Ray Bradbury's Westside home is now a teardown*

10265 Cheviot Drive by John King Tarpinian

When Ray Bradbury's home in Cheviot Hills went on the market last year, the label "estate" was thrown around by the real estate agents and got kind of a chuckle from people who know the neighborhood. Just a house with a yard in Cheviot — but a home with a golden literary pedigree. Ray Bradbury lived and wrote there for decades. Well, the construction fence went up around the house and last week the house was mostly demolished. Maybe not a full teardown on paper, I don't know, but essentially it's gone. The plan is to build a new home with three levels below ground (including pool) and two above ground, says longtime Bradbury friend John King Tarpinian on Mike Glyer's science fiction blog File 770.

Last Friday I got a panic call from one of Ray Bradbury’s old family friends, an English professor, back East. He learned that Ray’s sunny yellow house was being razed. Once the security fence went up we knew. In Los Angeles a home that cost $1,765,000 is considered a tear down. Very quickly I received emails from others begging me for photos of the sad event. In only one day half of the house was gone.

One friend wanted a rose, a music professor, from Maggie’s (Ray’s wife’s) garden. Others wanted a piece of anything as a souvenir. I’ve had many requests for the street numbers over the garage. Of course, this is no longer Ray’s home but owned by an “investor.” So I need permission to take a pebble from the property, I’m going to get permission…wink.

As I was taking pictures locals were walking their dogs. They’d stop to observe and we’d converse. One lady had no idea who had owned the house; she was new to the neighborhood. She walked away in tears. Another long time neighbor knew it was Ray’s home and we mutually agreed things like this are just wrong but money wins out. Another young couple had no idea who Ray was…the saddest encounter of all.

Ed O’Neill’s character’s home in Modern Family is a few blocks away. It was a former quaint home that was a rebuild. That home was a tear down by the same person who bought Ray’s house. The house to the left of Ray’s is being remodeled for the second time in five years. The house across the street from that home is undergoing a complete facelift, adding a second story. The One-Percenters are doing just fine, thank you very much.

John has more photos of the house with his post.

* Update: Curbed LA says the house was purchased last year for $1.76 million by architect Thom Mayne and his wife, Blythe Alison-Mayne. A demolition permit was issued last month.

Previously at LA Observed:
Ray Bradbury's home in Cheviot Hills up for sale, open house Sunday