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402 South Las Palmas Avenue




  • Built in 1928 on Lot 115 in Tract 6388
  • Original commissioner: Mr. and Mrs. Fred C. Hartmann
  • Architect: Dedrick, Bobbe & Dolena (Warren A. Dedrick, Earl R. Bobbe, and James E. Dolena)
  • On August 21, 1928, the Department of Building and Safety issued Mr. and Mrs. Fred C. Hartmann a permit for a 17-room residence on Lot 115, which was initially addressed as 404 South Las Palmas Avenue
  • Born in Sonora, Mexico, on August 3, 1874, Fred C. Hartmann came to live in Los Angeles at the age of 12; his namesake father, German-born Fred A. Hartmann, who had, and would retain, Mexican mining interests, moved north to eventually become involved in real estate and in the business of William H. Hoegee, a manufacturer of tents and awnings used in mining camps. As Los Angeles became more prosperous, its citizens gaining more leisure time, the W. H. Hoegee Company became a manufacturer and dealer in sporting goods. Fred A. Hartmann would take over the business in 1906, his sons Adolph and Fred joining him due course
  • Working as a bookkeeper in Honolulu, Fred C. Hartmann married Georgia-born divorcée Olive Griffin Wilson there in June 1900. Settling to Los Angeles within a few years, the Hartmanns moved into a cottage his father built for them in 1904 at 917 West 20th Street, behind F. A.'s house at 926 West Washington Street. Fred, along with his brother Adolph, would join their father in business. Fred and Olive Hartmann did not have children; joining droves of affluent householders facing a declining West Adams and who now had the choice of the many new subdivisions that had opened along the Wilshire Boulevard corridor, they would be moving to Hancock Park from 917 West 20th once their new house was completed
  • It is unclear as to where the Hartmanns may have moved to or traveled to during the years 1934 to 1936 when they appear to have rented 402 South Las Palmas Avenue to Lillian Coogan, the mother of child star Jackie Coogan. The actor's parents had bought 673 South Oxford Avenue in 1922, remaining there until 1934, when the Pellissier Square neighborhood underwent redevelopment as Wilshire Boulevard itself transitioned from a residential to commercial thoroughfare—673 South Oxford was demolished in 1935 after having stood just 15 years. In 1928 the notably unprincipled Mrs. Coogan had been sued for alienation of affections by the wife of Arthur L. Bernstein, business manager of Jackie's production company. Lillian Coogan and Mr. Bernstein were both listed at 402 South Las Palmas Avenue in the 1934 city directory; presumably estranged, Mr. Coogan was killed in an automobile accident in San Diego County in May 1935 (Jackie was a passenger, but survived). Curiously, large auction ads appeared in the Times in June 1936 offering "the childhood belongings of Jackie Coogan," the sale to be held at 402 South Las Palmas the week of June 22. The 21-year-old actor was now engaged to actress Betty Grable and would be moving into his own home. Other press items appearing that June infer that 402 was owned by the Coogans and would also be sold by them, but the Hartmanns were back in residence, their own furnishings presumably having been in storage, by early 1937
  • Fred Hartmann was still in possession of 402 South Las Palmas Avenue when he died in Modesto on December 30, 1955. Olive Hartmann left the house and moved to Modesto not long before she died on August 20, 1960, apparently having sold 402. (The Hartmanns appear to have had a residence and she family in Stanislaus County.) Fred was 81 at his death and Olive 83. Curiously, the Hartmanns were buried separately, he in Anaheim and she near Modesto
  • William Henry Bernstein, founder and president of the Federal Wholesale Toy Company, became the owner of 402 South Las Palmas Avenue by 1964, moving in with his wife and four children. Mr. Bernstein died in January 1991; his widow, née Anne Penes, was still in possession of 402 when she died at 105 in June 2020. The house was sold on August 24, 2020, for $6,000,000; an extensive renovation was ongoing in 2022


Illustration: Private Collection