HANCOCK PARK

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BERKELEY SQUARE ADAMS BOULEVARD WILSHIRE BOULEVARD

WINDSOR SQUARE FREMONT PLACE ST. JAMES PARK

WESTMORELAND PLACE HISTORIC LOS ANGELES

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425 Rimpau Boulevard

Built in 1950 on Lot 39 in Tract 5640

Original commissioners: Mr. and Mrs. Loyd Otis Dodson

Architect: Herbert Gordon Riesenberg

On August 17, 1950, the Department of Building and Safety issued a permit for a seven-room house at 425 Rimpau Boulevard to Mr. and Mrs. Dodson

Loyd Dodson was a Los Angeles tire dealer who helped popularize whitewalls locally after noticing tires manufactured by the Vogue Tyre & Rubber Company of Chicago, said to be the originator of the style. The trade journal Modern Tire Dealer described Dodson's history in its issue of March 1, 2007: "While vacationing in Chicago, 24-year-old Loyd Dodson saw the whitewalls on the fancy chauffeur-driven cars cruising around town. He and his brother-in-law, Jack MacDonald, had each borrowed $3,000 to start a Los Angeles tire business in 1925, and Dodson saw great potential in marketing Vogue tires to the movie moguls and stars in 'La-La-Land.' By 1928, Dodson had signed a deal to acquire West Coast distribution rights to the tires. He concentrated on sales to owners of Duesenbergs, a top luxury car of the time. Before long, the distinctive white sidewall tires showed up on cars owned by film stars such as Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Marion Davies—and other people of means wanted them. People like Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Frank Robinson and Lyndon Johnson have been pictured with Vogue-shod vehicles." After MacDonald died suddenly in 1926, Dodson went on to buy the Vogue Tyre & Rubber Company itself and serve would as chairman of the board until his death in 1996 at the age of 94. His obituary in the Times on April 6, 1996, described his career and noted that he had served as president of the Wilshire Country Club. Another article in Modern Tire Dealer, this one appearing on August 19, 2014, quoted Doug Dodson, Loyd's grandson and himself a longtime Vogue board member: "My grandfather...began selling more Vogue tires in Los Angeles than [were sold] in Chicago. He had no formal education and didn’t graduate from high school. But by sheer intelligence, humbleness, friendliness and the ability to see the future, he swung through the depression. When everyone else was scared of World War II, he could see that when the war ended, there would be a huge market for tires. He was able to buy the company, and it started growing by leaps and bounds."

The Dodsons had been living in Hancock Park during the 1940s at 259 South McCadden Place; after selling that house in 1949 they rented 115 South McCadden as they made plans to build 425 Rimpau. The couple, who were married in 1921, had a son, Warren, born two years later. He was married in 1947; anticipating an empty nest, the Dodsons took out the initial permit for 425 eight days before the wedding of their daughter Lucile, who had been born in 1932

On May 13, 1969, the Department of Building and Safety issued Loyd O. Dodson a permit for two rear additions to 425 Rimpau Boulevard, one measuring 21 by 16 feet, the other 13 by 13 feet; on August 31, 1983, Dodson was issued a permit for a new roof

Bernice Dodson died in Los Angeles on March 18, 1985. Loyd Dodson appears to have retained 425 Rimpau Boulevard until his death on March 29, 1996

Actor George Takei bought 425 Rimpau Boulevard in 1996 for $610,000. Takei was not unaware of Hancock Park's infamous history of racial discrimination, having spoken publicly that for the evolution of the neighborhood "We owe it all to Nat 'King' Cole." He was referring to the fight the famous singer had on his hands to buy and stay in his house at 401 Muirfield Road, just a block east from 425 Rimpau