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  • Built in 1929 on Lot 40 in Tract 3668
  • Original commissioner: Hollywood real estate developer William E. Hoel
  • Architect: William E. Hoel
  • On November 1, 1929, the Department of Building and Safety issued William E. and Georgette Hoel permits for a two-story, 10-room house and a one-story detached garage at 245 South Rossmore Avenue
  • William Edgar and Georgette (née Longfellow) Hoel were both natives of Hamilton, Ohio, where they were enumerated in the 1910 Federal census, taken in April, with their grown son Carroll Louis and daughter Myrtle Josephine; on July 28, the Los Angeles Herald reported that William Hoel had received a permit two days before from the city's Department of Buildings to erect a two story, 10-room residence at 317 East Hollywood Boulevard. A permit for a rear "vehicle building and stable" was issued on August 15. On December 10, Hoel received a permit to build a small real estate office across the street. Hollywood itself had been annexed by the City of Los Angeles that February 7; with citywide address and street-name alignments made in the next seversal years, 317 East Hollywood Boulevard became 6243 Hollywood Boulevard. As that artery, with the Pacific Electric Railway running down the middle, was given over to commerce, Hoel had his house trucked slightly west and north to 1772 Ivar Avenue. Construction of the Hollywood Pantages Theatre began on the house's original site in the spring of 1929. Once the Hoels completed their move to 245 South Rossmore Avenue, their old house was demolished in the spring of 1930. William Hoel had brought his skills as a builder and developer west with him; Carroll joined him in business, their firm's original name, Hoel & Son, becoming the Central Realty Company within a few years. Myrtle had married Chicago wholesale grocer Steele Poague in the parlor of 6243 Hollywood Boulevard in December 1916, the couple moving back east afterward. Carroll married Cleveland native Augusta Alice Moeller in Ohio in May 1922, bringing her back to Los Angeles to live
  • William Hoel's 245 South Rossmore Avenue would be one of the very few houses built in Hancock Park after Wall Street's Black Tuesday, which came just two days before Hoel pulled his permits. Now 71, he was able to enjoy his retirement at 245 until his death there at the age of 77 on September 8, 1935. Carroll and Alice moved into 245 after the death of his father, Carroll becoming the head of the household. Georgette Hoel remained at 245 South Rossmore until her death at 81 on January 3, 1948. Carroll died at 245 later that year, two days before Christmas. He was 61. Alice Hoel remained at 245 South Rossmore; by 1954, she was living in an apartment at Park La Brea
  • Owning 245 South Rossmore Avenue next were Wisconsin native Robert Craig Stewart and his wife, née Tennessee-born Sarah Luella Stoker. The Stewarts had been married in Los Angeles on July 30, 1949, he then 35 and she 42. The couple lived in two modest central Los Angeles apartment buildings before moving to Hancock Park; Craig Stewart was enumerated in the 1950 Federal census without an occupation while Sarah was listed as a piano teacher. Where the capital came from to buy a substantial house in Hancock Park a few years later is unclear, but by then Stewart was styling himself as Dr. Robert Craig Stewart. He appears to have attended the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic, allowing him to add "D.C." after his name. Later, the Stewarts worked together, having seen the future in health foods. Their business was eventually called "House of Stewart Nutrition," with offices and a storefront on Wilshire Boulevard. Sarah managed the operation. Ads referred to her as a nutritionist; though her education credentials were unclear, she was noted in ads as a licensed physical therapist
  • Whatever the Stewarts were up to, there was money enough not only to buy an expensive house but to add a pool to the property, which they did in the fall of 1956. The Stewarts did well enough, or someone had come came into the marriage with enough cash, perhaps via a previous marriage of Sarah's, to be able to remain at 245 South Rossmore until 1972. The Citizen-News ran a profile—perhaps better characterized as an advertorial—featuring Sarah Stewart and the House of Stewart Nutrition on June 11, 1970. Then on Wilshire across from Bullock's, the business had become a substantial retail operation offering lunches, a juice bar, and protein drinks, "and that great specialty of the House of Stewart, the Tarzan Drink, consisting of tomato juice and a special liver mix." Display ads for the House of Stewart Nutrition were still running in the Times less than a month before Dr. Stewart's death on July 16, 1971; a funeral for him was held at 245 South Rossmore Avenue three days later. (In what might have been an endorsement for her own good health, 66-year-old Sarah Stewart married 35-year-old Benjamin Colimore in November 1973. The Colimores continued the House of Stewart Nutrition, though by late 1980 were charged with practicing medicine without a license and misleading advertising, for which they were fined and given 60-day suspended jail sentences and two year's probation. The business was shuttered for five days in May 1991 for violations including allowing a vermin infestation and for "gross contamination of food preparation surfaces." Not so healthy after all.)
  • 245 South Rossmore Avenue was for sale by late 1972; classified ads cited its oval pool and an asking price of $110,000 ($800,000 in 2023 dollars), which would be reduced as the property lingered on the market into at least the spring of 1973. In the wake of the 1965 civil unrest and Manson murders, the 1970s were not the best years for central Los Angeles real estate values, even for Hancock Park, which would have to wait years to be rediscovered
  • Attorney Philip L. Babin owned 245 South Rossmore Avenue in the 1990s. Owners in recent decades have carried out minor interior renovations, made a small rear upstairs addition, and replaced the swimming pool


Illustration: Private Collection