The Getty House

Official residence of the mayor of Los Angeles. Located at 605 South Irving Boulevard in the Windsor Square neighborhood 🏡

Architectural Style: Tudor Revival

The Getty House is the official residence of the L.A. mayor. It is about five miles west of City Hall.

History of The Getty House

  • The Tudor Revival style house was built in 1921 for $83,000 by Swedish immigrants Paul and Leta Paulson.
  • In 1928, Leslie Lockhart, president of the Rio Grande Oil Company, and his wife Jeanne, bought the house. They renovated, giving the house a total of 19 rooms, and purchased the lot behind their home for a tennis court.
  • In 1959, the Getty Oil Company purchased the property with plans to build their headquarters nearby, but later gifted it to the city in 1975 to serve as the mayor’s residence.
  • The original gardens were designed by A.E. Hanson and have been restored.
  • The property spans approximately half an acre (22,523 square feet).

The Mayor’s “Mansion”

  • Mayor Tom Bradley was the first to move into the house in 1977 and resided there until 1993.
  • Mayors Richard Riordan and James Hahn chose not live in the residence from 1993 to 2005.
  • Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa moved in full-time in 2005, becoming the second mayor to reside there.
  • Mayors Eric Garcetti and Karen Bass have also lived in the Getty House during their terms.

In April 2024, a suspect broke into the residence while Mayor Bass was present but unharmed.

The house is zoned to LAUSD’s Third Street Elementary, John Burroughs Middle, and Los Angeles High schools. Over the years, it has hosted notable guests like Prince Charles, Hillary Clinton, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Protests at the Getty House

There have been several protests held at the Getty House.

In July 2021, the building was vandalized during a protest over the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles. Protesters spray-painted the building’s exterior walls and sidewalk.

In January 2023, Armenian American protesters gathered at the house to bring awareness to the ongoing blockade of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) by Azerbaijan.

In November 2020, activists continued protesting outside the Getty House against then-Mayor Eric Garcetti’s potential appointment as U.S. Ambassador to India by the Biden administration. Police declared an unlawful assembly and arrested two people during a Thanksgiving morning rally.

The Getty House remains to this day an important civic landmark in Los Angeles, just a few blocks away from Larchmont Village.