The Most Historic Homes in L.A.

In Annie Hall (1977), the dyspeptic New York comedian Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) mocks a row of mansions in Beverly Hills: “The architecture is really consistent, isn’t it? French next to Spanish next to Tudor next to Japanese …”

Angelenos have heard all the jokes about the city’s supposed lack of distinct architectural character, and they’re not amused. “Los Angeles is sort of a conundrum to the rest of the world,” says real estate agent Rayni Williams of The Beverly Hills Estates. “Because unless you live here, you don’t really get the city.”

Still, in every joke there’s a kernel of truth. “Los Angeles has always been a city of reinvention, and sometimes that means we overlook our own heritage,” concedes The Agency’s Billy Rose. But this outlook is beginning to change. “Buyers are increasingly drawn to the authenticity of design legends like Gesner, Lautner, Gehry, Eames and Neutra. People want homes with soul, not just square footage.”

In that spirit, THR asked the top brokers in the city to name their favorite historical homes, some for sale and others not; some superstars in their own right and others, like so many in Hollywood, waiting to be discovered.

Aaron Kirman
Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California
The Singleton Residence 

Designed by modernist master Richard Neutra in the 1950s for industrialist Henry Singleton, the Bel-Air estate is “architecture without noise,” says Kirman. “Everything is intentional, everything belongs, nothing is excessive.”

The Mulholland Drive stunner was once the home of Ronnie and Vidal Sassoon. Today, it remains one of L.A.’s most influential estates. “Neutra helped define the architectural identity of Los Angeles, and the Singleton Residence is one of the clearest expressions of his philosophy,” adds Kirman.

Rochelle Atlas Maize
Nourmand & Associates 
The Robert Taylor Ranch 

Built for handsome leading man Robert Taylor in 1950, the 122-acre property on Mandeville Canyon Road in Brentwood is on the market for $70 million. “To me, the Robert Taylor Ranch represents old school Hollywood elegance at its most grounded and sincere,” says Maize, whose firm holds the listing. “It is the opposite of performative luxury; it is real luxury. Thoughtful. Natural. Enduring.”

Fusing California ranch charm with contemporary modernism, the main residence has all the hallmarks of architect Robert Byrd. “His signature vocabulary of warm woods, pitched roofs, exposed beams, expansive windows and seamless indoor-outdoor living helped define the very essence of California style.”

Rayni Williams
The Beverly Hills Estates 
Sheats-Goldstein Residence 

Williams was so enamored with this 1963 John Lautner Beverly Crest masterpiece — now owned by Lakers front-row mainstay James Goldstein — she made it her company’s logo almost 15 years ago. “It is the roof line of his home!”

The estate, with its iconic folded concrete roof, fuses organic architecture with futuristic midcentury modern lines.  It’s also famous for its sunken party space, nicknamed “Club James.” “It’s Beverly Hills, it’s John Lautner. It is a tennis court estate, and it has one of the biggest views in the city,” Williams says. “It just doesn’t get any better than that.”

Linda May
Carolwood Estates  
The Brody House 

Built in 1949 for art patrons Sidney and Frances Lasker Brody, The Brody House was created by an artistic A-team — architect A. Quincy Jones (no relation to the Quincy Jones you’re thinking about), leading man turned interior designer Billy Haines and landscape architect Garrett Eckbo. “My favorite aspect is the way the house slows you down,” May says. “You feel it the second you step inside. It’s timeless, not nostalgic.”

The modernist Holmby Hills masterpiece, famously flipped by Ellen DeGeneres (and purchased by Napster’s Sean Parker) in 2014, awes May every time she experiences it. “It is a master class in proportion, light and flow,” she says. “Jones designed the house around the way people actually live, not the way they pretend to live.”

Brian Linder
Compass
The Jules Salkin Residence

Designed by Lautner in 1948, this Echo Park gem was built for musical polymath Jules Salkin. Long considered lost — overlooked, neglected and nearly irretrievably altered over time — it was lovingly restored by designer Trina Turk and her late husband, Jonathan Skow, and recognized as an early Lautner in 2014. Linder co-listed the home, which sold in December for $2.6 million.

“This home is special because it’s representative of the architect’s early work, shortly after Lautner established his own practice in Los Angeles, after having apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin in Arizona,” Linder says.

Rita Whitney
The Agency
Frederick G. Adamson Estate

Whitney has fallen in love with the Frederick G. Adamson Estate on South San Rafael Avenue in Pasadena. Unfortunately, she’ll be seeing less of it soon enough: The Agency has listed it for $12 million.

Designed in 1927 by AIA Fellow Gordon B. Kaufmann, the Italianate estate is a perfect example of the revival styles that swept across Southern California during the 1920s and ’30s. “The Adamson Estate is a benchmark for domestic scale and proportion during the late 1920s,” says Whitney. Just as seductive, she adds, is the location, “perched at the crest of the Arroyo Seco, and sited on 2.71 acres. It’s an extraordinary setting. The estate is the frosting on top!”

Trey Alligood
Douglas Elliman
624 Cole Place

“The home rises from the hillside like a sculpture,” says Alligood of this glass-walled Trousdale estate, designed by Harry Gesner in the late 1960s. “My favorite aspect is how it feels alive. The light shifts throughout the day, the roofline seems to float, and every space feels intentionally connected to nature. It’s a house that breathes with its environment, which was always Gesner’s gift.”

And this gift is still giving: “While others were experimenting with steel and glass, Gesner was sculpting homes that flowed with the land itself.”

Billy Rose and William Baker
The Agency
The Stahl House (Case Study House #22) 

Perhaps the most famous home in Los Angeles, The Stahl House, designed by modernist master Pierre Koenig, has inspired countless architecture nerds. “The Stahl House is, quite literally, part of what brought me to Los Angeles,” Baker says. “I first encountered it while living in Chicago, and it shifted my sense of what a home could be — how architecture could shape light, landscape and daily life.”

Built in 1960 as part of The Case Study House Program, the Palisades home was one of 25 houses built in L.A. to draw awareness to the style we now know as midcentury modernism. “It’s L.A.’s confidence distilled into a home,” Rose says.

It has since become an icon of L.A. architecture, thanks in large part to Julius Shulman’s famous black-and white 1960 photo of two women sitting in the glass-walled space, seeming to hover over the twinkling lights of Los Angeles, far below.

The house is now listed for $25 million.

Rob Kallick
Compass
The Kappe House 

Modernist educator and architect Ray Kappe designed this Rustic Canyon home for his family in 1967. Nestled into a forested hillside, it was designated an L.A. Historic-Cultural Monument in 1996. “The home is the epitome of the exciting design spirit of the 1970s that is near and dear to my heart,” Kallick says. “The bold colors, wood and glass materials, and multi-level design, are just so perfectly done. It also sits elegantly against the canyon backdrop and is in many ways the centerpiece of this incredible neighborhood.”

The ground floor served as Kappe’s studio. “It represents the idea that a home can be a canvas for someone’s adventurous ideas and spirit,” Kallick says. The home is now listed with Ian Brooks of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties for $11.5 million. 

This story appeared in the Feb. 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.