Did you know a rumored Communist lives in the Oaks? Well, the rumors are 50 years old, and they stem from her efforts to set up a cute little pre-school in her garden, so don't rush off to Senator McCarthy just yet.

Yes, I am fully aware Senator McCarthy is dead. All the more reason you shouldn't run off to him.

Anyway, back to Margaret Clausen, the alleged communist. She is 97 and lives on Canyon Drive and might be my new favorite person in the neighborhood. The rumors of her being a comunist are 100% false. However, it is 100% true that she set up the Canyon Co-Op Pre-School in her garden back in the early 40s. And because it was a co-operative effort, it had a bit too much of a "red" flavor for at least one vigilant patriot in the neighborhood who surmised the venture must be part of the Communist infiltration soon to endanger Hollywood and it's dangerously influential film industry. While the red-baiting has pretty much died down, the pre-school still exists and is now known as the Canyon School. Margaret is proud of the school's longevity.

Her own long life is impressive in its own right. She was born in Rockwell City, Iowa in 1908. Sliding economic changes in this farming community resulted in her family's seeking better opportunities to the West and for a short while they lived in a emerging mining community in Arizona while their father sought his fortune in a gold mining venture.

However, the discomfort of raising their small children in a rustic tent coupled with the realization that the riches from the earth were considerably less than expected, stimulated her family to return to their roots in Iowa where Margaret spent the rest of her childhood and early teens. Just after she finished her junior year in high school, the urge to find better opportunities again resulted in her family moving westward. This time they made it all the way to California where her father and his brothers participated in the transformation of desert land into productive farms from diversion of water from the Colorado River into the Imperial Valley. After finishing her senior year at the high school in Brawley, Margaret again moved with her family north to greener pastures in the San Joaquin Valley where she attended the College of Pacific in Modesto.

After completing her graduate degree in education, Margaret taught at Modesto High School for seven years. She and a couple of other intelligent and beautiful housemates enjoyed the attention of a variety of suitors including a graduate student in music at Berkeley named Leslie Clausen. Shortly after her favored beau accepted a faculty position at Los Angeles City College, Margaret again moved, this time to join Les in marriage.

Margaret Clausen

After their marriage in Barnsdall Park in 1938, Margaret and Leslie moved into the "story-book" house in the Los Feliz area (shown behind the photograph of Margaret in her wedding gown). Seeking digs with a better view, a year later they moved into an apartment in the hilly northern end of Ivar where their son Jack was born. Shortly thereafter, Margaret's 2nd pregnancy stimulated a move to a larger homestead. In 1940, they purchased a lot and developed plans for the construction of a new home on a steep hillside just south of Frank Lloyd Wright's house within walking distance of Les's LA City College. The start of construction was thwarted however, when an irresistibly spacious 1920's Mediterranean hillside home came on the market. They moved into their hillside villa at 2214 Canyon Drive in 1941 where they were to raise their four children (and an array of pets and wild beasts including cuddly rabbits and hamsters, a few snakes, a squirrel named Oscar, and one very mobile turtle).

Because Margaret and Leslie both loved (and taught) music, it was natural that the meetings of the Los Angeles "Crescendo Club" would take place at their Canyon Drive home, even though 64 steps had to be navigated to their front doors at these meetings where the likes of Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg would discuss new concepts in music composition and theory. These gatherings were reflections of the rich music environment which flourished in Los Angeles in the 40s and 50s.

After the end of World War II, Les recognized the considerable educational opportunities resultant from federal funding for returning soldiers seeking college educations ("the GI Bill"). Under his direction, the music department at LA City College grew with new offerings of courses aimed at musicians seeking careers in more "main-stream" musical venues such as jazz, dance bands, and music for films.

After 20 years in their hillside Mediterranean home, the Clausen family made yet another move...this time three houses to the south under a canopy of four magnificent Canary Pines. In this house, Margaret and Les finally set roots and it is the home where she still resides 45 years later.

Leslie and Margaret instilled their love of learning in each of their children, as reflected in their many achievements. Their son Jack is professor of medicine at the University of California San Diego. Daughter Catherine works for the Edirol Company focusing on computer applications in music. Margaret loves to discuss architecture with daughter Meredith, who is an author and a professor of architectural history at the University of Washington. When I recently witnessed one of these conversations, Margaret was asked what her favorite building in the whole world was. She responded, "I think this house on Canyon Street."

However, it wasn't all milkshakes and pony rides. Margaret and the other Oaks residents faced many challenges over the years. In the Forties, Margaret had to fend off an FBI interrogation of a Japanese student who was living with them at the time. Her crime appeared to be nothing more than being Japanese as far as Margaret could tell, and after a good talking to by Margaret, the agents never came back. In the Fifties several Oaks residents were targets of the Hollywood Black List, many of whom were Margaret's friends including actor and drama coach Jeff Cory and screen writer and director Hugo Butler. In the Sixties and Seventies some parts of the neighborhood declined a bit and crime literally came to her doorstep when burglars broke in. Thankfully she got through all of these experiences unscathed.

