-damaged school coming to an end with Cathy Kalt, Muirfield Road, and Lisa after two favorites Curtsinger, Van Ness Ave., seniors. Los Angeles High “Romans” lost the landmark closed after 44 years: Larchmont tower when the new school was rebuilt.

Photo: Mickey McCullough Radio Salon (Strat-

MAYOR SAM YORTY and Jane Gilman celebrate the Boulevard’s 50th in 1971.

ts), 139 N. Larchmont, which sold records, radios and phonographs, and Van de Kamp’s

“windmill” bakery, at 225 1/2 N. Larchmont.

Down the road and east on Wilshire Boulevard, neighbors danced and swayed to Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie and Sonny and Cher, all of whom were on the calendar for the Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel 1972 season.

Wilshire Rotary Club, which had met at that hotel since 1933, celebrated its 40th anniversary in 1972 at the historic site.

Dippell Realty Co. also celebrated a milestone. It turned 50 in 1973. The company had come a long way since 1923, when founder Albert T. Dippell rode a streetcar to the end of the line, which at that time was a hot springs near Larchmont and Melrose. Sale of New Wind-

sor Square lots had commenced in 1921 and was in full swing.

By 1973, an “English brick” home near Marlborough School was listed for $84,500, and a spacious home on June Street in Hancock Park was reduced to $57,500. Rents started at $240 a month in a 52-unit apartment building at 530 N. Rossmore.

Owners Lucy and Frank Casado of El Adobe Café on Melrose Avenue hosted candidate (and later governor) Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr., along with others, throughout the decade, including Mick Jagger, Joni Mitchell and Linda Ronstadt.

Prince Charles was seen at the British Consul General’s home in Hancock Park, and, (Please turn to page 30)

30 Centennial

1970s

(Continued from page 29) on a later trip, the British royal and heir to the throne was welcomed at Getty House in Windsor Square by Mayor and Mrs. Tom Bradley.

“Los Angeles Times” former publisher Norman Chandler, of Lorraine Boulevard in Windsor Square, was named the Chronicle’s Man of the Year in 1972. His equally illustrious wife, Dorothy Buffum Chandler — the Music Center’s original building bears her name — was a Larchmont Chronicle Woman of the Year in August 1975.

Bob Landis, of the popular old-time Landis Department

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Store, celebrated the store’s 40 years on Larchmont Boulevard in 1973.

Local activism included residents’ victory, with support of the Sierra Club, of defeating a city-planned traffic “improvement” project that included removing 94 palm trees from the median strip of Highland Avenue to add left-turn lanes.

Over on Wilcox Avenue, residents saved 17 sycamore trees from the ax — stopping a proposal to widen the street for a condo development. The width was left the same after city officials got heavy fire from residents on Wilcox, Lillian Way and Cahuenga Ave. Larchmont families hosted

some of the 50 tennis players in town for the Pacific Southwest Tennis Tournament at the Los Angeles Tennis Club.

Bank of America opened a branch in Larchmont Village in January 1973. That year also saw the first off-street city parking lot opening in Larchmont Village at the site of a former Chevron service station.

Two new condominium projects opened: Wilshire Country Manor, a 36-unit townhouse project adjacent to the Los Angeles Tennis Club, in 1973; and Hancock Square, a 102unit building, on Van Ness Avenue at Fourth Street, in 1975.

Barber, markets on the Blvd.

Vince Cottone began snip-

Larchmont Chronicle

AT EL ADOBE CAFÉ, Governor Jerry Brown announces his appointment of restaurant owner Lucy Casado, left, to his Developmental Disabilities Planning and Advisory Council.

ping hair as the new owner of the Windsor Barber Shop, 242 N. Larchmont Blvd. His son Jerry is manager.

A fire at Larch-Mart Grocery destroys $100,000 of merchandise.

At another Boulevard market, Jurgensen’s, Mae West’s chauffeur is often seen parking his limousine to stock the actress’ pantry at The Ravenswood.

The new YMCA at 225 S. Oxford Ave. opened in 1974 with contributions from the community to help finance the $800,000 facility.

In school news, John Burroughs Junior High School celebrated its 50th anniversary, and Gov. Reagan spoke to the Marlborough School class of 1974.

Third Street School celebrated its 50th anniversary in February 1975.

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Co. opened an office at 248 N. Larchmont in Feb. 1975 and relocated across the street to larger quarters in 1977 at 251 N. Larchmont Blvd.

Wells Fargo opened its branch at 301 N. Larchmont with a stagecoach ride.

Two local families hosted 14 members of one of the last Vietnamese refugee families to leave Camp Pendleton in Oc-

tober 1975.

It was the year 1977 when Getty Oil Co. gave a Windsor Square home, at 605 S. Irving Blvd., to the City of Los Angeles for use as a mayoral residence.

In 1978, King Tut made headlines when the world’s most famous pharaoh and his glittering gold were featured in an exhibit at LACMA. The Park Mile Specific Plan that established building height and density restrictions consistent with adjacent single-family homes is approved by City Council in June 1979.

Disco queen Donna Summer moved to Windsor Square, in a home that formerly belonged to fashion designer Mr. Blackwell.

Wilton Historic District (First Street to Third Street) is named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, primarily through the efforts of Ginny Kazor.

Joe Chevalier celebrates his 40th year on Larchmont, and he receives an award as Bookseller of the Year in 1979.

As the decade drew to a close, Larchmontians continued to greet their neighbors as they ran errands on the Boulevard, all the while lamenting the closing of mom-and-pop shops while working to preserve their neighborhoods.

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Centennial 31

32 Centennial

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Age of self-improvement, 1980s brings Reagan, Olympics and HPOZs

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Larchmont Chronicle

By Talia Abrahamson A focus on self-improvement provides a through line during the 1980s. The community never tires of engaging in efforts to expand, beautify and preserve the neighborhood.

The age of at-home technology arrives, and Larchmontians are merging the old with the new. VCRs begin to short-circuit trips to the movies, but blockbuster films like “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” and “The Breakfast Club” generate hundreds of millions of dollars. Athletes in leg warmers work out in the living room to “Jane Fonda’s Workout” on VHS. In January 1981, President Ronald Reagan ushers in a new conservative era, which is marked by increased consumerism throughout the decade.

Springtime is cookie season, and local Girl Scouts debut cheese-flavored snack crackers and a “Dutch ‘n Such” spice cookie. These join the five other classics, available for purchase at $1.50 a box.

