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Builidng History

Architect Harold B. Aarens designed this costly residence in 1924. The building contractor may have been Melville Austin Sheldon (1874-1944), who, In 1905, was one of only four paving contractors specializing in "oiled roads" listed in the Los Angeles city directory of that year (p. 2253). Sheldon also was listed in city directories as a cement contractor, but had retired by the early 1920s. It is unclear as to whether Sheldon served as the building contractor on this house or was its initial client, but records indicated that he never actually lived here. He lived from at least 1918 until 1944 at 2620 Van Buren Place. This Aarens-designed, Spanish Colonial Revival house cost about $40,000 to build in 1924, about five times the cost of an average middle-class house in the region. During the height of the Roaring '20s, the house at 2208 North Catalina Street may have been a costly speculative investment house for one or more parties. Investors in the project may have included Sheldon, Aarens, a banker, Edwin A. Barnes, and a movie exhibitor and real estate investor, Abraham Louis Gore, (1884-1951), and his wife, Ruth Ringer Gore, (1894-1971).

The Gores owned the property from about 1929 until 1952. In 1924, Abraham Gore had many job titles, including the Secretary-Treasurer of Gore Brothers, Incorporated, a real estate investment firm owned with his brother, Michael, Vice-President of the Bershon Tire Company, Incorporated, Secretary of West Coast Theatres, Incorporated, and Proprietor of Gores' Regent Theatre. He lived at 1136 South Gramercy Place in 1924. (See Los Angeles, California, City Directory, 1924, p. 1046.) It does not appear that the Gores lived in the house themselves, as they had other addresses listed various sources during this period. The Los Angeles, California, City Directory, 1938, (p. 820), for example, indicated that they resided at 2429 Ocean Front Promenade in the Ocean Park neighborhood of Santa Monica, CA.

Building Notes

The Los Feliz Improvement Association (LFIA) exhibited the house on its Historic Trees/Historic Homes Tour in 2014.