The Story of a House: 1359 N. La Brea Avenue in Hollywood
Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Blog Post #60
By Tonya Graham McQuade
Built in 1911, this house that once belonged to my great grandparents, Frank & Nora Traughber, still stands at 1359 N. La Brea Avenue in Hollywood, CA. This is how is appeared in 1911, soon after they moved in.
Today I’m writing about a house – but it’s not just your average house. It’s the house in which my great grandparents, Dr. William Francis “Frank” Traugher and Nora Petree Traughber, lived for many years, located at 1359 N. La Brea Avenue in Hollywood. When they first moved there in 1911, the street was wider, orange and lemon trees dotted the surrounding land, and only a few movies had been made in Hollywood. But all that was about to change. Six years later, Charlie Chaplin would begin building his studio directly across the street from their house. Over the years, they would see their neighborhood change significantly, and now, theirs is the only single-family house left in the neighborhood.
I’ve recently been researching Frank and Nora Traughber for a book I’m working on about their amazing four-week honeymoon back in 1905, which took them to the Hotel del Monte in Monterey, Pacific Grove, Santa Cruz Big Trees, Catalina Island, San Francisco, Shasta Springs, Portland’s “Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition” World’s Fair, Seattle, Missoula, Yellowstone National Park (on a six-day trek around the park by wagon!), and Salt Lake City, before heading to their new home in Mexico, Missouri.
This book is in its final stages and will soon be available on Amazon.com. I hope you’ll check it out!
It was when I decided to add an “Afterword” about them eventually ending up in Hollywood, CA, that I discovered just how “talked about” their old house was online. When I typed in the address of their house to see if it was still there, I was AMAZED by how many people have posted photos and questions on various social media platforms about the house, wondering who lived there in its heyday and what stories that house might tell.
Today, the house is in a very dilapidated state, but for some reason it is still there – one of the oldest houses in Hollywood. I’ve stopped by on two occasions over the years to see it, and my father has stopped by several times as well. He remembers visiting his “Momo and Popo” there in the 1940’s and says he remembers it as a very “grand” house. He said that as a child, he always thought it was huge. It seemed smaller to him when he saw it as an adult many years later. Zillow lists the house as 2,552 square feet, with an estimated value of $1,224,300. It sits on a 6,371 square foot lot on the corner of N. La Brea and De Longpre Avenues. In its current state, it would take a lot of time and money to make it livable – but how I would love for someone to take that on.
The house as it appears today in a Zillow listing (it is not currently for sale)
As I have discovered the past two days, many people have suggested in their posts to various groups on Facebook, Instragram, and Threads that the house should be restored and declared a historic landmark. Wouldn’t that be amazing! Some have suggested it would be a great restaurant or coffee shop; others, that it could be a historic inn or a museum (I love that idea).
I especially enjoyed reading through one long thread in the Facebook group “Lost Angeles” and decided to add my own photos and some information about the house in its early years. My post quickly racked up more than 450 reactions and comments. So, I decided to dig in a bit more. To be designated a historical landmark, as the Charlie Chaplin Studio has been across the street (more on that later), requires that people know the background of the place, so here, I will provide some. Perhaps if the right person sees this, it will help get the ball rolling to preserve this historic house.
Here’s my original post in the “Lost Angeles” Facebook group — as of 2/17/26 at 3:55 p.m., it had racked up 484 reactions and 73 comments, plus many comments on the individual photos as well. People know this house!
Frank and Nora Traughber were both originally from Missouri. Frank grew up in Centralia and Nora in Kirksville. She came to California to attend Stanford University, from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in May 1905. Two months later, Frank traveled from Missouri to meet her, and the two of them were married in San Jose, CA, at the home of Nora’s brother Louis Petree and his wife Kittie on August 17 (see this previous blog post for more details). As an interesting side note, the “Neil Petree Hall” at the Los Angeles Convention Center is named after their son, who played a huge role in early city planning.
