236 Columbia Avenue 236 Columbia Avenue Los Angeles, California 90026 Estados Unidos

There are corners of Los Angeles that seem to exist outside of time - places where history hangs in the air, weightless but present. Belmont Square is one of those places. A hidden enclave tucked between the low-slung hum of Historic Filipinotown, the earnest hip of Echo Park, and the wilting romance of MacArthur Park. Here, among jacaranda-dappled streets and century-old palms, stands a rare 1924 duplex designed by David J. Witmer, AIA - the same architect who would later leave his mark on Washington, D.C. with the Pentagon. Witmer's design in Westlake is less fortress, more reverie: a thoughtful marriage of East Coast row house restraint with the optimism of American Craftsman and early Art Deco. One of just thirty-nine parcels in this quietly cinematic complex, the home sits behind a private gate, each unit with its own street-facing entrance and shared access to a garden where the city recedes just enough to feel like something remembered. The upper unit (owner-occupied) is a one-bedroom, one-bath poem in form and detail: bamboo and marble underfoot, stained glass filtering sunlight in the kitchen and bath, a custom-tiled Mid-Century fireplace presiding over the living room like an old Hollywood character actor. The hallway is lined with open shelving - books, objects, echoes. A Dutch door off the kitchen opens to a modest balcony where morning coffee feels like a ritual. Designer wallpaper (hand-painted), a built-in breakfast nook, and carefully considered upgrades speak to the instinct of preservation, not renovation. Below, a mirrored one-bedroom, one-bath unit holds a rent-controlled tenant - a reminder that this city, for all its reinventions, still has pockets of continuity. From here, you can walk to stories: to bakeries that smell of sweet rice and sesame, to murals that remember what the city often forgets, to parks where pigeons and children crowd the same sun-soaked corners. Downtown is minutes away, but it might as well be another state. This isn't just property. It's perspective. It's the echo of a Los Angeles that once was, and the proof that some things, thankfully, still are.

Listing Courtesy of Efrat Poulson, Keller Williams Beverly Hills, 02162065, Jeff Yarbrough, Keller Williams Beverly Hills, 01341959, Active