I had the pleasure today to walk (for the second time) a house in Sherman Oaks that was owned and lived in by William Mellenthin.   What a treat.   William Mellenthin as most of you know built hundreds of homes located in the “Hidden Woods” area of Sherman Oaks with the boundaries of Fulton to Coldwater and Riverside to Chandler (omitting the street Leghorn – Michael his son built two there at one point).One of the most interesting aspects of the home is its orientation on the lot.   It carries an Ethel address now but its legal address is or at one point was in the 13000 block of Addison (a large property at the corner of Addison and Ethel Avenue) and originally was well over an acre in size.

Purchased by William in the late 40’s or early 50’s from a family by the name of Silsby, it was here where Mellenthin spent much of his time developing Hidden Woods. In fact, his son built his office out of worm eaten chestnut off the side of the property where Mellenthin’s did much of his word (located at the far West end of the property and accessed from Addison).

Mellenthin also had a real office which was an office that looked like a house he built in the mid 1930’s at 12021 Ventura Blvd which at the time carried a North Hollywood address (now known as Studio City) and later at one point at 4701 Laurel Canyon.

With the front door facing Addison, it’s North and South property lines were Addison and Morrison and in 1963 William’s son Michael built what was 13104 Addison (changed to 13100 by William who eventually moved in) in front of the home essentially blocking its view of the front door to the street on Addison. Later, a structure that previously existed in the purchase from the Silsbee or Silsby family (formerly the guest house we think) was added on to by William’s son Michael for the draftsman to live in during the areas development. It was later sold off and became its own separate parcel.

The house is quite charming with beautiful wood flooring, bay and large picture windows and fine detailing throughout.  Once owned and renovated by Corbin and Amanda Bernsen (LA Law Amanda and Corbin have owned and remodeled several fine properties in the valley) the home meanders over 3200 square feet of living space on a 17,680 foot lot with 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms.  The Eastern most portion of the property was completely remodeled and changed from what were once 6 rooms down to 3 rooms by its current owner.   It now includes a fabulous oversized cook’s kitchen and family room combination or “great room,” laundry and powder room all with designer finishes opening beautifully to the yard and pool by reconfiguring the existing garage and removal of the original motor court.

While beautiful in many ways the home still has some functional issues as it has 2 separate sets of tandem bedrooms which means that in order to get to one bedroom, you would have to walk through another. Fixable I thought by extending a hallway and adding another bedroom.

The homes Mellenthin built in Sherman Oaks are still of the most highly coveted entry-level homes in the valley today.