PLEASE SEE OUR COMPANION HISTORIES





  • Built in 1923 on Lot 52 in Tract 3668
  • Architect: Daniel C. Messinger
  • On August 22, 1923, the Department of Buildings issued John Straub a permit for a 10-room residence at 116 North Rossmore; on September 11, 1923, Straub was issued a permit for a 24-by-30-foot garage on the property




Details of the front entrance of 116 North Rossmore Avenue are seen
above with a southwesterly view of the rear of the residence in 1926 images
commissioned by John Straub for promotional purposes. Patterned canvas awnings
were an original feature of many Los Angeles house of the period. The Packard
in the driveway is likely to have been John Straub's; the photographer was
the prolific Dick Whittington, whose shot of the living room is below.



  • It appears to have been Straub's habit, as it was of many residential builders, to occupy his projects pending their sale
  • The first purchase of 116 North Rossmore appears to have been by businessman John McCarthy, or his widow. It is unclear as to whether McCarthy was the high bidder in John Straub's auction of the house on September 12, 1926. He was to die at the age of 70 on December 29, 1927; it is not known whether the family moved into 116 by that time or whether his widow acquired the house from Straub soon after. Mrs. McCarthy was, in any case, in residence with the children by mid 1928. Born in Fort Wayne on March 20, 1857, John McCarthy had been a school principal before becoming a railroad man and miner based in Chicago. There, active in Democratic politics, he was appointed Superintendent of Streets and, later, as Commissioner of Public Works, all in addition to running his own construction firm, which received more than a few city contracts. According to one biographical sketch, McCarthy became "too busy in public affairs and duties to indulge much in any outside tastes and recreations," which may account for his not marrying until 1911 at the age of 54. John and Evelyn McCarthy promptly produced John Jr., who appears to have died at less than two years of age, two daughters (Evelyn Jr. and Helen), and (the 1930 census indicates) a second John Jr. before John Sr. retired and the family moved west to Pasadena by late 1919


It took several years for builder John Straub to unload 115 North Rossmore even during the boom
years of the 1920s, during which the population of Los Angeles more than doubled. Straub
placed the advertisement seen at left in the Times on October 25, 1925; by the
following year he had consigned the house to auction, an ad for which
Charles O'Connor placed in the Times on September 12, 1926. 

              
  • Evelyn McCarthy would retain 116 North Rossmore Avenue until her death in 1970. She married again in 1935; her husband was shady chiropractor Adolf Walter von Lange, who was born in Poland in 1881 as Adolf Tworkowski. Curiously Dr. Von Lange—who sometimes styled himself as Professor Von Lange—was listed in the vital statistics columns of the Los Angeles Times (on July 21, 1935) and the Evening Post-Record (on July 22) as having just filed his intention to marry a Gertrude Lewinsky; perhaps it was a clerical error, given that he'd noted on his petitions for naturalization filed a few years later that he'd married Evelyn in Chicago on August 3, 1935. The first of these petitions, dated December 1937, was rejected with the notation that Von Lange had provided "insufficient proof of good moral character." It wasn't until after a third petition in August 1940 that Von Lange was naturalized. Von Lange claimed to have two children living in upstate New York; Evelyn's younger daughter Helen had married in 1935, with Evelyn Jr. and John Jr. apparently going off to school
  • Would Evelyn McCarthy have been so charmed by Adolf von Lange had she the research capabilities of the government? On June 5, 1930, the Times ran a small item in its "News of Southern Counties" section that might have suggested something of the government's later concern regarding the character of her second husband. After being arrested for peddling a cure-all to the ladies of the Ontario Woman's Club without a license, he paid a $50 fine and left town, apparently next trying the gullable of Long Beach, where he tried promoting his services under various names and in various locations before decamping once again, this time to the big city. Dr. Von Lange was in the habit of running frequent small display advertisements in newspapers; he began a series of them in the Times for his Vienna Health Institute—formerly the Health Center Institute, listed under "Physical Culture" in city directories—located above the celebrated Dutch Chocolate Shop in a small loft building (still) at 219 West Sixth Street downtown. Versions of his ads would run for over 30 years, early ones offering a complete examination for one dollar and a request to "Please Bring Morning Urine." Von Lange trademarked his own purgative as "Vienna Lax." Later ads claimed "Colds Cured in 2 Hours," and offered "Men Only Rejuvenation" and the "Vienna Heat Pack" and "Drugless European Methods" for treatment of various ailments. In 2016, über-historian Kim Cooper discovered the remains of Von Lange's establishment on Sixth Street and has written of her findings, with haunting images, here




  • On February 8, 1956, Dr. Von Lange and his receptionist were duped by a man who sought a consultation at the office on Sixth Street. Pulling a gun mid-exam and demanding money, the intruder ransacked the rooms after being informed by the doctor that there was no cash on hand, fleeing after tying up him and his assistant with (apparently very long) shoe strings
  • Dr. Von Lange's 1966 professional license renewal indicates his home address still as 116 North Rossmore. He continued practicing at the same office into the late 1960s; the "Vienna Drugless System" was still listed at 219 West Sixth Street in the 1969 city directory issued in January. The doctor died the following April 20 at the age of 87
  • Evelyn Mommer McCarthy Von Lange died on June 12, 1970, at the age of 84. While her second husband was interred at Forest Lawn, she was sent for burial next to John McCarthy in the Catholic Cemetery back in Fort Wayne
  • Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hunter succeeded Evelyn von Lange at 116 North Rossmore by 1973; the couple added a new swimming pool of irregular shape that year and remodeled the kitchen the next
  • Entertainment lawyer Stephen Silbert owned 116 North Rossmore by the late 1970s; a fellow partner in his firm, Wyman, Bautzer, Chitstensen, Kuchel & Silbert, was the fabled Hollywood attorney Greg Bautzer. In October 1986, Silbert left the firm when he was appointed president and chief operating officer of MGM/UA Communications Company. Leaving MGM in May 1991, he rejoined partners from Wyman, Bautzer who had formed Christensen, White, Miller, Fink & Jacobs in 1988
  • Trial lawyer Dennis Kinnaird was living at 116 by 1994. There have been at least two owners of 116 North Rossmore since the mid 2000s 



Illustrations: Private Collection; USCDL; LAT