The Charlotte and Robert Disney House at 4406 West Kingswell Avenue in the Los Feliz area is being renovated and is designated a Los Angeles Historical Cultural Monument. It was the first Los Angeles home to Walt and Roy Disney, and the place where Walt’s animation studio concept took flight.
New owners had applied for a permit to tear in down 2016, but the house has evidently escaped that fate. Plans are to restore the house to its 1914 Craftsman bungalow standards, down to the shed where Walt allegedly finished his “Alice Comedies,” which launched his career. The Alice Comedies are a series of animated/live-action shorts created by Walt Disney in which a live action little girl named Alice (originally played by Virginia Davis) and an animated cat named Julius have adventures in an animated landscape.
Legend has it that Walt’s aunt and uncle offered to let Walt Disney board in their home at $5 per week in 1923. The two-bedroom, 1458 square-foot home stayed in the Disney family for 30 years. It changed owners several times, but in 2016, its new owners submitted plans for a new two-story, one or two family home they planned for the site. The outcry changed their minds.
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Gary Helsinger
