PLEASE SEE OUR COMPANION HISTORIES


  • Built in 1924 on Lot 16 in Tract 3446
  • Original commissioner: The Preston S. Wright Company as a speculative investment
  • Architect: Everett H. Merrill
  • On September 25, 1924, permits were issued to the Preston S. Wright Company for a 12-room residence and garage at 540 South Rossmore
  • On April 26, 1925, the Los Angeles Times ran a photograph of 540 headlined "Bond Broker Buys Residence." James Martin Welch was reported to have paid the Wright Company $75,000 for the property the week before; the paper claimed that "An ad in The Times started the deal"
  • On April 17, 1925, James Welch was issued a permit by the Department of Buildings to expand the garage to accommodate four cars. This building would later become a guest house, a new garage being built 60 years later
  • Almost as soon as he moved into 540 South Rossmore, James Welch became embroiled in the Julian Petroleum scandal; a lawsuit filed against him claimed that he had accepted payment from the complainant for Julian stock that Welch proceeded to take for his own use. According to the Los Angeles Times of October 30, 1925, the complainant demanded $104,833 in restitution. It appears that Welch and his son Ralph countersued and were exonerated
  • James Welch and his wife Sarah had two sons—Howard in addition to Ralph—and a daughter, Florence, who had attended the Villa de Chantal finishing school back in Rock Island, where the family had been living before moving west. The Times of January 20, 1926, reported that the Welches had just announced their daughter's engagement to Earl Le Roy Thompson, and that she had recently given a luncheon to tell her friends of her betrothal; the wedding was to take place on February 20 at 540 South Rossmore. Curiously, Florence instead married George Ward Fleury at St. Basil's on June 29, 1926, with a wedding breakfast afterward at 540. James Fleury was born on April 22, 1927; the couple was divorced within a few years, Florence returning to live at 540 with the baby


As seen in the Times on July 7, 1926: After a long
honeymoon and a short marriage, Florence
moved back into 540 with her parents.


  • It may be that the Depression caught up with the Welches by 1937; in late June of that year, the "12 Room English home" and its "Furnishings of Super Elegance" were auctioned off, a detailed inventory appearing in a large display advertisement in the Times on June 27, as seen below. By early 1940, James, Sarah, Florence, and James Fleury were renting 502 South Irving Boulevard
  • Oldsmobile dealer Harold Kaiser appears to have acquired 540 South Rossmore in the June 1938 auction, or at least by that December. Harold's brother and business partner Irvin Kaiser had completed 99 Fremont Place nearby the year before
  • On December 21, 1938, the Department of Building and Safety issued Harold Kaiser a permit to, for reasons unclear, lift up, turn, and reset the garage/utility room on its slab. Kaiser added a swimming pool to the rear of the property in 1941 and was issued a permit on June 9 of that year to build a 20-by-40-foot poolhouse
  • Harold Kaiser died at 540 South Rossmore on March 14, 1960; Mrs. Kaiser left the house soon after
  • Banker William Van de Carr occupied 540 South Rossmore from the early 1960s into the '70s; in an alleged conspiracy with two other businessmen, he was indicted in 1971 on 13 felony charges of using bank funds to invest in the stock market. The result of United States v. Van de Carr was acquittal
  • In 1985, a subsequent owner built a new 38-by-31-foot garage; the 1924 garage was at this time, or had by this time been, converted into a guest house. Also carried out in 1985 was a remodeling of the residence including the enlargement the family room and of a sitting room above it. Another occupant built the property's six-foot-tall, 122-foot-long brick-and-ironwork perimeter fence in 1998


A detailed inventory of the contents of 540, as seen in the Los Angeles Times on June 27, 1937



Illustrations: Private Collection; LAT