Margaret Clausen in front of “story-book” house

Margaret has noticed a lot of changes in the sixtysome years she has lived on Canyon Drive. For example, fifty plus years ago, residents of Canyon Drive and its environs seeking a horseback ride did not need to travel all the way "over the hill" to the Sunset Ranch stables at the end of Beachwood Drive. We had our own stables past the end of Canyon Drive on the dirt road into the park where the lower parking lot for the Hollywoodland Camp now resides. Riders could go for a long ride "over the hill to the valley," a shorter ride through the Bronson caves, or maybe even amble down for an ice-cream soda at the Bronsonia Drugstore on Franklin. "That drugstore had a great soda fountain," Margaret remembered happily.

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John Yeomans served in Europe during World War II. After the war, he came home, moved to Los Angeles, and eventually settled in The Oaks. Originally from the Chicago area, John grew up in Wisconsin. As a young man, he attended a semester at Oberlin College before putting his college plans aside because of World War II. He enlisted in the army and was sent to Amarillo, Texas to train as a medic. "It was the only place I've ever been where you could stand in mud and still have dust blow in your face," he laughed. John then moved on to less dusty, but still muddy, New Jersey before shipping off to England. He trained for weeks near Stonehenge while the Allies readied for D-day.

Seven days after D-Day, John's unit went ashore in waters still full of wrecked ships and dead bodies. He and 8,000 other soldiers arrived at Omaha Beach in ships built to hold 2,300. Once ashore, John took stock and noticed that a great deal of cattle joined the ranks of the human dead. "Normandy is France's equivalent of Wisconsin. The cattle had no place to find shelter and their bodies were strewn everywhere you looked."

There was little shelter for John's unit as well. For the first several days, they slept in foxholes. It was only when they moved inland and started taking over towns that they could finally sleep inside.

As a medic, John tended not only to soldiers, but to some of the locals as well. He and a colleague treated a French peasant suffering from a tumor. As a reward, the peasant gave John a prized bottle of home-made Calvados. This bottle still sits on a shelf in the apartment of his partner, long-time resident of The Oaks, Dick Sharpe.

How did John meet Dick Sharpe you ask? We're going to have to skip over an awful lot of World War II and nearly the entirety of the Korean conflict to get to this moment.

Okay, at the point we won the war, John was stationed in what was then Czechoslovakia. He came home to Chicago and eventually started working for Paul Hansen lamps. He accepted an offer to work for Paul Hansen in California as the company's west coast representative, and moved here in 1959. Four years later, he met Dick Sharpe, a veteran of four years in the Navy. Dick, a native Californian, studied art after the war at Woodbury College on Wilshire. He worked in various interior design positions before taking a job with Lucia Florence Nugent, a design company who purchased thousands of lamps from Paul Hansen.

In 1963, John and Dick's paths crossed through their two companies. Dick was in the process of ordering the lights for the model homes in The Los Feliz Estates project. John was his contact at Paul Hansen, the company he had selected for the purchase. With a phone call, the two men met and the rest is history. In 1964, they decided to buy a home together on Park Oak Drive in The Los Feliz Oaks. This would be their home for most of the next 40 years. In that time, the neighborhood and the men changed a bit, but kept their essential charm.

John continued to work for Paul Hansen lamps before retiring twenty years ago to pursue his volunteer work on a full-time basis. John worked on the Los Feliz Improvement Association for nearly forty years. He served on The Oaks Homeowners Association for forty years, as well. However, the bulk of his time was spent serving as the chairman for Recordings for the Blind, an organization devoted to recording books for those who are blind or dyslexic. He did everything from serve as head of this organization to actually doing a lot of the reading for the tapes himself.

John Yeomans, Oaks Picnic 2002

The interview for this article was taken with John Yeomans in 2004. During, the interview John looked back fondly on his time in The Oaks. He told me that he was grateful for the friendships with his neighbors during his 40 years with us. John started giving back to the community as soon as he arrived in 1963. He was a valued and well-liked part of the community. Our love, friendship, and respect is the very least the Oaks could give to one amazing veteran. John Yeomans passed away on April 14 at the age of 81 and leaves a loving and devoted partner, Dick Sharpe.

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When I moved here The Oaks was known largely for older, post-child rearing families and childless gay couples. There was a single Oaks play group for just a handful of infants and toddlers. Walking our dogs was the primary way many of us met and became friendly. Our description today has expanded to include family-friendly. The Oaks is as welcoming as ever, but you can't turn around without crossing a baby stroller, kid's bike or garden playset.

This is a good thing, as to be a parent is to automatically have an investment in the future, (as well as a desire for playdates with your neighbors' kids!). Through this we build friendships, and become a tight-knit community. A good neighborhood is a neighborhood willingly protected and supported by the people who live there.  And that benefit carries long term through everyones' lives. The neighborhood identity I experienced growing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts continues to be a source of strength and pride to me, because though we were very diverse, there was a fundamental respect and (at times grudging) tolerance of difference.  I hope we can pass that on to the current generation growing up in The Oaks.

