The Ravenswood

Los Angeles, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

The Ravenswood is a historic Art Deco apartment building at 570 North Rossmore Avenue in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, designed by architect Max Maltzman and built by Paramount Pictures in 1930, just five blocks from the studio's Melrose Avenue lot. The building gained cultural prominence as the longtime residence of actress Mae West, who lived in the penthouse from its opening until her death in 1980 and notably used her financial resources to prevent the building's bankruptcy, thereby blocking the owners' discriminatory ban on her then-boyfriend, boxer William "Gorilla" Jones. Other notable residents have included James Timony, West's longtime manager and friend, who lived there until 1954, as well as actors Clark Gable and Ava Gardner. The Ravenswood was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2003.