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  • Built in 1926 on a parcel comprise of Lots 172 and 173 in Tract 6388
  • Original commissioner: banker J. B. Leonis, a founder and former mayor of the city of Vernon
  • Architect: Richard D. King
  • On July 21, 1926, the Department of Building and Safety issued J. B. Leonis permits for an 11-room residence and a one story, 22-by-45-foot garage–gardener's quarters at 649 South Hudson Avenue; by the time Leonis moved in, "647" had been settled upon as the address
  • Born Jean Baptiste Leonis in Cambo in French Basque country on April 20, 1872, Leonis was called to California in 1889 by his uncle Miguel Leonis, who had arrived in 1854 and whose accumulation of 11,000 San Fernando Valley acres earned him the title of "King of Calabasas." Uncle Miguel's premature death left his newly arrived nephew in the lurch—back in France he had been training for the priesthood—with provision for him not yet having been made in the will; forging ahead with an Anglicized first name—though he was usually known as "J. B."—Leonis forged ahead to create his own kingdom in the form of the ragtag city of Vernon on the rail lines just southeast of downtown Los Angeles. In September 1905 the merchant J. B. founded the town with two local Irish-born ranchers not so much as a residential suburb but as an industrial district. The motto on the city seal—a reproduction of which is on the city's prominent water tower to this day—reads "Exclusively Industrial." It wouldn't actually be until after the openings of the Los Angeles Acqeduct in November 1913—and the Panama Canal in August 1914 that prompted East Coast companies to look closely at West Coast markets—that industry would begin to develop in Vernon. For municipal revenue in the meantime Leonis and his partners touted Vernon as a sporting town unencumbered by the blue laws and Sunday closings upheld by the big city of Los Angeles. A baseball stadium was built to host the Vernon Tigers and 24-hour nightclubs began to attract the Hollywood set and the more sophisticated members of Los Angeles's downtown establishment. The resident population remains minuscule (222 souls counted in the 2020 Federal census); potteries, a Studebaker assembly plant, the American Can Company, stockyards and slaughterhouses, boxmakers, glassmakers, suppliers of aerospace components, and processors of human and pet foods have come and gone or remain, the town motto still adhered to. J. B. Leonis served as a mayor of the town and founded the First National Bank of Vernon, running things his way. He and his Los Angeles–born wife, née Adelina Frances Clos, and their children Adelina Jr. and J. B. Jr. actually lived in Vernon, though it may have been the opening of the abattoirs that drove them—or at least had Mrs. Leonis putting her foot down—to build an escape in more civilized Hancock Park




  • The Leonises' children were grown by the time they built 647 South Hudson, Adelina having married mortician Raymond S. Malburg and having presented J. B. with his only grandchild. Leonis Clos Malburg was born on April 4, 1929. J. B. was president of the Vernon Investment Company and of the First National Bank, with J. B. Jr. serving as treasurer of the family business and as assistant to his father at the bank. J. B. Jr. was married to the former Jesmor Sweeney—whose parents built 636 South Hudson Avenue, also in 1926—by the summer of 1930 though the couple would have no children. While 647 South Hudson would serve as a respectable address for the family, J. B. maintained a residence in Vernon close to the business action, the town eventually being ceded to the young heir apparent. Leonis Malburg would grow up to serve on Vernon's city council from 1956 to 2009 and as mayor from 1974 to 2009, the jig coming up that year after he and his wife Dominica were convicted of perjury, conspiracy, and voter fraud. That same year the Malburg's son John was sentenced to eight years in prison for the molestation of boys, a rather sad, ignominious end to the 100+ years of Leonis rule of Vernon
  • On May 4, 1928, the Department of Building and Safety issued J. B. Leonis a permit to add a greenhouse to the property at 647 South Hudson Avenue. A permit was issued to Leonis on February 18, 1949, for the installation of an Inclinator. His grandson poised to take over the Vernon fiefdom, Leonis was now retired and spending more time in Hancock Park
  • While J. B. Leonis appears early on to have been grudgingly respected by more sober and less obvious members of the downtown establishment, some were no doubt increasingly fascinated and appalled given the well-publicized scandals that seems to have been deliberately courted by J. B. even in old age. In the fall of 1943, he was indicted on charges of violating state election laws by false registration and illegal voting. Authorities claimed that while J. B. cited an apartment over his bank in Vernon as his voting address, he was in fact a legal resident of Los Angeles at 647 South Hudson Avenue. In January 1950, Leonis was arrested for avoiding a five-day jail sentence stemming from charges of contempt of court in connection with the failure of the city of Vernon to pay its fair share to the Hyperion sewage project. A heart ailment had necessitated the amputation of his right leg in March 1949 (hence the Inclinator); he was claiming to be too ill to leave 647 to address the charges. A sheriff's deputy was placed on guard at the house. The outcome is unclear, but Leonis seems to have escaped serious legal consequences as his health continued to deteriorate; he would die at 647 South Hudson at the age of 81 on October 19, 1953
  • In the midst of her father's latest legal troubles, the causes unclear, Adelina Malburg had died at her parents' house on August 11, 1950. Her mother—who had been a director of the First National Bank of Vernon—died at 647 South Hudson on February 20, 1956, age 82. Leonis Malburg inherited not only control of Vernon but of 647 as well. He had the smog-singed stucco of the house sandblasted in 1958
  • Like grandfather like son: On December 21, 1978, Leonis Malburg was indicted on charges of perjury and fraudulent voting for claiming an apartment in a small Vernon office building as his voting address rather than 647 South Hudson Avenue. As with his grandfather, it was always someone else's fault, Malburg quick to claim political motivations for his predicaments
  • Now the castellan of 647 South Hudson after the death of his mother and grandparents, Leonis Malburg updated the property and made use of its double lot by adding an 18-by-36-foot swimming pool and a 20-by-25-foot cabana, permits for which were issued by the Department of Building and Safety on March 3, 1961. Leonis and Dominica Malburg still owned the house 48 years later—83 years after his grandfather built it—when Malburg was issued a permit to install a new water heater on April 1, 2009. That December he and Dominica met their Waterloo and all pretense to Malburg seigneur-ity in Vernon came to an end. It is unclear as to how long the couple may have retained 647 after their fall in 2009; the house may have been put up for sale in order to settle fines and restitution and the City of Vernon's lawsuit against them
  • The house was on the market during the summer of 2018 for $10,900,000



Illustrations: Private Collection; City of Vernon