Within the architectural age of minimalism and millennial grey, a wild and kooky antidote made from previous clinker bricks and jumbled shingles sits on a quiet road on the fringe of L.A. and Culver Metropolis.
Formally, the spellbinding property is called the Lawrence and Martha Joseph Residence and Flats, named after the Disney artist and his spouse who obsessively spent three a long time constructing it. However locals name them the Hobbit Homes — becoming, since they appear straight out of a J.R.R. Tolkien novel.
The advanced seems comically misplaced amid Culver Metropolis’s business hall alongside Venice Boulevard. It’s surrounded by fashionable residence buildings, boxy and inoffensive, constructed to mix in with as we speak’s style.
A toilet in one of many Hobbit homes in Culver Metropolis adorned in glass tiles and ornate fixtures.
Amid that city blur, the Hobbit Homes beg to your consideration.
An electrical lamppost sparkles, mimicking hearth. The tree within the entrance yard incorporates a face, with eyes and a nostril. The houses are full of quirky leaded glass home windows, uneven angles and heaps of wooden shingles, resembling a thatched straw roof.
This yr, the property hit the market for the primary time. Gives poured in, and it bought to maybe probably the most becoming attainable purchaser outdoors Bilbo Baggins himself: actual property agent Michael Libow.
At $1.88 million, Libow didn’t have the best bid. His most important qualification was that he owns and lives in one of many most interesting examples of Storyboook model within the area: the Witch’s Home, a medieval-looking masterpiece that’s extra befitting a “Hansel and Gretel” adaptation than the streets of Beverly Hills.
The dealer, seeing his connection to the model, promoted Libow to the vendor, an out-of-state financial institution belief. The Hobbit Homes have been his.
Michael Libow friends by way of a heavy wood door of a Hobbit home that he bought in early 2025.
“It’s like a companion piece to my own residence,” Libow mentioned. “It’s a bit oasis in a metropolis that’s been overdeveloped.”
Now that he owns each, Libow has declared himself, tongue-in-cheek, the “King of Storybook,” and mentioned he intends to guard the property and be a spokesperson for the model.
“That is my legacy: bringing a bit little bit of pleasure to as many individuals as I can,” he mentioned. “It’s about preservation, however it’s additionally about bringing a way of awe and surprise to the world.”
The Hobbit Homes are one in all Southern California’s most interesting examples of Storybook structure, a fantasy model that fittingly emerged in L.A. within the Nineteen Twenties across the begin of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Impressed by cinema setpieces and centuries-old European cottages, architects designed playful houses with turrets and gables on the surface and nooks and crannies on the within. When accomplished effectively, the completed product seems lifted from a fairy story.
A cat digs round on the roof of a Hobbit home in Culver Metropolis.
Disney artist Lawrence Joseph constructed the Hobbit Homes from 1946 to 1970. Through the years, the property developed a lore all its personal. He rented out spare items to Hollywood tenants resembling actor Nick Nolte and dancer Gwen Verdon, and the place additionally housed one of many males who kidnapped Frank Sinatra’s son (authorities discovered many of the ransom cash Sinatra paid, $240,000, in one of many items).
Lawrence died in 1991, and his spouse, Martha, set to work defending the property. She obtained landmark standing in 1996 and donated an easement to the Los Angeles Conservancy, guaranteeing that it will probably’t be transformed or torn down.
The property, which incorporates 9 items throughout 4 buildings, wanted some work when he purchased it, so Libow and his property supervisor, Ben Stine, have spent the previous couple of months taking part in a developer’s model of “Minesweeper,” attempting to make small enhancements for the tenants — electrical work, a tankless water heater — with out disrupting something protected by the L.A. Conservancy easement.
The Hobbit Homes got here with a 15-page report detailing all of the issues protected on the property: not simply the buildings themselves, but in addition the facade, panorama options and the interiors, together with the customized furnishings that Lawrence carved himself. Even the wallpaper can’t be touched.
“Protections inside a construction are very uncommon. I’ve by no means seen something prefer it,” Libow mentioned.
Element of the flooring inside a Hobbit home in Culver Metropolis.
Meaning for renters, a lot of the furnishings is included with the lease. The newest vacant unit — a two-bed, one-bath with a den — consists of bar stools and a rocking chair that Lawrence carved.
The home is wrapped in clinker brick, a time period for when clay bricks are set too near the flames when being fired in a kiln, giving them distorted shapes and colours. Such bricks have been typically trashed in older architectural eras, however as of late, they’re prized for the distinctive look they create to buildings, and completely pure for Center Earth structure in Culver Metropolis.
Inside, Lawrence’s crusing background shines by way of with nautical-themed interiors. A ship’s wheel serves because the chandelier, hanging above vertical-grain boat-plank flooring that result in a galley-style kitchen with a curvy bar.
“The concept behind Storybook is to have one thing fanciful and kooky, which includes motion quite than rectilinear rooms,” Libow mentioned. “There’s barely a proper angle on the whole property. Every little thing’s amorphous in form.”
Element inside a Hobbit home in Culver Metropolis.
There are not any knobs to be discovered; doorways open with hidden latches and levers. A built-in fold-down desk pops out in the lounge. In the master suite, a “cat door” slides open to supply quick access for felines that grasp across the property.
The 9 items vary from 200 sq. ft to 1,200 sq. ft. The vacant unit, which spans round 1,000 sq. ft, hit the market a couple of months in the past for $4,500 per thirty days.
It’s a excessive value for the neighborhood — most two-bedroom residences close by fall within the $3,000 vary — however renters nonetheless swarmed.
“These aren’t your typical tenants that want 4 partitions and a sink. We get lots of people within the inventive trade,” Libow mentioned. “You’re renting a life-style right here.”
Libow mentioned like his own residence, which serves as a daily cease for Hollywood tour buses, the Hobbit Homes are a daily resting level for individuals strolling by way of the neighborhood.
“Building staff will stroll by on their lunch to have a look at the turtles within the pond. It’s a break from actuality, even when only for a minute,” he mentioned.
Michael Libow outdoors one in all his Hobbit homes in Culver Metropolis.
Libow and his property supervisor spend plenty of time on the grounds, on the lookout for initiatives or small enhancements they’re allowed to make below the conservancy. However for Libow, who purchased it as a collector’s merchandise as a lot as an funding, it’s a labor of affection.
“It’s not probably the most purposeful model of structure, however it’s the coolest,” he mentioned. “It’s bizarre, however I’m bizarre myself. I join with bizarre.”