Wilshire subway The decades-long dispute over Metro Rail on Wilshire Boulevard continues, with homeowners seeking elimination of a proposed Lorraine Boulevard (Crenshaw) subway stop, but they do not prevail.

Filming proves contentious, and a new city coordinator is brought on to ease communication among citizen groups and filming companies.

Sitting among twinkling lights and Christmas trees, Santa and Mrs. Claus pose for

photos and pass out cookies to children outside of Security Pacific Bank on Larchmont.

Larchmontians ring in the new year of 1981 with torn-up streets and water and power outages, as a result of areawide cable installations.

Residents show their hearts at the American Red Cross’s post-Valentine’s Day bloodmobile event at Hancock Savings.

A second blood drive is scheduled for July, and the Los Angeles Chapter of the Red Cross congratulates Larchmont for running some of the best community blood drives.

In March, Rosewood Super Service, a gas station at Larchmont and Rosewood Avenue, closes after 27 years. Councilman John Ferraro initiates a study for a multi-level parking lot on the existing midblock city lot, converted from a Chevron station in 1973.

State and federal legislators revive efforts to include a Crenshaw Boulevard subway stop, also defeating a legal challenge filed by nonprofit Rapid Transit Advocates, Inc., which was supported by local homeowners.

Santa and Mrs. Claus have moved to Landis Department Store this Christmas season, and the wish lists include computers, cameras, digital clocks and headphone radios.

In 1983, Third Street Elementary announces that students will soon benefit from a community computer center.

Larchmont Boulevard Association’s annual pet show com(Please turn to page 34)

JOHN FERRARO presents Larchmont Chronicle founders Dawne Goodwin and Jane Gilman with official resolutions celebrating the Chronicle’s 20th anniversary in 1983.

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Centennial 33

34 Centennial

1980s

(Continued from page 32) mences, where kids under 12 show off their pets. Competitive categories include best costumed and best trained.

A new generation of coyotes is spotted roaming the neighborhood, causing concern.

Pan Pacific Park After 10 years and $10.4 million, Pan Pacific Park opens

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

with an official dedication on Nov. 20. The Park is both recreational and functional as a flood control basin.

Instead of fearing the Orwellian “1984,” Larchmontians celebrate a new holiday, Martin Luther King’s birthday, that year. ’84 Olympics The Olympics bring new levels of festivity. The Ebell’s annual spring benefit is

THE OLYMPIC FLAME from Greece crossed the U.S. in a torch relay to Los Angeles, including this kilometer run in Pan Pacific Park (with the auditorium still intact) on July 24, 1984.

“Olympic Gold,” and St. Brendan School children sell candy bars and compete for gold, silver and bronze medals in the Easter egg, peanut butter bar and caramel nut divisions.

At the actual Games, locals are fitting performers in costumes for the opening and closing ceremonies; directing the Los Angeles County Host Committee and luncheons; designing access badges; playing the trombone in the marching band; or providing first aid on the field of the Los Angeles Coliseum.

Prior to the games, torch bearers already have run the Olympic flame through the streets of Los Angeles and around Pan Pacific Park, with residents in sun hats and American flags cheering them on. Olympic flags fly in front of Larchmont stores, and a few are taken by souvenir hunters.

In 1985, restoration plans are announced for the Pan Pacific Auditorium, which has been closed since 1972. Developers hope to include a multi-level movie theater complex, exhibition space, 165-room hotel, restaurant, offices, ice-skating rink and gymnastics facility.

On May 24, a gas explosion at Ross Dress for Less on Third Street injures 21 people and causes $400,000 in damages. Rep. Henry Waxman introduces legislation banning

Larchmont Chronicle

CAFÉ CHAPEAU, at 236 N. Larchmont (now the Erin McKenna Bakery) was popular in the 1980s.

Metro Rail tunneling beneath project adds more stores and 50 percent more parking. Over 30 Wilshire Boulevard.

The Wiltern Theater, after a Larchmont merchants partici$4.5 million renovation, cel- pate in a two-day sidewalk sale ebrates reopening with 2,300 for back-to-school activities. guests enjoying an Alvin Ailey Redistricting American Dance Theater per- Without community input, formance.

City Council redistricts and The Los Angeles City Council separates the neighborhood approves funding for a three- among the Fourth, Fifth and level underground parking (Please turn to page 36) structure on Larchmont. It is not on the city’s surface lot on the former Chevron site. Instead, it’s across the street, replacing the former Safeway parking lot. This “ L a r c h m o n t PAN PACIFIC State Park got funding from Village Plaza” state, county and city, and it opened in 1983.

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Centennial 35

36 Centennial

1980s

(Continued from page 34) Tenth districts. Homeowner groups retain counsel, and Hancock Park is reunited in the Fourth District after a brief City Council vote. Six homeowner groups and four individuals from Park Mile file a class action lawsuit over the division.

Hancock Park Home Owners Association forms a com-

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

mittee to monitor film companies. Local resident George Takei becomes the first actor of Japanese-American ancestry to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for his role as Sulu on “Star Trek.”

The AIDS pandemic rages across the decade and, in 1987, State Sen. Gary Hart introduces a bill at Los Angeles High School to require educators to show AIDS prevention films to 7th to 11th graders. Fairfax

LARCHMONT VILLAGE PLAZA has taken the place of the old Safeway parking lot and now includes three levels of underground parking. From left: Councilman John Ferraro cuts the ribbon with developer Ron Simms, Dawne Goodwin, Jane Gilman and others in 1987.

High School is the first school to start a 24-hour hotline for gay and bisexual students.

The dedication of Larchmont Village Plaza on Sept.

17, 1987, sees “Shop Larchmont — You’ll Love It” banners waving from lampposts.

Residents are happy to report no issues with parking during holiday shopping season.

Homeowners are reviewing a two-million-square-foot proposal to expand retail, commercial and residential complexes at the Farmers Market. In 1988, Park La Brea announces a plan to add 2,000 new apartments, a 950,000-square-foot shopping center and a 500-room hotel.

Homeowners voice concerns over potential for traffic congestion.

Le Petit Greek and Louise’s Trattoria open on Larchmont in 1988.

Marlborough Marlborough School reveals future expansion plans that involve razing eight homes on Arden Boulevard and one on Rossmore, but puts the plans on hold. In the following year, Marlborough celebrates its centennial.

