PLEASE SEE OUR COMPANION HISTORIES





  • Completed in early 1942 on the easterly 140 feet of Lot 131 in tract 6388
  • Original commissioner: Ruth V. Neuberger
  • Architect: Herman Charles Light
  • On November 17, 1941, the Department of Building and Safety issued Ruth V. Neuberger a permit for a nine-room residence with an attached garage on Lot 131 of Tract 6388; the westerly 79.98 feet of Lot 131 had been purchased by the owner of 619 South June Street, leaving the site of 601 to measure 140 feet along the southerly lot line
  • Ruth Vivienne Neuberger was the daughter of Lena Neuberger, nominal head of the household; they had come west from New York after the death in 1937 of Lena's husband Moritz, a tobacco importer. Lena and Ruth would be moving to Hancock Park from an apartment at the Gramercy Tower at Second Street and Gramercy Place
  • On February 15, 1944, the Times reported that 39-year-old Ruth Neuberger had just been married to insurance man Alvin Frank Appel of Los Angeles; the ceremony took place at 601 South June Street, "the home of the bride's mother." Her father's work having taken the family to Europe for extended periods, Ruth was described by the Times as having been "educated abroad," while Mr. Appel, "who recently was honorably discharged from the Army, is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania." He moved into 601 with his bride and mother-in-law
  • On June 5, 1950, the Department of Building and Safety issued Mrs. Ruth V. Appel a permit for a 8-by-12-foot addition for a den at the southeast corner of the house
  • Lena Neuberger died in Los Angeles at the age of 69 on December 6, 1950
  • On December 4, 1956, the Department of Building and Safety issued Alvin Appel a permit for a swimming pool; a permit for a kitchen remodeling was issued on October 8, 1965
  • The Appels were still living at 601 South June Street when Ruth died at 67 on February 18, 1972. Still a New York Life man, 70-year-old Alvin remarried the following August 6; his new wife was his widowed onetime Hancock Park neighbor Rosalie Rosenbach Simon, who'd lived with her husband and three children at 222 South McCadden Place
  • 601 South June Street was on the market, referred to in ads as a Colonial, in the spring of 1974 listed at $125,000, the Appels now spending their time in the desert
  • It is unclear as to whom may have occupied 601 South June Street between 1974 and when the property went on the market again in 1977. During the late summer of that year, ads appeared in the Times referring to the house as a "Cape Cod" design with an asking price of $225,000. Toward Labor Day ads stated plainly that the sale was forced due to a divorce situation; by October, it was, in all caps, a DISTRESS SALE, the price now $217,500. By the end of that month, it was down to $198,000
  • It is unclear as to when the family of Melvin Halprin moved into 601 South June Street, but it was certainly by the fall of 1984. Mr. Halprin, an accountant, died at the age of 73 on October 10, 2006; the Halprins were still in possession of the property as of 2013


Illustration: Private Collection