“A civil engineer moved a million pounds of stone up this hillside, then built an amphitheater in the yard. In 1948. By hand.”
“A civil engineer moved a million pounds of stone up this hillside, then built an amphitheater in the yard. In 1948. By hand.”
- Sam O'Connor
1964
Landa St
Los Angeles
Bedrooms
3
Bathrooms
2
Total Area
1,208 Sq. FT
Lot Size
12,399 Sq. FT
Price
$1,349,999
The House That Devotion Built
In 1948, a civil engineer named Robert A. Johnson looked at a steep, unpromising slice of Elysian Heights and decided to build something closer to a cathedral than a cottage. He never really stopped. No client, no committee, no one to tell him no. Very few people have owned it since, and the list reads like a casting call: an artist, a composer, a filmmaker, a photographer. Each one reached the same conclusion we did. A house like this doesn’t get renovated. It gets looked after.
Listed by Louis Magnano & Joseph Kiralla, Modern California House
Inside
It’s a small house that has never needed to be a big one. The woodwork is original, the beams are exposed, and the inlaid cabinetry is the kind of work nobody does anymore. Built-ins made for this room and no other. A fireplace holding the center and the windows do most of the talking, pulling the canyon and its old trees so close they read as part of the floor plan. Two levels, easy to live in, and impossible to mistake for anywhere else in the city, because every inch of it was one person’s decision.
Outside
The grounds are where the scale of it hits, and where it turns out Johnson didn’t work alone. He and his wife built the stone terraces holding this hillside in place, which might make them the heaviest artwork ever finished on weekends. The plantings above have decades behind them, and the paths wind past ornate tile and a pair of water features on the way up. The second parcel is the showstopper: a mosaic across the hillside, a tiled amphitheater waiting for someone to stage something, a treehouse that reminds you not to take life too seriously, plus a studio and two detached structures ready to become offices or guest quarters.
The O' Factor
Not one decision here was made for resale, which is somehow why it holds its value now. The hill next door belonged to the Semi-Tropic Spiritualists, who held seances under the eucalyptus a century ago, and honestly, that tracks. Canyon Coffee and Cookbook are a five-minute drift downhill, close enough that the seclusion feels almost unearned. What’s for sale isn’t really a house, it’s custody.
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The Homes we Represent,
Represent Us.
Every home has a soul. Every human has a place they were meant to be. Our instinct is knowing when the two finally meet. We honor architecture, preserve great design and celebrate the match. Welcome to O’Connor Estates. We’ve been waiting for you.
Proof is in the Properties
SOLD
Closed $200K over asking
SOLD
Closed for $1,589/sq ft
SOLD
Closed $250k over asking