Nora Petree in her Graduation Robe - Stanford University, May 1905
From there, they set off on the amazing honeymoon mentioned above before returning to Mexico, Missouri, where “Dr. Traughber” had an established medical practice as an Osteopath. My new book, Frank & Nora’s Historic Honeymoon Adventure: A Travelogue through the West with a “Time Travel” Twist, will tell a lot more about their adventures and share many photos from their scrapbook, as well as share some of my own stories and photos from my travels to many of those same locations.
After two years in Mexico, Missouri, though, the couple – now with a son born in 1906 named Frank – made the decision to move to Southern California. According to a 1908 Los Angeles Directory, they first lived at 1312 W. 9th Street in Los Angeles, then moved to 857 Adams Street (1909-1911) while Frank attended the University of Southern California (USC). He had been a practicing Doctor of Osteopathy since graduating from A.T. Still University in Kirksville, Missouri, in 1901 (see this previous blog post for more details). However, after graduating from USC’s College of Physicians and Surgeons on June 15, 1911, he could also work as a surgeon.
Frank and Nora lived at this house, located at 857 E. Adams Street, for two years; a sign above the door says, “Dr. W. F. Traughber, Osteopath,” and one year-old son Frank is standing on the porch.
It was after Frank’s graduation that the couple moved to 1359 N. La Brea Avenue. By this time, in addition to their son Frank, they had two other children: my grandmother Margareth Ruth Traughber (b. Feb. 1909) and her brother William Virgil Traughber (b. Oct. 1910). Brother Robert Taylor Traughber would not be born until Oct. 1913. The family is listed as living at this house in the 1920, 1930, and 1940 U.S. Census records, always with Frank working as a physician in his own private practice. In 1930, the house is recorded as being valued at $20,000. Dr. Traughber sometimes received patients at his “residence by appointment,” as specified below, but he also had offices over the years at a number of locations.
One of Dr. Traughber’s medical offices was in the Consolidated Realty Building in Los Angeles.
In its heyday, this was a beautiful craftsman-style home, with a good-sized front yard lined by palm trees. When La Brea Avenue was widened in 1928-29, the Traughbers lost a big chunk of their front yard. Some of the photos in my great grandparents’ photo album, though, show the house in those early days.
The house as it appeared with lots of vegetation and palm trees before La Brea Avenue was widened, at which point they lost much of their front yard.
Nora, Frank, and children, c. 1912, on the porch of their home at 1359 N. La Brea Avenue
Photo caption written on side: “Sun. eve at home 11-1-14”
Dr. William Francis “Frank” Traughber, wife Nora Petree Traughber holding book, and children (from left) Robert, Frank, William, and Margaret (my grandmother), 1914
Last year, I was contacted through Ancestry.com by a man named John Ripley from Pasadena, CA, who had seen the photos I had posted of the house. As he told me in his message, “I'm researching the work of a noted architectural firm of the early 20th Century - the firm of Arthur S. Heineman, with his brother Alfred as chief designer. They worked in the Los Angeles area from about 1904 until the late 1940s. Among their best bungalows was the one they designed in 1911 for your ancestor Dr. "Frank" Traughber and his family. It is located, of course, at 1359 N. La Brea, Hollywood.”
John wanted to know if I had any additional photos to share, which I did, so I sent them to him. He then let me know that two 1970s photos of the house appear in the book Early-20th-Century Los Angeles Bungalow Architecture, by Harry Zeitlin and Bennett Gilbert (2022, Arcadia Publishing). I have not seen the book, but I plan to check it out. Finally, he told me that “the basic plan is the same as a Heineman house done 5 months earlier at 731 Irolo Ave,” but that one “had different porch columns and detailing” and had been torn down, as had many of the others.
According to John, the Heineman brothers designed around 220 houses in the 1908-1914 period, but only about 110 still exist. He attached a digital scrapbook titled “Arthur and Alfred Heineman: 26 Representative Works 1909-1914” to his email message, showing photos detailing some of the houses they designed. The following are images from that scrapbook, used here by permission. (Thanks, John!)
This house was one of approximately 220 houses designed by Arthur and Alfred Heineman.