Ambassador Hotel, where Wilshire Rotary Club always has met, closes on Jan. 3, 1989, setting up a long dispute over a successor use for the property. LAUSD invokes eminent domain to obtain the

Larchmont Chronicle

PAN PACIFIC AUDITORIUM was destroyed by fire in 1989.

Today, the main entrances to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida and California Adventure in Anaheim feature replicas of the façade.

land. The Los Angeles Conservancy, seeking preservation of the historic hotel, and property owners Wilshire Center Partners –– soon renamed Trump Wilshire Associates in recognition of Donald Trump’s entrance into the local contest –– compete for the property. $$ values up!

In the last year of the decade, home value prices in Miracle Mile increase on average $100,000, and the City of Los Angeles announces the first-ofa-kind beautification project.

Miracle Mile receives $635,000 for an irrigation system down the median islands on Wilshire and an assessment district is created to allow commercial

property owners to pay for annual maintenance.

On May 25, an arson fire destroys the Pan Pacific Auditorium, seriously delaying renovation plans. Residents throw a “thank you” party for government officials who pledge to preserve and restore the site.

At the turn of the decade, with world issues and expansion plans rising, neighbors continue to prioritize unity.

After Iraq invades Kuwait in August, Page School shows its patriotism with world peace signs, yellow satin ribbons, rooftop wreaths, United Nation and American flags and plastic globes.

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Timeless …

(Congratulations, Larchmont Village, on your 100TH!)

Centennial 37

38 Centennial

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

1990s — Prosperity fuels change among mom and pops

By Talia Abrahamson Rapid modernization integrates with the general peace and prosperity of a new decade, as Larchmont contends with the effects of expansion during the 1990s. A growing population and dot-com boom fuel change on the Boulevard, even as residents organize to maintain Larchmont’s momand-pop shopping and closeknit community.

Local children feed Tamagotchi pets and play on Game Boys, while older siblings pop CDs into Discmans and rock out to Nirvana in grunge fashion. “Seinfeld” is the most watched show, but that does not stop fans from getting “The Rachel” haircut.

In January 1991, Mayor Tom Bradley is serving a fifth term in what appears to be a seamless start to the decade for Larchmontians. After the

Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, however, President George H. W. Bush initiates Operation Desert Storm, and local men and women enlist. The Persian Gulf War lasts one month, and during that time, residents hang yellow ribbons on their car antennae in support. The community gets together to tie yellow bows on neighborhood trees and write letters and send packages to troops.

“Q” condition Commercial zoning on Larchmont between Melrose Avenue and First Street is revised to adapt to citywide rules, and a “Q” condition is included to limit the number of financial services offices and restaurants between Beverly and First.

Councilman John Ferraro concedes to a landlord’s plea that “takeout” food services do not count as part of the max-

imum allowable restaurants between Beverly Boulevard and First Street. Starbucks opens on Larchmont.

Rollerblading becomes the latest obsession, and the Safety Center of California issues regulations. Harvard School sees its last all-male graduating class.

Residents at the Windsor Square Association’s annual Town Hall meeting urge the development of guidelines for neighborhood film production. Some in the neighborhood decry a proposed 2,200-unit housing expansion of Park La Brea. Councilman John Ferraro rejects the expansion the following year.

The Metro Red Line (today the B Line) starts its excavation phase along Wilshire Boulevard east of Alvarado Street. The proposal to route the subway north under

C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s L a rc h m o n t V i l l a g e on your 100th Anniversary!

ON GUARD. National Guard troops set up a command post at the Scottish Rite Temple, facing the Ebell Club across Wilshire Boulevard, during the week of the June 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Guard members also helped bring food to churches which distributed it to residents of South Los Angeles.

Fairfax changes to turn the line north on Vermont.

Unmoored mammoth A very wet winter in 1992 releases such heavy February rains that a fiberglass female mammoth at La Brea Tar Pits unhinges from her mooring in the tar lake –– an enviable development for her 10,000-year-old ancestors. A rescue effort commences by boat and helicopter, and she is soon repaired and returned.

On April 29, 1992, the day after a jury acquits four LAPD officers of using excessive force against detained motorist Rodney King, five days of riots begin to rattle the city. Residents and block captains with walkie-talkies patrol Larchmont Boulevard, chasing rioters with flash-

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lights and reporting license plates. Huell Howser and his neighbors chase looters from the Radio Shack at Melrose and Rossmore. National Guard troops set up a command post at the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple.

Residents plan to expand the neighborhood watch efforts, prompting a decadeslong crusade to strengthen security and policing in the area.

Taste of Larchmont In honor of the Chronicle’s 30th anniversary, co-founders Jane Gilman and Dawne Goodwin organize the first “Taste of Larchmont” to help underwrite the expenses of HopeNet’s food pantries.

Democrat Bill Clinton becomes president in November, but Larchmont neighborhoods remain politically divided. Competing lawn signs are staked out in front of homes for the 1993 nonpartisan mayoral election, and Republican businessman Richard Riordan triumphs over Democratic Councilman Michael Woo. At last, City Council approves Park La Brea’s expansion project after removing 620 proposed units.

Earthquake!

The Northridge Earthquake strikes on Jan. 17, 1994, and a broken rooftop pipe sends water rushing through the Larchmont Medical Building. After losing electricity, Larchmont Hardware transitions to cash transactions and remains open to sell emergency supplies. Residents line up outside for batteries, flashlights and fire extinguishers. Employees at Larchmont Pharmacy sweep (Please turn to page 39)

Larchmont Chronicle

1990s

(Continued from page 38) up shattered glass windows and also serve emergency shoppers.

Residents across the community report damaged chimneys, broken lamps and wall cracks.

Public schools rearrange class year distributions, and for the first time in 70 years, sixth graders no longer run around Third Street Elementary. John Burroughs opens its doors to sixth graders instead of seventh graders.

A community-run, stop-in police “cop shop” opens on the Boulevard. To the ire of locals, Payless Drug Store also opens in place of the Safeway grocery store. Petersen Automotive Museum, the largest automotive museum in the nation, opens in Miracle Mile.

Mayor Richard Riordan officially designates “Museum Row” on Wilshire Boulevard, in recognition of the Petersen Automotive Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Museum of Miniatures, the Craft and Folk Art Museum and the George C. Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits.

Centennial 39

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Effective Jan. 1, 1995, the Wilshire LAPD Division gives up part of its territory to the new Olympic Division.

Sam’s Bagels and Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese open on Larchmont.

The Junior League of Los Angeles opens its new headquarters on the Boulevard.

