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  • Built in 1924 on Lot 41 in Tract 3668
  • Original commissioner: retired furniture manufacturer Charles L. Rosenberger
  • Architect: Leland A. Bryant
  • On May 20, 1924, the Department of Buildings issued Charles L. Rosenberger permits for a two-story, 10-room residence and a one-story, 33-by-22-foot garage at 235 South Rossmore Avenue
  • Ohio-born Charles Rosenberger married Indianian Christine Kreighbaum on April 15, 1896; by 1902 they were living in Syracuse, New York, where he was secretary-treasurer of the Elgin A. Simonds Company, which specialized in reproductions of classic designs such as Windsor chairs. After his retirement from the firm in 1918, the Rosenbergers spent a few years back in her hometown of South Bend before deciding to settle in Los Angeles, where by 1923 they had taken half of a recently built duplex at 1600 North Hobart Boulevard in East Hollywood, from which they would move to Hancock Park. Living with them was their son, Thomas, who'd been born in Syracuse in 1902
  • The Evening Express of November 19, 1926, reported that a second-story man managed to steal $1,000 worth of jewelry before awakening Charles Rosenberger, who gave chase out of the front door of 235 South Rossmore in his bathrobe. It is unclear if this intrusion actually soured the Rosenbergers on Hancock Park, which has never been without its serious crime, but they had their house on the market within months and by 1928 had bought a recently built house at 620 North Hillcrest Road in Beverly Hills. Interestingly, they would be retaining 235 South Rossmore Avenue and renting it out
  • Classifieds appearing in the Times by early March 1927 called 235 South Rossmore Avenue a "Delightful English" residence, one "Built by owner for personal use."
  • Insurance executive Danford M. Baker, who in 1920 built one of the earliest houses in Hancock Park at 400 South Rossmore just down the street, rented 235 briefly from the Rosenbergers while he awaited the completion of a new house at 500 South Mapleton Drive in Holmby Hills, which, like nearby Bel-Air, was a step beyond upper-middle-class Hancock Park 
  • Renting 235 South Rossmore Avenue briefly from 1929 to 1931 was vaudevillian turned film producer Lou Anger and his wife, actress Sophye Barnard. Anger is credited with having given Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton their starts in Hollywood and with managing their careers. Even after the comedian's famous fall from grace in 1921, Anger remained faithful to Arbuckle, as did Anger's boss, studio executive Joe Schenck, who, as security for loans to finance the star's defense, took title to Arbuckle's house at 649 West Adams Boulevard; it was rented by the Angers for a time. Anger managed Schenck's real estate projects including The Talmadge, the Wilshire Boulevard apartment building that Schenck bought soon after its completion in 1924 as an income-producing present for his wife, silent star Norma Talmadge. Both before and after their stay at 235 South Rossmore, the Angers lived at The Talmadge
  • On October 21, 1931, the Department of Building and Safety issued Charles and Christine Rosenberger a permit to enlarge a maid's room
  • 235 South Rossmore Avenue appeared on the market in late 1937, though, apparently not selling, it appears to have continued to have been rented out
  • Renting 235 South Rossmore Avenue from 1932 to 1937 was wholesale furniture dealer Merritt M. Williams; he moved on to rent 526 South Hudson Avenue in Hancock Park
  • Screenwriter Howard Emmett Rogers rented 235 South Rossmore from 1939 to 1941. On March 25, 1941, fearing punishment for having broken the rules at his school, Third Street Grammar, 11-year-old Lee Rogers ran away from home; he was found a day later wandering Cahuenga Boulevard. Soon afterward the Rogerses moved to 362 South Las Palmas Avenue
  • 235 South Rossmore Avenue was on the market in May 1941 having been reduced to $15,500—$330,500 in 2023 dollars, reflecting the ravages of the Depression and rumors of war on Hancock Park property values. Apparently hopes for a sale given up once war broke out on December 7, the house was being advertised for rent during the first half of 1942
  • Attorney Scott Noble Thompson purchased 235 South Rossmore Avenue by the spring of 1946. On March 20 of that year, Thompson was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety to "Enclose patio at rear of residence, making it part of house proper." Just the day before, Mrs. Thompson, née Jessie Pearson Johnston of Anaheim, had given birth to a second son in addition to Scott Jr., who'd been born in May 1939. Daughter Marilyn was born in May 1948. Family life at 235 South Rossmore soured quickly. Apparently tiring of suburban life if not just her husband, Jessie Thompson took the three children to Europe, sailing to Naples from New York on August 19, 1949. She stayed away for 18 months, going to directly to Reno after arriving in New York from Genoa in February 1951. It appears that Mrs. Thompson got 235 in the settlement, where she was living on the evening of July 21, 1952, when police responded to her call about a domestic disturbance. Scott Thompson was visiting; deciding that the commotion had subsided, the cops left. Another call came three hours later, by which time Jessie had barricaded herself and the children in a bedroom. In a bizarre episode that makes you wonder just how many martinis he'd had, Scott lit a fire in a closet across the hall from the bedroom in an attempt to smoke out his wife—the Daily News reported that he said he was "only trying to 'scare' his wife out after she refused him permission to see the children under his court rights of visitation." In a serious breach of Hancock Park decorum, Jessie yelled to officers from her upstairs window for help. As it turned out, Mr. Thompson was brought up on arson charges; while a judge on July 28 considered there to be insufficient evidence and recommended a misdemeanor charge, Thompson was indeed slapped with the felony and ordered to stand trial. As it turned out, the trial judge dismissed the charges on November 13, stating that "there was no malicious mischief in Thompson's heart" when he set fire to his own house; given the antediluvian times, one wonders how much the defendant's status as an attorney—and as the husband—might have figured into the decision
  • Thomas E. Manwarring, the Los Angeles district sales manager for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, and his wife, the former Ella Mae Reidy, an interior designer, were the next owners of 235 South Rossmore Avenue. The Manwarrings, who married in 1933, had no children; they were moving from 512 South Norton Avenue
  • On May 3, 1961, the Department of Building and Safety issued Thomas Manwarring a permit for a 15-by-30-foot pool
  • The Manwarrings were still living at 235 South Rossmore Avenue when he died on April 20, 1963; a funeral service was held at home four days later. Thomas Manwarring was 58 at his death, though he had been claiming to be six years younger from at least 1950. Ella Mae appears to have remained in possession of 235 for at least 25 years after being widowed; from 1964, city directory entries list her design firm, oddly named Little Caledonia of the West—one imagines a great deal of plaid in her interior design schemes—at 235 rather than referencing the name Manwarring. The property was listed for sale by September 1988 asking $1,250,000; by the following March the price had climbed to $1,295,000. Mrs. Manwarring may still have owned 235 at the time of her death on January 4, 1992; though she was then 80, she had, like her husband, been in the habit of shaving some years off her age, in her case five
  • Reflecting renewed expectations of interest in Hancock Park after its low ebb that had lasted from the late 1960s into the '90s, 235 South Rossmore Avenue was on the market in the summer of 2010 asking $2,995,000, reduced by $200,000 that fall. Expectations do not necessarily translate into quick sales; the property languished on the market for over a year, by November 2011 having been reduced to $2,350,000 by "motivated sellers." Owners of 235 after the departure of Ella Mae Manwarring appear to have altered the house very little other than to enlarge the kitchen


Illustration: Private Collection