The Spanish homes on Chislehurst Drive sit above Los Feliz Boulevard in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. The Los Feliz Improvement Association lists 24 addresses on the Drive, 23 built between 1924 and 1937, and records 10 of those 23 as Spanish Colonial Revival. The survey names an architect for 17, including Allen Ruoff at 2451 Chislehurst Drive.
Twenty-three houses from 1924 to 1937, ten of them Spanish Colonial Revival, and a Tudor house the survey marks as a potential monument.
Chislehurst Drive runs above Los Feliz Boulevard, and the Los Feliz Improvement Association lists 24 addresses on it. Twenty-three of the houses date from the fourteen years between 1924 and 1937, when this part of Los Feliz above the boulevard was being filled in with Spanish Colonial Revival houses and their English, Tudor, and Colonial neighbors. Ten of the 23 are Spanish, and the survey names an architect for 17. Debbie, a Los Feliz realtor, has set out what that record supports at each address and what it only claims.
Where is Chislehurst Drive in Los Feliz?
Chislehurst Drive runs north of Los Feliz Boulevard in the 90027 ZIP code, in the part of Los Feliz people call above the Blvd. The survey's addresses on the Drive run from 2221 to 2461, and they sit on lots the survey gives as roughly 9,500 to 28,000 square feet.
The street name comes in two versions, the same trap as the two Ben Lomonds. Chislehurst Place is a separate short street with four addresses in the survey, and this guide covers it in its own section below. For a street across the boulevard, Ben Lomond Place is the one Debbie has written up, and Nottingham Avenue is another above-the-Blvd street with its own 23 prewar houses. The Los Feliz Spanish homes guide covers the designated Spanish houses across the neighborhood.
Who designed the Spanish Colonial houses on Chislehurst Drive?
The Los Feliz Improvement Association names an architect for 17 of the 23 prewar houses on Chislehurst Drive. Among the ten Spanish Colonial Revival houses, the names are N. L. Coleman at 2458, Allen Ruoff at 2451, H. Roy Kelly at 2441, Federick Van Doren at 2420, S. R. Coon at 2307, and The Russell Brown Company at 2267. None of those attributions cites a source, so each one is the survey's claim.
Three houses carry more than one name, and the survey does not say why. At 2446, a 1924 Spanish Colonial Revival house on the largest lot in the survey's list, the page names Charles F. Riche and Frederick Kennedy Jr. on one line and Frank W. Green on another. At 2275, a 1928 house, it lists both Stephen Goasson and William L. Campbell. At 2427, a 1936 Mediterranean Revival house, it lists P. P. Louis and a second name, C. Deuit, followed by a question mark. Two names for one house can mean a design and a builder, an architect and a successor, or two attributions that were never reconciled, and a page cannot tell you which. The survey's page for 2446 shows the two names at 2446 as printed.
The spelling of one name moves around the street. The survey prints H. Roy Kelly at 2441, Roy Kelley at 2330, and Kelly & Estep at 2345, and it does not say whether they are one man. They are three separate entries until a permit or a published source ties them together. The same caution applies to the 1927 house at 2266, credited to Henry Gutterson, and to 2451, credited to Allen Ruoff. The survey's page for 2451 has the entry for the Ruoff house.
Six of the 23 have no architect named in the survey: 2234, 2241, 2301, 2338, 2414, and 2426. At 2301 the survey says the owner, H. L. Van Degrift, built the house himself, and that he lived there in 1940 and served as a Los Feliz Improvement Association director from 1946 to 1949. At 2426 the page opens with a single word, altered, and gives no architect. For those six, a permit search would add the most.
How do you spot a Spanish Colonial Revival house on Chislehurst Drive?
Look for three details: a courtyard turned away from the street, a deep-set window, and a stair tucked behind an arch. Debbie Pisaro has been inside a few hundred Spanish houses in Los Angeles and reads them by those three, which is how she sorts a Spanish Colonial Revival house from the English, Tudor, and Colonial Revival houses beside it.
On this street the sorting matters more than on most, because the Spanish houses are a minority. Ten of 23 is a large share, but the other thirteen are a mix, and the survey's style tags are the only sorting the record offers. The assessor's records and the survey do not always agree, and listing copy sometimes calls a Spanish house Mediterranean. The Los Angeles house styles guide sets the styles side by side, and the Spanish Colonial Revival guide for California places Spanish Colonial Revival in the wider California picture.
