The Wirin House in Los Feliz, at 2622 N. Glendower Avenue, is a 1949 International Style residence designed by Richard Neutra for the civil rights attorney A.L. Wirin and his wife Alpha. It stands directly across Glendower from Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House. Los Angeles designated it Historic-Cultural Monument #812 on July 8, 2005.
HCM #812. Across Glendower Avenue from Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House, Richard Neutra built a quiet steel-and-glass home for the ACLU's first full-time lawyer.
What is the Wirin House in Los Feliz?
On the same bend of Glendower Avenue where Frank Lloyd Wright's Mayan temple looms over the city, Richard Neutra built something close to its opposite: a low, calm, steel-and-glass house that gives almost nothing away from the street. He finished it in 1949 for Abraham Lincoln Wirin, the American Civil Liberties Union's first full-time staff attorney, and his wife Alpha.
Two of the century's boldest architects, working a stone's throw apart on one hillside, and the quieter of the two houses belonged to a man who spent his career arguing for the least powerful people in the room. That is the whole of Los Feliz in one view, and it is the reason this address is worth knowing even if you never get past the hedge.
The house sits in the same hillside lineage as Neutra's own Lovell Health House and, directly opposite, the textile-block Ennis House. Debbie Pisaro catalogues the whole neighborhood at Los Feliz historic homes and in exploring Los Feliz architecture.
A Neutra house that hides its size
The Wirin House is considerably larger than it looks from the street. It reads from Glendower as a low single storey, restrained almost to the point of anonymity, and then opens and steps down the hillside across two levels toward a terraced garden and a pool that no passerby ever sees.
Inside, it carries the Neutra signatures that make his work worth preserving whole rather than merely standing: built-in cabinetry, a built-in daybed and desk drawn as part of the house rather than bought for it, and a fireplace on each of the two levels. The lot falls away to an open view across Los Angeles, the kind of framed sight line Neutra treated as a building material rather than a bonus.
"The view from inside is everything that matters up here," Debbie Pisaro says. "That is what people don't get until they are standing in it. Neutra gave this house walls of glass on a hillside lot looking out over downtown, and the house isn't asking you to admire it, it's asking you to look out of it, and the wood ceilings and the built-ins are all doing the same job of getting out of the way. Two thousand two hundred square feet and you never feel the walls. That's the whole trick of these houses in this part of Los Feliz."
That marriage of a designed interior and a captured view is exactly what a specialist looks for in a Los Feliz historic home, and it is also what makes these houses fragile. A Neutra interior can be gutted in a week and it can never be put back, which is why the intact ones command what they do.
Who was Richard Neutra?
Richard Neutra, who lived from 1892 to 1970, was the Vienna-born architect who did more than almost anyone to define the Southern California modern house. He arrived in the United States in the 1920s, worked briefly with Frank Lloyd Wright and then with his fellow Viennese Rudolph Schindler, and made his name in Los Feliz with the Lovell Health House.
Neutra's houses treated light, air, and the view as building materials, and he detailed them down to the furniture so that the architecture and the way you lived inside it were one thing. By 1949 he was among the most celebrated architects in America, and Los Feliz had become a kind of open-air gallery of his work and his peers'. The Wirin House is a mature Neutra, built at the height of it, for a client who was not buying a trophy.
The lawyer who commissioned it
The house takes its name from Abraham Lincoln Wirin, known as A.L. Wirin, the first full-time staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union and one of the most consequential civil rights lawyers of his era. He is remembered for his defense of individual rights across labor disputes, free speech fights, the wartime cases of Japanese Americans, and unpopular defendants through the McCarthy years.
That a man who spent his working life on the least fashionable side of American courtrooms commissioned a Neutra house is a large part of why this property resonates. Modernism in Los Angeles was never only an aesthetic. For clients like Wirin it was a set of convictions about how to live openly and rationally, and the house he and Alpha built reflected that as plainly as any brief he filed.
Provenance like that is not a footnote when a home of this kind changes hands. It is central to how the property is valued and how it is marketed, and it is the discipline behind Debbie Pisaro's work as an architectural homes specialist.
What HCM #812 means for the house today
The City of Los Angeles designated the Wirin House as Historic-Cultural Monument #812 on July 8, 2005, protecting its architectural character rather than freezing it. Designation gives the city review over significant exterior alterations and can qualify an owner for Mills Act property tax savings, while interior updates generally proceed through the usual permitting.
The designation came at the end of a difficult stretch. The house had fallen into disrepair by 1995 and went through probate in March 2004 before a careful restoration during that decade brought it back. That arc, from neglect to protected landmark inside ten years, is the argument for documentation in a single property: a monument with its Neutra built-ins intact and a clear written history supports a stronger number than a comparable house stripped of its origins.
