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  • Built in 1923 on the southerly 90 feet of Lot 35 in Tract 3446
  • Original commissioner: Leotice Hill Lounsberry, wife of lumber dealer George L. Lounsberry
  • Architect: Arthur L. Acker
  • Contractor: George L. Lounsberry; as a lumber dealer, Lounsberry would presumably have chosen the best cuts of woods for his house, perhaps making 415 one of the better-constructed houses in Hancock Park. Lounsberry had built 647 East 29th Street in 1905, into which he and his wife moved after they were married that year; in 1908, he built a larger house at 3836 South Grand Avenue. The couple remained in the house he built at 2811 Orchard Avenue in 1912 until moving to 415 South Rossmore
  • On August 9, 1923, the Department of Buildings issued permits to Mrs. L. E. Lounsberry for a 10-room house and for a 24-by-33-foot garage at 415
  • The Lounsberrys had one child, Marjorie, born on December 1, 1908. She attended Marlborough and U.S.C., at some point meeting Hugh Herbert Hughes, son of a Los Angeles carpenter who may have been an acquaintance of her father. Hughes had studied forestry at the University of Idaho, where he'd been a fullback; he was also reportedly a heavyweight boxer during the '20s. He married Marjorie Lounsberry in the garden of 415 South Rossmore on June 25, 1930, by which time he was an insurance broker. The couple lived with her parents; their daughter Gweneth was born on January 18, 1933. Marjorie Lounsberry died on May 11, 1934, age 25, the cause unclear, with her funeral being held at 415 four days later. It appears that Hugh Hughes continued to live with his in-laws until he remarried in December 1936; his new wife was Barbara McCartney, whose mother was the painter Marion Churchill Raulston. (Mrs. Raulston lived nearby at 200 South Hudson Avenue; her sister and brother-in-law, Gertrude and F. Pierpont Davis, the architect, lived down the street from the Lounsberrys at 500 South Rossmore.) The second Hughes marriage lasted about four years; he was married yet again in June 1941, with a son being born the following January. In a sad postscript, Hughes, on a business trip to northern California in May 1948, was thrown into the Siskiyou County jail on a charge of drunkeness; there on May 3, per a Los Angeles Times report the next day, he slashed his throat and left wrist and died of his wounds. Gweneth Hughes was not mentioned in the Times article as a survivor alongside two half-brothers
  • Gweneth Hughes had continued to live with her grandparents at 415 South Rossmore until—and after—her marriage to Barry William Lundy at St. James' Episcopal on June 19, 1954, after which a reception was held at 415
  • George Lounsberry died at 415 South Rossmore Avenue on October 14, 1957. He was 74. Afterward, following a few years in an apartment at the southwest corner of Wilton Place and Seventh Street, Gweneth and Barry Lundy moved into her childhood home. The couple raised two daughters and a son—named Hughes Lundy—at 415, which would remain in the family for decades to come
  • Leotice Lounsberry died on May 24, 1974, age 92
  • Building permits issued by the Department of Building and Safety from 1923 indicate that only very minor alterations were made to 415 South Rossmore during the Lounsberry-Lundy family's remarkable 78-year ownership. A permit was issued to George Lounsberry on August 20, 1935, to extend the wall of an unspecified room out four feet; on February 28, 1955, he was issued a permit to add a bathroom. The Lundys were issued a permit on April 1, 1969, to add a large recreation room to the rear of the garage, which includes a fireplace. The last permit issued to the family was pulled on February 8, 1999, to repair unspecified minor fire damage
  • 415 South Rossmore Avenue was sold in 2001 for $1,262,500. After leaving their long-time home, the Lundys took an apartment six blocks north at Hancock Park Terrace, which overlooks the 13th hole of the Wilshire Country Club. Gweneth Lundy died at home on September 12, 2014, age 81
  • An owner of 415 South Rossmore after the Lundys carried out interior remodelings and added a swimming pool to the back yard


As seen in the Los Angeles Times, September 13, 1936: George Lounsberry had come west from
Iowa with his family by 1904; apparently aiming to cover all corners of the Los Angeles
area, George's father, Frank Lounsberry, established lumber yards in various
locations with various partners, George teaming with Walter J.
Harris by 1906. Lounsberry & Harris developed
a specialty in greenhouses.


Illustrations: Private Collection; LAT