The Van Dekker house, an historic home built in 1939 by architect Rudolph Schindler, has been completely restored by the man who bought it two years ago, Frank Gamwell.
The house had been home to a number of stars for decades. These included Dekker, who played mostly bad guys in films like ‘Dr. Cyclops’ and ‘The Wild Bunch’, and screenwriter Al “Buzz” Bezzerides, who penned the Humphrey Bogart film ‘They Drive By Night’, as well as the television series ‘The Big Valley’, which he co-created with Barbara Stanwyck.
Many famous people hung out in the house, including Bogart, John Wayne, Clark Gable, and Robert Mitchum, who visited regularly. Bezzerides once let screenwriter and legendary author William Faulkner stay in the house, and Dekker hid a Japanese family who were to be interned, according to one of the house's owners.
Josh Gorrell, a preservationist, bought the four-bath, seven-bedroom house six years ago, and spent a year repairing it. Gamwell then bought it from him, with all its original built-ins intact. The house is now considered an example of Valley Modernism. According to Cindy Olnick, spokesperson for the Los Angeles Conservancy, the house is a “hidden gem.”
Gamwell might consider creating a brochure about the house for interested parties to pick up, if he does not wish to have it open to the public.
