Original 1949 Crestwood Hills house by A. Quincy Jones, Frederick Emmons seeks $2.45M

For sale for the first time since 1962, this wonderful post and beam by A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons has a cabin-in-the-mountains feel right in the hills of Brentwood—Crestwood Hills, to be exact.

The three-bedroom house holds many original details remaining from when the house was built in 1949, including the light fixtures and much of the concrete work. (Many of the rooms have never even been painted, listing agent Kathleen Bywater tells Curbed.) Like many homes from this popular era, it features floor-to-ceiling windows and what appears to be a tongue-and-groove beamed ceiling.

There’s an open floor plan where the living room, dining area, and kitchen meet, allowing one to imagine that the original split-level brick fireplace could warm all three areas on a chilly winter day.

Though it’s got a timelessly stylish look and sits nestled in a tony neighborhood, the house has fairly humble origins.

According to the residence’s application for historic-cultural monument status, it was one of the 27 original model houses in the Crestwood Hills Mutual Housing Association development.

Crestwood Hills MHA is considered the only successful large-scale cooperative housing development in California, according to the house’s application.

Four musicians looking to make housing more affordable during the post-war shortage created a cooperative housing group in 1946 that blossomed quickly into a 400-member group.

The group’s members pooled their money to gradually buy Brentwood lots. The application notes that the original cost of construction was $13,326, and that lots cost $2,000. Architects Whitney Smith and A. Quincy Jones and structural engineer Edgardo Contini were brought in to design the houses for the development.

The residence’s application states that landmarking this and other Crestwood houses was “an attempt to preserve a very unique pocket of California Modernism.” It received landmark status in 2001 as the Israel House, after Marion Israel, for whom the house was built.

It’s now listed for $2.45 million.

• 914 Bluegrass Lane [Kathleen Bywater/Berkshire Hathaway Home Services]
• Mapping 20 of LA's Fabulous Modern A. Quincy Jones Houses [Curbed LA]