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  • Built in 1925 on Lot 136 in Tract 6849
  • Original commissioner: clothier and building contractor George H. White as a speculative project
  • Architect: none indicated on original building permit; running the image seen above on August 30, 1925, the Los Angeles Times reported that architect George S. Morlan was the designer. The contractor on the permit is noted as the White Construction Company
  • On March 30, 1925, the Department of Buildings issued George H. White permits for a two-story, nine-room residence and a one-story 20-by-20-foot garage at 527 North June Street
  • George H. White's primary business affiliation was as secretary-treasurer of Little & Martin, a ladies- and childrens-wear manufacturer on North Western Avenue; his sideline was the White Construction Company. White listed himself at 527 North June Street in the 1926 city directory; in March 1926 he began his next residential project, designed by George S. Morlan per its original building permit, at 434 North Las Palmas Avenue in Hancock Park, moving there after its completion
  • Charles Ray Jamison, a salesman for the Berger Manufacturing Company, metal fabricators, was the first owner of 527 North June Street, in residence by 1928. He moved in with his wife, Belle—they were both Indiana natives—and their 16-year-old son Charles Jr., who'd been born in Canton, Ohio, while his father was sales manager in a steel plant. The Jamisons would live quietly at 527 into the war years, with Charles Jr. attending U.C.L.A., marrying and moving out, and Charles Sr. moving into insurance sales. Charles and Belle would be moving to Santa Monica
  • Born in Denver on December 28, 1885, Basil Winter de Guichard was a teenager when he began making a serious name for himself on the French bicycle-racing circuit. In France he met Paris-born champion cyclist Albert Champion, who moved to the U.S. in 1900. Moving on to motocycles, they were soon partners in the beginnings of what became the AC Spark Plug Company, becoming seriously involved in the automobile industry when they met William Durant of Buick, who was soon to form General Motors. De Guichard's automotive involvement was also personal: In 1920, he married the daughter of Durant's longtime associate Charles Nash, who became G.M.'s fifth president and in 1916 bought out the makers of the Rambler automobile, renaming the company Nash Motors. Basil and Mae Nash Miller de Guichard were divorced in 1931. He married stage and film actress Ruth Donnelly the next year; they were living at 527 North June Street by 1948, with de Guichard having become an executive with Lockheed and later a consultant to various aircraft firms and the Air Force      
  • On February 3, 1949, Mr. B. W. de Guichard was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety for termite remediation at 527 North June Street
  • 527 North June Street was on the market by the spring of 1955 asking $34,950. The de Guichards would be moving to an apartment in Westwood
  • Stuart M. Ketchum Jr., born in New Rochellle, New York, on March 22, 1926,  a real estate developer who would become a major philanthropist, moved into 527 North June Street in 1955 with his wife and two young children. Two more children would arrive during the Ketchums' stay. Ketchum's love of music led to his unpaid work in bringing the Walt Disney Concert Hall to fruition, a project that "involved 16 years of intensive management," according to his obituary in the Times of February 18, 2020. Architect Eugene Kohn explained in the tribute that Ketchum "volunteered because he loved Downtown Los Angeles and the Philharmonic." Ketchum's multimillion-dollar donation helped build the Ketchum-Downtown Y.M.C.A., which provided after-school programs and arrangements for working parents and seniors in underserved areas near the city's original core. Ketchum, who served as president of the Hancock Park Homeowners Association, would be moving to 122 South McCadden Place by 1961 and, a decade later, to the Neil McCarthy/H. R. Haldeman house at 465 Muirfield Road
  • On June 22, 1955, Stuart Ketchum was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety for more termite remediation at 527 North June Street
  • Investment advisor Albert P. Drasdo was the owner of 527 North June Street from 1960 to 1972
  • 527 North June Street appeared on the market in the fall of 1971, remaining there into 1972
  • Attorney Frederic N. Gaines moved into 527 North June Street in 1972; his family remains in possession 52 years later 


Illustration: LAT