The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission voted Thursday to consider a hillside Silver Lake house built by Rudolph Schindler for inclusion on the city’s Historic-Cultural Monument List.
The monument application for the “Oliver House” — at 2236 N. Micheltorena St. — was filed by Noel Oliver Osheroff, who grew up in the home and restored the house as an adult. She told commissioners Thursday that her parents moved to Los Angeles in 1920, the same time architect Rudolph Schindler moved to the city to work on the Hollyhock House in Barnsdall Art Park.
Schindler was a prominent Austrian-American architect who worked with Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the Hollyhock House. Schindler made a name of his own by designing several solo projects, including The Kings Road House, Pueblo Ribera Court, Lovell Beach House, Wolfe House and How House.
Osheroff’s father visited the Kings Road House in Hollywood in 1928 and went home to his wife and said, “I have met the man that is going to build our home,” Osheroff recalled to commissioners Thursday.
Schindler built the Oliver House in 1933-34 in the Moreno Highlands area of Silver Lake, overlooking the Silver Lake Reservoir. Osheroff said she was 5 years old when the family moved into the home, which she lived in until she was 22. According to the Cultural Heritage Commission’s agenda, the property is owned by the Osheroff Family Trust.
Commissioners enthusiastically voted to take up consideration of the property for the Historic-Cultural Monument List, and many said they were eager to visit the property for a tour themselves.
“You’ve done a fabulous job of preserving, it’s really wonderful what you’ve done and I really admire your interest in having it be a monument and protecting it for future generations,” Commissioner Richard Baron told Osheroff during the meeting.
Commissioner Gail Kennard told Osheroff the property is like “eye candy.”
Following the commission’s vote to take the property under consideration, some of the commissioners will visit the site for a tour. The nomination will then be voted on by the commission, which will issue recommendations to the City Council on whether to designate the property, or a section of it, as a Historic-Cultural Monument.