The campaign to save Bukowski's De Longpre bungalow

Isn't it very near (or actually in) the Little Armenia district just south of Los Feliz? If so, yeah, that area's been a bit gentrified over the years.
 

Bukfan

"The law is wrong; I am right"
Incredible, that Buk's bungalow actually has become a historic landmark. Who would've thunk? Next, there'll be guided tours to the bungalow, I'm sure. Well, well, well...
 
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That's not one of L.A.'s better neighborhoods ... not one of the worst, mind you, but I would never go there after sundown.

i definitely Would go.
i've been in this whole area last fall - even at night. it obviously has changed a Lot since the Buk-days (and nights).
there's no danger, that any of us couldn't handle easily.

[...] It's a quiet street, mostly families and old people [...]
exactly.
 

Gerard K H Love

Appreciate your friends
i definitely Would go.
i've been in this whole area last fall - even at night. it obviously has changed a Lot since the Buk-days (and nights).
there's no danger, that any of us couldn't handle easily. (snip..)

I was there last night and my headache is gone.;)
I think the hispanics that were out walking around were more afraid of me and were wondering why I was squeezing around the side of the fence and digging in the dirt.
I should have taken the nice living room light fixture- it looked like an original piece. Bukowski was laughing at my sorry tired out old ass climbing around in his past. I would have really been a laugh had I stolen the beer shit toilet.
Well I'm a chicken I didn't want to steal anything. It's a very good thing they are going to save it. There were volumes of fine writing done in that little place. That's just my opinion since I can see why some could care less if they leveled the place-the words are more important than where they were typed.
 

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
I'm glad the place will be saved. Would I want Bukowski's toilet? Probably not.

Reading the article, I see they are replacing the drywall and window glass. They should leave in the original stuff if they want to keep it historic. Call me a fanatic.

My own neighborhood is in the process of being declared a historic district and soon, if I want to replace a door or window, it'll take an act of Congress (wait a minute...they no longer exist, make that an act of God).
 
Rekrab said:
They should leave in the original stuff if they want to keep it historic.

that's true.
having it as a historic monument would've been the best.
but since they intend to get tenants into it, they had to modernize.
 

Gerard K H Love

Appreciate your friends
I'm glad the place will be saved. (snip...). They should leave in the original stuff if they want to keep it historic. Call me a fanatic.

Hey Fanatic;
It seems like an old 1920s bungalow even though they went to dry wall. They left all of the lath board and what looks to be an original light fixture. As long as they leave the original dirt it will hold the history and some dust of 30 plus year old cat shit. ;)
 
Hey there,

I walked over there on Saturday (birthday time!) to check out the work they are doing, and it looks awesome.

Actually what's going on is that the original windows were replaced by ugly vinyl sliders some time in the last 20 years. They also made the windows much smaller, to fit the specifications of the ready-made sliders, and filled in the floor to ceiling entry way windows on either side of the door.

So the windows they are putting now are actually in accordance with the Historic Preservation Ordinance, which requires that any renovations made to a Cultural Historic Landmark must reflect the time period of significance. They would not have been able to enforce this however, had the new owner not replaced the old vinyl windows with NEW vinyl windows (unpermitted), effictively activating the above rule, which resulted in the Cultural Heritage Commission intervening. That's sort of convoluted, but I hope it makes some sense.

Long story short, the place now more closely resembles how it looked in the time when Bukowski lived there. As an added bonus for the future tenants, it also looks much better!

-Lauren
 

Gerard K H Love

Appreciate your friends

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Rekrab

Usually wrong.
So the windows they are putting now are actually in accordance with the Historic Preservation Ordinance, which requires that any renovations made to a Cultural Historic Landmark must reflect the time period of significance. They would not have been able to enforce this however, had the new owner not replaced the old vinyl windows with NEW vinyl windows (unpermitted), effictively activating the above rule, which resulted in the Cultural Heritage Commission intervening. That's sort of convoluted, but I hope it makes some sense.

Right. Well put. That's how it works in my newly designated "historic district." I live in a 1905 house that's mostly original because I and all the owners before me have been too damned broke to do any "improvements". Turns out that was a good thing in retrospect. One of my doors is not original -- it's a cheap piece of crap plywood slab from maybe the 1960s. I can leave it there, do nothing, and still be historic, or I can replace it with a door in the style and material of the original structure, i.e., a 1905 door, and keep my historic status. But I can't replace it with a nice expensive 2008 style door -- that would not be allowed. Actually, the rules haven't gone into effect here yet and won't for about a year, so I could do anything I want now, but that's how it'll be eventually. And after the rules are in effect, I will need a special permit and a panel review to make any changes to the exterior of the house. What I should do now is go buy a nice used old door at a reclamation place for $10 or $20 and put that up with no permit, no review, before the rules change. Then I'll be more original with no hassle. Curiously, I can change anything I want inside the house -- it's all about how the outside looks. No energy efficient double glazed vinyl framed windows, no vinyl siding. Now I have the perfect excuse to give those guys who go door to door selling windows and siding -- historic preservation! I gotta keep this place old.

