236 Columbia Ave

Description

There are corners of Los Angeles that seem to exist outside of time - places where history hangs in the air, weightless but present. Belmont Square is one of those places. A hidden enclave tucked between the low-slung hum of Historic Filipinotown, the earnest hip of Echo Park, and the wilting romance of MacArthur Park. Here, among jacaranda-dappled streets and century-old palms, stands a rare 1924 duplex designed by David J. Witmer, AIA - the same architect who would later leave his mark on Washington, D.C. with the Pentagon. Witmer's design in Westlake is less fortress, more reverie: a thoughtful marriage of East Coast row house restraint with the optimism of American Craftsman and early Art Deco. One of just thirty-nine parcels in this quietly cinematic complex, the home sits behind a private gate, each unit with its own street-facing entrance and shared access to a garden where the city recedes just enough to feel like something remembered. The upper unit (owner-occupied) is a one-bedroom, one-bath poem in form and detail: bamboo and marble underfoot, stained glass filtering sunlight in the kitchen and bath, a custom-tiled Mid-Century fireplace presiding over the living room like an old Hollywood character actor. The hallway is lined with open shelving - books, objects, echoes. A Dutch door off the kitchen opens to a modest balcony where morning coffee feels like a ritual. Designer wallpaper (hand-painted), a built-in breakfast nook, and carefully considered upgrades speak to the instinct of preservation, not renovation. Below, a mirrored one-bedroom, one-bath unit holds a rent-controlled tenant - a reminder that this city, for all its reinventions, still has pockets of continuity. From here, you can walk to stories: to bakeries that smell of sweet rice and sesame, to murals that remember what the city often forgets, to parks where pigeons and children crowd the same sun-soaked corners. Downtown is minutes away, but it might as well be another state. This isn't just property. It's perspective. It's the echo of a Los Angeles that once was, and the proof that some things, thankfully, still are.