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314 South June Street




  • Built in 1924 on Lot 147 in Tract 6388
  • Original commissioner: builder Harry H. Belden as his own home
  • Architect: Ray J. Kieffer
  • On October 6, 1924, the Department of Buildings issued Harry H. Belden permits for a two-story, 10-room residence and a one-story, 20-by-30-foot garage at 314 South June Street
  • Harry H. Belden was a prolific builder of houses in Hancock Park, Windsor Square, and elsewhere. His Hancock Park houses include 110 North Rossmore, 324 Muirfield, 317 and 624 Rimpau, and 152 North Hudson as well as 12 of the 14 houses on June Street between Third and Fourth streets. Advertisements for Belden-built houses appearing in the Times during November 1925 refer to several residences on the block being under construction; Belden's residences in the 300 block of June Street designed by Ray J. Kieffer are 300, 305, 315, 324, 325, 345, 355, and 356 as well as our subject here, 314. (Belden's projects at 335, 336, and 346 South June were designed by brothers Kurt and Hans Meyer-Radon)
  • Vermont-born, Iowa-raised Harry Harland Belden matriculated at Iowa College—renamed Grinnell in 1909—and received a degree in philosophy there in 1904. His father, Sanborn W. Belden, a clothing merchant in Grinnell who had apparently managed to accumulate not inconsiderable capital, decided to move his family west, settling in burgeoning Los Angeles in 1908 and setting up as a builder and carpenter of substantial spec houses in the rapidly developing high-end subdivisions opening out along Wilshire Boulevard. While West Adams still held the city's settled high-end neighborhoods, the Beldens would gravitate toward the newer district, with Sanborn purchasing lots in the Kensington Place Tract to develop, building at least two houses he intended to sell. The first, built in the fall of 1909, was a 10-room residence on Lot 51 at 617 Cahuenga Boulevard between Sixth Street and Wilshire designed by Frank M. Tyler. (Cahuenga's name was soon changed to Serrano Avenue to avoid duplications after the annexations of 1910; there the house was designated 621 Serrano.) The Beldens were enumerated at 617 Cahuenga in the 1910 Federal census. The second Belden house in Kensington Place, on Lot 37, was another Tyler design. At the southeast corner of Oxford Avenue and Sixth Street, a permit was issued for 604 South Oxford Avenue in April 1910. Sanborn Belden decided to retain that house as his own residence until selling it a decade later; 604 South Oxford was moved to 3520 Wilshire Boulevard in 1921. Sanborn and Lizzie Belden then moved to an apartment on Hobart Boulevard before occupying a house at 255 South Irving Boulevard in New Windsor Square that Harry completed in 1922, and then to a Harry-built, Ray Kieffer–designed residence around the corner at 225 Lorraine Boulevard 
  • Harry Belden appears to have started his California career working with his father, briefly going out on his own with another partner in real estate development before becoming a building materials salesman with the Union Lime Company. He married Texas-born Ruth Harrington Wood in Riverside in August 1913, with Barbara Belden arriving in December 1916 and Frances in January 1919. The family lived for a time at 600 Larchmont Boulevard before building 220 North Oxford Avenue, which would be sold to Erich von Stroheim, the director/actor/sceenwriter among whose indelible performances was of Norma Desmond's lovesick butler Max in Sunset Boulevard. In late 1920 the Beldens built 257 South El Centro Avenue in Windsor Heights—El Centro Avenue was soon renamed as part of Lucerne Boulevard, with 257 Lucerne still standing—from which they would move to 314 South June Street once it was completed in 1925
  • Apparently in a move to test a real estate market slowly recovering from the worst days of the Depression, Harry Belden ran ads for 314 South June Street during 1935 and 1936 describing it as "priced to sell" and a "sacrifice." Apparently he didn't receive an offer he liked; he would remain at 314 until early 1951. In the meantime, the popular Belden daughters were mentioned frequently in the press during their time at Marlborough and college days spent locally. Barbara Belden married Robert Callahan, who worked for his family's Western Avenue hardware store, in the garden of 314 on July 27, 1940. She would later become part of the formation of the Windsor Square–Hancock Park Historical Society in 1976. Frances waited two months after her sister's wedding before announcing her engagement to fellow U.C.L.A. student John Williams Whitaker; the Whitakers were married at 314 South June on December 28, 1940
  • Harry and Ruth Belden left 314 South June Street by early 1951, moving to an apartment in a new tower building at Parklabrea, as the name of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's massive postwar development was styled early on. Harry died at home there on December 28, 1952. In addition to describing his career as a homebuilder and a developer of Miracle Mile commerical properties, his obituary appearing in the Times three days later noted that he was a founding member of the Wilshire Country Club
  • Before its sale, 314 South June Street was rented briefly to retired Pittsburgh businessman Charles V. Baum
  • Born in Salt Lake City on November 26, 1917, Dr. Alexander Ray Irvine Jr., an ophthalmologist, was the next owner of 314 South June Street, in residence by late 1952 with his wife Louise, nine-year-old daughter Rae, and two-year-old son Bruce. Dr. Irvine joined his father, his brother Rodman, and cousin Wendell Irvine in an ophthalmology partnership in 1949. Dr. Irvine Sr., known as Ray, was Mrs. Edward Doheny's personal physician, treating the oilman's widow for vision loss. This resulted their collaboration in founding the Estelle Doheny Eye Foundation in 1947, today the Doheny Eye Institute for ophthalmic research. Per a tribute to him in a National Institutes of Health publication, Dr. Irvine Jr., known as Sandy, was the first ophthalmic pathologist of the Estelle Doheny Eye Foundation and Medical Director of the foundation from 1956 to 1972. He married Illinois native Louise Yoder, whom he'd met at Beverly Hills High School, in a ceremony at All Saints' Episcopal on July 20, 1940, followed by a reception at the Los Angeles Country Club. Their first Hancock Park residence was 532 North Las Palmas Avenue, from which they would move to 314 South June. John Alexander Irvine, who would grow up to become a Doheny ophthalmologist, arrived in October 1952. Stuart Andrew Irvine was born in May 1954. Sandy and Lou Irvine were still living at 314 South June Street when they died, he on July 22, 1996, she in her 91st year on July 20, 2009. After an extensive refurbishment, the house would be put on the market for the first time in 60 years
  • On November 18, 1952, the Department of Building and Safety issued Dr. A. R. Irvine a permit to enlarge opening between downstairs rooms, add a roof over a terrace, and update the kitchen cabinetry; architect George S. Dudley was hired as designer. On December 16, 1964, Dr. Irvine was issued a permit to add a 10-by-24-foot storage room to the rear of the garage and to add a 21-by-27-foot carport in front. Permits were issued to an Irvine family trust in 2010 for an extensive refurbishment that included the addition of a 15-by-40-foot pool to the property
  • The third owner of 314 South June Street in 87 years was in residence by early 2011


As seen in the Los Angeles Times, temporarily denuded of ivy, on April 10, 2011


Illustrations: Private Collection; LAT