The biggest of the ten is 2267. The survey gives it seven bedrooms and 8,279 square feet, the largest of the 23 by its own figures, on a lot of 18,890 square feet, and credits The Russell Brown Company with a house built in 1926. A house that size on a hillside above the Boulevard raises its own questions, and the Los Feliz guide and the best real estate agent in Los Feliz page cover them.
Who lived on Chislehurst Drive in the 1920s and 1930s?
The survey places the actress Ida Lupino at 2307 in 1936, the assistant director Lew Borzage at 2414 in 1940, and Dr. Lowell Goin, later president of the California Medical Association, at 2321. It also names Evelle Younger, a California politician, at 2461, a 1952 French Country house, citing a 1978 Los Angeles Times article.
The record is strongest where it cites a document. At 2267 the survey says William R. Hervey lived there in 1930 and 1940, quotes the 1930 census as listing him as owner and head of household, and gives a biography citing the 1921 American Bankers Association convention and a 2015 Scottish Rite Bulletin. It has him as a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge from 1909 to 1911, then a bank officer and a Grand Master of the Masons in California. His name appears again at 2345, where the 1940 census lists William Rhodes Hervey Jr., a lawyer, and the survey does not say how the two are related. See the survey's page for 2267.
At 2321, a 1937 American Colonial Revival house credited to A. Levin and marked "not visible," the survey cites Who's Who in Los Angeles County for Dr. Goin's career as a radiologist at Queen of Angels Hospital. At 2307, the Lupino line cites movielanddirectory.com and no year of her residence beyond 1936, and it is a lead and not a record. At 2426, a 1924 house, the survey quotes a biographical blurb for a plastic surgeon, Dr. W. E. Balsinger, with no source, and a 1930 census entry naming him as owner. At 2451, the census entry is a proprietor of machine tools, Curtis A. Herberts, and the survey names no notable resident. The census entries show who headed each household, and the published sources are the harder evidence.
The survey marks one Chislehurst Drive house, 2258, as a potential monument. Potential is not designation. HCM designation in Los Angeles does not freeze a home in place. It restricts exterior alterations and offers Mills Act tax benefits to qualifying owners, and interior renovations are generally permitted. The HCM designation and home value guide and the Mills Act guide explain how it works.
The 2258 page has one oddity worth knowing before anyone leans on it. It lists the house as a 1924 Tudor Revival credited to Everett H. Merrill, and it gives the size as two bedrooms, one bath, and 656 square feet, which sits oddly beside the 1930 census entry it quotes, a household with a nurse and two servants. The discrepancy is noted here and not resolved. The survey's page for 2258 has the entry.
What about Chislehurst Place?
Chislehurst Place has four addresses in the survey and only one is a prewar Spanish house. That is 2510, a 1929 Spanish Colonial Revival house the survey credits to Ashton & Denney, the same firm it credits at 2566 Aberdeen Avenue. The 1930 census entry it quotes lists Lemuel S. Freer, a construction manager born in England, as owner and head of household. See the survey's page for 2510.
The rest of the Place is a different story. 2509 is a 1940 Traditional house and 2520 a 1941 American Colonial Revival, and the survey gives neither an architect. 2541 is a 1989 Contemporary house whose page carries a real estate brochure as its only source. The county's records show more houses on the Place than the survey lists, so an address search should confirm the street before any conclusion is drawn from a record.
Every prewar house on Chislehurst Drive, by year
Every style tag and architect in the table is the Los Feliz Improvement Association's. Addresses are North Chislehurst Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90027. The survey also lists 2461, a 1952 French Country house, and a search result for 2220 that resolves to a Los Feliz Boulevard page, so that address is set aside.
Debbie Pisaro is not the listing agent for any home named on this page. Debbie represents buyers on architectural and period-revival homes across Los Angeles, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market. Coastline 840 is a boutique California practice, and it is a brand of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, the responsible broker. Read the Los Feliz agent guide and the two founding pieces, why Coastline 840 was built and why boutique teams outperform, for how the practice works. Many of the homes Debbie sells trade quietly, and the off-market homes page shows how that access runs.
