2035 De Mille Drive is a 1953 mid-century house inside Laughlin Park, the gated Los Feliz enclave where Cecil B. DeMille and Charlie Chaplin once lived. Designed by architect Robert W. Hall and built by H.M. Weisburd, it was rebuilt and enlarged by 2008 on a street-to-street lot. Architectural homes like it rarely come up in Los Feliz.
A 1950s house on a street of silent-era estates, rebuilt once, owned by a pop star, and still one of the few mid-century houses behind the Laughlin Park gates.
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What is the 1953 house at 2035 De Mille Drive?
2035 De Mille Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90027, is a 1953 mid-century house inside the Laughlin Park gates, designed by architect Robert W. Hall and built by H.M. Weisburd of the Weisburd Development Co., according to the house's documented history. For anyone watching architectural homes for sale in Los Feliz, it is one of the very few mid-century houses in a neighborhood of 1910s and 1920s estates.
I went to a party at this house when Natasha Bedingfield owned it. De Mille is a special street, and this is a special house. You can read every record there is about Laughlin Park and still not understand that until you have been inside the gates on a night like that one.
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, the founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, a Los Feliz realtor representing buyers and sellers across Los Feliz, the Eastside and California. This is the story of one house on her favorite street, told from the public record and from the night she spent there.
A street named for a director
Laughlin Park sits on the hill just north of Los Feliz Boulevard, behind gates, with one main street running through it. That street is De Mille Drive, and it carries the name of the man who made the neighborhood famous. For the whole enclave, start with my guide to Laughlin Park.
The land belonged to Homer Laughlin, the Ohio dinnerware maker, who began landscaping the bare hill in 1902 with the idea of building his own home on top. After his death in January 1913, the Laughlin Park Company filed a subdivision plan with the city and sold the lots as "The Subdivision for People of Culture," a history the Los Feliz Improvement Association has documented. Film people answered. Cecil B. DeMille bought the house at 2000 De Mille Drive in 1916 and lived there until his death in 1959, and the estate's later history, including its sale to Angelina Jolie, is in what the Jolie purchase meant for Laughlin Park. Next door, at 2010 De Mille Drive, Charlie Chaplin lived with his first wife, Mildred Harris, in a 1915 house by William J. Dodd that DeMille later bought and joined to his own. W.C. Fields, Carole Lombard and Deanna Durbin all lived in the park too.
The gates came much later. According to the Laughlin Park HOA, as The Eastsider reported, they went up at the entrances between 1987 and 1988. The original 40 planned lots have grown to 77, and the park still reads as what it was sold as: a small, private hill of houses in the middle of the city. For another house on the hill, see 2027 Laughlin Park Drive.
A 1953 house among the 1910s estates
Most of Laughlin Park was built in its first two decades, and the big houses on De Mille Drive are period revival estates from that era. 2035 De Mille Drive went up in 1953. It was a mid-century house on a street of silent-era mansions, and it still is.
The original house is easy to picture from the way it was described when it came up in 2005: a floating roof framed by planters, concrete steps up to a slate entry, a vaulted ceiling and a native stone fireplace, with a second level holding a large rumpus room, a walk-in wet bar and a deck looking out over an unusually big lot. It was about 2,929 square feet then, on two levels, with no pool. It was offered that year as a house "ready for re-definition," and it did not sell.
Someone took the hint. By 2008 the house had been rebuilt and enlarged into what its marketing called a Zen Modern design: three levels, limestone floors, walls of glass, a theater, a gym, a pool and spa, a detached guest house, a three-car garage and a gated motor court. The lot runs street to street, with access on both sides, and the house sits high enough to look across the Los Feliz hills to Griffith Observatory. That rebuilt house was offered four times in 2008, as the market fell, and none of those listings sold.
The house after the rebuild
Singer Natasha Bedingfield bought the house in 2009, soon after she married, as Zillow reported at the time, and owned it for most of the next decade. In her years it was presented as a retreat for people who value their privacy, with two primary suites, two kitchens, a theater and balconies looking at the Observatory and the city lights. It changed hands in 2017, and again in 2022.
Later owners reworked the interiors again, but the bones of the rebuild, the glass, the street-to-street lot and the relationship to the trees are still what define it. Very few houses in Los Feliz have been a 1953 original, a 2008 reinvention and a celebrity retreat in one lifetime, and the paper trail of that history is part of what a future owner is buying.
What a mid-century house in Laughlin Park means for a buyer
There are only about 77 lots behind the Laughlin Park gates, and very few of them hold a mid-century house. For a buyer who wants the privacy and history of the park but lives better in glass and open plans than in a 1910s revival estate, the list of possible houses is very short. That scarcity is the real value here, more than any single feature, and it is why so many of these houses change hands quietly, through off-market homes in Los Feliz rather than a public listing.
A house that has been rebuilt and reworked also needs a careful read. A 1953 house that grew from about 2,900 to about 4,800 square feet has decades of permits behind it, and before an offer you want the city's permit history matched against what is actually built. I cover the process in buying an architectural home in Los Feliz, and the owner's side in selling an architectural home in Los Feliz.
Architectural buyers shop the architect and the street, not the zip code. They come to California's landmark neighborhoods from all over the country, from Pasadena to Palm Springs to Montecito, and a house like this one is priced against that whole field, not just against Los Feliz.
