Entrance hall of the Paul deLongpre residence on Hollywood Boulevard & Cahuenga Avenue, ca.1905

Photograph of the entrance hall (and art gallery) of the Paul deLongpre Moorish-style residence on Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga Avenue, Hollywood, ca.1905. The decorative inlaid wooden floors are partially covered with fancy rugs. The hall is tastefully decorated with many different types of vases, chairs, tables, patterned curtains, flowers and plants. The crown molding incorporates detailed circular tracery. DeLongpre's paintings of floral still lifes are hanging on the walls, leaning against the walls, and sitting on easels. Numerous lightbulbs are installed in the grid of the panelled ceiling. A chamber organ stands at left directly opposite a fireplace which has two tall lamps on each side. There is a flight of stairs that lead to the second floor in the background.; "A famous French and American flower painter, Paul DeLongpre was the most significant watercolor specialist to arrive in Los Angeles in the late 19th century and became the city's first major still-life painter. It is likely he was the first southern California painter to earn a major national reputation. In 1899, he moved his family to Southern California because he was so impressed by the floral landscapes and flowers he saw. He paid only ten dollars for a huge lot at Cahuenga and Hollywood Boulevard, now part of downtown Hollywood. He built an extravagant Moorish style mansion surrounded by a three-acre lot on which he grew four-thousand rose bushes. This site became the first tourist attraction in Hollywood, and from the gardens, he found many floral still life subjects." -- unknown author.