PLEASE SEE OUR COMPANION HISTORIES





  • Completed in 1924 on Lot 47 in Tract 5640
  • Original commissioner: real estate developer Harry H. Belden as a speculative project
  • Architect: Ray J. Kieffer
  • On November 23, 1923, the Department of Buildings issued Harry H. Belden permits for an 11-room house and a one-story, 20-by-28-foot garage at 317 Rimpau Boulevard
  • Harry Belden, who operated out of an office at Third Street and Larchmont Boulevard, was advertising 317 Rimpau for sale as late as August 1924; no price was mentioned in classifieds. The house was sold by early 1925
  • Attorney Glen Elmore Huntsberger was the first owner of 317 Rimpau Boulevard; he moved in with his wife, née Lorraine Stanford, and four sons. His father was Ohio-born George E. Huntsberger, who had started in real estate in the tiny town of Lyons in eastern Nebraska before moving on to bigger possibilities in Los Angeles in January 1900. By 1913 he was in the contracting business as Huntsberger-Reed with two of his sons—there were four, including Glen—and his son-in-law Harold E. Reed. George Huntsberger built 450 South Lucerne Boulevard in Windsor Square in 1915; the year before, his son Ralph built 440 South Lucerne next door and son Harold 432 South Lucerne next door to that, all, of course, with the Huntsberger-Reed Company acting as contractor. Glen Huntsberger and Harold E. Reed—married to Adele, one of the two daughters of George Huntsberger—had both built houses near each other on Kingsley Drive before the social primacy of Hancock Park was established. Huntsberger-Reed was dissolved in 1917, with Harold Reed then teaming up with Forrest Q. Stanton to form the Stanton-Reed Company. Stanton and  Reed were later joined by architect Lester H. Hibbard to form Stanton, Reed & Hibbard, which would build many Hancock Park and Windsor Square residences, but apparently not, interestingly, Reed's brother-in-law Glen Huntsberger's 317 Rimpau Boulevard or the home of the youngest of George Huntsberger's sons, Raymond, an obstetrician, who built 410 South Arden Boulevard in Windsor Square in 1925
  • Glen Huntsberger was properly civic-minded and philanthropic; among his honors was being appointed by Mayor Fletcher Bowron to the powerful Board of City Planning Commissioners. As had been his father George, he was a pillar of Immanuel Presbyterian Church and a trustee of Occidental College, which he attended before Stanford and Harvard Law. Glen and Lorraine Huntsberger had four sons themselves: Glen Jr., born in 1910, and Stanford, born in 1914, were joined eight years later by brothers who were technically, according to legal records, born a day apart, a midnight presumably intervening. Bill Huntsberger was born on April 16, 1922, his twin Bob on the 17th. The family would remain at 317 Rimpau Boulevard for over 20 years. Sadly, Bill Huntsberger died at the age of 17 on July 24, 1939, the cause unclear. The Huntsbergers attempted to sell 317 during the war, to no avail. In the spring of 1946 they were asking $62,500; it would languish on the market for another four years before it was sold, the Huntsbergers moving on to La Cañada by 1950
  • After the death of a son and then war, the Huntsbergers could be seen as more than ready to get out of Hancock Park with, perhaps understandably, little interest in the character of the buyer as long as he could produce the cash for 317. Enter Jerome Weber, like Glen Huntsberger an attorney but of an altogether different and defintely not white-shoe stripe
  • Jerome Weber married Doris Robbin in a ceremony at the Ambassador in July 1948. After a Hawaiian honeymoon, they began looking for a suitable residence and, curiously, chose stuffy Hancock Park. By the time they moved into 317, Weber had gained some notoriety for representing dancer Vicki Evans, who had been arrested for marijuana possession at a Laurel Canyon cottage in the early hours of September 1, 1948, with starlet Lila Leeds and, famously, actor Robert Mitchum. Weber was able to get Miss Evans exonerated while Mitchum—represented by the legendary Jerry Geisler—and Miss Lee served jail time. In 1949 Weber was indicted by the Los Angeles County grand jury for his alleged involvement with Mickey Cohen and his henchmen in the beating of an Adams Boulevard radio-shop owner; the indictment against Weber was dismissed while Cohen and company were acquitted by the court


As seen in the Los Angeles Times, March 11, 1949


  • While not exactly cut from the genteel cloth of most Hancock Parkers, pencil-moustached Jerome Weber, seeming to enjoy his notoriety, saw no reason to move, say, into the more secluded, leafy streets of the Hollywood Hills. His legal representations were well-chronicled in the press, even it was of an obscure fur dealer accused of torching his own stock. Often enough, though, the names were recognizable, such as when he represented Sid Luft during his 1964 custody battle with Judy Garland. He was able to get George Raft off with a fine and no prison time after the actor—who clutched his grandmother's rosary in court—had been charged with income tax evasion. After Jayne Mansfield died in 1967, Weber was named co-adminstator of her estate. Weber's Waterloo came in September 1969 when he was indicted by the county grand jury on a charge of soliciting a bribe; he was accused of promising a murder suspect that he could put the quietus on the District Attorney's investigation in return for $35,000. The following July, Weber was sentenced to state prison for a one- to five-year term but was allowed to go free under his own recognizance pending appeal, which apparently failed. He spent 11 months in prison. He was ultimately disbarred, the court concluding in 1976, per the Times, that "Weber's age, many years in the profession [since 1936] and lack of prior disciplinary record are not, in themselves, sufficient to mitigate disbarment."
  • On August 31, 1951, the Department of Building and Safety issued Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Weber a permit for unspecified interior alterations at 317; the Webers hired architect Herman C. Light to make a small alteration in 1953 and to enclosed a porch in 1955
  • It is unclear as to whether Jerome and Doris Weber, who appear to have had no children, were still rattling around 317 Rimpau as late as the early '70s; no listing for the address appears in city directories during the 1960s, though given Mr. Weber's notoriety and dubious connections this may have been for privacy's sake
  • 317 Rimpau Boulevard was on the market in the latter half of 1966 and again in late 1970
  • Re-enter members of the upper-middle-class gentility that Hancock Park was designed for. Dr. Jere Marshall Musser and his wife, née Jeanne Lenard, duly listed in the Southwest Blue Book, were the owners of 317 Rimpau Boulevard by 1972. Dr. Musser's field of practice is unclear; for her part, Jeanne Musser was active in civic and club endeavors, serving as president of the Ebell Juniors and of the Adoption League
  • On November 8, 1972, the Department of Building and Safety issued the Mussers a permit for a 40-by-17-foot oval swimming pool; permits for various interior alterations were issued to the couple in 1974 and 1977
  • James and Sally Kneser, owners of 317 Rimpau from the late 1980s into the '90s, had various interior alterations carried out, as have subsequent owners



Illustrations: Private Collection; LAT