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356 South June Street




  • Built in 1925 on Lot 151 in Tract 6388
  • Original commissioner: builder Harry H. Belden for resale
  • Architect: Ray J. Kieffer
  • On April 18, 1925, the Department of Building and Safety issued Harry H. Belden a permit for a two-story, 11-room residence and a one-story, 20-by-30-foot garage at 356 South June Street. On August 20, 1925, Belden was issued a permit for a major addition to the garage; the building's roof was raised to accommodate a second floor for a servants' quarters and storage
  • 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, 314, 315, 324, 325, 345, and 355 as well as our subject here, 356. (Belden's projects at 335, 336, and 346 South June were designed by brothers Kurt and Hans Meyer-Radon) 
  • Pennsylvania-born investment broker Cyrus Peirce was the owner of 356 South June Street by the summer of 1926. The son of a wool mill owner who moved his family west to Tacoma in 1889, Peirce worked on the east coast before being sent to San Francisco by the New York banking firm of Halsey & Company in 1905. He opened his own firm there, the Cyrus Peirce Company, a few years later. He had married concert pianist May Kidder, who would go on to bill herself as May Kidder-Peirce, in 1894. After a divorce, he married Kentucky-born Maud Reid Kenneday in May 1903, who was divorced from the interestingly named Kavanaugh K. Kenneday, a consular officer posted to Brazil, with whom she had two sons and a daughter. According to the Tacoma Daily Ledger of May 17, 1903, the second Mrs. Peirce was born at Federal Hill, where Stephen Foster is said to have composed "My Old Kentucky Home." The Peirces' daughter Mary Eloise, named after Cyrus's mother, was born in February 1904. It was after her marriage in August 1924 that the Peirces decided to acquire a residence in Los Angeles, where he would be opening an office. Peirce had become very well known in California financial circles and is credited with having played a prominent part in the formation of Pacific Gas & Electric and the Southern California Gas Company, among other enterprises
  • On June 16, 1926, Cyrus Peirce was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety for the addition of a 12-by-15-foot room to 356 South June Street, its location in the floorplan unclear. On August 27, 1930, Peirce was issued a permit to convert a porch into a new breakfast room and to create a passage out of the existing breakfast room
  • Cyrus and Maud Peirce lived fairly quietly at 356 South June during their ownership, aside from travel and one interesting incident that took place on November 26, 1932. The Times reported on it two days later in an article headlined CRAZED DRIVER PERILS WOMAN:
"Believed by his employer, Mrs. Maud R. Pierce [sic] of 356 South June street, to have become suddenly insane while at the wheel of the car in which she was riding, Arthur Kebble, 24-year-old chauffeur, deliberately crashed the car against a traffic signal at Beverly Boulevard and Highland avenue late Saturday night, demolished it, then, with a maniacal laugh, resumed his way to Mrs. Pierce's home.... There he drove the car into the garage and left, after telling her he would return within an hour. Fearing for her life, she notified police and officers remained on guard all night at her home.... Just before they reached the intersection, Mrs. Pierce said, Kebble turned around in his seat and laughingly told her, "This will cost you $200." Before she could reply the car leapt the curb and crashed against the signal standard, wrecking it. The car was damaged considerably on impact, but Kebble managed to complete the homeward journey." 

