The Eastside of Los Angeles is famously chock-full of architectural treasures, but among the most special properties is this gated mansion in the hills of Los Feliz. Fully walled and graced with an epic long driveway, the 93-year-old house was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, per the listing, by Henry Mather Greene — he the younger half of the Greene & Greene brothers that have since become icons of California architecture.
Recently sold for $6.6 million, the property fetched one of the biggest sums paid for a Los Feliz home this year. The Hollywood buyers are Oscar- and Grammy-winning composer/record producer Ludwig Goransson and his wife Serena.
The nearly 6,500-square-foot mansion was designed for Kate A. Kelly, a well-to-do widow and the mother of Irene Anthony, a prominent socialite married to Earle C. Anthony, a business titan of the early 20th century who made his fortune in the automotive industry but also dabbled as a songwriter, playwright, and journalist.
Around 1910, Earle Anthony hired upstart architects Greene and Greene to design him a mansion in their signature Craftsman style. Known as the Anthony-Kerry house, that landmarked structure was eventually moved to Beverly Hills, where it still stands today. (Indeed, it’s reportedly the only Greene & Greene house in the entire 90210.)
Anthony apparently enjoyed the mansion so much that he subsequently re-hired Greene to design a second mansion, this one in Los Feliz, for the home of his sociable mother-in-law Kelly, who was also an heiress and wealthy in her own right. Built in a then-new-fangled fusion of Spanish and Mediterranean architecture, that house represented a notable design departure for the Greenes.
Today, the Los Feliz house still stands, and its star shines brighter than ever thanks to an expensive recent remodel. The home’s jewel-like interiors have been polished into a sunny confection of herringbone-patterned European oak floors, milky white walls, dozens of windows, skylights, and large glass doors. There are also plenty of original architectural details, too, such as chunky open beamed wood ceilings, fireplaces with delicate moldings, and wrought iron accents everywhere.
Though it may upset some vintage design purists, the fully redone kitchen has all the lavish amenities any buyer could desire, including Calacatta marble countertops, dual center islands, and all the expected top-end stainless appliances. French doors open to the courtyard-style plunge pool, which is complete with an inset spa and surrounded by a concrete patio, perfect for lazy sunbathing. The upstairs master sports its own living room, terrace, and a notably mod bath with soaking tub and checkered tile floor.
Born in Sweden, Goransson moved to L.A. in 2007 to study at USC’s film/TV scoring program. In 2009, he won the role as composer for the NBC sitcom “Community,” where he met Donald Glover; the two subsequently forged a prolific business partnership that led to Goransson producing Childish Gambino’s studio albums and many of his singles, winning Record of the Year and Song of the Year Grammy Awards for his work on “This is America.”
Goransson is also noted for his frequent collaborations with other major recording artists — Alicia Keys, Chance the Rapper and Travis Scott among them — as well as for composing the score of TV’s “The Mandalorian,” and for scoring “Black Panther,” which nabbed him the Academy Award for Best Original Score.
As for the real estate, the Goranssons won’t have far to move; their current Los Feliz “starter” home, a very vaguely midcentury modern-style affair, is less than a mile from their new digs as the crow flies. According to records, that three bed/three bath structure was acquired in 2013 for $1.4 million.
Juan Longfellow and Louise Leach of DeasyPennerPodley held the listing; Andrew Morrison of REDWOOD Real Estate Brokerage repped Goransson.