1996 is a leap year, and more shops open, including Noah’s Bagels and A Silver Lining.

Residents soon get local access to thousands of VHS tapes at Blockbuster Video, which opens on the Boulevard in place of Security Pacific National Bank, which ceased to exist after the merger with Bank of America. Public libraries and the Farmers Market catalogs go online, and Marlborough School gains three labs with computerized projectors.

Marlborough School in 1997 sparks lengthy neighborhood debate over plans to raze 12 homes on Arden Boulevard, and one home on Rossmore Avenue, for a campus expansion project.

Leaf blowers; cats City Council declares that residents can no longer use

gas-powered leaf blowers.

Cat poisonings are suspected in Windsor Square, with three cats found dead and two cats having run away from home after frothing at the mouth.

Fourth graders at Third Street Elementary choose to skip out on Halloween treats so that they can donate the money to Hurricane Pauline victims in Mexico.

Changes in California law allow Hancock Park and Windsor Square residents in 1998 to consider living in a new city, called “Westside,” with LAX, Bel Air and Hollywood.

El Niño rains overwhelm Rossmore Avenue storm drains so much that passengers must be rescued from cars and trucks. In the aftermath, residents enter a gardening craze, and foxgloves are seen in planters all along Larchmont.

Farmers Market 65th To mark its 65th anniversary in 1999, the Farmers Market celebrates with a Fondue Fantastique cooking demonstration. As overall county population increases, Larchmont receives a new 323 telephone code, sparking friendly debate among 213 old-timers.

A million visitors view 70 masterpieces by Van Gogh at an exhibit at LACMA. The $12 million Hancock County Park renovation between LACMA and Park La Brea is complete with new walkways, exhibits and the Dorothy Collins Brown Amphitheater.

Dissatisfied with inadequate shade cover and treesize irregularities, Windsor Square Association launches

MAYOR TOM BRADLEY served from 1973 to 1993 and frequented the Boulevard, so close to Getty House in Windsor Square.

a tree inventory. Volunteers spend 200 hours identifying approximately 2,200 trees –– including jacarandas, palms, magnolias and sycamores.

Support for a Larchmont median increases.

Marlborough School breaks ground on the first phase of its expansion plan, demolishing six homes along Arden Boulevard to do so. Yavneh Hebrew Academy begins its 39th year at its new Third Street campus, and developer Rick Caruso breaks ground on The Grove. The cop shop on Larchmont Boulevard, after years of inadequate volunteer support, is shut down.

Worries over Y2K are allayed by a smooth turn of the century. Modernization swiftly accompanies the new millennium, with Wilshire Center

being nicknamed “Internet Alley” for the new media companies located there.

Larchmont business and residential interests come together to draft a revised “Q” condition ordinance.

Chevalier’s Books hosts a “Harry Potter IV” party, where wizards and witches are provided hot coffee, cookies and doughnuts as they wait in line until 12:01 a.m. to purchase the as-yetunnamed sequel.

Larchmontians embrace change, but they also fight to retain the neighborhood’s classic, residential feel. The Hancock Park Homeowners Association takes first steps to establish an Historic Preservation Overlay Zone in order to preserve that community’s architectural character.

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NO, BOATING HAS NOT been added to the list of activities offered in the Hancock County Park. But after a recent rainstorm, Page Museum employees and County workers teamed up to rescue a stranded Columbian mammoth replica out of the lake using both helicopter and boat. The sculpture had drifted from its husband and baby in its “home” in the La Brea tar pits; the mammoth was then repaired, replaced and reanchored.

40 Centennial

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Larchmont Chronicle

Baseball on Larchmont, where everyone knew your name

The co-founder of the Larchmont Chronicle (in 1963) spoke recently to a few of the esteemed long-timers from the Boulevard. Here are excerpts from those conversations.

By Jane Gilman Here’s what some of the longtimers on Larchmont remember about the earlier days.

Tom Kneafsey’s sons used to play baseball in the middle of Larchmont Boulevard on Sundays because the street was so dead.

Tom and his late wife Michele lived on Lucerne, just a halfblock away from Larchmont.

Tom and Michele would come

over on evenings, sometimes just for a nice, pleasant walk and sometimes to dine at Le Petit Greek.

Tom’s firm is Metropolitan Holding Company, a real estate investment company. In 1979, he purchased the 200 N. Larchmont building. His first tenant was G.B. Harb & Son for George Harb’s third clothing store. The rent was $1 per square foot.

Tom misses shopping at Larchmont Hardware and Landis Department Store. The first chain store, Starbucks, came in sometime in the 1980s after Safeway and Jurgensen’s markets closed.

With those losses and even more stores closing, the street was 30 percent vacant. Tom asked the broker for Starbucks how to get a national tenant, and she said that most of her clients were from New York and, by the time she tried to explain to prospective tenants where Larchmont was, they lost interest.

When Tim Gogan opened his dental practice fresh out of USC in 1976, the shops on Larchmont were family-owned. He would spend his lunch hours walking down Larchmont to Café Chapeau or patronize the Coffee Cup in the Larchmont

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Medical Building. He also got sandwiches at Jurgensen’s, but there was nowhere to sit to eat them.

Tim decided the Boulevard needed benches, and he arranged for 17 individuals to sponsor benches since the LBA (Larchmont Boulevard Association) said it couldn’t afford the project. Tim also spearheaded getting planters on the street. LBA sponsored activities for ANDREW J. FENADY by his roll-top children, and it started desk in his Larchmont Boulevard office. the annual Family Fair in 1966. There was also a pet glass to replace the windows show and art contest, Tim re- my four brothers and I invaricalls. Shop owners contrib- ably broke while honing our uted prizes and volunteered on baseball, football and even golf their time off. Today, said Tim, skills in the backyard. so many of the businesses are “There was a Safeway; a Jurchains, and they bring a differ- gensen’s; Phil’s, selling the ent kind of energy to the Bou- best fresh fish in town; a small levard. pharmacy, run by Bill SchulPatti Carroll remembers hof; the barber shop that Jervisiting her dad at his Hol- ry, who must have given me lywoodland Realty office on hundreds of haircuts (includLarchmont. Ed Carroll pur- ing my first buzz cut, mandachased his first building on tory for those playing football the Boulevard in 1963. When at Loyola High School), took she was a student at John Bur- over from his father, Vince; roughs, her dad would take Chevalier’s, where, at the time, Patti and three of her friends its proprietor actually was Mr. to Winchell’s Donuts at Bev- Chevalier; and Baskin-Roberly and Larchmont daily on bins, which my parents used their way to school. quite strategically — a scoop In her teen years, Patti at- or two went a long way in motended meetings of Job’s tivating us to finish that sumDaughters at the Masonic mer reading list.

