2255 Verde Oak Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Asking Price: $4,295,000
3 bedrooms / 3 baths
Lloyd Wright’s iconic Samuel-Novarro House returns to the market. The architecturally stunning Art Deco meets Mayan temple extravaganza is located in The Los Feliz Oaks neighborhood. The Oaks is arguably one of the most coveted neighborhoods in all of LA, being the only section of Los Feliz that shares its zip code with the Hollywood Hills. The 2,700-square-foot, four-level home includes a pergola, a music room, a swimming pool, and multilevel terraces. It’s simply a singular masterpiece of art and architecture.
The home was built in 1928 by master architect Lloyd Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright. Early in his career, Lloyd Wright was sometimes credited as Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr. surely to capitalize on his father’s regard. But Lloyd Wright’s output in Los Angeles and beyond is distinctive and decidedly all his own. Lloyd Wright trained as a landscape architect and worked for Olmsted Brothers before his father brought him to Los Angeles to assist on projects. His signature was melding landscape and architecture with handcrafted, organic architectural details.
Built for Hollywood assistant and manager Louis Samuel and his wife in 1928. Samuel was the business manager and personal assistant to the legendary Ramon Novarro, a silent screen star and one of the biggest box office draws of the 1920s and 1930s. If you’re asking yourself that even in 1928 how could an assistant possibly afford such a tremendous, architect-designed piece of real estate? Sometimes things really are too good to be true. In 1930, Novarro learned that Samuel was embezzling money from him, much of which had already been lost when the stock market crashed the previous year. Novarro realized that Samuel was using Novarro’s film earnings to pay for the mortgage on the house. Of course, Novarro would not be having that and threatened Samuel with legal trouble. Samuel in turn threatened to reveal aspects of Novarro’s personal life he would not have wanted made public in the 1920s, namely that Novarro was secretly homosexual. At a stalemate, they agreed that Novarro would assume quiet ownership of the property while Samuel would avoid jail time and any monetary restitution.
So, in 1931, Samuel and his wife moved out and Novarro moved in. Novarro was already a close friend and confidante of Lloyd Wright and so he commissioned Wright to expand the garden and the interiors, including the addition of a music room, a bedroom suite, and outdoor pergola. The idea was to make the home more fit for an actor and artist of Ramon Novarro’s status. And, surely, Novarro and Wright succeeded in creating one of the most jaw-dropping, unique, and wonderful homes in Los Angeles or anywhere.
Novarro lived in the residence until the late 1930s.
I snapped the photo below of the imposing one-of-a-kind structure the last time I visited. Wright built the four-level residence and integrated it into the surrounding hillside. The home is distinguished by its smooth concrete surfaces, dollar bill green oxidized copper accents, and horizontal bands of windows.
Inside, the central living room has polished concrete floors and fireplace.
Notice the sleek built-in shelving and seating, the casement windows that allow plenty of light, and the multi-level ceilings.
Before Southern California indoor/outdoor was a thing, Lloyd Wright knew that he wanted to build a home that would interact smoothly with Los Angeles’s great year round weather.
At one end of the living room, it steps down to a dining room with casement style windows and doors that open to a trellis-shaded dining terrace and at its opposite end to a lounge with more casement style windows and doors that lead out to a swimming pool.
The shaded dining and private terrace makes for an excellent place to entertain a dinner party or relax with a good book on a nice chaise on a warm summer day.
The kitchen has been completely updated and modernized with white, hardware-free Shaker style cabinetry, fantastically thick slab marble counter tops, and top-of-the-line stainless steel designer appliances. Not to mention excellent views of the verdant hillside.
Originally conceived as the master bedroom, one of the upstairs bedrooms has two walls of windows, built-in storage, and beautiful oak floors.
A starkly minimalist all-concrete bathroom sits off the original master and features a decorative screen made of three-dimensional, arrowhead-shaped concrete blocks.
And originally conceived as the guest quarters, the lower level bedroom now often has played host as the master suite in recent years.
The space boasts an over-sized sitting area and is privately located on the lower floor and opens to a sizable terrace with arrowhead-shaped pavers.
The home also boasts a slender office cleverly and efficiently lined with custom built-ins that incorporate desk space, a dresser, open shelves, enclosed storage, and a bed.
The home has been meticulously restored over the years. The primary restoration was done by Justin Krzyston of Los Angeles–based Stonehurst Construction in 2008. Krzyston told Architectural Digest that he sought help from a previous owner: “I was able to meet with Diane Keaton—who lived here in the early ’90s and did one of the first renovations—and she gave me some great advice on how to approach the restoration 20 years later,” he says. “She told me to go slow, don’t treat it like any other renovation, and don’t change any more than you have to; keep the integrity of the house and the way Wright intended it to be.”
Yes, since Novarro’s time the Samuel Novarro Residence has been home to many actors and artists over the years including Diane Keaton, Christina Ricci, composer Leonard Bernstein, theater director Jerome Robbins, and musical-comedy duo Betty Comden and Adolph Green. This is the house that inspired actress Diane Keaton to become a preservationist. She’s successfully saved many of Los Angeles’s most prized architectural homes and buildings. The Samuel Novarro House is Los Angeles Cultural Historic Mounement #130 after all.
The wonderful pool area is set in to a high-walled courtyard that ensures complete privacy and, hence, encourages both late night and broad daylight skinny dips.
Sure, the price tag is hefty for some. No, for most. But 2255 Verde Oak Drive presents a rare chance to own a true masterpiece of art and architecture unlike any other.
If you would like to view 2255 Verde Oak Drive, call me today at (937) 243-2349 or email me at tatiana.tensen@sothebyshomes.com.
Listing provided courtesy of Juliette Hohnen, Douglas Elliman.