Glad to hear they are doing it correctly at the DeLongpre apartment.
 
I drove by there today and the whole place is under complete renovation, including the front buk unit.

they've added a new big window to the street and i just walked inside and took a few pics....the court is a nice size but they've changed the layout a bit...it has been definitely been saved and will probably be rentable within a month or so.

looks like they are doing a nice renovation and someone is going to get an expensive rental unit (with horrendous street parking on delongpre)...
 

Gerard K H Love

Appreciate your friends
Do you know how to attach the photos? It would be nice to see how the work has progressed.
Thanks and welcome to the forum.
 
dito what Gerard said!

1.: post pics !!!
2.: welcome !!!!!

... or maybe the other way 'round.
anyway.
you're Very Welcome kid!
 
here's what buk's old place looked like last week.came all the way from australia to see this. worth it, totally.
 

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Gerard K H Love

Appreciate your friends
Thank you grrrowdy nice of you to go out of your way for us. Did you go through the fence?
That was a very good first post but if you would've asked I would have taken a couple of pictures for you. I'm sure you wanted to be there as did many of us.
 
thanks roni and gerard! yep, i had to go and see for myself, just to be on the same street that bukowski would have walked up and down. i was coming back from los feliz in a cab and got the driver to go by de longpre. jumped out and took a very quick pic - there was an older guy next door shouting a lot and i wasn't too sure if maybe it was the owner getting pissed off at weirdos turning up to take photos, so i didn't hang around to soak up the atmosphere unfortunately. but to have actually been out the front of the home bukowski lived in while writing post office... what a feeling. 25 years ago and thousands of miles away in another country, i read post office and it changed my life. it's pretty cool i finally got to see where, for me, it all began.
 

Bukfan

"The law is wrong; I am right"
Jezuz! There's certainly not much left of the tree! I hope they won't chop it down altogether.

Great pic, grrrowdy! Thanks...
 
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Rekrab

Usually wrong.
I had to look at my 1982 photo again to see if the tree always looked that bad. Is it dead or just dormant? Looks like the cactus in my office window that I water once every six months. They didn't cut it down, so maybe it's still alive.
 

Gerard K H Love

Appreciate your friends
I had to look at my 1982 photo again to see if the tree always looked that bad. Is it dead or just dormant? Looks like the cactus in my office window that I water once every six months. They didn't cut it down, so maybe it's still alive.

The tree will grow back. They just pruned it all of the way back. Now they may be trying to kill it if there is a problem with roots in the pipes. The yard was dug up and they had all of the water lines exposed- a few months ago.

I know someone who has some leaves from that tree.;)
 

Gerard K H Love

Appreciate your friends
thanks for that, and the inspiration for my profile pic. (edit: which didn't work).
the guy shouting really was like that!
rekrab, is your 1982 pic posted? would love to see how it looked then.

Put the address 5124 DeLongpre into Google and hit search then hit Images.
989919005_faf33195d0_m.jpg
1372915398_de8f111542_m.jpg


Here is one-newer I think. Hell, there's a picture of Oprah that comes up in that search.
 

mjp

Founding member
That is on the other side of DeLongpre...

---

But not everyone was thrilled to see the home landmarked. The poet's widow, Linda Lee Bukowski, said she did not think her husband would have appreciated seeing a fuss made over the house he rented.

"He was not the kind of person whose ego needed a large edifice in his memorium," she said.

Bukowski said she was sickened by earlier proposals that the house serve as a residence for writers and artists.

"That would be repulsive to Hank," she said, using the writer's nickname.

"It would be against all his natural human ways to have little writers and poets in bungalows together, little Bukowskis running around."

http://news.therecord.com/Wire/Entertainment_Wire/article/315110

---

As Linda says it, "Hank" would have laughed at the "historical home" designation.

"The De Longpre address was but one of many that Hank rented and wrote in during his years in L.A. Indeed the novel `Post Office' was written there, but so many more books were written at (another) address ... After that, the rest of his work was written in San Pedro, in the home where he lived until his last precious breath, and where I still reside with nine cats."

But as has been noted, you aren't going to sell many literary tour bus tickets to San Pedro.

http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_7636769
 
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