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Old Posted Dec 20, 2012, 1:33 AM
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GaylordWilshire GaylordWilshire is offline
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As I was poking around the corner of Hollywood & Bronson in pursuit of streamline, this hidden house caught my eye.... Turns out it dates from the earliest days of Hollywood, when the boulevard was known as Prospect Avenue and was lined with residences. By the '20s, many houses on main Los Angeles thoroughfares were demolished or moved to other locations. The famous Janes house (see this post, this one, and this one) was apparently moved back from the street; this may have been the case with what became 1717 North Bronson, although it may very well remain on its original foundation. In any case, the front lawn of 1717 was separated from the lot and gained a commercial strip; the house, previously with a Prospect Avenue and then a Hollywood Boulevard address, was reconfigured to more or less face Bronson and readdressed. I couldn't find any old shots of it... although the Google views above do have a bit a noir about them with the overgrown gardens and the sidewalk seating area being made use of in one picture. I'm not sure who lived in the house early on, but by the late 1910s the widow Mrs. Mabel Cameron was serving meals there a la Mildred Pierce, continuing to at least 1925. Next was Mrs. Mary Mowitt--later Clifford--who rented furnished rooms into the '40s; after that, Vincent Lombardi and at least one of his sons moved in. Lombardi was still living there when he died in 1948. Somehow, the 108-year-old house remains, though against some tough odds. More info here, here, and in other Hollywood Heritage googlings.




Last edited by GaylordWilshire; Dec 20, 2012 at 2:04 AM.
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