The Henry Shire Residence at a glance
Architectural homes Echo Park for sale rarely come with a documented story, and the Henry Shire Residence at 2208 North Princeton Avenue is one that does. Josef Van der Kar designed it in 1949, Garrett Eckbo provided the landscape plan, and the City declared it Historic-Cultural Monument No. 973 in 2010.
Powered by Side: #1 California-based brokerage, No. 9 in the nation.
Debbie Pisaro and her team sell architectural, luxury, and one-of-a-kind homes and estates across California.
Echo Park · Field Notes
A 1949 Josef Van der Kar house, filled with built-ins its cabinetmaker owner made himself, and landmarked six decades later.
What is the Henry Shire Residence in Echo Park?
Most searches for architectural homes Echo Park for sale return the same portal pages and a few Victorians. This post is about a different kind of house. The Henry Shire Residence at 2208 North Princeton Avenue is a one-story 1949 modernist house built for a working cabinetmaker and his family, and the City of Los Angeles declared it Historic-Cultural Monument No. 973 on January 27, 2010.
Debbie Pisaro is not the listing agent for the Henry Shire Residence. It is written up here because the record behind it is better than the record behind most houses in Echo Park, and because an owner of a house like it needs to know what that record changes.
A craftsman builds his own
The twist is in who the client was. Henry Shire was a cabinetmaker, and a 2011 Mid2Mod post summarizing a Modernism magazine profile of Van der Kar describes him as a union organizer who was expelled from his own union for insisting that Black cabinetmakers be paid the same wage as white workers. His sons remember the house as full of furniture and built-ins he made himself. Billy Shire, in a 2016 Atomic Ranch series on the house, called it "Hank's woodpile."
Those sons are the artists Peter and Billy Shire, and they grew up in the house. The family's mark on Echo Park did not stop there. On the same day in 2010 the City also declared the Shire Art House at 2354 South Vista Gordo Drive, a 1938 house that Peter Shire and his wife bought and lived in until 1988, Monument No. 972. Two monuments, one family, one council date.
Josef Van der Kar, and the garden
Josef Van der Kar belongs to the second generation of Los Angeles modernists, and he was a close friend of Gregory Ain. The same Mid2Mod post says he worked with Ain on the Community Homes project, that he came under the scrutiny of the House Un-American Activities Committee for refusing to comply with a Federal Housing Administration requirement to ban the sale of houses to minorities, and that he worked with Buckminster Fuller, Richard Neutra, and R.M. Schindler. Ain's best-known tract, the Mar Vista Modernique homes, comes from the same circle and the same ideas about affordable modern housing.
Van der Kar's other named work includes a house for Albert and Roberta Wohlstetter, built next to his own, and the house he designed for the landscape architect Garrett Eckbo, which stood across Laurel Canyon from Van der Kar's. The same account says he worked with Eckbo on all his projects and turned down a job when Eckbo was unavailable. Eckbo provided the landscape plan for the Shire house. As Atomic Ranch recorded it, the original garden was a diagonal grid of hardscape squares with avocado and guava trees and a hedge of natal plum, divided into areas that included a Japanese-style partition of fiberglass panels and a built-in barbecue and incinerator off the dining room. For another Eckbo landscape on the network, see the Eckbo garden in Wonderland Park, Laurel Canyon.
The sources read for this post do not give Van der Kar's birth or death years or his training. Atomic Ranch reports that the Shire brothers tracked him down at his home in Zuma Beach when he was 95, about 18 months before he died.
What the 1949 house is made of
The monument record describes a one-story International Style house. Inside, as the Atomic Ranch tour lays it out, there are three bedrooms and two baths with a radiant floor, and a formal foyer as big as both baths combined. The living room leads to a bedroom through a four-foot sliding door, and accordion doors divided the other two bedrooms off the kitchen. Peter Shire told the magazine his father "had an extreme idea of privacy," so the street front is virtually all wall, and the house looks the other way, across the canyon.
On a designated house, the council file, the drawings, and the permit history are worth as much as the inspection report. They show what the city already knows about the house, and what any later change to it had to answer to.
Which side of the HPOZ line?
Echo Park owners live or die by one question: is the house inside the Angelino Heights Historic Preservation Overlay Zone? Angelino Heights was the first designated HPOZ in the city, and its Preservation Plan, dated June 10, 2004, sends all proposed work in the district to the HPOZ Board, with no exemptions and no project review delegated to the Planning Department. Inside the line, contributing and non-contributing houses alike go through that review.
The Henry Shire Residence does not get its protection that way. Its protection is its own designation as Historic-Cultural Monument No. 973, adopted under council file 09-3020. The sources read for this post do not place the parcel inside the HPOZ or give it a contributor status, so none is claimed here. The Preservation Plan describes Angelino Heights as bordered by Echo Park to the west, the Hollywood Freeway to the south, and Sunset Boulevard on the north, and any owner should confirm their parcel against the city's HPOZ map before relying on either answer.