Lodge — which is now the “I can recall dozens more Center for Yoga. She remem- small retail stores on the Boubers Phil’s fish market, and levard, many of which were she had a savings account at passed down for generations.

Western Federal Savings (now Virtually all shop owners knew the location of Chase Bank). your name and, of course, you She loved Jurgensen’s, and she knew theirs. It was on the Boufondly remembers Mr. Che- levard that I, along with most valier in his elegant tweeds. of the neighborhood kids, got Landis Department Store was our first summer jobs. where she could find most any“My father, A.J. Fenady, had thing, including stamps at the deals with, and offices at, all post office in the back. And the the major studios throughout shops Hollyhock and Robert the years. But he always mainGrounds Antiques were gar- tained an office in the building dens of visual delights. he bought in 1968, on the corEd Lee moved his accounting ner of Larchmont and Beverly. practice to Larchmont in 1979. He loved that building, and up He leased an office in the 606 until the day he passed away N. Larchmont Blvd. “Leimert” last year, every time we drove building. Ed’s dad knew Tim past it, he would proclaim, ‘I Leimert, and that’s how he love that building!’ heard about the vacancy. “I “On our way to fill up our was lucky because there were bike tires at the 76 gas staonly two office buildings on the tion across the street (now street, and vacancies were rare.” Chipotle), or on an errand for Duke Fenady grew up, with our mother, usually picking his parents and brothers and up another pane of glass, my sister, on Rossmore Avenue, brother, Sean, and I would ofjust a few blocks away from ten stop by dad’s upstairs ofLarchmont, in a house his par- fice. He’d be sitting at his rollents, Andrew J. and Mary Fran- top desk, puffing either a cigar ces Fenady, purchased in 1960, or pipe, scribbling by hand the the same year that he was born. next episode of “Branded” or In Duke’s words, “Larch- “Hondo,” or whatever project mont was our go-to destina- was in the pipeline. We’d visit tion for virtually all our needs for minutes, or sometimes — the original Landis, which hours, absorbing tales of his was the ‘60s and ‘70s equiva- childhood or his adventures lent of the five & dime; and while filming on location — all the mom-and-pop hardware the while savoring the sweet store, run by Frank, which we aroma of freshly baked donuts visited often, mostly to buy wafting up from Winchell’s.”

Larchmont Chronicle

Centennial 41

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Happy Anniversary, Larchmont!

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OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Larchmont Chronicle

The 2000s: a decade of change and challenges, rising rents

By Helene Seifer In some respects, Larchmont Boulevard is a timeless place, where families stroll, shopkeepers know your name, and the travails of the outside world rarely intrude on our little slice of tranquility. But in ways large and small, the

2000s saw changes and challenges up and down the boulevard and beyond.

Trends come and go and even Larchmont responds.

Jeans continue to dominate our closets in the 2000s, and Larchmontians embrace lowrise, skinny, bedazzled or ca-

pri-length denim. UGGs are de rigueur casual wear; evening veers to metallic sandals and Pashmina-draped shoulders.

Razor scooters zip along the boulevard. Bratz dolls and Xboxes invade our homes. We listen to music on iPods; view films at the new

Happy Birthday Congratulations to our neighbors since 1927 from our historic Wilshire campus!

PROCEEDS FROM the Windsor Square-Hancock Park Historical Society’s garden tour of June 2006 were donated to support the upper Larchmont median project. Councilman Tom LaBonge received a check for $10,000 from tour co-chairman Myrna Gintel and president Chris Blakely at a Spring 2007 Historical Society membership tea at the Natural History Museum.

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Most residents care deeply about the preservation of the area, but the decade from 2001-2010 is difficult. The push for density, desire for mansionization, increased traffic and changes in commercial building ownership on the Boulevard itself drive the conversation.

Commercial rents We struggle to maintain the village feel we cherish in the face of rent increases and competing interests. Over the decade we bid adieu to many Boulevard stalwarts, such as Larchmont Hardware, Café du Village, La Luna and Larchmont Village Estate Jewelers.

In 2001, Mayor Richard Riordan finishes his term, replaced by James K. Hahn, but politics is often hyper-local in Los Angeles, and Larchmont has a champion in 4th District Councilman Tom LaBonge, who supports limiting change on the Boulevard, stopping over-building, seeking traffic mitigation and prioritizing public safety. He backs building a new police station on Vermont to ease the workload on the Wilshire Division station and better serve our area.

What becomes the Olympic station will be completed in 2009.

In 2001, St. Andrews Square gets new signage to officially define its borders. The El Royale on N. Rossmore Avenue cites traffic concerns in its fight against a planned fivestory luxury apartment building across the street, but the planning commission allows it.

At a Norton Avenue block party with Station 29 firefighters, a young Jake Harris tries on full firefighting gear.

Today, he is a firefighter at that same station.

Also in 2001, the Larchmont Chronicle staff tours the construction site of The Grove, which developer Rick Caruso promises will exude “Old world charm and stateof-the-art technology,” without snarling traffic. Perhaps predictably, traffic snarls.

Flower-festooned median gardens with trees are planned for South Larchmont Boulevard, helped by a $14,000 contribution from the Windsor Square Association, $495,000 from the local community, and a $195,000 MTA grant.

The work begins in 2002; three (Please turn to page 43)

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AFTER YEARS OF PLANNING and three years of fundraising and construction, the Larchmont Median between First and Third streets is completed in the middle of the decade.

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

2000s

(Continued from page 42) years later, Home Depot donates $11,000 worth of plants and workers to plant them.

Official City of Los Angeles Neighborhood Councils form to address micro-level civic issues. Marlborough School razes a house on the northwest corner of Third and Rossmore to build a staff parking lot.

The Los Angeles City Council gives unanimous approval for the Wilshire Community Plan, a land use guide for the next 10 years.

El Coyote celebrates its 70th anniversary with 70-cent cheese enchiladas.

Larchmontians mourn the passing of Bob “Mr. Larchmont” Landis in 2001, a regular on the street from 1933.

The Rotary Club noted he had 54 years of perfect attendance.

Bags of pluots and leafy greens are carted home every Sunday from Larchmont’s new farmers’ market.

