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  • Built in 1910 at the southeast corner of Fifth Street and Normandie Avenue—addressed 501 South Normandie Avenue, where it is seen above soon after completion—on a parcel comprised of Lot 62 and a portion of Lot 61 in the Wellington Tract by real estate investor, developer, and builder Matthew P. Gilbert as his own home; moved to 600 South Rossmore in 1980 after a 55-year stop on Lorraine Boulevard
  • Architect: Frank M. Tyler
  • The house at 401 South Rossmore two blocks north of 600 is sometimes cited as the oldest in Hancock Park; relocated in 1920 from its original location at 620 South Western Avenue, 401 was, in fact, built in 1912, after 600 South Rossmore was erected on Normandie Avenue. The Los Angeles Express of March 1, 1912, reported that permits for 620 South Western had just been issued by the Department of Buildings. Notes in the trade journal Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer of October 29, 1910, refer to permits being issued to M. P. Gilbert for the construction of 501 South Normandie, at which he was first listed in the Los Angeles city directory of 1911
    • 501 South Normandie was occupied by Matthew Gilbert until he had Frank Tyler design a new house for his family at 567 South Wilton Place in 1921 (demolished 1964)
    • Ownership of 501 South Normandie from 1921 until 1925 is unclear, but occupying the residence from 1921 to 1923 was naval hero, author, and staunch prohibitionist Richmond P. Hobson. George Huntington Hull, Hobson's father-in-law who was visiting from Tuxedo Park, New York, died in the house on March 12, 1921. (Hobson's younger brother James built 88 Fremont Place in 1924)
    • In 1925, 501 South Normandie was acquired by the Kress House Moving Company as an investment and moved to 637 Lorraine Boulevard, where it occupied the southerly 110 feet of Lot 114 in Windsor Square's Tract 1390. Relocation permits for the house and garage were issued to Kress by the Department of Buildings on September 10, 1925, in the name of Katherine Craig Robishaw, a secretary at the company; Mrs. Robishaw was the contact for advertisements placed by Kress offering the house for lease, although the house was sold instead
    • Transportation and radio executive Oliver R. Fuller purchased 637 Lorraine by early 1926. Among his other businesses, Fuller owned the Motor Transit Terminal Corporation, in the name of which he placed the house. In 1928, and again in the name of his company, Fuller had architect H. H. Whiteley design an elaborate new house for his family at 2400 Inverness Avenue in Los Feliz; too heavily invested in the stock market, he was bankrupt by 1931. Another transportation man, E. L. Cord, bought out his motor and radio interests, with Fuller continuing as president of the Auburn-Fuller Company, a dealer in Auburn and Cord automobiles. Fuller was also president of E. L. Cord's Century Pacific Lines, a small commercial airline that would soon become a seed of today's American Airlines
    • On April 20, 1926, a permit was issued by what was now called the Department of Building and Safety to the Motor Transit Terminal Corporation for an enlargement of the garage at 637 Lorraine
    • The house would remain in Windsor Square from 1925 to 1980. While the landlord's identity is unclear, 637 Lorraine would be rented briefly following the departure of Fuller to voice teacher William Thorner and his family, who were succeeded by renters Richard J. Forhan, attorney Hubert Laugharn, and insurance agent George Clarken, among others. Some sources report that in residence, if briefly, were actors John Barrymore and Dolores Costello, who were married from 1928 to 1934
    • Oilman J. Paul Getty, whose family built 647 South Kingsley Drive at the northwest corner of Wilshire Boulevard in 1908, had bought the legendary Jenkins house at 641 South Irving Boulevard in 1936. Some reports have it that Getty purchased 637 Lorraine, which very much resembled his parents' house, that same year. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times of June 22, 1980, he rented 637 to, among others, attorney Thomas O'Shaughnessy and then, in 1960, to Walter Andersen, who had been Getty's caretaker at 641 South Irving before its demolition in 1957
    • On September 16, 1971, the Department of Building and Safety issued the Getty Oil Company of California a permit to cap off a fireplace damaged in the Sylmar earthquake of the previous February 9
    • By 1980, 637 Lorraine had been acquired by investors Randy and Mary Lai
    • On April 14, 1980, a relocation permit for 637 Lorraine was issued to Ching Hsiang Lai of Beverly Hills for the house's removal to Lot A in Tract 3536, a redesignation of the westerly half of what had originally been part of Lot 17 in Hancock Park's Tract 3446. (A house was built on Lot B of Tract 3536, the redesignated easterly half of Lot 17 in Hancock Park's Tract 3446, in 1982.) What began as 501 South Normandie and then became 637 Lorraine remains at the southeast corner of Rossmore and Sixth Street today, addressed 600 South Rossmore Avenue. The 1980 permit indicates that a new garage would be built on Rossmore, one connected by a short breezeway to the newly situated residence
    • After a thorough renovation by the Lais, 600 South Rossmore was utilized as a design showhouse, with tours benefitting various charities; publicity made a point of mentioning J. Paul Getty's ownership. For-sale advertisements appeared during 1981, the house initially offered at an ambitious $1,300,000. It was still for sale in January 1983 priced at $890.000. By July, it had been reduced to $789,000
    • Per a permit issued by the Department of Building and Safety on October 23, 1987, owner Angelo Mansueto added a swimming pool to the property
    • Angelo Mansueto sold 600 South Rossmore to Thomas and Kathryne Neches in 2001 for $1,520,000; in 2007 the Neches sold it to the owners as of 2020 for $3,819,000


    The 1910 Gilbert house as seen at 600 South Rossmore Avenue after its second relocation; this image
    appeared in the Los Angeles Times on April 16, 1983, while the house was being offered for sale.



    Illustrations: Private Collection/LAPL; LAT