The reverse matters just as much. An Echo Park house outside the HPOZ and not individually designated has no preservation design review at all, and no route to the Mills Act. The monument and the HPOZ are the two doors, and the Shire Residence went through the monument door.
Private inventory
Many of the homes Debbie Pisaro sells never reach the open market. If you want architectural homes in Echo Park and the Eastside before they are public, tell her what you are looking for. Ask about off-market homes, or call (310) 362-6429.
Eligible is not enrolled
The City of Los Angeles runs the largest Mills Act program in California, administered by the Office of Historic Resources. To qualify, a property must be a designated Historic-Cultural Monument or a contributor to an HPOZ. Eligibility is only the start. The ten-year contract renews automatically, runs with the property, and transfers to the next owner at closing, and the tax benefit exists only where a recorded contract exists. The sources read for this post show no contract on the Shire Residence, and none is claimed.
The program's policies have been under review at City Planning, so confirm the current rules before planning around it. The full walkthrough is in Debbie Pisaro's guide to selling a Mills Act or HCM home, and the tax side is in how HCM designation affects home value.
A designated or design-forward house prices differently from its neighbors. Request a home valuation from Coastline 840 for an opinion that accounts for the architect and the designation.
If you own a house like this one
Before you list a designated or survey-listed Echo Park house, pull the paper. That means the designation record or council file, the HPOZ contributor determination and Preservation Plan if the parcel is inside the district, the SurveyLA evaluation if the house was surveyed, the list of character-defining features, permits for past work, and any recorded Mills Act contract. Keep an eligibility finding and a designation apart in your own notes, because buyers and appraisers will.
Then put the architect and the designation in the first line of the listing. People who buy houses like this search by the architect's name and the monument status before they search the street. Debbie Pisaro works this category as an architectural homes specialist, and her guide to the best historic and architectural real estate agent in Los Angeles explains how she approaches it.
Echo Park, and the rest of California
Echo Park is a neighborhood of layers. South of Sunset, Angelino Heights holds the Victorian houses, and the Ellis house on Edgeware Road shows how a Bunker Hill Victorian ended up there. In the hills, modernist houses sit on lots that look nothing like a Victorian grid, and the Ross House, a 1938 Soriano in Echo Park is another of them. Up in Elysian Heights, the Atwater Bungalows, a 1931 Robert Stacy-Judd pair on Avon Park Terrace, are Monument No. 1241. Silver Lake begins a short way east, and the Silver Lake architecture guide picks up the same thread.
The Shire Residence also belongs to a larger California story. Schindler's houses, Ain's tracts, and Eckbo's gardens built a body of modern residential work that is among the deepest in the state, and Debbie Pisaro works across California with it, from Los Angeles to Ojai and the coast. Her profile of R.M. Schindler traces one of the architects Van der Kar worked with.
Princeton Avenue and the Echo Park hills
One of the things that stands out about Princeton Avenue is how quickly the neighborhood changes as you move up into the hills. You're still in Echo Park, close to everything, but once you start climbing, the streets become quieter, more residential, and tucked into the hillside.
The climb is part of the character of the neighborhood. These aren't perfectly flat, cookie-cutter streets. The roads follow the natural terrain, and the houses sit at different elevations. Some are set above the street, others are tucked behind landscaping or accessed by steps. You get a real sense of individuality from one property to the next.
The architecture is another big part of the appeal. You'll find a mix of older Spanish-style homes, traditional bungalows, Tudor influences, and mid-century properties alongside more contemporary renovations. Some homes have beautiful original details, while others have been opened up to take advantage of natural light, outdoor space, and hillside views. There is a lot more variety here than buyers sometimes expect.
A good example of the kind of character Princeton Avenue has is the collection of homes that take advantage of the elevation. Some have that treehouse feeling, with mature trees, decks, and views over the surrounding hills. Others are more private and intimate, with patios and gardens that make the property feel removed from the city.
What buyers tend to ask
When buyers look at homes in these hills, a few practical questions usually come up:
- How is the parking? Buyers want to understand whether there's a garage, carport, driveway, or street parking and how convenient it is day to day.
- What is the actual access like? The elevation can be part of the charm, but buyers want to know about stairs, steep driveways, and getting groceries or furniture into the house.
- How much maintenance does the hillside require? Retaining walls, drainage, grading, trees, and the condition of the foundation are all worth understanding.
- Are the views protected? Buyers want to know what they're looking at today and whether neighboring properties or future construction could affect those views.
- How private is the property? Some homes feel wonderfully secluded, while others are closer to neighboring houses or overlook the street.
- What has been remodeled or permitted? With older hillside homes, it's important to understand the history of additions, structural work, and any improvements.
What makes this pocket special
I think the appeal is really the combination of character and location. You have the feeling of being tucked away in the hills, with interesting architecture, mature landscaping, and a little more separation from the busier parts of the city, but you're still close to the restaurants, coffee shops, parks, and everyday conveniences that make Echo Park such a desirable place to live.
It's not necessarily the neighborhood for someone who wants a completely flat lot, an easy suburban driveway, or a house that looks like every other house on the block. It's for someone who appreciates a little personality, understands the trade-offs of hillside living, and sees the value in owning a home with a distinct sense of place.
