The John and Myra Van Pelt Estate: A Storybook Landmark in Franklin Hills

The John and Myra Van Pelt Estate is a Storybook-style compound of six buildings on a four-acre hillside parcel at 2141-49 Lyric Avenue in Franklin Hills. The City of Los Angeles lists it as Historic-Cultural Monument #1249, designated January 12, 2022. It was built in stages between 1928 and 1952. The City's report says the property is largely hidden from the street. It is a private residence, and it is viewed from the public street only.

Most landmark write-ups on this site are about one house. This one is about a whole hillside. At Rooster Homes we read the City's monument reports first. Here is what the Cultural Heritage Commission report says about the estate, and what its status means if you own, buy or sell a landmark in Franklin Hills.

The City report describes a primary residence and five secondary buildings. It also lists a pool, a pool house and a set of built grounds elements. A winding road of pavers leads in from Lyric Avenue. The northern part of the parcel is an open bowl-shaped slope that once served as an outdoor amphitheater. The motor court doubled as a tennis court.

The primary residence is called Whimsy Hall, at 2145 Lyric Avenue. It stands two and a half stories with an irregular plan. It is wood frame with clapboard, stucco and brick cladding, and a flat roof hidden behind a steeply pitched gabled front. The main entrance sits on the rear, east-facing side. A spiraling stairway leads to it, and the entrance walkway crosses a concrete-lined pond. Windows include wood diamond-paned sash, porthole windows and irregular shapes. The nomination says Whimsy Hall was started in 1948 and finished in 1950.

The five secondary buildings each carry a nautical name. Sea Rover Cottage, at 2149, was built in 1944 as an office. Windjammer Cottage, at 2141, was converted from a shop and storage building in 1942. Sea Horse Lodge, at 2147, faces the pool behind an oversized arched wood door. Star Sailer Manor at 2131 was built in 1941. It has half-timbering and glass block, diamond-paned and porthole windows. The Bird Aviary sits on its own hilltop at the far south end. It was built in 1947 as a chicken and pigeon shed.

Storybook is a whimsical handling of Period Revival design. The nomination says the style peaked in 1920s Los Angeles and that the City's SurveyLA survey places its period of significance from 1919 to 1950. What makes this estate unusual is timing. Construction kept going through the 1930s and 1940s, and the nomination says the later buildings carry the same level of theming as the earlier ones.

The nautical motif runs through everything. Interiors hold rope details and chain balustrades under exposed wood beams and trusses. Floors are brick and wood. Ceilings are shiplap, and the stained glass light fixtures are made with metal ship parts. Real vessel parts are built in, including anchors and hinged metal portal windows.

The grounds are built from salvage. The report lists gallets and boulders and boat parts. It lists clinker brick and fragments of concrete road. It lists petrified wood, ballast, fossils and glass and decorative minerals. Walkways of brick and stone connect waterfalls and outdoor fireplaces and sitting nooks. The trees are mature junipers, eucalyptus and coral trees, plus a lemon grove.

One more fact explains the whole place. Building permits show no architect, no engineer and no contractor. The estate was owner-built over more than two decades.

The City's Cultural Heritage Ordinance sets three criteria, and one is enough. The nomination argues the estate meets the third: it embodies the distinctive characteristics of a style and a method of construction. The nomination counts five contributing buildings, one contributing structure and multiple grounds elements. That means the monument is the compound, not a single house. Here is the timeline from the City's records.

1. 1928 to 1952. The period of significance. It opens with the first recreational elements on the site and closes with the certificate of occupancy for the standalone kitchen behind Whimsy Hall.
2. October 8, 2020. The Director of Planning determined the application was complete.
3. November 5, 2020. Staff recommended the Cultural Heritage Commission take the property under consideration, the first formal step.
4. January 12, 2022. The City's monument list records the designation date.

The Franklin Hills context matters here. The Los Feliz Neighborhood Council bounds the district 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. 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. Other monuments nearby include the Shakespeare Bridge, completed in 1926, and the Paul Lauritz House on Clayton Avenue.

The City report lists the later work. A kitchenette and bathroom were added to Sea Horse Lodge in 1959. A unit went in behind Windjammer Cottage around 1989. The driveway was redone in concrete pavers in the early 1990s. The wood shingle roof on Whimsy Hall was replaced with asphalt shingle in 2003 for fire protection. A small book storage shed went up near the aviary around 2006. In 2017 cladding on Whimsy Hall and Sea Rover Cottage was replaced in kind.

The nomination still calls the estate remarkably intact, with interiors and exteriors it describes as nearly unmatched in the style for detailing and integrity.

Two things follow from designation. The first is 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.

The second is the Mills Act. The City's Mills Act program has been its primary financial incentive for historic preservation since 1996. It is a revolving 10-year contract that renews each year and passes to new owners when the property sells. The City's 2019 program brief says a locally designated Historic-Cultural Monument is a qualifying property. New applications for single-family homes carry a $1.5 million assessed value cap, and a property above that needs an exemption plus a Historic Structure Report. The brief says the City and County inspect contract properties periodically and can impose penalties for a breach.

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.

• Treat it as one house with some outbuildings. Instead, read the nomination. Five buildings, one structure and the grounds elements are all counted as contributing.
• Assume the salvaged materials are decoration. Instead, read them as the method of construction the City designated. Clinker brick, boat parts and road concrete are part of what makes it a monument.
• Plan work on a cottage without checking review. Instead, ask the Office of Historic Resources what review applies under Section 22.171.14 before drawing anything.
• Count on a Mills Act contract from the address alone. Instead, compare the assessed value to the cap and ask about the exemption and the Historic Structure Report.

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

A buyer who loves Storybook design. A buyer finds a 1930s house with a steep gable and clinker brick on a Franklin Hills street. The address is not on the City's monument list. The buyer now knows the house has no local designation and no district status, because Franklin Hills has no overlay zone or survey district. The buyer confirms what review applies with the City before planning a change.

A seller with a multi-building landmark. A seller owns a designated compound. Before the listing goes live, the seller gathers the City report, the list of contributing buildings and every permit for work since the designation. A buyer's questions about what can change get answered from the record.

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 historic home on our map of Los Feliz historic homes.

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 post on the three kinds of Los Feliz luxury home explains where a landmark compound fits among the hillside homes of Los Feliz.

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.