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501 South Rossmore Avenue




  • Built in 1923 on Lot 30 in Tract 3446
  • Original Commisioner: Film producer Harry M. Warner of Warner Bros.
  • Architect: Arthur Burnside Sturges
  • Contractor: The Rogers B. Sturges Company; Rogers Burnside Sturges was Arthur Burnside Sturges's son, who was 29 at the time construction began on the house. The elder Sturges had been a prominent architect in Toldeo until moving to Los Angeles in 1911; the house he built for himself in 1912 still stands at 146 South Van Ness Avenue
  • On August 21, 1923, the Department of Buildings issued H. M. Warner a permit for a one-story, 22-by-33-foot garage with chauffeur's quarters; on September 27, Warner was issued a permit for a 13-room house at 501 South Rossmore. Both buildings are of frame constrcution with brick veneer and clay barrel-tile roofs. With an odd, dated, somewhat Victorianesque central section of its façade appearing to be almost tacked on, the house is an unusual take on the red-brick Georgian Colonial style
  • Among those Hollywood legends appearing to be true is that Harry M. Warner, his studio already in financial trouble but betting big on introducing sound to film, sold, among other personal assets, 501 South Rossmore in early 1927 to finance production of what is considered the first talkie, The Jazz Singer, which opened in New York on October 6, 1927
  • Railroad man and oil operator Jerry Miere Kent bought 501 South Rossmore from Harry M. Warner, moving from 621 South Wilton Place. Kent, who signed his name "Jerry Miere Kent," was, apparently, born "Jeremiah"; Kent's bumptiousness was well illustrated when, after running his car into another at the intersection of Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards on October 1, 1927, he apparently bragged to the other driver that he "could not be arrested, he was too big a taxpayer." He was arrested that day and faced a jury trial the following February; while the Evening Express reported on February 15 that Kent was found guilty and would begin serving "a long jail term," the Times reported on the same day that he was only fined $200—which was suspended—and given six months' probation in lieu of prison
  • Jerry Kent's wife, Lillian, who appears to have been a stage actress before her marriage in 1914, and the Kents' daughters Josephine Mariette and Doris Christine, played the role of society women, perhaps with the help of a press agent, during their time at 501 South Rossmore. Their appearances in social reportage included a large posed picture of the ladies in the Times prior to their sailing for Europe in June 1932. It seems that the Kents' marriage hit the rocks later in the decade, with Jerry moving at some point into the Jonathan Club, where he was living when he died on March 16, 1951


As seen in the Los Angeles Times on May 30, 1932


  • 501 South Rossmore was being offered for sale in the spring of 1939 for $39,000
  • Lillian Kent was still living at 501 in November 1939 when Josephine married Dr. Denver Darrell Coleman at the First Congregational Church, with a reception at home afterward
  • The house was on the market in early 1943, though no price was given in a Times classified on March 14. Lillian Kent appears to have remained at 501 South Rossmore through the war years, leaving sometime before the fall of 1945 for an apartment. She seems to have rented the house for several years while it lingered on the market all the way until the late summer of 1949. An advertisement in the Times on March 31, 1948, offered 501 as the "Best Buy in the City"; 15 days later, it had been "Greatly Reduced To Sell at Once." (No price was given in either ad.) On November 14, 1949, a Times ad was still offering the house, "drastically reduced." The next day the real estate agent's ad read "501 S. Rossmore—SOLD!" (Lillian Kent built a house at 1316 Capri Drive in Pacific Palisades in 1952; she was living there when she died on December 27, 1953)
  • No sale price was mentioned, but tax attorney Arthur Richard Kimbrough appears to have gotten a good deal on 501 South Rossmore; he and his family were coming from 110 North Plymouth Boulevard in nearby New Windsor Square. In August 1939 he'd married to Joy Laverne Hamlin, daughter of Ralph Hamlin, builder of several Hancock Park houses including 530 South Rossmore, also built in 1923, and his own at 656 South Hudson Avenue in 1925; the Kimbroughs' wedding ceremony took place in the garden of the bride's maternal aunt, Una Verda Peters Mayell, at 684 South June Street
  • On April 9, 1954, A. R. Kimbrough was issued a permit by the Department of Building and Safety to repair minor fire damage. A permit to build a 17-by-38-foot swimming pool was issued on April 10, 1957. One to repair chimneys damaged in the Sylmar earthquake of February 9, 1971, were issued on the following April 5
  • The Kimbroughs were still living at 501 South Rossmore when Laverne died on October 6, 1974. It appears that Richard Kimbrough wasted no time in finding a new wife, two in fact, in short order. At 62 he married 33-year-old twice-divorced (at least) Dianna J. Poillon Wilcher Lipps in March 1975; a divorce came four months later. Kimbrough married 31-year-old Geraldine Gordon the following January. (Dianna J. Poillon Wilcher Lipps Kimbrough added Perkett to her growing list of names when she married again in May 1976)
  • Richard Kimbrough renovated 501 South Rossmore along with his marital status during 1975; that year, the Department of Building and Safety issued him permits to upgrade the poolhouse and to make interior alterations to the residence
  • Richard Kimbrough appears to have left 501 South Rossmore before 1987; he died on June 24, 1992. It may be that his family retained the property for some time after that
  • A number of have names have been associated with 501 South Rossmore during the past 30 years. The house has suffered from heinous interior decoration and has been bought and sold several times over the past few decades, offering ads frequently touting its connection to Harry Warner; it sold in 2016 for $5,575,000

Illustrations: Private Collection; LAT