Los Angeles Department of City Planning RECOMMENDATION REPORT CULTURAL HERITAGE COMMISSION HEARING DATE: September 17, 2009 TIME: 10:00 AM PLACE: City Hall, Room 1010 200 N. Spring Street Los Angeles, CA 90012 CASE NO.: CHC-2009-2890-HCM ENV-2009-2893-CE Location: 2673 South Menlo Avenue Council District: 8 Community Plan Area: South Los Angeles Area Planning Commission: South Los Angeles Neighborhood Council: Empowerment Congress North Area Legal Description: Lot 30 of Rowley Tract PROJECT: REQUEST: APPLICANT: OWNER: RECOMMENDATION Historic-Cultural Monument Application for the ROTHCHILD HOUSE Declare the property a Historic-Cultural Monument Anna Marie Brooks 1109 4 th Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90019 2667 Menlo LLC 9606 Santa Monica Boulevard, 3 rd Floor Beverly Hills, CA 90210 That the Cultural Heritage Commission: 1. Take the property under consideration as a Historic-Cultural Monument per Los Angeles Administrative Code Chapter 9, Division 22, Article 1, Section 22.171.10 because the application and accompanying photo documentation suggest the submittal may warrant further investigation. 2. Adopt the report findings. S. GAIL GOLDBERG, AICP Director of Planning [SIGNED ORIGINAL IN FILE] Ken Bernstein, AICP, Manager Office of Historic Resources [SIGNED ORIGINAL IN FILE] Lambert M. Giessinger, Preservation Architect Office of Historic Resources Prepared by: [SIGNED ORIGINAL IN FILE] Edgar Garcia, Preservation Planner Office of Historic Resources Attachments: August 14, 2009 Historic-Cultural Monument Application ZIMAS Report
2673 South Menlo Avenue CHC-2009-2890-HCM Page 2 of 3 SUMMARY Constructed in 1901, the subject building is a two-story single-family residential building in the Shingle style with Tudor and Craftsman elements. The home s steep gable roof is clad in composition shingles and has off-centered, twin east (front) facing gables that intersect the main roof with long, narrow vents and extended eaves with brackets. The building plan is irregular and the façades have a wood shingle finish and wood trim. The raised, recessed entrance includes a two-paneled door with two-paneled sidelights on either side. The door and sidelights each have a glazed upper and wood lower portion and were originally centered on the front façade and enclosed by an entrance porch that extended around the northeast corner of the building to the north façade. The porch has a shed roof, slant side bay and sandstone pillars. The subject building is sheathed almost entirely in wood shingles. The front façade at the first story features a multi-pane over double pane window and paired multi-pane over single-pane windows. On the second story, there are paired windows beneath each gable and a single window at the northerly end of the front façade. There is also a fixed single-pane window on the front façade at the first-story level. The Rotchild House was part of a group of homes, unrelated by design, built by developer Edwin S. Rowley. He purchased eleven acres at the southeast corner of Vermont Avenue and West Adams Street (now Boulevard) and mapped the Rowley Tract, where he constructed a home for his family and additional speculative homes, including the subject building at 2673 South Menlo Avenue. Rowley built more than 150 residences in the City, invested in commercial properties in downtown San Francisco and Los Angeles, and formed German American Trust & Savings Bank, precursor to the Security First National Bank. The subject building was designed by architect Thomas E. Preston. Among Preston s other works are the Wednesday Morning Club of East Los Angeles (1910), Women s Improvement Club house in Corona (1912). In Hermosa Beach he designed the City Hall (1915) and nearby brick one-story store and theatre (1913) as well as a city office building and fire department quarters for that City, and the E. J. Polkinhorn residence (all in 1914). Developer Rowley sold the house to Hilda S. and Maurice A. Rothchild in 1902. In 1905, the subject building housed for one year the Urban Academy, a Roman Catholic boarding school. There have been some alterations to the original design: the northerly portion of the porch which was enclosed in 1913; a north gable addition was constructed in 1917; in 1929, a chimney was added to the south façade. The subject building s original and early addition interiors have been greatly compromised by multiple reconfigurations, including conversion to a duplex and later to a four-plex in 1949 (permit records for the change to a duplex were not found). In 2008, the subject building was converted to a triplex by the current owner. Also in 2008, an outbuilding used as laundry room was relocated and rehabilitated into an office. CRITERIA The criterion is the Cultural Heritage Ordinance which defines a historical or cultural monument as any site (including significant trees or other plant life located thereon) building or structure of particular historic or cultural significance to the City of Los Angeles, such as historic structures or sites in which the broad cultural, economic, or social history of the nation, State or community is reflected or exemplified, or which are identified with historic personages or with important events in the main currents of national, State or local history or which embody the distinguishing characteristics of an architectural type specimen, inherently valuable for a study of a period style
2673 South Menlo Avenue CHC-2009-2890-HCM Page 3 of 3 or method of construction, or a notable work of a master builder, designer or architect whose individual genius influenced his age. FINDINGS Based on the facts set forth in the summary and application, the Commission determines that the application is complete and that the property may be significant enough to warrant further investigation as a potential Historic-Cultural Monument. BACKGROUND The subject property is listed as a contributor to the North University Park National Register District, established in 1987.