Whitley Heights 101

2100-2104 Whitley Avenue

2104 Whitley Avenue was built in 1928 by architect E. Voellmy for actor Louis Salty. (Salty was an uncredited “French mechanic” in Hell in the Heavens (1934). The residence started out as a 7 room home with an attached garage. In 1930, Salty added toilet and shower in the room that was over the garage. In 1936, he added another room over the garage. Salty used the residence as a rental before putting it on the market in 1939. After it was sold, it was converted into a duplex-one unit on the 1st floor and one unit on the 2nd floor. Below is the former location of the home before the area was grazed for the freeway.

In 1933, the widowed Modine Wood rented the home with her daughter, Mona. Modine and her deceased husband, Charles, were both opera singers. Charles Wood acted as a bit player for pioneer silent film producer Thomas Ince, and he also managed his father-in-law’s Los Angeles Opera House (later the Lyceum Theater) in the bustling theater row section of downtown. One of Charles and “Mamie” Wood’s daughters was Mary Elizabeth, born in 1891. She married James Langford Stack, and one of their two sons was actor and television host, Robert Stack (1919-2003), whose birth name was Charles Langford Modini Stack. The Movieland Directory has Robert Stack living on “Whitley Terrace” in the 1930s-perhaps this was the connection. Below is Mamie Wood in her earlier days. Mamie’s father was lumber magnate William H. Perry, who created the 19th-century Los Angeles Theater at 227 S. Spring Street which was later converted to a movie house, and eventually was torn down for parking.

Mamie’s other daughter, Mona, married George Webster Pearson in 1927 in Los Angeles at the Wood’s previous home and then moved to Kansas. Mona had returned to Los Angeles and moved in with her mother because the marriage did not work out. She then met and married opera singer Richard Bonelli in October of 1933. He was 44 years old and she was only 33 years old. They married at the Mission Inn at Riverside. Richard Bonelli, the Metropolitan Opera baritone, sang on the first radio broadcast and the first telecast of opera. During his career, the couple traveled around the world from their homes in Los Angeles, New York and Lake Tahoe.

2104 Whitley was home to a few more tenants: Antonio and Carolyn Bergere; Antonio was president of Old Spanish Grants, Inc. In 1937, advertising executive, Adolphe Weinstein, and his wife Helen. In 1938, Rudolph and Rose Rosenberg (owner of the Exchange Building). 1946-48 was Saul & Sylvia Haimowitz. The Rosenbergs had an auction at the 11 room home in 1937:

By 1950, the home was advertised to be relocated:

The “movie star” is a mystery as the last documented owners were the Haimowitzes. Anthony Grammatico bought the home and moved it to 5450 Louise Avenue, Encino in 1951. He only moved the second floor of the home and built a garage in the back of the property:

In 1954, Milton Scott moved the garage to the front and converted it into a rumpus room/dressing room and built a 3-car port adjacent to it. Currently, the two-story home has a total of 6,402 square feet with 9 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. There is a pool in the backyard. Below, the first floor of the rear of the house would be the original Whitley Heights home. Since then, many improvements have been made on the home.