Villa Aurora

Villa Aurora is a Spanish-style mansion located in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, and was the former home of German-Jewish author Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta. The house was built in 1928 as a "demonstration house" and featured the latest technological inventions and novelties in domestic design. The Feuchtwangers purchased the house in 1943 and it became a popular meeting place for artists and the community of German-speaking émigrés, with notable visitors including Thomas Mann, Arnold Schoenberg, and Bertolt Brecht. After Lion's death in 1958, the house was left to the University of Southern California, where Marta lived until her death in 1987. Following Marta's death, a non-profit organization was established to save the house and create an artists' residence, which was renovated and purchased through public funding. The Villa Aurora now serves as an artists' residence and houses a collection of 22,000 books, many of which were collected by Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger.learn more on wikipedia