For anyone comparing streets, the Los Feliz Historic Homes collection is the place to start, and the Seyler House on Aberdeen Avenue is the closest neighbor to Chislehurst that Debbie has covered in the same detail. A Los Feliz realtor who knows the Spanish years can read a street like this from the record up, and that is what this guide is for.
Chislehurst Drive questions
Where is Chislehurst Drive in Los Feliz?
Chislehurst Drive runs north of Los Feliz Boulevard in the 90027 ZIP code, in the part of Los Feliz known as above the Blvd. The Los Feliz Improvement Association lists 24 addresses on it, from 2221 to 2461, and files the short Chislehurst Place separately.
How many Spanish Colonial Revival houses are on Chislehurst Drive?
The survey records 10 of the 23 houses built on Chislehurst Drive between 1924 and 1937 as Spanish Colonial Revival: 2267, 2275, 2307, 2338, 2420, 2426, 2441, 2446, 2451, and 2458. The rest are English, Tudor, American Colonial Revival, Mediterranean Revival, and one Streamline Moderne house.
Who designed the Spanish Colonial houses on Chislehurst Drive in Los Feliz?
The survey names an architect for 17 of the 23 prewar houses, but none of those attributions cites a source. Its Spanish Colonial names include Allen Ruoff at 2451, The Russell Brown Company at 2267, N. L. Coleman at 2458, S. R. Coon at 2307, and H. Roy Kelly at 2441.
Who was the architect of 2451 Chislehurst Drive?
The Los Feliz Improvement Association lists Allen Ruoff as architect of 2451 Chislehurst Drive, a 1928 Spanish Colonial Revival house, with no source and no note of doubt. The 1930 census entry it quotes names Curtis A. Herberts, a machine tools proprietor, as owner and head of household.
Who lived in the big Spanish house at 2267 Chislehurst Drive?
The survey says William R. Hervey lived at 2267 in 1930 and 1940. Its biography of him has him serving as a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge from 1909 to 1911 and as a bank officer. It credits The Russell Brown Company as architect and dates the house to 1926.
Are any Chislehurst Drive houses potential landmarks?
The survey labels one house, the 1924 Tudor Revival at 2258 credited to Everett H. Merrill, a potential City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. Potential is the survey's word. Designation is a separate City process, and until a house is designated it carries none of the restrictions or Mills Act eligibility of a monument.
Who are some notable people who lived on Chislehurst Drive in Los Feliz?
The survey places the actress Ida Lupino at 2307 in 1936, citing a Hollywood directory site, the assistant director Lew Borzage at 2414 in 1940, citing the Internet Movie Database, and the California politician Evelle Younger at 2461, citing a 1978 Los Angeles Times article. Each is the survey's claim, and this guide has not checked it independently.
Chislehurst Drive or Chislehurst Place?
They are two streets with a near-identical name. The survey lists 24 addresses on the Drive and four on the Place, each with its own records. The Place has one Spanish Colonial house, 2510, credited to Ashton & Denney, and this guide covers it in a short section after the Drive.
What does above the Blvd mean?
Above the Blvd means north of Los Feliz Boulevard, the hillside side of the neighborhood where Chislehurst Drive sits. Below the Blvd means south of it, where streets such as Ben Lomond Place run. Debbie Pisaro uses the line because it separates two different sets of Los Feliz streets and houses.
Who is a good full-service real estate agent in Los Feliz?
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Los Feliz and the surrounding neighborhoods. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. She is a California real estate agent, DRE #01369110, and her practice is a boutique one.
Talk to Debbie
Twenty-four years of Los Angeles luxury real estate, with a specialty in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes.
debbie@coastline840.com
DRE #01369110 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Debbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, is the founder of Coastline 840, a boutique California practice, and an Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years of experience in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. Coastline 840 is a brand of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published September 2026.
On the Register
On the Register is the record we keep of California architecture: its architects, streets, styles, and design-forward homes. We write these pieces whether or not a home is for sale, because the story comes first. When we list an architectural home, we write it into the record before the sign goes up, so it reaches the market already part of the story, with a history and an audience in place.
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