Jim Prager has spent nearly 50 years owning and restoring historic properties. Rarely had he encountered a house like 1340 Carroll Ave., though.
“The woodwork had never been painted,” Prager said of the 118-year-old Los Angeles house in an interview. “The house was in very, very bad condition, but the woodwork inside had never been painted…That is so rare to find in an old house.”
Prager purchased the home in 2022, and now, after about two years of restorations, he’s selling it for $2.85 million. Real estate agent Matthew Berkeley holds the listing.
The four-bedroom, three-bathroom house dates to 1907, and it’s nestled within Echo Park, one of Los Angeles’ earliest suburbs, according to Prager, who has restored two other houses on Carroll Avenue. The property for sale is the youngest of the three, and it’s known as “The Thomas House” after its original owner, Edward Thomas, a wealthy plumber.
Together, the collection of properties depicts the progression of architectural styles in California at the turn of the 20th century, Prager said.
“Over this short period of time, the architecture changed substantially,” he said. “In the Thomas House, some of the old Victorian ideas were carried forward, but also new ideas were expressed.”
For example, the home has bedroom windows that pull from the period, but its ceilings are only 9-feet tall, lower than the typical Victorian house. The house also reflects some of the Japanese influence that was seeping into California at the time, according to Prager.
Finding the right buyer for a unique house
The Thomas House has only traded hands twice since it was built. Prager and Berkeley said buyers in the neighborhood tend to be lovers of history and architecture. They hope the next buyer has the same interests.
“There are equal parts of people who are trained as engineers or trained as an architect, and then there are those who are more artists who are really more interested in what it looks like as opposed to how it functions,” he said. “It’s a mix of people who have interests that make them a good fit for historic houses.”
It’s a little bit like finding “the needle in the haystack,” Berkeley said in an interview.
“They don’t necessarily always show up right away. They are people that are not as likely to be found through social media posts and things like that,” he said. “But it’s someone that knows and appreciates what it’s like to live in a historic house, in a historic neighborhood.”