At Home With Dot
Dorothy's home from about 1927 to 1930 was at 305 Carmelina Drive in Los Angeles. She lived here with her chauffeur named Harry and cook named
Maude, who were married. The house, a classic Spanish Revival bungalow, and garage were built in the Brentwood Club Estates in 1926 at a cost of
$5,500. Supposedly, the house was a gift from her then love interest cowboy actor Tom Mix. In 1987 this house was ready for demolition but the
owner offered it free to any tax deductible taker so the California State University took it. The house was chopped into three pieces via chainsaw,
causing most of the tiles and bricks to fall off, and moved onto the campus. CSU chose it for use as a dean's home, but those plans never materialized
after cost calculations of fixing it (it was discovered to be full of asbestos). So it sat on the campus for a year surrounded by a fence. Eventually the
little house was moved to Sunland and put in storage. In January of 1991 it was purchased, moved to Pasadena where it remains. After months of
hard work fixing it up, Dot's little bungalow is now a beautiful and well manicured private residence.
Dorothy's Carmelina house as it looks today in Pasadena CA. Awfully nice, no? The house was put in Dorothy's name sometime
after it was built in 1926/27. The house was then rented out after Dot married William Boyd and was sold in October of 1933,
no doubt a bad financial time for the couple.
Some views in the updated
Brentwood house. Left is the
dining room, right is the
breakfast room and the living
room is above. The ceilings,
floors and fireplaces are all
restored.
BUDDY
NOW
Dorothy with
Tom Mix on
the set of
Arizona
Wildcat in
1927.
Special thanks to Helena Mountford for sharing a great article about this house.
Want to read more about this beautiful house? Check out these two books by Brian Coleman:
Cottages and The Intimate Garden

A special "Thank you" goes out to author Michael Lewallen, a former owner of this house for some lovely pictures and
information!
Dorothy and Buddy in their backyard.
THEN
Click here for
some of
Dorothy's
recipes!