A Rare Copper-Roofed Home by R.M. Schindler Lists in L.A. for $4.5 Million
After a successful decade-long career on Broadway, where he portrayed the Duke of Norfolk in the Tony Award-winning production of A Man for All Seasons , Albert Van Dekker relocated from his home state of New York to Los Angeles in 1937 to try his hand at movies.
The tall and ruggedly good-looking actor, who made his film debut in 1937's The Great Garrick and went on to star in the cult classics The Wild Bunch and Kiss Me Deadly , engaged modernist architect Rudolph M. Schindler to create a home for his family in the San Fernando Valley enclave of Woodland Hills, then a semi-rural agriculture area transitioning into the suburban community it is today. Built as a "country house with dramatic accents, in view of the owner's profession and social life," per Schindler himself, it included a copper-clad gable roof, bold colors, and geometric shapes; at roughly 3,800 square feet across three levels, it was also one of the largest residences the Frank Lloyd Wright protégé ever designed.
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A vaulted living room with a stone and copper fireplace opens to an enclosed porch.
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Van Dekker, who also served as a California State Assembly member, sold the striking residence in the mid-1950s to novelist and screenwriter Albert Isaac "Buzz" Bezzerides, who regularly welcomed high-profile guests from Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum to William Faulkner. He occupied the home for more than 50 years until his death in 2007, with his son, Peter, residing there until 2009.
In a state of disrepair after years of neglect and on the brink of potential demolition, the home went up for sale in 2009 and sold that same year to preservationist Josh Gorrell for $580,000. It transferred again in 2013 for $700,000 to real estate developer Frank Gamwell. Gorrell began, and then Gambell finished, a meticulous restoration and rehab that led to a preservation award and a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument designation. Now, 13 years after it last traded hands, the place has returned to the market for $4.5 million.
Lower-level amenities include an office with built-in shelving.
Still known as the Van Dekker House , the eye-catching gray, yellow-trimmed, and green-roofed structure sits on a gated hillside parcel spanning nearly half an acre offering valley and mountain views. Four bedrooms and a matching number of bathrooms are filtered across an L-shaped floor plan filled with Schindler's signature built-in furnishings, bright red floors, and a mix of sliding, clerestory, and polygonal windows providing natural light and a connection to the outdoors.
A highlight is the double-height living room, which showcases a steeply pitched, exposed wood-beam ceiling, a charcoal-hued fieldstone fireplace with an angular metallic hood, and access to one of two enclosed porches. A formal dining room and the other porch adjoin a kitchen sporting custom cabinetry and premium Bosch appliances, and elsewhere are an office, a fireside sitting area, a billiards room, and a wine cellar.
An elevated deck overlooks the saltwater pool and spillover spa.
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Secluded upstairs is a window-lined primary suite, which has a separate exercise room and a bath with dual sinks and a walk-in shower. There's also a detached 256-square-foot office with a kitchen and laundry, as well as alfresco amenities encompassing a barbecue station, a fire pit conversation area, and a wood deck lording over an asymmetric swimming pool and spillover spa.
According to the listing , held by Benjamin Kahle of Compass and Desiree Zuckerman of Coldwell Banker Realty, the historic abode is also covered under the Mills Act, meaning there are significant property tax savings in exchange for preserving the historic appearance.
Click here for more photos of the Woodland Hills residence.
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