Palisades-News-March-18-2015

Page 18 Palisades News March 18, 2015
A Home with Architectural History
By SUE PASCOE
Editor
There’s something reassuring about a
home built decades ago with architectural
insight and graciousness
that people don’t instantly feel the need to
renovate it or tear it down. Those buildings,
like grand dames, have a history and are the
more interesting for it.
One property that fits into that category
is the Trippet House at 13535 Lucca Dr. in
Pacific Palisades. The Los Angeles Times featured
this historic French Tudor house in
December 2006 and it is now on the market
for $8.15 million.
“Gerard Colcord was only 29 when he
designed the Trippet House in 1930,” the
story read. “Inspired by farm houses in the
Normandy region of France, its exterior
is rough field stone masonry. A dramatic
high-pitched roof drives the design. Thick
stone walls lend an air of stolidity and give
the impression of a house built to last for
generations.”
Two years later, the house was featured in
the entire first chapter of Bret Parsons’ book
Colcord Homes (Angel City Press, 2008).
Parsons wrote: “Rough fieldstone masonry
veneer exemplifies the picturesque
quality of Trippet House. A massive masonry
wall with no window openings facing
the street emphasizes the fireplace and
the solidarity of farm buildings that were
designed to be protective.
“Colcord often modified traditional details.
For example, the steel-easement windows
in Trippet House were generally found
only in the most expensive residences—
not farmhouses. Even the proportions of
the thin steel-framed windows are quite
different from the heavier wood-framed
casement windows found in a French
farmhouse.”
When Parsons published his book, he
received a phone call from actor Harrison
Ford, who owned two of the architect’s
houses. Other celebrities who have owned
Colcord homes included Tom Jones,
Dean Martin, Tony Curtis, Debbie
Reynolds, Richard Chamberlain and
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The historic Trippet House in the Riviera neighborhood of Pacific Palisades is now on the market.
Reese Witherspoon.
“Every owner I talked with said they love
having guests over,” Parsons wrote. “The
problem is they don’t want to leave because
they feel so comfortable.”
There is some notoriety about the Trippet
House’s second owner, Dr. Ernst C.
Fishbaugh, a physician to the oil-rich Doheny
family.
In February 1929, Edward “Ned” Doheny,
36, and his friend and assistant
Theodore Hugh Plunkett, were found dead
in the Greystone mansion in Beverly Hills.
Historical accounts vary but Fishbaugh
may have helped up cover up a crime surrounding
the possible murder/suicide of
the two men.
According to the doctor, “I received a call
at the Hollywood Playhouse from my maid
at 10:30 p.m. and was told to go to the Doheny
home immediately. Upon my arrival
there, one of the watchmen let me in the
house . . . As I entered, Mrs. Doheny was
standing in the middle hallway approximately
eight feet back from the door and
greeted me. She said her husband was in a
guestroom on the first floor, to the left of
the hall leading from the front entrance.
“Both Mrs. Doheny and I started down
the hall, side by side. A door, which partitions
the hall, was slightly ajar, and I saw
Plunkett walking toward it. ‘You stay out of
here,’ he shouted at me and slammed the
door shut. I then heard a shot. ‘You go back,’
I told Mrs. Doheny, and she returned to the
living room, which was about 75 feet away
from the guest room. I pushed the door
open and saw Plunkett lying on his face
opposite the door to the bedroom where
I later found Mr. Doheny. Plunkett, to the
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best of my recollection, was fully clothed.
The door to the bedroom was open, and
when I looked in I saw Mr. Doheny lying
on his back, a chair overturned between
him and the bed.”
An ensuing media storm soon called
Ned Doheny a hero because of a rumor he
was trying to help a troubled friend, and
had been killed for his efforts.
The forensic investigator, Leslie White,
doubted Fishbaugh’s story. He found a smoldering
cigarette in Hugh’s fingertips, who
supposedly had just killed his best friend
and then himself. The gun used in the murder
lay under Plunkett’s body, very warm,
as if someone had heated it in the oven.
Indeed, the doctor was caught in several
lies, including withholding the fact that
Ned had been alive when the doctor burst
(Continued on Page 19)
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