The world stops on September 11, 2001 with the downing of the World Trade Center in New York. Larchmont community members hang flags on their homes, hold vigils and plant trees in commemoration of the heartbreaking assault.

After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, neighborhood children hold a bake sale, raising funds for Afghani youths.

2002 sees increased action on traffic abatement. Residents successfully advocate to downgrade Wilton Place from a secondary highway, allowing for stop signs and slower timing on stoplights.

Dirt flies in 2002 with the Wilshire Country Club clubhouse restoration. The Westside Jewish Community Center staves off closure by securing $4 million in pledges.

The Historic Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ) drumbeat is picking up speed. Han-

TAI THE ELEPHANT is the star of a magazine photo shoot on Plymouth Boulevard in Windsor Square.

cock Park residents meet to discuss pursuing an HPOZ. Cars careen down residential streets to avoid the light at Melrose and Highland Avenues, so Hancock Park residents take to the streets with signs to ask drivers to slow down.

Elephant outside the room An elephant is spotted wandering the streets of Windsor Square. The peripatetic pachyderm is the star of a Marvin Windows photo shoot in front of 434 S. Plymouth Blvd..

2004 brings successes and setbacks in the quest to preserve our quality of life. Windsor Square’s HPOZ is approved.

The disputed construction of Etz Chaim Temple on a residential parcel at the corner of Highland Avenue and Third Street is allowed to continue by a U.S. District Judge. The Scottish Rite Cathedral building between Lucerne and Plymouth boulevards is denied its appeal to lift restrictions on using it as a rental venue. After numerous failed appeals, the building is put up for sale.

Chan Dara withdraws its request for a hard liquor license due to community opposition. A farewell dinner is staged at Perino’s Restaurant, slated for demolition to make way for a three-story apart-

ment building.

John Burroughs Middle School celebrates its 80th year.

Antonio Villaraigosa is elected mayor in 2005, the first mayor of Hispanic descent since 1872 and the second mayor to reside in Getty House in Windsor Square.

2005 brings the opening of Larchmont Charter School, an anti-Iraq War candlelight vigil at Third St. and Wilton Place, the third annual TarFest arts festival and a 50year milestone for KasimoffBluthner Piano Co. Miracle Mile braces for a rash of construction, including 800 new apartments and condominiums along Wilshire Blvd.

Yavneh Hebrew Academy is

Centennial 43

accused of breaking the terms of its permit by acting as a synagogue.

Larchmontians send 1,500 boxes of clothing and over $4,000 in proceeds from lemonade and bakery stands to victims of Hurricane Katrina, including help for displaced animals. RESIDENTS say “no” to huge developments The verdict is threatening to replace single-family homes in in: most people Windsor Village, states Charlie Dougherty, dislike the new association president. boulevard parking system where centrally-locat- Angeles celebrates 80 years ed machines replace individu- of community outreach. St. Brendan School announces a al meters.

After 125 years, Hollygrove $12 million capital campaign.

Children & Family Services Good Shepherd breaks ground closes its residential program. on the final phase of its Wom Metro subway plans are back en’s Village. on track after a 2005 study Councilman Tom LaBonge finds that tunneling through authors an anti-mansionizathe Wilshire corridor methane tion motion.

Lifesize replicas of Marilyn zone is safe.

In response to onerous rent Monroe, John Wayne and Elhikes on the Boulevard, the vis Presley greet participants Chronicle urges neighbors to at the 15th annual Taste of help keep businesses afloat by Larchmont in 2007, benefiteating and shopping locally, just ing HopeNet’s food and shelter in time for the 2006 double cel- program and sponsored by the ebration of the 40th anniversary Larchmont Chronicle. of the Larchmont Boulevard As- Windsor Square resident sociation and the 85th anniver- Myung Kim climbs 29,028foot Mount Everest and six sary of the Boulevard itself.

The Junior League of Los (Please turn to page 44)

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(Continued from page 43) other behemoths on his days off from manufacturing women’s dresses.

The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust is building a new home in Pan Pacific Park.

“Save Windsor Village” signs pop up in response to developers snapping up single-family homes with plans to replace them with multi-family dwellings. Tear-down fever is on hold for a year after city officials approve an interim control ordinance for that community.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art opens the Broad Contemporary Art Museum and installs artist Chris Burden’s “Urban Light” fronting Wilshire Boulevard.

Children in Windsor Village

FLOAT DESIGNER Raul Rodriguez with his blue hyacinth macaw, Sebastian.

enjoy new playground equipment at Harold A. Henry Park.

Page Academy Private School turns 100, Hope Lutheran Church has its 65th anniversary, St. James School celebrates its 40th, the Ebell of Los Angeles’ Wilshire clubhouse turns 80, and the

Ruskin Art Club reaches a 120-year milestone. The 10th annual Big Sunday, started by Hancock Park resident David Levinson, attracts more than 50,000 participants who volunteer on 325 projects.

People in the news in 2008 include Capt. Wemmer, the commanding officer of the LAPD Wilshire Division, who retires after 38 years on the force, and Larchmont CPA Ed Lee, who moonlights as the timekeeper for the Los Angeles Kings. John Winther is named Realtor of the Year by the Beverly Hills chapter of the Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors. Windsor Square resident Raul Rodriguez, the most decorated float designer in Rose Parade history, creates a float that features a skateboarding dog.

Torrential rains flood Ross-

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Larchmont Chronicle

HEAVY RAINS flooded Rossmore Ave. in January 2008, as shown in this photo by Gary Boisvert.

more Avenue in January 2008, once again leaving cars handle-deep in water.

The Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council joins the community opposition to a proposed Metro subway station spanning Crenshaw, Windsor and Lorraine.

Larchmont denizens remember Cosmo, a beloved pug who was a fixture on the Boulevard. A Hancock Park resident inquires about the danger of marauding raccoons.

Hancock Park finally sees its HPOZ approved in 2008. The citywide anti-mansionization ordinance also passes.

Boulevard parking rates seemingly double overnight, angering just about everyone.

An apartment house on S. Alexandria Avenue begins transforming into Alexandria House transitional housing for women.

The Larchmont Bungalow bungles its 2009 opening when it runs afoul of the neighborhood “Q” Conditions by offering sit-down dining (after having filed a sworn affidavit with the city acknowledging it would not operate as a restaurant). Thus begins a multi-year conflict not resolved until the next decade when the restaurant closes.

