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The father of the California ranch house built one house in Los Feliz, on a hillside above Vermont. Here is what the record says about it, and where the record argues with itself.
A Cliff May on a Los Feliz hillside
Cliff May is a Brentwood name. His own houses, his subdivisions and his landmark are all on the Westside, in Sullivan Canyon and Riviera Ranch. Los Feliz has exactly one Cliff May on record, and it sits above Vermont Avenue, a short walk from the Greek Theatre and the Vermont Canyon entrance to Griffith Park.
The USModernist register lists it as the Richard S. and Helen B. Hirth House, 2337 North Vermont Avenue, dated 1950. The marketing material that has followed it dates it to 1951 and describes the house the way May drew his best ones: a single-level California ranch on a V-shaped plan that opens to the garden and pool, behind a gate, with a step-down living room around a wood-burning fireplace.
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Join the Los Feliz Living list Or call (310) 362-6429Original or rebuilt? Where the record argues with itself
The USModernist register says the Hirth House was destroyed in 2004 and a new house built on the lot. The marketing material says the opposite: a 1951 Cliff May, carefully renovated over a decade, with its original built-ins restored, terrazzo floors, and walls of sliding glass to the garden. Both cannot be fully true. A house that keeps May’s V-shaped plan and its original built-ins reads as a renovated original; a house built new in 2004 would not have built-ins to restore.
Until the permit file settles it, the honest description is the one this page uses: the Cliff May house at 2337 N. Vermont, recorded as the 1950 Hirth House, presented in its marketing as a renovated original and recorded by one register as rebuilt. For an owner, that question is worth answering before the next sale, not after, because the value of the name depends on it. A permit history pulled from the city, matched against the drawings in the Cliff May papers at UC Santa Barbara, would close it.
The 2025 sale
The house sold on May 28, 2025, for $3,650,000. The marketing described five bedrooms and three and a half baths, an open kitchen, a reworked primary suite, and Lompoc stone in the garden, with the name Cliff May in the first line. Debbie Pisaro was not the listing agent for that sale; she represents buyers on architectural homes across Los Angeles, regardless of who holds a given listing.
A Cliff May sold as a Cliff May is the outcome every owner of one should want. Across the city, undesignated May houses have been lost when they were sold as land: of the six recorded in Pacific Palisades, none can be found standing today.
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Join the Pocket Listings listWho Cliff May was, and where else to see him
Cliff May built the first California ranch house in San Diego in 1932, moved to Los Angeles in 1935, and designed more than a thousand custom houses and the plans for some eighteen thousand tract homes. The full story is in the Cliff May architect profile. The one Cliff May house on the Los Angeles monument list is his own Experimental House in Brentwood, and his canyon work is in Cliff May homes in Sullivan Canyon. On the east side of the hills, his nearest neighbors are in the San Fernando Valley.
In Los Feliz, a Cliff May sits in unusual company. The neighborhood’s architectural record runs from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House to Lloyd Wright’s Samuel-Novarro House and the Paul Williams houses on Ambrose Avenue, and exploring Los Feliz architecture covers the rest. A low, garden-wrapped ranch above Vermont is the rare California Ranch in a neighborhood better known for Spanish, Storybook, and Modern.
Owning an architect’s house in Los Feliz
The Hirth House carries no landmark designation in the record, so exterior work and demolition are not under city review. That leaves the record as the protection: the archive drawings, the permits, and the plan. If you own an architect’s house here, read how HCM designation affects home value in Los Feliz and how selling a Mills Act or HCM home works, and see the Los Feliz HCM guide for the neighborhood’s designated houses. Buyers who look for houses like this one shop the architect across California, from Brentwood to Palm Springs to Montecito.
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. Everything else about the neighborhood lives at Los Feliz Living.
Branded residences
Architect-designed is one route into design-led living. A branded residence is the other, where the architecture, the service, and the management arrive as one package.
Get the briefingHow I read the Hirth House
What struck me, reading the record, was the terrazzo. Terrazzo floors and walls of sliding glass to the garden, in a single-level ranch on a V-shaped plan. That's a Los Feliz house that lives like a Brentwood one.
The plan is what it does best. The V opens the rooms to the garden and the pool, the living room steps down to a wood-burning fireplace, and the gate and the trees give it privacy above Vermont. And you can walk to the Greek.
I picture someone who loves Los Feliz but has always wanted a ranch: no stairs, a pool, Griffith Park up the street. A family, maybe, with five bedrooms to fill.
Here's the honest part. One register says the original was torn down in 2004; the marketing describes a renovated 1951 original with its built-ins restored. I'd pull the permit history before anyone uses the Cliff May name in a listing again. If the original is there, that's the whole story.
Bottom line: it's the only Cliff May on record in my neighborhood, and I'd want to know for certain what's standing. If it's his, it deserves to be sold that way.
debbie@coastline840.com
DRE #01369110 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Coastline 840 is a DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153
For the agent side of a Los Feliz sale or purchase, read Debbie Pisaro on the best real estate agent in Los Feliz.
Questions about the Cliff May house in Los Feliz
Is there a Cliff May house in Los Feliz?
Yes, one on record. The Hirth House at 2337 N. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles 90027, is a single-level California ranch Cliff May designed around 1950 for Richard S. and Helen B. Hirth. It sits above Vermont Avenue near the Greek Theatre and the Vermont Canyon entrance to Griffith Park.
Is the Cliff May house on Vermont Avenue original?
The record disagrees. The USModernist register says the Hirth House was destroyed in 2004 and rebuilt, while its marketing describes a renovated 1951 original with restored built-ins and May’s V-shaped plan. The city permit history, checked against the Cliff May papers at UC Santa Barbara, is what would settle it.
When did the Cliff May house in Los Feliz last sell?
The house at 2337 N. Vermont Avenue sold on May 28, 2025, for $3,650,000. Its marketing led with the Cliff May name and described five bedrooms and three and a half baths, a V-shaped single-level plan, terrazzo floors, a pool, and a step-down living room with a wood-burning fireplace.
Is the Hirth House a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument?
No. The Hirth House carries no landmark designation in the record, so exterior work and demolition are not under city review. The only Cliff May house on the Los Angeles monument list is his own Experimental House in Brentwood, Historic-Cultural Monument #716, declared in 2002.
What does a Cliff May house look like?
A Cliff May house is usually a single-level California ranch: a low, wide roof, deep eaves, an L, U, or V-shaped plan wrapped around a courtyard or garden, glass doors from nearly every room, and warm materials like wood ceilings and tile or terrazzo floors. Indoor-outdoor living is the whole idea.
Who else designed houses in Los Feliz?
Los Feliz holds one of the deepest architectural records in California, from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House and Lloyd Wright’s Samuel-Novarro House to Paul Williams, Richard Neutra, and Rudolph Schindler. The neighborhood has more than 50 designated Historic-Cultural Monuments, and a Cliff May ranch is one of its rarest house types.
Who is a good real estate agent for architectural homes in Los Feliz?
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, the founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Los Feliz, the surrounding Eastside neighborhoods, and California. Owners lean on her for architectural homes, historic houses, and sales that need the record behind them, and many of her homes never reach the open market.
Sources: USModernist, Cliff May registry (Richard S. and Helen B. Hirth House); UC Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collection, Cliff May papers; Redfin, sale record for 2337 N. Vermont Avenue, May 28, 2025; the marketing material for the 2025 sale.