For decades, a mid-century ranch in Brentwood Park, Los Angeles, served as a crossroads of art, politics and old Hollywood.
Betty Warner Sheinbaum, daughter of Harry Warner, the first president of Warner Bros., and her husband, political and human rights activist Stanley Sheinbaum, lived in the six-bedroom house on North Rockingham for nearly 30 years. After her death in August at age 97, the home of the Hollywood heiress came on the market and is now selling for $15.5 million.
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The Sheinbaums used their gated, 1.25-acre property as a hub for power gatherings supporting their various charitable and social causes.
The pair was married in the 1960s and were deeply involved in civil and human rights issues of the day, including protesting the Vietnam War. They reportedly traveled to Cambodia during the war in search of the Ho Chi Minh trail.
Stanley Sheinbaum served as the chairman of the American Civil Liberties Union in Southern California. As president of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, he was instrumental in pushing out the chief of police after officers used excessive force against a black taxi driver named Rodney King. Sheinbaum passed in 2016 at the age of 96.
"Imagine Walter F. Mondale or Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, John Kenneth Galbraith or Abbie Hoffman, speaking and often raising money in an art-filled living room that was a launching pad for any number of campaigns and political causes," wrote The Los Angeles Times in an obituary for Warner Sheinbaum.
"They were part of the social elite here," said listing agent Michael Hiatt of Sotheby’s International Realty. Mr. Hiatt is marketing the home with Richard Stearns, founding partner of Pacific Union International.
Warner Sheinbaum was an avid art collector and an artist in her own right. After she passed, her family pulled over 1,000 of her own designs from the property, Mr. Hiatt said.
"I’ve never seen such a collection," he said. "There must have been 1,400 pieces from her alone that she painted over a lifetime."
The Sheinbaums bought the six-bedroom, six-bathroom estate in 1980 for $1.7 million, according to property records.
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The home, patio and pool are set back some 200 feet from the road, affording it a park-like privacy, according to the listing agents.
While the home has some mid-century architectural details, the brokers are marketing it as a development opportunity.
Mr. Hiatt said he can envision a "large, lavish one story."
The mostly flat lot would be suitable for a 15,000-to-16,000-square-foot single-story home, he said.