West Hollywood residents turned out Saturday for a guided tour of the inside of 1343 N. Laurel Ave., one of several steps the city is taking to get community input on a plan for the property.
The house, popularly known as “Tara,” has been “mothballed” to protect it during that process. An exhaust system has been installed to lower the humidity inside, windows have been fixed to keep out bugs and the rare bit of rain.
The city’s “visioning concepts committee” will meet on May 29 to review comments from those who toured the property with the goal of drafting by June 30 recommendations to the City Council for how best to use it.
From the outside, the building has retained its 1914 Colonial Revival style, albeit with some changes that were made in 1941 when it was converted from a single family home into four apartments.
On the inside, the house was showing its age on Saturday. Rooms in individual apartments were decorated with everything from 1960s retro colors to padded cloth wall covering to an collage of maps and travel souvenirs from around the world. The wood floors have been replaced in some rooms by linoleum and in other by wall to wall carpet. Architectural historian Margarita J. Wuellner has explained the historical significance of the building and its design.
Photographer Jon Viscott was on the scene to give you a look, displayed on the pages that follow:
It is important to clarify a very erroneous statement by the previous commentator…..the house was never going to be demolished. There was never such a plan.
ara to many is a symbol of fighting the city manger, city leadership and city councils agenda to demo great history. The city used I think at least a million of the #weho residents money to fight what many residents wanted in protecting this building from demo. In the end they had to abandon their efforts to demo. So it stands today as a symbol to some of community activism at work, protecting great architecture in #weho from out of town developer speculation of our city and a example of where the residents overcame the city hall agenda, the planning… Read more »
It was wonderful to be inside this wonderful house and I’m happy that it is still with us. But it was also disappointing to visit a place that could have been so much more than what it currently is. If it weren’t for obstacles placed in the way, there now could have been much needed senior housing in the back of the property, a refurbished main house for the community’s use, a public park and available parking for all those purposes. Instead, 14 years later all we have is this nostalgic tour. But there is still hope for this beautiful… Read more »
Terrific! When will it be open to the public for good?
The Community Visioning process is fantastic… — but lets give credit to the person who got us to this point. Allegra Allison. Here is a reprint of the article. Nice to see the community being involved in 2014.. but it was a long haul. Allegra Allison stepped up to the plate against all odds… and after the big win it cost the City of West Hollywood $900,000 in legal fees to pay the attorney’s representing the community who just begged to be heard. Remember the lines protesting the Sunset Millennium, and of course the battle over Plummer Park.. which was… Read more »