At the request of Councilman Tom LaBonge, the City Planning Commission votes to amend the Larchmont zoning law to impose a 35-foot height restriction on the Boulevard, require a five-foot setback, and limit new stores to 50 feet of

frontage.

Students from Pilgrim and St. James’ Schools travel to President Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Fremont Place residents vote for historic preservation guidelines. Windsor Village succeeds in achieving HPOZ status.

The new Olympic Police Station opens. A six-story Wilshire– La Brea mixed-use project is unanimously approved by the City Planning Commission; neighboring homeowners and the Sycamore Square Association are chagrined.

Vine American Party Store marks its 75th year of balloons and My Little Pony paper plates.

Santa and carolers on bikes surprise pedestrians doing last-minute holiday shopping on the Boulevard. Tim Corrigan plays the jolly old elf at Larchmont Labyrinth.

In 2010, Chevalier’s celebrates 70 years with champagne and hors d’oeuvre. Diners at Musso & Frank Grill no doubt mark its 90th anniversary with one of its famous martinis. The Wilshire Country Club also turns 90.

The decade from 2001 through 2010 is a dynamic one, with tremendous growth and fervent activism in service of maintaining the unique character of our neighborhood. As Pilgrim School 11th grader Walker Andreen writes in the School News section of the January 2008 Larchmont Chronicle, “…mucho shindigs are going down.”

Larchmont Chronicle

OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

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Larchmont Chronicle

2010s: McMansions, more changes on Boulevard

By Billy Taylor During the 2010s, the economy is recovering from the global financial crisis, and local real estate prices, which had taken a big hit, were on the rise. With an increase in activity, development and zoning issues are soon on everyone’s mind. Fear of McMansionation in some neighborhoods sparks efforts to preserve historic character, and a lack of affordable housing is, in part, blamed for a growing number of homeless people on the streets. As rents go up, even Larchmont Boulevard is not immune to change as many mom-and-pop shops are replaced with national retail chains, or worse, “For Lease” signs. Then, a global pandemic hit, testing the resiliency of residents and shop owners.

The decade started off grandly for the neighborhood, as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit Los Angeles, staying in Hancock Park at the British

THE DEATH of Robert Lawrence Balzer in 2011 marked the end of a 75-year involvement with wine and Larchmont Boulevard.

Consul General’s residence.

The top of Mount Hollywood is the setting for the swearing in of Councilman Tom LaBonge on June 21 for his third term in office.

Longtime Larchmont figure Robert Lawrence Balzer dies at his home in Santa Ana on

Dec. 1, 2011. He was 99. The wine critic and educator was a familiar face on Larchmont due to his job at Balzer’s, his father’s much-beloved gourmet grocery store on Larchmont Boulevard. He was 24 years old when his father put him in charge of buying wine for the store. He wrote a column on wine for the store newsletter, which was so admired by Will Rogers Jr. that he asked Balzer to write a column for his newspaper, “The Beverly Hills Citizen.” Balzer was considered the first writer to cover wine and winemakers in the country.

The Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission releases its adjusted map, which places almost all of the Greater Wilshire area in Council District Four with Councilman LaBonge.

Metro approves two subway entrances in Miracle Mile in April 2012, following five years of review. Stations at La Brea

“Your Neighborhood Plumbers”

Avenue and Fairfax Avenue (plus a third station at La Cienega Boulevard) are to be parts of the Purple Line’s (now D Line’s) westward extension.

A 2013 tribute to community trailblazer Jane Gilman, publisher and editor of the Larchmont Chronicle, is held to celebrate that Gilman had cofounded the Chronicle 50 years before.

SUBWAY TUNNELING commencement By 2013, the housing from the Miracle Mile is announced by market is recovering Fifth District City Councilmember Paul with a lack of inven- Koretz and Mayor Eric Garcetti, with the tory — the reason for remodeled Petersen Automotive Musethe rise in home pric- um in the background. es, agents say.

The Natural History Muse- moves its Wilshire Boulevard um marks its centennial; first headquarters to Canoga Park. opened in 1913, the museum The decision is made partly to had at the time amassed more avoid the cost of a needed seisthan 35 million objects, some mic retrofit of its headquarters, as old as 4.5 billion years. which was constructed in 1937.

Farmers Insurance Group The Scottish Rite Masonic Temple in Windsor Square is sold for approximately $8 million to the Maurice and Paul Marciano Art Foundation.

Although Purple Line subway station construction is slated to start in 2014, Metro begins relocation of underground utilities including water, power and communications lines in the fall of 2013.

New medians are installed on north Larchmont Boulevard. “It’s a great day for Larchmont,” said Councilman (Please turn to page 47)

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OCTOBER 2021 — SOUVENIR COLLECTOR’S EDITION

2010s

(Continued from page 46) LaBonge as he and neighborhood leaders dug the first shovelsful of dirt. The project adds three eight-foot-wide landscaped medians between Melrose and Rosewood avenues, with the first median containing a gateway monument similar to the one installed a decade ago at south Larchmont Boulevard and Third Street.

The new Anderson Munger Family YMCA opens, providing a 30,000-square-foot facility for community meetings and recreational space.

Criminal and civil cases, “City of Los Angeles vs. Larchmont Bungalow,” are continued or appealed for years, and then, in 2014, owner Albert Mizrahi shifts tactics by seeking a zone change to turn the take-outonly business into a restaurant.

The request was unanimously denied by the Central Area Planning Commission.

Neighbors, preservationists and architects bemoan the changes to the 1912 Beaux Arts-style Chandler estate at 455 Lorraine Blvd., designated as a city Historic Cultural Monument. A website, dorothychandlermansion.com, was created to draw attention to what opponents term a “debacle,” including a petition for interested people to sign.

CONTROVERSY over illegal use of the Scottish Rite Cathedral building dates to the early 1970s, and the city ordered the facility closed in 1994. In 2013, it was sold to become the home of the private Marciano Art Foundation.

For the first time in the 52 years since its founding in 1963, the Larchmont Chronicle has a new editor and publisher with leadership of the paper passing from Jane and Irwin Gilman to lifelong Windsor Square resident John H. Welborne.

David Ryu takes the oath of office to become City Councilman for the Fourth District July 1, 2015, having defeated Carolyn Ramsay by 1,600 votes in the race to replace Tom LaBonge as councilman, who was termed out.

At a Brookside community meeting, CIM Group — new owners of the former Farmers Insurance property — unveils its plans for a residential development along Wilshire Boulevard, between Rimpau and Muirfield.

