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533 Rimpau Boulevard




  • Built in 1925 on Lot 34 in Tract 5640
  • Original commissioner: Joseph Y. Baruh, manager of the Zellerbach Paper Company
  • Architect: Gordon B. Kaufmann
  • On July 2, 1925, the Department of Buildings issued Mr. J. Y. Baruh a permit for a 14-room residence with a two-car garage connected to the rear of the house by a covered breezeway
  • Born in Nevada City, California, on February 8, 1868, Joseph Yosoph Baruh settled first in San Francisco, where he became closely associated with the Zellerbachs and their budding paper empire after his sister Jennie married Isadore Zellerbach, middle of three sons of the Zellerbach company's founder, in 1891. Baruh himself rose quickly as the business expanded; in 1898 he was sent to Los Angeles to open a branch operation with his brother Marcus. There on October 20, 1902, he married 21-year-old Alabama-born Alma Hecht, whose sister Carolyn married prominent Los Angeles coffee, tea, and spice wholesaler Samuel Newmark the next April. The Baruhs commissioned architect S. Tilden Norton to build 625 South New Hampshire Street for them in 1908, where they would remain until moving to 533 Rimpau Boulevard. As residential patterns of the affluent evolved in the city, even those who had moved from fading Westlake or West Adams neighborhoods to fashionable new Wilshire-corridor subdivisions east of Wilton Place in the 1900s were deciding that the only place to be was west of Wilton; the newest development, with lots first going on sale in 1919, was Hancock Park, which became the last word in exclusivity east of Beverly Hills and aborning Westside districts such as Brentwood and Bel-Air


Joseph Yosoph Baruh in an undated photograph


  • On December 8, 1936, the Department of Building and Safety issued J. Y. Baruh a permit to install an elevator shaft at 533 Rimpau
  • Joseph Baruh would manage Zellerbach's Los Angeles operations for decades; after the firm merged with Oregon's Crown-Willamette Paper Company in 1928, Baruh became a vice president of the massive Crown-Zellerbach Corporation, a title he would hold for the rest of his life. Baruh was also a tireless philanthropist, serving as a director of the Community Chest from 1924 to 1950 and as a driving force behind raising funds for the new Cedars of Lebanon Hospital opened in February 1930 on Fountain Avenue. The Baruhs would remain at 533 Rimpau Boulevard until soon after a family gathering at the house to celebrate his 90th birthday on February 8, 1958. The house began to be advertised for sale that spring at an asking price of $87,500. By summer, "MUST BE SOLD" appeared in ad copy; the Baruhs were anxious to move to their permanent suite at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. After a party in that suite to celebrate the couple's 58th wedding anniversary on October 20, 1960, Joseph Barah died that evening. Alma Baruh survived until December 24, 1975
  • Purchasing 533 Rimpau Boulevard from the Baruhs in 1958 was attorney James Girard Butler, whose family would retain it until after his death there on May 26, 2005. The Los Angeles Times ran a lengthy obituary on June 4 that highlights his legal and civic endeavors and his time at 533 even if it mangles the identity of his only predecessor in the house: 

 