  • Though they would retain 356 South June Street until 1942, the Peirces appear to have gone their separate ways by 1938. They were listed in the city directory of that year a few blocks from each other downtown, he at the California Club and she at the Women's Athletic Club. They were renting 356 out, first to Ralph and Gladys Pringle—he was a vice-president of Safeway Stores—and then to Texas oil man Robert Ellis Bering. After Bering's departure, the property was placed on the market in the summer of 1942 for $21,000, the rough equivalent on $386,000 in 2023 dollars. The price dropped to $19,500 by September. The Depression and recent events at Pearl Harbor had crushed the real estate market of Hancock Park, which would take years to recover. Nearly a year passed before a sale went through
  • Maud Peirce died in Los Angeles at the age of 67 on June 23, 1944; Cyrus Pierce remarried two months later, on August 24, his new wife being Miss Edna Bennett Smith. He died in Monrovia on October 3, 1945, a month shy of his 73rd birthday, apparently at Pottenger's Sanatorium, a hospital for diseases of the lung. (Silent star Mabel Normand died of tuberculosis at Pottenger's in 1930, age 37)
  • In her column in the Daily News on May 26, 1943, Lucy Quirk reported that "Kay and Dr. Henry Bonesteel have the deed all signed and sealed for a home on June st. It's most attractive with a sky blue living room and matching hall." Dr. and Mrs. Henry T. S. Bonesteel were the next owners of 356 South June Street; their family would be in possession for nearly 50 years. Henry Theodore Samuel Bonesteel was born in Central City, Colorado, on January 15, 1902, and raised in Denver, where his father and grandfather were also physicians. Dr. Bonesteel married Kathleen Mansfield Nolan on August 9, 1933. Kay Nolan grew up in the house at 1537 South Wilton Place that her parents were in the process of completing when she was born on Halloween 1905; this cross-gable, chalet-style house was designed by Charles F. Whittlesey and still stands. After the wedding, Dr. Bonesteel moved into 1537 South Wilton with Kay and her widowed mother. Dorothy-Elise Bonesteel, was born on New Year's Day 1936. Michael arrived on December 22, 1939
  • Dorothy-Elise Bonesteel, known as Meme, married architect Frank Stearns Wilcox in a quiet ceremony at St. John's Episcopal at Adams and Figueroa on October 21, 1959. Christy Fox noted the event in her Times social diary on October 30: "Party Patter. Kay and Bonny Bonesteel's wedding reception for just-wed daughter Meme and Frank Wilcox will be Nov. 8 in their home." Per the Times on November 10, "Los Angeles society was well represented" at the event. In 1954 Marlborough graduate Meme had been presented as a Las Madrinas debutante, top-drawer as far as these things went in the city and indicating certain membership in Los Angeles's old guard. Founded in 1933, the annual presentation continues to be held as a benefit for Children's Hospital, which was a long-time pet project of Kate Page Crutcher of 1257 West Adams Boulevard, whose unassuming mien belied her social clout. You were in if you supported her cause, which Kay Bonesteel did with vigor, holding many meetings over the years at 356 South June for the League for Crippled Children as well as for many other causes over the decades. Her name appeared constantly in the press in relation to her efforts. The Bonesteels' purely social entertainments were also well-reported. Regarding an upcoming cocktail buffet at 356 South June Street, Christy Fox noted in her Times column on December 9, 1960, that the Bonesteels' parties "always are something to remember"
  • While burglaries and crime in general have not been at all uncommon in Hancock Park over its hundred years, a boy's prank seems to have been about as dramatic as things got at 356 South June Street. On November 23, 1951, the Citizen-News reported that a "bombing" phoned in to the police by the Bonesteels' maid the day before was nothing more than a firecracker dropped in the mailbox. "Total damage: three cracked dishes, and a few frayed nerves."
  • Henry T. S. Bonesteel died at the age of 72 on October 12, 1974; Kay Bonesteel died at 83 on November 29, 1988. Her estate sold 356 South June Street on August 2, 1990
  • On March 19, 1991, the Department of Building and Safety issued permits for additions to 356 South June Street including a two-story alteration to the north end of the façade and for a remodeling of the garage. A permit issued on July 15, 2002, authorized the addition of a covered entry to the front porch; this does not appear to be in place today though it may have been at this time that the character of the façade was unfortunately flattened by removing the original entrance bay, as can be compared in our views above and below


A 2023 rendering of 356 South June Street reveals the alterations to its original façade



Illustrations: Dick Whittington/USCDL; Private Collection