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  • Built in 1927 on Lot 23 in Tract 5640
  • Original commissioner: Lillie Newell McCusker
  • Architect: John L. De Lario
  • On May 26, 1927, the Department of Building and Safety issued Mrs. Lillie N. McCusker a permit for a 10-room residence at 654 Rimpau Boulevard; on September 3, 1927, Mrs. McCusker was issued a permit for a two-story, 25-by-28-foot garage with staff quarters on the property
  • Born in Dwight, Illinois, on March 21, 1865, Lillie McCusker was one of three daughters of Henry T. Newell, an early Los Angeles real estate developer and banker who'd arrived in the city in the early '80s. In February 1888 Lillie married Charles F. Kimball, secretary of Baker Iron Works, and was widowed two years later, days before her 25th birthday. She married Los Angeles real estate operator James A. McCusker in Boston in 1903 and became a widow again in 1916
  • Lillie McCusker's youngest sister Maud was married to real estate developer Philip Louis Wilson; in 1923 the Wilsons had hired architect John L. De Lario to design their house at 644 Muirfield Road, around the corner from the future site of the De Lario–designed 654 Rimpau. The sisters' father had died in 1920; Lillie remained living with her mother at 915 Westlake Avenue, the Newells' longtime residence, until the death of Mrs. Newell on April 10, 1926. The Westlake district was one of the many fashionable close-in suburban tracts that were eclipsed within a generation as newer developments such as Hancock Park siphoned off the affluent, which included the Newell sisters
  • Lillie McCusker lived quietly a 654 Rimpau Boulevard until her death there at 77 on October 11, 1942. Her obituary noted that she died after a lingering illness and that she had been a member of the first graduating class of Los Angeles High School, although she would have been 10 years old if that was accurate; she actually was graduated with the class of 1885
  • Following a successful lawsuit against him over his business practices running the Maier Brewing Company, Philip and Maud Wilson sold 644 Muirfield Road in September 1941 and moved into a Hollywood apartment; after Mrs. McCusker's death, they decided to return to Hancock Park, Mrs. Wilson either having been left 654 Rimpau in her sister's will or having acquired it from her estate. The Wilsons' daughter, Catherine, had married attorney Victor Winnek at 644 Muirfield in 1932 and moved to San Diego, where, after an illness of over a year, Mr. Winnek died on December 10, 1943, age 38. It may have been that, anticipating his death, the family formulated plans for establishing Catherine and the Winneks' two sons, Wilson Hall Winnek and Richard Newell Winnek, back in Los Angeles, where they would live with the Wilsons at 654 Rimpau Boulevard. From the time the house was built, the extended family would occupy it for over 40 years. The 1950 Federal census enumerates the Wilsons there along with Catherine and her sons. Catherine is noted on the document as working as a saleswoman in a department store, the extended family perhaps still recovering from the effects of the Maier lawsuit
  • Maude Wilson died at St. Vincent's Hospital on July 7, 1963; Philip Wilson died on February 26, 1970, after which 654 Rimpau was sold. Catherine Winnek moved not far away to half a duplex she bought at 225 South Orange Drive
  • Agner Pedersen occupied 654 Rimpau Boulevard during the 1970s; owners succeeding him added a 16-by-36-foot swimming pool in 1979 and in 2014 a masonry wall to conceal the driveway from the back yard


Illustration: Private Collection