James G. Butler, who won the first jury verdict in a civil thalidomide case and whose role in founding a local chapter of the NAACP caused controversy in Compton, has died. He was 84.
Butler died of cancer May 26 at his longtime home in Hancock Park, said his son, James Butler Jr.
He made his name as a drug products lawyer in 1971 with a judgment against Richardson-Merrell, the company that tested thalidomide in the U.S. in 1960 and 1961.
Butler had successfully argued against the company's standard defense: Even though the drug it marketed as a sleeping aid had been linked to children born with deformed limbs, the company could not be held accountable because the thalidomide had been taken too late in pregnancy to cause harm.
Known for his colorful and charismatic courtroom presence, Butler once told a jury in a pharmaceuticals case, "If you do justice, you'll sock it to 'em."
In the thalidomide case, he argued that the experts could be wrong about what period of a pregnancy is crucial to fetal development and showed the jury the evidence—the plaintiff's daughter. The jury came back with a $2,750,000 verdict, later reduced to a reported $500,000.
Butler would go on to litigate each of the about 20 thalidomide cases in the U.S., his son said.
"He embraced issues of great importance that would have taken real intestinal fortitude," James Butler Jr. said.
[Compton civic leader] Maxcy Filer recalled how Butler, then a 35-year-old city attorney, stood up to city officials after becoming first vice president of the Compton NAACP in 1955.
"The City Council even asked Jim Butler, 'What can we do about this NAACP?' Jim said, 'You accept it.... In fact, here's my membership card.' They all kind of kept quiet for about five minutes," said Filer, the unofficial historian of the Compton NAACP. "Back then, the Compton NAACP had more white members than we did black."
The city attorney narrowly beat a recall effort orchestrated by the City Council in 1955. According to the Times's coverage of the recall, the council said it "could not rely on Butler's advice and considered his rulings 'self-serving.'" But Filer said the recall "was directly related to Butler founding the NAACP."
Butler would remain involved with the Compton NAACP until he moved to Hancock Park in 1958 [to] a house originally built for Bernard Baruch, a financier and advisor to presidents [sic].
James Girard Butler was born September 26, 1920, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. His father was a postman who traveled on a railroad mail car. After earning his bachelor's degree from St. Peter's College in Jersey City, Butler enlisted as a flier in the Marine Corps in 1943, piloting fighter planes in the Pacific theater. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, an Air Medal, three Gold Stars and five citations for bravery.
When he came down with malaria during World War II, he was treated by Eugenia Louise Jefferson, a nurse and master sergeant in the Marines who became his first wife. They married in 1945, and he earned his law degree from Georgetown University in 1947.
They raised their children to become political activists and were known for having an open house with a guest list that included members of the Black Panther Party. They also threw parties for art world friends with Caribbean music so loud that the police would show up. One neighbor, then head of the John Birch Society in Southern California, circulated a petition asking the family to sell the house, said Eugenia Butler, the eldest of the children.
"I sent my brother Justin out there and said, 'You tell them we are selling the house to the Black Panthers,' " she recalled with a laugh.
Her father was the main investor in his wife's innovative galleries, which helped legitimize conceptual art in the 1960s. The Eugenia Butler Gallery, open from 1968 to 1971, was applauded by a Times art writer as adventuresome.
Eugenia Butler once staged a monthlong exhibit by Icelandic artist Dieter Rot, consisting of 20 suitcases filled with cheese. The show ended when the Los Angeles Health Department closed it down.
James Butler also collected the work of several important artists, including the conceptual artist James Lee Byars, said his daughter, who is also an artist. The Otis College of Art and Design exhibited a survey of Eugenia Butler's work in 2003.
His interest in art was one example of Butler's capacity as "an intellectual giant," said Patrick Maloney, a San Antonio lawyer who met Butler through the Inner Circle, an exclusive organization for trial lawyers that Butler helped found in 1972. (Original qualifications: All members must have won at least a $1,000,000 verdict in a case involving physical injury or death.)
Butler successfully represented clients in major litigation involving the 1974 crash of a DC-10 in Paris and the 1986 hijacking of a 747 in Karachi.
Richard Daum, a paralegal who worked with the lawyer from 1980 until he retired in 1992, compared walking into Butler's Wilshire Boulevard offices to "walking into MOCA downtown." Eight Andy Warhol lithographs of Marilyn Monroe, in addition to other well-known artists' works, lined the walls.
Butler's first marriage ended in 1970. His second marriage, to artist Morgan Thomas, lasted from the late 1970s to 1989.
His first passion was for his work, but it was not without remorse. "When he was 70, he took me out and said his one regret was that he didn't spend more time with each and every one of his children," James Butler Jr. said.
Still, the son played enough Scrabble with his father, a collector of dictionaries, to conclude: "He knew more two-letter words that got you 50 points than anyone I ever met."
Butler is survived by nine children and four grandchildren. 

  • On October 24, 1961, and again on March 10, 1963, Mrs. James G. Butler was issued permits by the Department of Building and Safety for remodelings of the kitchen and family room at 533 Rimpau; the architect hired for the project was H. Hrant Agbabian
  • Owners since 2006 have made significant changes to the property at 533 Rimpau Boulevard including small additions to the first and second floors in 2007. In 2011, a swimming pool was added and the most serious change to the original integrity of the house made when the original 1925 garage and its connecting breezeway were demolished. A replacement one-story, two-car garage was constructed on the northwest corner of the property and the next year a new porte cochère was added to the northwest corner of the house


Illustrations: Private Collection; USCDL