Who would have thought that a solitary mansion exists in the middle of an oil field in the City of Angels. According to kcrw.com, "The century-old house in Baldwin Hills is a mystery, few people know it's there, and even fewer know its history." The lone mansion's address is not known. However, according to a report by Curbed, "An amateur historian named Mike Davison took an interest in the house in the past few years and has pieced together its background."
The lone mansion's location is on Lot 19 of the Rancho Rincon de Los Bueyes subdivision in LA County Assessor's website, which was owned around the turn of the century by various members of a certain Higuera family as reported by la.curbed.com. The first monetary value of the Lot 19 appeared in 1906 at $75 as stated in a report by forum.skyscraperpage.com.
The mansion was built out of Los Angeles Paving Company clinker bricks. The second floor has four bedrooms and two en-suite shared bathrooms. The first floor has a den and a ¾ bath. The kitchen is painted white with a chandelier. The other rooms contain hardwood floors. The living room has a fireplace and open spaces.
The house was said to be built in 1915. Based on the 1964 memoir of a Palms historian, in the early 1910s, Bernardo J. Higuera sold Lot 19 to a Charles Wellington Rand. He was born as Hiram Higgins Rand in Burlington, Iowa in 1888, based on a report by la.curbed.com. When his father died, his mother moved the family to Los Angeles to settle on Wilshire Boulevard in Westlake. In the year 1923, Rand's mother sold the estate for $85,000 to an Emma S. Cone, who was married to an Irving H. Cone.
The mansion has changed ownership for many years. The house and its surrounding property remains empty today. It has been rented out only for film shoots and controlled by the Cone Fee Trust as stated in a report by la.curbed.com.
The century-old house in Baldwin Hills still remains a mystery today and may continue to do so for many years.
