It was 1983 when Navy veteran and former florist Jerome Shipanik purchased this Spanish-style home on a quiet cul-de-sac in Eagle Rock. As his home hits the market, he shares how eminent domain afforded him a charmed and adventurous life and why the dining area is his favorite room.
Jerome: “In the late 60s, early 70s, the City took my house and store to expand the new freeway for the airport. They gave me $90,000 for the house and $10,000 for the store. I put everything in the bank and spent the next year driving through Mexico. I drove from one side of the country to the other. It was wonderful. One of my close friends wrote books on the Mayan Indians and pyramids, and my sole interest was to go down to Yucatan. This afforded me all those pleasures.”
Returning to Los Angeles, he remembers bicycling every day on the beach and visiting friends who lived along the coast. One of his friends was a retired English woman. She owned a house on the strand in Manhattan Beach and two homes in Guadalajara, where he met a Dutch couple who remarried in his backyard.
Life was carefree for a while.
Jerome: “I was floundering around. I worked for a friend at a flower shop and rented a wonderful two-bedroom apartment in West Hollywood, which was ideal. My accountant said, “Jerry, you need to buy a house.” So, that’s how I ended up where I am.”
The home sits back and above the street behind a gated entry. Inside, the light-filled interior opens to a living room with tall ceilings, a decorative Swedish fireplace, a window framing picturesque views, and sliding glass doors opening to a deck where Jerome remembers many summer nights with friends dining al fresco. The step-up dining room looks out to an atrium once filled with lush plants. The roomy galley-style kitchen with a breakfast area and the bedrooms (currently used as one) look to the outdoors where the yard, filled with native plants, meanders to multiple lounge areas where we imagine many moments of taking in the surrounding hillside views.
A vast art collection fills his walls. Some of the work is by students of Stanton Macdonald Wright, a world-famous artist. He’s mentioned when you read about Gertrude Stein’s soirees in Paris.
Jerome: “The dining room is my favorite room in the house. It has some of the artwork that I like. I call it my Georgia O’Keeffe wall with the deer antlers and plates. I spend a lot of time sitting at the dining table and looking through the atrium at the view. It makes me feel like I’m in the South of France.”
When asked what attracted him to this home, he says, “The house’s ambiance got me. As I recall, I didn’t walk in the backyard until after I owned the house. It was a real jungle. After I bought the house, I started to clear out the Sumac. I didn’t know all those terraces were up there. I didn’t know my property line was up at the top. The view up there is incredible.”
“The neighborhood is convenient too. It’s an ideal location. I’m 15 minutes to Downtown. I would walk around Occidental College almost every day. And walk to Starbucks every day for coffee too. I’m so close to Sprouts and Trader Joe’s and everything. I’m going to miss this area. I never thought I’d move.”
Offered for the first time in 40 years, 2533 Ridgeview Ave is asking $899,000. Showings begin January 22, 2023.