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  • Built in 1928 on a parcel comprised of the irregular Lot 17 and the southerly 15 feet of Lot 16 in Tract 5640
  • Original commissioners: architectural draftsman Thomas Ansgar Johnsen and building contractor Rasmus George Nielsen for resale
  • Architect: Thomas Ansgar Johnsen
  • On February 29, the 1928, the Department of Building and Safety issued permits for a 12-room residence and a two-story, 22-by-28-foot garage–servants' quarters at 546 Rimpau Boulevard. Permits for 546 Rimpau appear to have been completed by R. G. Nielsen, who signed them, though they indicate Thomas A. Johnsen as the nominal owner. The project appears to have been a joint speculative venture of the two men; Johnsen was a draftsman in the office of architect Robert H. Orr
  • Well-known Los Angeles automobile distributor and oil investor Ralph Cunningham Hamlin bought 546 Rimpau Boulevard from its builders and was in residence by early 1930 with his wife Clare, her mother Ada Martin, and the Hamlins' 17-year-old maternal niece Clare Kean. Their daughter Marjorie, born in 1905, had married attorney Garnet Cecil Rainey in 1927. Ralph C. Hamlin is not to be confused with Ralph Hamlin, the Whittier rancher turned contractor who built in succession 530 South Rossmore Avenue (on spec in 1923) and then his own house at 656 South Hudson Avenue (in 1925). Ralph C. Hamlin appeared frequently in the press as he promoted the automobile industry, being most closely identified with his primary line of many years, the air-cooled Franklin. With the demise of the Franklin during the Depression, Hamlin began distributing another lost make, the Graham—"The Most Imitated Car on the Road"—and became a Hudson dealer in 1938


In a photograph taken around the time he moved into 546 Rimpau Boulevard, Ralph Hamlin poses
with an air-cooled 1929 Franklin Series 141 Transcontinental Six with his dealer plate attached.

   
  • The Depression years were not quiet ones for the Hamlins. The family was the victim of an armed home invasion at the dinner hour on Thursday, June 29, 1933; the perpetrators were later caught after a long series of robberies and burglaries in affluent neighborhoods across the city. The Los Angeles Record reported the next day that "Three well-dressed bandits entered the home at 546 Rimpau boulevard, and after covering their victims with guns, removed the rings from their fingers." The perps, who tore out the Hamlins' telephone line before fleeing, were eventually caught; on February 3, 1934, the Times reported that two men, called the "6 o'clock bandits" because of their preferred striking hour, had been captured after having carried out as many as 60 daring thefts of jewelry worth $47,000. In addition to hits in Beverly Hills and Pasadena, the men plundered 20 houses in central Los Angeles over two years. (The pair was implicated but not proven to be involved in other Wilshire District robberies including one of $33,000 in gems from Mrs. E. M. Smith of 33 Berkeley Square in May 1933)
  • On October 9, 1933, the Department of Building and Safety issued a permit to Ralph Hamlin for repairs after an unspecified fire
  • On January 10, 1934, what was now the Los Angeles Post-Record carried an item noting that "A blast occuring as a result of a bomb, said to have been set off by two high school students, caused no damage in an empty lot next to 546 South Rimpau boulevard last night, police reported." The Times described the device as home-made and noted that nearby residents reported seeing "youths of high-school age" digging in the lot just before the explosion
  • Despite armed robbery, fire, and bombs, the Hamlins remained at 546 Rimpau until 1939. The couple decided to move to a house at 2950 Overland Avenue on the Westside owned by their daughter and son-in-law even before selling 546; the house is marked "vacant-house for sale" on the 1940 Federal census enumerated on April 23. (After Garnet Rainey died suddenly in December 1943 at the age of 47, Marjorie moved into the Overland house with her parents. While house relocations were rare after the onset of the Depression, Mrs. Rainey, planning to redevelop its parcel into an apartment complex, had the Overland Avenue house moved to 177 North Saltair Avenue in Brentwood Heights in 1958, converting a smaller building apparently already on the lot into a dwelling for her parents)
  • Louis Allen his wife, née Jennie Rattner—both Manhattan-born—were the next owners of 546 Rimpau Boulevard, moving from Country Club Park with their three young children, Ann, Lois, and son Gene, by early 1941. Allen was a wholesale textile merchant; his business partner was his brother Isidore, who'd built 181 South Las Palmas Avenue in Hancock Park in 1935
  • The Allen family would retain 546 Rimpau Boulevard for nearly 50 years. Mrs. Allen regularly hosted meetings of local Vassar alumnae at 546. On December 22, 1951, the Allens' elder daughter Ann married Robert Belknap Brown of Berkeley in a quiet home ceremony at 546. With a sizable writeup in the Times, the Allens' yuonger daughter Lois married Kimball Curtis Firestone, son of Leonard K. Firestone—president of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company of California—in Reno on May 12, 1957; charging cruelty, she divorced him 16 months later
  • Still living at 546 Rimpau, Jennie Allen died on December 7, 1987, at the age of 86; Louis Allen died at 95 on April 29, 1988
  • By early 1989, 546 Rimpau Boulevard was on the market at an asking price of $1,750,000. The house appears to have sold to what advertisements in the Times in 1992 referred to Hollywood producer. Classifieds in the paper's "Garage/Yard Sale" column in January 1992 announced that a "prominent collector must sell" his extensive art collection and furnishings; later that year, large bordered display ads appeared touting a "highly important" public auction at 546 of the possessions belonging to the estate of an "anonymous Hollywood producer." Who this party may have been so far remains a mystery; at least one vague record indicates that the house may not have been sold by Louis Allen's heirs until 1993. Although there is little evidence of it, could Louis Allen have gotten into movie producing after his career in textiles? Adding to the confusion is that the property was offered for lease at $5,000 a month in the fall of 1996, ads claiming that it has "Hollywood history." (A grain of salt is called for in that even a five-minute visit to a house in Los Angeles by a member of the Hollywood community can be whipped up into ownership by real estate promoters)
  • On July 28, 2003, 546 Rimpau Boulevard sold for $2,850,000. The house appears to have had little in the way of alterations since it was built, even owners in recent decades appearing to have retained its original design


As seen in the Los Angeles Times on September 13, 1992



Illustrations: Private Collection; LAPL; LAT