We are so fortunate to have the marvel of Bronson Canyon right up the street. It is my favorite public feature of our community. The hike up the fire trail at the end of the road is one of the best hikes in Los Angeles. It has everything: the delight of running water, extra thick and gorgeous plants and trees, enough isolation from city wash background noise to hear individual birds, panoramic views and a good, gradual slope. If you haven't walked it, I urge you to get out there today. It is one of the great secrets of Los Angeles, it is open to everyone, it is in our backyard, and is also a place to run into friends and neighbors.

I have previously talked about the breath-taking run up in home values since I moved to the Oaks almost eight years ago. In 1995, Los Angeles Magazine highlighted The Oaks as one of their ten great neighborhoods. What had been described then as a comfortable upper-middle class area has become accessible to only a small percent of Los Angelenos, with almost nothing on the market for less than a million dollars, and prices over two million now common.

At the same time, people who have lived in The Oaks for some years, as is my case, have hit the jackpot of Los Angeles real estate values. Prices have tripled in less than nine years.

Peter Ellis, past president

One consequence of wealthy households is a concomitant desire for privacy. We repaint and remove the crude iron bars of neglected homes, but we also build walls. My house on Tuxedo Terrace has a long wall, and it is a landmark for people visiting us for the first time. We assert our privacy, as is right and good, but we also hurt the public discourse provided by open property lines. See, for example, the Los Angeles Times Magazine article, "The Paradox of the Hedge", May 22, 2005.

If there is one thing in The Oaks I could do, it would be to give people the sense of security and privacy so that we would feel comfortable razing those walls. Lovely hillside and city views, enjoyed by us and our neighbors for many years, have been cut off by the erection of six foot wood, stucco or green barriers. This definitely harms our ability to connect to each other. Because we cannot see our neighbors living lives different and yet similar to our own, those neighbors become less real, less meaningful to us. Time and again, when planners try to create neighborhoods with a stronger common social fabric, they eliminate or reduce homeowners' ability to build these walls.

Walk around Pasadena Highlands, or Glendale's Country Cl ub Hills, and marvel at the wide areas open to public view.  Do we still want the casual social connections expansive front lawns foster, those neighborly chats over the old back fence, or will we become like Beverly Hills, exclusive and wealthy, but largely anonymous? I chose to live in The Oaks because it has a unique identity and strong community bonds. Walls are going up on the one hand, but people are made more social through their children; based on our history of goodwill, my bet is that the neighborhood feel will continue.

A society is only as strong as its sense of public good.  I believe that that public good starts individually, neighbor to neighbor, with tolerance and common purpose. I have enjoyed serving on The Oaks Homeowners Association, and have been thrilled to get to know all the different people who live here.

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Oaks Night at Vermont
Marilyn Johnson

Those who dined at the Vermont Restaurant on Vermont on the evening of Tuesday, March 22nd were rewarded with a double treat. Not only did they escape the darkness of a blackout in our residential neighborhood that evening, but they were privileged to enjoy being served a special dinner at the restaurant by the members of our association's Board of Directors. The special dinner, as tasted beforehand by the members of the Board, (waiters/ waitresses), included delicious plates typical of the those offered by the restaurant regularly.

 
Amateur waiter and board member Rainer Standke relays an order to Vermont's supernaturally patient co-owner Manuel Mesta

The entire amount of the tips that Board members received was donated to the Oaks Homeowners Association, as planned. While there was no com-  petition amongst the servers, it happens that the waiter/waitress who earned (?) the most in tips last year is the same as the one who earned the most tips this year. Surpassing all precedent, this year's winner actually earned more money in tips at a table for 7 than the total cost of the dinner at that table.

 
Some fun was had in spite of some rather busy times. In this picture: Board members Holly Purcell and Jeff Lane.

Wait staff from the Oaks Board was Gerry Hans, Jonathan Corob, sommelier, Marilyn Johnson, Jeffrey Lane, Holly Purcell (our main contact with the restaurant), Caroline Schweich, and Rainer Standke.

Watch for this to happen again next year...

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Cassandra Peterson, resident and flood victim.

Tom LaBonge, City Councilman.

Open only Friday, Saturday and Sunday since the recently completed three-year renovation of the Park, the gallery is now open on Thursdays thanks to volunteer staff! The Barnsdall Art Gallery had been the traditional artistic hub of the City of Los Angeles. Los Feliz artist Laurie McEnery and community activist Juliana Safford are among the volunteer Thursday docents who are making it possible for the public to return and enjoy the Barnsdall Municipal Art Gallery.

Hosting the Gallery has already provided the opportunity for them to meet the artists in the current COLA exhibit, families taking classes at the Barnsdall Art and Junior Art Center, and visitors from around the world who come to see the Gallery and the soon-to-bereopened Frank Lloyd Wright Hollyhock House.

Additional volunteers, trained by staff, are needed to restore Wednesday and Thursday Gallery hours from noon to 5. Those interested are encouraged to call Robin Hinchliffe at 310/541-4354, or email robinalert@yahoo.com. Additional info here.

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