PLEASE SEE OUR COMPANION HISTORIES





  • Built in 1925 on Lot 171 in Tract 6388
  • Original commissioner: lumber executive John Francis Mullin
  • Architect: Lucius A. Phillips
  • On January 12, 1925, the Department of Buildings issued J. F. Mullin permits for an 11-room residence and a one-story, 21-by-35-foot garage at 669 South Hudson Avenue
  • Dubuque-born John F. Mullin was living in Pasadena and in the lumber business there by 1886. On June 15, 1893, the day before his 33rd birthday, he married 21-year-old Adella Bishop in Pasadena in June 1893, after which Mullin, based in Los Angeles, pursued business around Southern California and Arizona. Around the time of the birth of the Mullins' second child in 1898, Mullin formed Montgomery & Mullin, lumber dealers, with William F. Montgomery, the family settling at 3123 South Grand Avenue in easterly West Adams, where they would remain until building 669 South Hudson Avenue


Montgomery & Mullin as advertised in the 1905 Los Angeles City Directory


  • The Mullins would have two sons and a daughter—Russell, Wayne, and Florence—by the time Stanley arrived in July 1907. The family was representative of the affluent cohort steadily abandoning the University District and West Adams—a lengthy district stretching from Main Street to just beyond Crenshaw Boulevard—after World War I for new suburbs out along Wilshire Boulevard, Hancock Park being the newest and stateliest upper-middle-class development east of Beverly Hills and seriously grand Bel-Air. The Mullins remained downtown at 3123 South Grand Avenue, which still stands as the last individual dwelling on its block, until moving to Hancock Park
  • On January 19, 1927, at the Wilshire Boulevard Congregational Church at Wilshire and Plymouth—now the Wilshire Methodist Church—Florence Mullin married Grafton Pettis Tanquary, a professor of speech at U.S.C.; a reception was held afterward at 669 South Hudson Avenue
  • John F. Mullin died at 669 South Hudson Avenue on March 16, 1931, age 70. Della Mullin remained living in the house until her own death there on October 6, 1945, a month shy of her 74th birthday
  • 669 South Hudson Avenue was on the market in March 1948, with classified ads calling it an "outstanding value" without specifying an asking price
  • Private investor Harold McAlister was 52 and still living with his mother at 644 Rimpau Boulevard when he married Mrs. Iva Fern Smith on November 14, 1946, having eloped to Las Vegas. McAlister adopted her son Hobart afterward. Though they were still married at the time of his death in 1981, Harold appears to have had a difficult time separating from his mother; perhaps it was not a wise idea to buy 669 South Hudson, as the McAlisters did, given that the house was a five-minute walk, if that, just around the corner from the senior Mrs. McAlister's. The 1950 Federal census enumerated in April has Harold living not at 669 South Hudson but at 644 Rimpau, listed as head of household; the next line has Fern noted as his wife but with this information scored through and written over with his mother's information. The "M" indicating Harold's marital status is written over with "Sep" as in "separated." The handwriting had been on the wall all along, it seems, although Harold and Fern didn't divorce, she making good use of their house in Palm Springs while Hobart at least made use of 669 South Hudson as his voting address
  • Harold might have wanted Fern to leave 669 South Hudson Avenue and move into his mother's house after she died on May 7, 1953, but that was a nonstarter, with 644 Rimpau being put up for sale within weeks of old Mrs. McAlister's demise. Harold was back to living at 669 full time, contentment at least somewhat regained. He maintained a downtown office for his business activities and, like his mother and siblings, devoted a good deal of time and money to philanthropy; he continued to be mentioned rather endlessly in newspaper social diaries, his and Fern's social life requiring expensive accessories that had a habit of getting stolen. On January 6, 1952, the Times reported that a burglar had broken into 669 South Hudson and made off with $12,210 worth of jewelry and minks—a full-length coat as well as capes and stoles. After returning from a two-week vacation in July 1955, the McAlisters discovered that they had been robbed again, with the loss even higher, much higher. The bandits took still more furs—$15,000 worth—and, drilling open a rolling safe, $44,000 in jewelry and $7,000 in cash. (Perhaps safe-deposit boxes and fur storage at Coulter's might have been something to consider after the first plundering)
  • After deciding to grow old together, Harold and Fern McAlister would still be living at 669 South Hudson Avenue when he died at the age of 86 on January 3, 1981. Fern remained—she replacing the roof in 1984—and appears to still have been in possession of 669 until her death on February 25, 2001, age 93. Fern McAlister left no less than $38,300,000 to Children's Hospital upon her death to establish the McAlister Clinical Research Program there
  • Real estate management executive Robert C. Wagner acquired 669 South Hudson after the death of Fern McAlister. During 2002 and 2003 Wagner carried out some interior remodeling; he was also issued a permit for a 15-by-44-foot pool at the rear of the yard
  • On April 23, 2004, for a reported $2,950,000, Robert Wagner sold 669 South Hudson Avenue to its owner as of 2020, photographer and director David La Chapelle, as a home for his mother, Helga. An elevator was added to the house in 2009   



Illustrations: Private Collection; LAPL