PLEASE SEE OUR COMPANION HISTORIES





  • Built in 1954 on Lot 200 in Tract 6388
  • Original commissioner: insurance broker Leon M. Saliba
  • Contractor: Abbott & Bestor (Floyd Abbott and William C. Bestor)
  • On August 30, 1954, the Department of Building and Safety issued Mr. and Mrs. Leon M. Saliba a permit for a one-story, vaguley H-shaped house and attached garage at 416 South Hudson Avenue. Leon Saliba was issued a permit on September 14 for a 20-by-42-foot swimming pool at 416. Leon (né Leonidas) and Dolores—known as Dory—were both of Lebanese parentage; he was born in Missouri and she in California. The Salibas had five children, three girls and two boys, when they moved from South Vista Street, not far to the west, to Hancock Park in 1955; to even things out, a third son was born in January 1956. The Salibas left 416 in 1974 to move to Toluca Lake, where Dory died in 1994 and Leon in 2017 at the age of 106
  • Civil engineer David Nitka was the next owner of 416 South Hudson Avenue; born in Poland in 1931, he emigrated from Israel to the U.S., marrying Lauretta Bielawski in her native Brooklyn in 1955. The couple then settled in Los Angeles. Mrs. Nitka was graduated from Hunter College in New York and studied at the Art Students League there as well as at Otis Art Institute. She worked as a graphic artist and would devote considerable time to L.A.C.M.A. and other museums and was as a real estate broker in Hancock Park. The Nitkas still owned 416 when he died a month shy of his 81st birthday on September 16, 2012; his wife survived him



Illustration: Private Collection