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  • Built in 1930 on Lot 205 in Tract 6388
  • Original commissioner: investment banker George N. Whiting
  • Architect: Paul Revere Williams
  • On June 18, 1930, the Department of Building and Safety issued George N. Whiting a permit for a two-story, nine-room house with attached garage at 602 South Hudson Avenue
  • George Nathaniel Whiting and his older brother Dwight Anson Whiting ran a myriad of family investment businesses; they had inherited an 8,500-acre ranch in southern Orange County bought by their father in 1885
  • George Whiting married his first wife, Mildred Wellborn, in 1917; George Nathaniel Whiting Jr. was born two years later. The Whitings divorced in 1923; she remarried attorney Lyndol L. Young in 1924 and he adopted George Whiting Jr., who became Charles Wellborn Young, named after his mother's father. The Youngs moved to 138 North June Street in Hancock Park and had two more children. George Whiting married Mary F. Allen in October 1924; they moved to the new Ardmore Court apartments at 620 South Ardmore Avenue. George and Mary Whiting were living at the Country Club Manor apartments on Rossmore Avenue in Hancock Park when they decided to hire Paul Williams to design 602 South Hudson Avenue. They never had children; a curious article in the Los Angeles Times with a headline asking TO HAVE OR HAVE NOT? appeared on January 29, 1939: "The issue can't be avoided. Are children a delight or dilemma for our socially active couples? Or are they both? Four of our prominent wives have ventured opinions." Mrs. George Whiting's feelings on the matter were that "After 15 years of married life with no children, I still can't feel that there has been any real loss. Perhaps because George and I are so companionable." The Whitings kept busy; few couples were mentioned more often by social diarists over decades. Mary Whiting was also involved with raising dachshunds. By 1944 the couple had decided that Beverly Hills was the place to be and moved to 710 North Maple Drive. They were enumerated there in the 1950 Federal census; George gave his occupation on the document as "proprietor—private ranch"


Around the time that Paul Williams designed 602 South Hudson Avenue for George and Mary Whiting,
the architect was photographed at Lake Arrowhead, where he had recently designed a cabin for
actor Lon Chaney. Williams was sought after by Hollywood as well as by members of the
 Los Angeles establishment such as the Whitings; his genius and preternatural
feel for the modern and appropriate rendered anyone with sense color-
blind. The Whiting house could have been built 30 years later.



  • Clara Hale Taylor was the owner of 602 South Hudson Avenue by 1944. She was the widow of Waller Taylor, who had been vice-president and general manager of the Llewellyn Iron Works, which in 1929 merged with both the Baker and Union iron works to form the Consolidated Steel Corporation; Taylor served as president of the new concern until he died in 1933. The Taylors had married in San Francisco on October 19, 1898, settling in Los Angeles. Their son Reese, born in 1901, would grow up to succeed his father as president of Consolidated Steel and became president of the Union Oil Company in 1938. His sister Elizabeth, born in 1904, was perhaps a less contented soul; her first marriage, to Dr. John Moore Schmoele, took place in the garden of her parents' house at 2058 South Harvard Boulevard on May 10, 1924. The marriage was not a success, she claiming in court in 1927 that he used profane language in her presence and threatened her with physical violence. In 1928, Schmoele married the second of what would be four wives; in October of that same year, Elizabeth married Bradford Hastings Walker, who was 20 years her senior. After the Walkers divorced in 1936, he tarried a bit before marrying a woman 30 years younger while she quickly married just-divorced New York attorney Walter Grey Dunnington. The Walkers' daughter Judith Anne would be adopted by Dunnington; later, as Judy Peabody, she became a high-profile Manhattan socialite whose enormous hairdos belied a warm gravitas and fearless involvement with unpopular causes such as A.I.D.S. Reflecting her maternal roots, her marriage to Samuel Peabody in 1951 was covered extensively in the Los Angeles Times. Three years later, her adopted father divorced Elizabeth Taylor Schmoele Walker Dunnington and promptly remarried; though thrice divorced, Elizabeth was able to maintain her listing in the New York Social Register, possibly on the strength of her daughter's steadiness, which was more reminiscent of her grandmother Clara Taylor
  • Clara and Waller Taylor had lived in Westlake before moving to Harvard Boulevard in West Adams; her move to Hancock Park was typical of old-guard Angelenos who witnessed the fraying of their original neighborhoods. Though she was in her 70s, Clara was not yet ready to move to an apartment; Paul Williams's design at 602 South Hudson Avenue was just the right venue for her entertainments for supporters of Mills College (she was class of '93). Mrs. Taylor was also active in support of Children's Hospital with Mrs. Albert Crutcher. Clara Taylor was still gathering people at 602 in 1951; the next year, she moved to  Pasadena, where her son Reese lived. She died of a heart attack in her suite at the Huntington Hotel on November 6, 1952
  • Succeeding Clara Taylor at 602 South Hudson Avenue were Dr. and Mrs. William Harry Enenstein. He was an osteopath; he and his wife and three sons were moving to Hancock Park from Silver Lake. On August 12, 1953, Enenstein was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety for repairs after a minor unspecified fire at 602 
  • 602 South Hudson Avenue was on the market by late 1967; a classified ad in the Times on December 10 noted an asking price of $125,000 and described it as a "Paul Williams brick." It was a very poor market for Hancock Park real estate after the Watts Rebellion, and the perception of the neighborhood being geographically vulnerable would only get worse after the Manson murders. Properties asked little, even adjusted or inflation. No price was mentioned in ads that appeared in late April 1968 calling the house a "Charming Paul Williams." Ads in December 1968 referred to it curiously as a "New Orleans Brick" house; in April 1969, it was described as being of white brick—perhaps it was then whitewashed—and was priced at $115,000 ($811,000 in 2020)
  • Married actors Christopher George and Lynda Day George occupied 602 South Hudson Avenue during the 1970s. Christopher George died suddenly at the age of 54 on November 28, 1983. On January 10, 1977, the Department of Building and Safety issued the Georges a permit for a new 18-by-36-foot irreguarly shaped swimming pool on the property
  • Succeeding Lynda Day George at 602 South Hudson Avenue was director and producer Frank Capra Jr., who married his second wife, Deborah Lewis Sprunt, in 1986. The Capras' tenure at 602 was brief; they moved to Malibu after the death of her son Kenneth Sprunt III on a school camping trip in October 1989
  • The owner of 602 South Hudson Avenue as of 2020 had moved in by 1994; among the alterations to the house was a 375-square-foot rear addition in 2015


Illustrations: Private Collection; Paul R. Williams, Architect