That's really the story of Princeton Avenue: a hillside setting, a variety of architectural styles, and homes that each have their own relationship to the land and the surrounding neighborhood.
What the record does not show
The sources read for this post do not include the full designation file, a contributing status, an HPOZ determination, a recorded Mills Act contract, the house's square footage, or its permit history. They do not give Van der Kar's dates or training. The garden and room-by-room details come from the family's account in a published tour. The designation file under council file 09-3020 is the next document to pull for anyone who needs certainty.
What stays with me about the Henry Shire Residence is the idea of a house made by people who cared deeply about how they lived, not how the house would eventually be described. Henry Shire made the furniture, the built-ins, and so much of the interior life of this place himself. Josef Van der Kar gave that craftsmanship an architectural setting, and Garrett Eckbo extended the thinking into the garden. That kind of collaboration is increasingly rare.
I think we sometimes look at historic houses too narrowly, through the lens of the architect's name or the designation attached to the address. But the most interesting thing about this house is the family who lived inside it and the convictions that shaped it. To me, that is what gives a house lasting character.
Not simply that it has survived, but that it still has a story worth discovering.
Branded residences
From Beverly Hills to Malibu, Debbie tracks the Aman, One Beverly Hills and the other branded projects across California. Get the branded residences list, or browse the branded residences collection.
Echo Park questions, answered
Where is the Henry Shire Residence?
The Henry Shire Residence stands at 2208 North Princeton Avenue in Echo Park, Los Angeles, California. It is Historic-Cultural Monument No. 973, declared January 27, 2010. It is a private home and is not open to the public, so please view it only from the street. It is individually designated rather than part of a historic district.
Who designed the Henry Shire Residence?
Josef Van der Kar designed the house in 1949 for Henry Shire, a cabinetmaker and union organizer whose sons, the artists Peter and Billy Shire, grew up there. Garrett Eckbo, the landscape architect Van der Kar worked with on all his projects, provided the landscape plan. The monument record describes it as a one-story International Style house.
Are architectural homes in Echo Park for sale protected by the Angelino Heights HPOZ?
Only those inside the Angelino Heights Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, and only by that zone's design review. Most Echo Park houses sit outside it. A house like the Shire Residence is protected by its own Historic-Cultural Monument designation instead, so the first question for any owner is whether the parcel falls inside the HPOZ map.
Can a landmarked Echo Park house qualify for the Mills Act?
A designated Historic-Cultural Monument is eligible to apply for a Mills Act contract with the City of Los Angeles, and a contributor to an HPOZ is eligible too. Eligibility is not a contract. Only a recorded contract changes the property tax bill, so ask for the recorded document, and confirm current application rules with the Office of Historic Resources.
What is the difference between a monument and a SurveyLA finding?
A Historic-Cultural Monument has been designated by the City Council after a Cultural Heritage Commission review. A SurveyLA finding is an evaluation that a property appears eligible, and it creates no designation on its own. An owner holding only a survey finding has no monument protections, and no route to the Mills Act through the monument path.
What should I pull before listing an architectural home in Echo Park?
Pull the designation record or council file, any HPOZ contributor determination and Preservation Plan, the SurveyLA evaluation if one exists, the list of character-defining features, permits for past work, and any recorded Mills Act contract. Put the architect and the designation in the first line of the listing, because buyers of these houses search by name.
What should buyers ask about a hillside home in Echo Park?
Start with parking and access: is there a garage, carport, or street parking, and how many stairs or how steep a driveway stand between the car and the door? Then ask about retaining walls, drainage, trees, and the foundation, whether the views could be built out, how private the lot is, and what has been remodeled and permitted.
Who is a good architectural real estate agent in Echo Park?
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Echo Park, Silver Lake, Los Feliz and the rest of California. She specializes in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes, and many of the homes she sells never reach the open market.
Buying or selling
Work with Debbie
Designation, restoration, Mills Act, and the sale itself. Debbie Pisaro represents buyers and sellers of architectural and monument homes across Echo Park, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, and the rest of California, from an office on Glendale Boulevard.
(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Reach DebbieDebbie Pisaro, Real Estate Salesperson, DRE #01369110. Coastline 840 is a DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker.
Sources: Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Historic-Cultural Monuments List (No. 973 and No. 972); Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Angelino Heights Preservation Plan, June 10, 2004; Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Mills Act Program Assessment Report, Executive Summary; historian4hire.com monument summaries for HCM No. 973 and No. 972; Atomic Ranch, "MCM Manifesto," parts 2 and 3, June 2016; Mid2Mod, "Josef Van der Kar," June 23, 2011, summarizing Modernism magazine.
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Echo Park, Silver Lake and Northeast Los Angeles. She works on architectural, historic and design-forward homes across California. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. Read more about her work. She also writes at losfelizliving.com and coastline840.com. Debbie Pisaro, Real Estate Salesperson, DRE #01369110. Coastline 840 is a DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153.