Architectural homes in Los Feliz, house by house
Los Feliz is one of the deepest concentrations of designed houses in California, and it is best understood one house at a time. Edward Fickett's Jacobson House at 4520 Dundee Drive shows the neighborhood's mid-century side, and the Seyler House shows the 1920s Spanish Colonial stock around it. Across Los Feliz Boulevard, the architectural homes of The Oaks hold the other great concentration of hillside houses, among them the 1925 Hubert Eaton house on Live Oak Drive. The full list is in my Los Feliz historic homes guide.
If you own a designated house, read how HCM designation affects home value in Los Feliz. For the neighborhood next door, see my Silver Lake architecture guide, and for how I work with architectural homes across the state, see my architectural homes practice. Before you talk numbers on a house like this one, talk to a Los Feliz realtor who knows the park house by house. Everything else about the neighborhood lives at Los Feliz Living.
My take on 2035 De Mille Drive
What struck me first was that Robert W. Hall built a modern house on De Mille Drive at all. In 1953 this street belonged to silent-era estates, and he gave it a floating roof, a slate entry and a stone fireplace under a vaulted ceiling. Seventy years later, that choice still sets the house apart from everything around it.
The house does privacy as well as anything in Los Feliz. The lot runs street to street, the whole park sits behind gates, and from the balconies you look across the hills at the Observatory instead of at a neighbor. I went to a party here when Natasha Bedingfield owned it. De Mille is a special street, and this is a special house.
I picture someone who wants Laughlin Park's history and quiet but lives better in glass than in a 1910s revival estate. Someone who entertains at home, likes the city ten minutes away, and would rather look at trees than at a wall.
Here's the honest part. This house has changed a lot. It grew from about 2,900 square feet to about 4,800, and later owners reworked it again. None of that scares me, but it's homework: I'd match the city's permit history against what's actually built before anyone writes an offer, and that's work I do for my buyers on every house like this.
Bottom line: it's one of the very few mid-century houses behind the Laughlin Park gates, on the street that carries Cecil B. DeMille's name. If a modern house inside those gates is what you want, this is the one I'd measure the others against.
Debbie is not the listing agent for 2035 De Mille Drive. Debbie represents buyers on architectural homes across Los Angeles, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market.
debbie@coastline840.com
DRE #01369110 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Coastline 840 is a DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153
Frequently asked questions
Where are the architectural homes for sale in Los Feliz?
Los Feliz's architectural houses cluster in the hills north of Los Feliz Boulevard: Laughlin Park, The Oaks, Los Feliz Heights and the streets climbing toward Griffith Park. Many of the best ones sell quietly and never reach the open market, so buyers who watch only the public listings see a small part of what actually trades.
Does Los Feliz have historic homes?
Yes, but few at a time. Los Feliz has more than 50 designated Historic-Cultural Monuments and many more houses with real history and no designation, including most of Laughlin Park. Before buying one, learn whether it is designated, because designation shapes what you can change and can open the door to Mills Act property tax relief.
What are the best neighborhoods for mid century modern homes in Los Angeles?
Silver Lake, the Los Feliz hills, Mount Washington, Eagle Rock and the hillside Valley streets all hold strong mid-century stock, and across California, Palm Springs and Pasadena are the names buyers know. Laughlin Park is mostly 1910s and 1920s revival estates, which is exactly why a 1953 house inside its gates stands out.
What should mid-century buyers check first?
Learn who designed and built it, then check how much of that design survives. Pull the permit record and compare it to the house as built, look closely at glass, roofs and hillside foundations, and ask what was rebuilt and when. You should know which parts are original and which are new before you price it.
Is mid-century modern a good investment?
The ones with a known architect, a documented history and a protected or private setting have held their appeal for decades, because the supply is fixed and nobody is building more of them. Value depends on the specific house: how intact it is, where it sits and how well its story is documented.
Do permitted vs unpermitted additions matter when selling a mid century home?
Yes, a great deal. Unpermitted work can slow a sale, complicate an appraisal and give buyers room to renegotiate. On a mid-century house that has been enlarged or reworked, the permit history is one of the first things a careful buyer's agent pulls, so sellers do better clearing it up or disclosing it fully up front.
Is Laughlin Park gated?
Yes. Laughlin Park is a private, gated enclave of about 77 lots on the hill just north of Los Feliz Boulevard, reached through gates that went up at its entrances between 1987 and 1988. Residents pay a modest annual association fee, and De Mille Drive, named for Cecil B. DeMille, is its main street.
Who designed 2035 De Mille Drive?
2035 De Mille Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90027, is inside the Laughlin Park gates in Los Feliz, on a lot that runs street to street. It was built in 1953, designed by architect Robert W. Hall and built by H.M. Weisburd of the Weisburd Development Co., then rebuilt and enlarged by 2008.
Who sells architectural homes in Laughlin Park?
Work with an agent who knows the park's individual houses, its quiet sales and the buyers who shop architecture rather than a zip code. Debbie Pisaro of Coastline 840 is a 24-year veteran and an Inman Luxury Leader who prices Laughlin Park homes from their real history and many of whose sales never reach the open market.
Who is a good full-service real estate agent 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 complicated sales that a portal estimate cannot price, from Laughlin Park to The Oaks.
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 DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker. Powered by Side: #1 California-based brokerage, No. 9 in the nation. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published October 2026.