The above photos, taken when the house was serving as a massage parlor in the late 1970s, appear in the book Early 20th Century Los Angeles Bungalow Architecture, by Harry Zeitlin and Bennett Gilbert (2022, Arcadia Publishing).
These photos, taken in 2015 and 2018, show several unique features of the house.
This house at 731 Irolo Avenue, which was demolished in 1958, shared a similar layout to the house at 1359 N. La Brea Avenue.
According to my father, my grandmother had many fond memories of growing up in this house. She lived there from 1911 (when she was two) until she married in 1933. I wish I could ask her to tell me some of those stories now. One that my father remembers hearing is how she and her brothers would sometimes sneak into Charlie Chaplin’s studio across the street to use his tennis courts! In my next post (this one is getting too long!), I’m going to write about Charlie Chaplin’s Studio and share some photos from that. Here, though, are a few of my grandmother in front of the house.
My grandmother, Margaret Ruth Traughber (Graham), is sitting on the left. I love all the dolls!
Here you can see Margaret standing on the right, on the side of the house, before “the Courts” were built.
One photo in the old scrapbook confused me. It just said “Courts,” and I thought perhaps this was a courtyard area between their house and the next house. I learned, though, that these kinds of “courts” were actually common back then. As I read online, “Bungalow courts are a distinctive, desirable and unfortunately endangered early 20th century form of workforce housing. These modest double (or sometimes single) rows of small cottages with shared community green space are usually under rent control and are much loved by their tenants.” [1]
The “bungalow courts” next to Frank and Nora’s house, located at 1351-1355 N. La Brea Avenue, were built in 1922, and they actually owned them for a while. My father remembers that his mother helped her parents manage these apartments at some point. Below, you can see the “Courts” as they appear in my great grandparents’ photo album, as well as how both the bungalows and the house appeared when my father visited with my mother in 1967, then when he visited again sometime in the 1980’s with both of my brothers. The printing on the photos is his.
This photo is just labeled “Courts” in my great grandparents’ photo album, and they are located right next to the house on N. La Brea Avenue.
The house and Courts as they appeared when my parents visited in 1967
The house as it appeared in the mid-1980’s when my father visited with my mother and brothers
The first time I remember seeing the house in person was in April 2014. My son at the time was attending The Master’s University in Santa Clarita, and my husband, daughter, and I drove down for a visit during Spring Break and decided to spend a day in Hollywood. I’d never really done the “tourist thing” there, despite growing up in California, and we had a lot of fun exploring Hollywood Boulevard, Grauman’s Chinese Theater, the Hollywood Museum, and the Hollywood Wax Museum.
My son Aaron & daughter Anna were very excited to put their hands into Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson’s handprints on Hollywood Boulevard in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
Then, I realized how close we were to the location of my great grandparents’ old house. We decided to take a walk down Hollywood Boulevard to N. La Brea Avenue, where we turned left. And then … there it was. The house looked very run-down and abandoned, which made me sad. As I walked around it to get a better view, I tried to picture what it might have looked like in its earlier years. I snapped a picture of the house from across the street, then we took another photo in front of what used to be Charlie Chaplin’s Studio (but was then the Jim Henson studio) before heading to the car.
The house as it appeared when we were there in April 2014
For one final stop, we drove by Hollywood High School, which my grandmother and her brothers attended, so I could get a quick look. As it turned out, the building that was there was not the same one that was there when my grandmother graduated in 1927. While I was writing this, though, I remembered that my dad gave me my grandma’s old yearbook, so I dug it out. It included some interesting old photos of the school, and I think Hollywood High School deserves it own post. So, stay tuned for more on …
1) Charlie Chaplin’s Studio
2) Hollywood High School
And yes, there are some interesting photos to go along with both of those posts as well! Check back soon!
Endnotes:
Cooper, Kim. “Bungalow Court Housing in Los Angeles Mapped.” The Esotouric Blog, 30 Mar 2023, https://esotouric.com/2023/03/30/bungalowcourt/.