ZZ Z

A multi-year drought has given reason for residents to redo their landscaping with drought-tolerant gardens. In Windsor Square, in just a single block of Arden Boulevard, three houses in a row have new, non-lawn front yards.

DAVID E. RYU is elected to represent the Fourth District as City Councilmember in 2015.

LONGTIME Farmers Insurance property’s current owner, CIM Group, obtained general public and Park Mile Specific Plan (PMSP) Design Review Board consensus supporting this PMSPcompliant residential proposal by the end of 2018 … but the project still had not received City Planning Department approval as of autumn of 2021.

Wilshire Warriors 12U team make an impression on the national level by placing ninth out of 104 teams in the Cooperstown tournament played at the home of Baseball’s Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, N.Y. Paramount Pictures proposes a master plan that someday could change the film studio’s 56-acre lot at 5555 Melrose Ave., including the addition of six new adjacent buildings.

By October 2015, the Miracle Mile Residential Association and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences come to an understanding, paving the way for construction to start on the $300 million Academy Museum.

ZZZZZ

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Talk of sidewalk repair sparks ficus tree debate on Larchmont Boulevard as merchants and residents ponder how to repair sidewalk damage by tree roots of mature, healthy ficus trees.

Love it or hate it, it’s hard to miss the new Petersen Automotive Museum following its 13-month, $125 million renovation, which transformed the 20-year-old museum inside and out.

Customers help Edie Frère, owner of Landis Gifts & Stationery, at 138 N. Larchmont, celebrate the store’s 25th anniversary with a lively open house. At the Farmers Market, (Please turn to page 48)

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Larchmont Chronicle

2010s

(Continued from page 47) Kip’s Toyland was celebrating 70 years of business.

The City Planning Dept. releases amendments to the Baseline Mansionization Ordinance (BMO).

Eleven years after it opened its doors, Larchmont Charter School is preparing its first senior class for graduation in June 2016. A group of parents and neighbors meets at John Burroughs Middle School to get a first glimpse of plans for a multi-year modernization project for that school’s historic buildings.

The need to prevent McMan-

MARLBOROUGH SCHOOL completed its Arden Project, with a new playfield and a new swimming pool, in 2016.

sionization and to preserve the integrity of residences in the Miracle Mile community were among the reasons

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neighbors began a campaign for an Historic Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ).

The first lady of Los Angeles, Amy Elaine Wakeland, is the guest speaker at the opening ceremony for the first singlegender school within the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Girls Academic Leadership Academy (GALA) adjoining Los Angeles High School.

Larchmont Bungalow owner Albert Mizrahi, 63, dies, but the long-running criminal case continues with Bungalow co-defendant, Larchmont Bungalow LLC. Marlborough School completes its Arden Project during its 100th year in Hancock Park. The school, founded in 1889, moved to Third Street and Rossmore Avenue in 1916.

Like a spaceship landing across Wilshire Boulevard, with Egyptian, or is it Incan, themes, architect Peter Zumthor’s newest design for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was revealed.

The Larchmont Bungalow closed its doors Aug. 1, 2017

100th!

THE G.A.L.A. (Girls Academic Leadership Academy) dedication in 2016 was attended by hundreds, including (from left) LAUSD superintendent Michelle King, first lady of Los Angeles, Amy Elaine Wakeland, and then-state senator Holly J. Mitchell.

after an unsuccessful, eightyear-long resistance to its city citation for intentionally and illegally operating as a restaurant despite being denied a permit.

Quiet residential streets are under threat by draconian measures being considered by the state legislature. Proposed legislation out of Sacramento is “an existential threat to all our neighborhoods,” Jim O’Sullivan says at the Miracle Mile Residential Association 2018 annual meeting.

The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) returns to Wilshire Country Club.

Lipson “for sale” Small-town Larchmont Boulevard may be in jeopardy as the estate of the late Charlotte LaBonte Lipson is selling the former landlord’s 14-storefront Lipson Building at 124 to 148 N. Larchmont Blvd.

The Wilshire Country Club celebrates 100 years with centennial events, including fireworks.

Larchmont Boulevard goes quiet as COVID-19 comes to Los Angeles. Mayor Eric Garcetti issues a “Safer at Home” emergency order in mid-March 2020, calling on residents of the City of Los Angeles to stay in their homes and limit all activities outside of their homes beyond

what is absolutely necessary for essential tasks.

For most of 2020, residents work from home, students attempt to learn from home, and restaurants prepare food for take-out-only. Neighbors remain resilient.

The death of George Floyd sparks protests nationwide, including a number of smashand-grab burglaries in the Larchmont Village shopping district. Reminiscent of 1972, residents shopping on Larchmont witnessed armed Nation(Please turn to page 50)

NATIONAL GUARD, on Larchmont June 3, 2020, was reminiscent of the Guard’s presence in the neighborhood in June of 1992.

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2010s

(Continued from page 47) al Guard patrols enforcing the peace. Several well-attended demonstrations were held at the Mayor’s residence, Getty House in Windsor Square.

The rise in property values and rents (an issue that predates the pandemic) are compounded by city-wide COVID-19 lockdowns, which exponentially increase the number of retail and other commercial

NEW COUNCILMEMBER Nithya Raman, elected in the Fourth District in 2020, is forced to have most of her initial constituent meetings via Zoom because of COVID-19 protocols.

spaces that appear vacant or “For Lease” along Larchmont Boulevard.

Taking nearly 53 percent of the vote in a City Council election with an unprecedented 133,000 votes cast, political newcomer Nithya Raman wins a runoff election for the Fourth Council District seat, defeating David Ryu, who became the first City Council incumbent in 17 years to be ousted by a challenger.

Malibu-based Christina Development begins construction on the former Lipson Building with plans to

Larchmont Chronicle

renovate its 14 storefronts on Larchmont, and the hopedfor end of COVID-19 has yet to come, with the “Delta” and other variants causing a second postponement of the

annual Larchmont Family Fair. Nevertheless, the community prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Larchmont shopping district on Sun., Oct. 24, 2021.

ORIGINAL Julius La Bonte commercial building, long known as the Lipson Building, saw its last tenants leave at the end of 2020.

BY JANUARY 2021, the new owner of the Lipson Building had major remodeling construction underway where the 14 tenant spaces are to comprise “Larchmont Mercantile.”

Larchmont 100 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION presented by the

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Centennial 51

HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY LARCHMONT!

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