Designation does not freeze a home in place. It reviews significant exterior alterations and offers Mills Act tax benefits to qualifying owners, while interior renovations are generally permitted. On a Neutra house with its original built-ins intact, that protection is what preserves the value.
How designation actually moves a price is the subject of Debbie Pisaro's piece on whether historic designation hurts home value in Los Feliz, with the tax mechanics in her guide to selling a Mills Act home and the full neighborhood set in the Los Feliz HCM guide.
Buying or selling a Neutra house in Los Feliz
A Neutra house sells to a narrow, design-literate buyer, and that shapes both the price and the way the house has to be brought to market. The pool is smaller than for an ordinary home of the same size, the provenance and the intact original details drive the number, and reaching the right buyer takes more than putting a sign in the yard and waiting.
Pricing a named-architect home is not a portal exercise either. Genuine pedigree, an intact interior, and a captured view earn a premium no automated estimate can see, and getting the number wrong in either direction costs the seller. That is the reasoning behind Coastline 840's guide to pricing an architectural home in Los Angeles. Buyers drawn to this stretch of the hill can start with buying an architectural home in Los Feliz, the enclave notes on the Oaks, and the lore of this street itself in the Castle on Glendower Avenue.
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. Owners weighing a sale should begin with an honest Los Feliz home valuation, buyers who want the houses that never get photographed for the public sites watch off-market homes in Los Feliz, and either way the case for the best real estate agent in Los Feliz runs through houses exactly like this one.
Wirin House questions, answered
Where is the Wirin House?
The Wirin House stands at 2622 N. Glendower Avenue in the Los Feliz hills, Los Angeles, CA 90027, directly across the street from Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House. It is a private residence and is not open for tours, so it is best appreciated from the public street.
Who designed it, and when?
Richard Neutra designed the Wirin House and completed it in 1949 for the civil rights attorney Abraham Lincoln Wirin and his wife Alpha. It is a mature Neutra work, built when he was among the most celebrated architects in America and Los Feliz had become a showcase for modernism.
Who was A.L. Wirin?
Abraham Lincoln Wirin was the first full-time staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union and a leading civil rights lawyer. He is remembered for defending free speech, labor rights, Japanese Americans during the wartime internment, and unpopular defendants through the McCarthy era. His choice of a Neutra house is part of the story.
What style is the Wirin House?
International Style, the steel-and-glass modernism Richard Neutra helped define in Southern California. Its hallmarks here are a low, restrained street presence, two levels stepping down the hillside, built-in furniture designed as part of the house, a fireplace on each level, and a framed view across Los Angeles.
Is the Wirin House a Historic-Cultural Monument?
Yes. The City of Los Angeles designated it Historic-Cultural Monument #812 on July 8, 2005. The designation recognizes the home's architectural importance and gives the city review over significant exterior changes, while interior updates generally proceed through the usual permitting process rather than a separate review.
What happened to the house before it was designated?
It had fallen into disrepair by 1995 and entered probate in March 2004, then went through a careful restoration during that decade. The monument designation followed in July 2005. That arc, from neglect to protected landmark inside about ten years, is unusually fast for a Los Angeles house.
Does Historic-Cultural Monument status lower a home's value?
Not usually in a neighborhood like Los Feliz that prizes architecture. Designation restricts significant exterior alterations but generally allows interior updates, and it can qualify an owner for Mills Act property tax savings. A documented, well-preserved Neutra house with intact original details often commands a premium rather than a discount.
How close is it to the Ennis House?
Directly across Glendower Avenue. Frank Lloyd Wright's textile-block Ennis House of 1924 and Neutra's 1949 International Style Wirin House face each other on the same bend of the same street, which makes this one of the few places in Los Angeles where two poles of the modern movement are visible at once.
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 handles architectural and monument homes alongside ordinary listings across the east side.
The Wirin House is the quiet one on a street full of loud ones, which is exactly why it repays attention. Explore the rest of the record at Los Feliz Living, and when you want a Los Feliz real estate agent who knows the houses themselves and not just the market, you know where to find her.
See the Los Feliz HCM seriesBuying or selling a Neutra or architectural home?
A specialist read on Los Feliz architectural and historic homes, from Neutra and Gregory Ain to the textile-block landmarks, grounded in real comparables and what pedigree is actually worth.
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. Updated 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.
© 2026 Debbie Pisaro, Coastline 840 · ontheregister.com
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.
© 2026 Debbie Pisaro, Coastline 840 · ontheregister.com