Villa Carlotta is the name of two landmark buildings in greater

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Altadena

''Villa Carlotta'' is a 7,000-square-foot Mission Revival-style house at 234 East Mendocino Street in

Altadena, California Altadena () is an unincorporated area, and census-designated place in the San Gabriel Valley and the Verdugos regions of Los Angeles County, California. Directly north of Pasadena, California, Pasadena, it is located approximately from Downtow ...

.O'Neill, Judie. (2014, May). Altadena Heritage Newsletter, pp 8-10. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. Completed in 1917, it was one of the first houses in Altadena in which electrical wiring was incorporated into the original architectural plans. The house was built by Francis Raymond Welles, who hired architect

Myron Hunt Myron Hubbard Hunt (February 27, 1868 – May 26, 1952) was an American architect whose numerous projects include many noted landmarks in Southern California and Evanston, Illinois. Hunt was elected a Fellow in the American Institute of Archi ...

. Hunt incorporated features of the Welles' family estate in France in the plans for Villa Carlotta, as evidenced by the house's high ceilings and tall windows. It remains a private house.

Franklin Village

Villa Carlotta Hollywood view from southeast 2015-11-15

''Villa Carlotta'' is a 50-unit Spanish Colonial-style apartment house at 5959 Franklin Avenue in the Franklin Village neighborhood of

Hollywood, California Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...

. It was built in 1926 for the widow of Thomas H. Ince and designated a Los Angeles historical cultural monument in 1986.Vincent, Roger. (2014, August 14)
''Old Hollywood landmark Villa Carlotta apartments sold''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

The four-story building was designed by Arthur E. Harvey, who also designed the nearby Château Élysée. The building's notable tenants include actor Edward G. Robinson, actress

Marion Davies Marion Davies (born Marion Cecilia Douras; January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies left the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl ...

, writer

William Saroyan William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...

, film producer

David O. Selznick David O. Selznick (born David Selznick; May 10, 1902June 22, 1965) was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive who produced ''Gone with the Wind (film), Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''Rebecca (1940 film), Rebecca'' (1 ...

, and architect Wallace Neff.

Louella Parsons Louella Rose Oettinger, (August 6, 1881 – December 9, 1972) known by the pen name Louella Parsons, was an American gossip columnist and a screenwriter. At her peak, her columns were read by 20 million people in 700 newspapers worldwide. She ...

wrote her gossip column from her two-story apartment in the building. The Lesser family trust owned the building from the 1950s to 2014, when it was bought by investment firm CGI Strategies. Gidi Cohen and Adrian Goldstein of CGI Strategies are committed to restoring and renovating the historic building with a focus on preserving its architectural heritage, including keeping and refreshing the features and fixtures that made it a special place for residents and visitors. The renovation work allow for the building to be shared by the entire community. In 2018, Villa Carlotta and CGI Strategies received the California Preservation Design Award. It took CGI Strategies two years to restore Villa Carlotta. They carefully painted stenciled wood beams and coffered ceilings by hand and preserved much of the original wood, stone, and marble. CGI Strategies' restoration retained Villa Carlotta's original 1926 contractor to fabricate and install new exterior awnings.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Houses in Altadena, California History of Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles County, California Myron Hunt buildings