Serving Larchmont Village, Hancock Park, and the Greater Wilshire neighborhoods of Los Angeles since 2011.

Before and After: 354 North Ridgewood Place

Before and After o 354 Ridgewood Place.
The Before and After of 354 Ridgewood Place.

Richard Battaglia loves seeing old homes finding new lives, and will share some inside looks at local area homes in a series “Before & After: A Series of Home Transformations.” 

This two-story home was built in 1920 and sits on a sleepy, hidden stretch of Ridgewood Place, just above the very northern edge of the Ridgewood-Wilton Historic District and Beverly Boulevard. This quiet block is wedged like a long thin island, proudly and quite unexpectedly, between the two big busy neighboring streets of Wilton Place and Van Ness Avenue.

On the original Grant Deed of September 8, 1920 the lot was sold by the Hellman Commercial Trust and Savings Bank to Edward P. & Bessie Tellant, husband and wife for “consideration of ten dollars.” The deed describes in more detail the requirements for the house, stable or garage, setback from street, and that “not less than $3500 shall be spent on building the house”  and no boarding houses or hotels would be allowed.  The 1920 Grant Deed also states ”Said property shall not be sold, deeded, let or transferred to any person other than one of the white or Caucasian race.” Thank God times have changed.

The Dutch-Colonial style house was built on this nice-sized lot by the Tellant family in 1920. The original structure had a living room, dining room, three bedrooms, one full bath upstairs and a powder room on the first level,  along with a two car garage set back on the lot.

According to City records, on November of 1945 the Tellant family sold the property to Elliot J. and Elena Cole who lived there for just two years and who then sold it to Irving G. and Dorothy Greenberg on Christmas Eve of 1947. The Greenbergs resided on Ridgewood Place till September of 1951 when Mary Newton Pierce took up residence there.

In April of 1953 Lowell Wendell and Joan E. Hanes purchased the property and lived there happily for over thirty years raising their family until Lowell died in early 1988. The property was eventually transferred to a son, Mark P Hanes who in the end put the home up for sale in 2013. The house had been a residence for five families over its 93 year life and becoming a home to each family: a kitchen for home-cooked meals;  doors to be opened, or slammed; and a yard for children to run in and eventually walk away from, as they build their own lives.

By 2013, the Ridgewood Place home was in great need of some TLC and went on the market for $899,000. Perhaps because of its close proximity to Larchmont Village, the property went immediately into multiple offers and was purchased for over $1 million.

The latest owners are both successful professionals, one a Nebraska transplant in the real estate business and the other in the world or technology. The owners enjoy renovating houses and enhancing neighborhoods and the two men have renovated several properties over the past twelve years.

The Living Room - before.
The Living Room – before.
The Living Room - after.
The Living Room – after.

The buyers turned the 3-bedroom, 1.5 bath house into a 4-bedroom 4- bath home by building a five hundred square foot addition. The water-damaged original floors were replaced with French oak. The living room was fitted with a new fireplace with Japanese porcelain tiles topped by a reclaimed wood mantle. The kitchen was opened and updated with beveled subway tile back splash, brass hardware,  and 1920’s style pendant lights above the island. French doors were added throughout the downstairs to offer natural lighting and access to the newly built pool in the back yard. The former garage at the rear of the lot has become a large cabana boasting an outdoor shower. The new extended roof line of the garage creates a two car carport – currently used as an outdoor living room.

Many of these storied old homes line the roads of Larchmont Village and the greater Hancock Park area. Each of our homes, many now almost 100 years old, have been a refuge for individuals and families who have turned a simple house into a real home, and made this a great neighborhood to live in.

BattagliaRichard Battaglia,  a resident of Windsor Square for 20 years, raised his 3 now grown children in the neighborhood while active with the Windsor Square Association, The Windsor Square Hancock Park  Historical Society, the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council, and the  Larchmont Village Neighborhood Association. He is a realtor with the John Aaroe Group. If you have a good Before & After story about your home or its historical significance, contact Richard via email.

 

Kitchen - before.
Kitchen – before.
Kitchen - after.
Kitchen – after.
Back of house - before.
Back of house – before.
Backyard - after.
Backyard – after.

 

 

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