What ever happened to the House of Davids in Los Angeles?
Reporter Tom Carroll remembers the home in Hancock Park that used to have 19 mini statues of Michelangelo’s ‘David’ along its driveway.
If you drove down 3rd street anytime between 1997 and 2012, you couldn’t miss Norwood Young’s 19 statues of Michelangelo’s “David,” gilded lion heads and white wrought iron with fleurs-de-lis adorning the fencing and driveway.
After Young put his house up for sale in 2011, the L.A. Times profiled him. Of the 19 mini Davids, he said: “That statue represents myself and things that I’ve had to defeat in my life. So it wasn’t like I was just this wacky guy who wanted 20 penises on his lawn. That’s not the way I roll. ... Unfortunately, the neighbors and other people never took the time to wonder if there was a reason.”
When asked how he’d feel if the new owners removed his collection, he said, “I wouldn’t give a rat’s behind what they did.”
The house eventually sold in 2012, and by 2014, all of the tacky charm had been wiped away, or as Curbed LA put it at the time, “a flipper has Pottery Barned [it] to death.”
After Young put his house up for sale in 2011, the L.A. Times profiled him. Of the 19 mini Davids, he said: “That statue represents myself and things that I’ve had to defeat in my life. So it wasn’t like I was just this wacky guy who wanted 20 penises on his lawn. That’s not the way I roll. ... Unfortunately, the neighbors and other people never took the time to wonder if there was a reason.”
When asked how he’d feel if the new owners removed his collection, he said, “I wouldn’t give a rat’s behind what they did.”
The house eventually sold in 2012, and by 2014, all of the tacky charm had been wiped away, or as Curbed LA put it at the time, “a flipper has Pottery Barned [it] to death.”
