The Paul Lauritz House: Reading a 2004 Landmark in Franklin Hills

The Paul Lauritz House is a City landmark at 3955 Clayton Avenue in Franklin Hills. The City of Los Angeles lists it as Historic-Cultural Monument #784, designated August 10, 2004. The Los Feliz Improvement Association dates the house to 1921. It is a private residence, and it is viewed from the public street only.

This house is a different kind of landmark from the ones that get the long reports. It has a low monument number, an early designation date and a thin public file. That makes it a good teacher. At Rooster Homes, we use it to show how to read the City's monument list, what the list leaves out and where to look next. It is one of the homes on our map of Los Feliz historic homes.

Four things. The monument number is 784. The name is Paul Lauritz House. The address is 3955 Clayton Avenue. The designation date is August 10, 2004. The current list also records the Hollywood Community Plan Area and Council District 4. That is the whole entry.

The list does not give a year built, an architect, a style or a description. It never does, for any monument. The number tells you something on its own. The City assigns numbers in order. That is why #784 sits well before the Franklin Hills and Knolls monuments designated in the 2020s, which carry numbers above twelve hundred. For this house, the public list is the record.

The Los Feliz Improvement Association keeps a page for the house and a roundup of every Los Feliz monument. Its page lists the house as a Historic-Cultural Monument of Traditional type, built in 1921. It gives no architect. Our research for this project found no architect on record either. The house is not documented as architect-designed.

That silence is itself a fact. The Cultural Heritage Ordinance sets three criteria for a monument. The City spells them out in its recent Franklin Hills report. A property can qualify for a link to important events or for association with historic personages. It can also qualify for embodying a style or type or period or method of construction. A house with no architect on record was designated under one of those tests in 2004. The public list does not say which one. Anyone who needs the reason can request the 2004 case file from the Office of Historic Resources.

The Los Feliz Neighborhood Council bounds Franklin Hills by Franklin Avenue and Tracy Street to the north, Commonwealth Avenue and Hoover Street to the west, Fountain Avenue to the south and Hyperion Avenue to the east. Hyperion is the line between Los Feliz and Silver Lake. The zip code is 90027.

The 1921 date puts the house five years ahead of the district's best-known structure. The Shakespeare Bridge was completed in 1926, designed by J.C. Wright. It carries Franklin Avenue on a 262-foot span between Myra Avenue and St. George Street, over a ravine 35 feet deep. The Eastsider reports the bridge was built so Franklin Avenue could serve as a western outlet to an undeveloped tract on the eastern hill. The bridge became Historic-Cultural Monument #126 in 1974 and reopened in 1998 after a seismic retrofit.

The City's SurveyLA survey lists other individual resources in the district. It names 4004 West Franklin Avenue, from 1936, as an excellent example of Streamline Moderne residential architecture. It credits 1901 North Myra Avenue, from 1953, to master architect R.M. Schindler. Just south of the bridge sits the Midtown School at 4155 Russell Avenue, a 1961 John Lautner design and Historic-Cultural Monument #553. The other house monument in the district is the John and Myra Van Pelt Estate on Lyric Avenue, designated in 2022.

Our research found no Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, no National Register listing and no SurveyLA historic district for Franklin Hills. An individual monument like this one is the only formal historic status a Franklin Hills home holds.

The Paul Lauritz House is the model for the check. Here is the order we use.

1. Open the City's list. Download the Historic-Cultural Monuments list from City Planning and search by street name, then by number. Some entries cover a range of addresses.
2. Read the whole entry. Number and name and address. Date, plan area and council district. Nothing else is there.
3. Check the LFIA roundup. It adds a year or an architect for many Los Feliz monuments. Treat those as local attributions, not City findings.
4. Check SurveyLA. The Hollywood Individual Resources report lists homes the survey found eligible, which is a finding and not a designation.
5. Ask the Office of Historic Resources for the case file. For a 2004 monument, that is where the criteria and the description live.

Designation changes review. In a 2020 report on another Los Feliz monument, City Planning explained that designation ensures future construction on the property is regulated under Section 22.171.14 of the Los Angeles Administrative Code. That section incorporates the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. Changes to a monument are reviewed against a preservation standard before they happen.

Designation also qualifies the property for the City's Mills Act program, its primary financial incentive for historic preservation since 1996. The contract runs 10 years on a revolving basis and renews each year. It passes to new owners when the home sells. The City's 2019 program brief says a locally designated Historic-Cultural Monument is a qualifying property, and that the City and County inspect contract properties periodically. New single-family applications carry a $1.5 million assessed value cap. Above that, a property needs an exemption plus a Historic Structure Report.

This is a City designation. It is separate from the National Register of Historic Places, which is a federal list. This article explains how the process works. It is not tax or legal advice. For your own situation, talk with your CPA or attorney as well.

• Assume a thin file means a weak landmark. Instead, read the date. A 2004 designation carries the same review under Section 22.171.14 as one from 2022.
• Fill the gaps with a guess about the architect or style. Instead, say what the list says and label the rest as local sources. The City record gives no architect.
• Skip the case file. Instead, request it from the Office of Historic Resources before planning any work.
• Assume the block is protected too. Instead, check the address. Franklin Hills has no overlay zone or survey district, so the neighbor's house may carry no status at all.

Here are two hypothetical examples. They are not real clients or real homes.

A buyer on a Franklin Hills side street. A buyer tours a 1920s house a few blocks from Clayton Avenue. The address is not on the City's list and the street has no district status. The buyer now knows the house carries no local designation. Before planning a second story, the buyer asks City Planning what review applies to an undesignated hillside home.

A seller of an early-2000s monument. A seller owns a house designated in the same era as the Paul Lauritz House. Before the listing goes live, the seller requests the case file and pulls every permit since the designation. The listing states the monument number and date from the City list. Buyers' questions about the Mills Act get a copy of the City brief instead of a guess.

Rooster Homes is a Los Feliz, Los Angeles real estate team led by Brandon and Sarah Arlington (DRE #02051216). We bring the same records-first approach to every home in Franklin Hills.

Rooster Homes is a Los Feliz, Los Angeles real estate team led by Brandon and Sarah Arlington (DRE #02051216). Brandon has been licensed since 2015 and holds the ABR designation for buyer representation. We start every historic home conversation with the City's records, then plan from there. Our guide to buying a historic home in Los Feliz covers the monument list, SurveyLA and the Mills Act in more depth.

If a landmark home is on your list, see how our buying process works. Then contact Rooster Homes and let us know what works best for you. We will coordinate our schedule around yours.