Rounding the corner onto Carroll Ave., I felt as if I was stepping into a Norman Rockwell painting. Up the street a neighbor was mowing the front lawn; the postman stops to talk; the dog Sammy comes sweetly out to greet each passerby. Here, in one of L.A.'s few National Historic Districts, homeowners still live the lifestyle of a kinder and gentler age. And this end of the District is firmly anchored by Cultural Historic Monument #51, the Aaron Phillips Residence, 1887, now offered for sale for the first time since 1941. Standing proudly on its corner hilltop double lot, this masterpiece of late Victorian architecture looks out over the nearby downtown skyscrapers, not disdainfully but apart. The City is near, everything is at hand, but come home, there is refuge within and all of time's cares seem small and less important.
