James Dean's Last Home (Demolished)

Prior to his death, James Dean was living in a log cabin house at 14611 Sutton Street, in Sherman Oaks, California. He rented the home from Nicco Romanos, the maitre d' at the Villa Capri, Dean's favorite restaurant, for $250 a/month plus utilities. The house had no bedroom, only a second floor loft. Guns belonging to Romanos decorated the place, along with Dean's bongos and bull fighting paraphernalia. Dean had a fascination with matadors, collecting bull horns and posters of bull fighters.

The morning of September 30, Romanos paid Dean a visit at 7:20a.m. Romanos made Dean coffee and got him going for the day. By 7:45a.m. Dean was leaving his home to pick up his friend and fellow car enthusiast Bill Hickman.

Dean drove his Ford station wagon which towed his Porsche Spyder race car, over to Bill's home. After picking up Bill, the two drove down Sunset Boulevard and turned onto Vine Street, arriving at Competition Motors. The Spyder needed some final adjustments in order to be race-ready, so Dean left the car with the German mechanic Rolf Weutherich.

By 9:45a.m. Sanford Roth, a photographer, arrived at Competition. Roth had been following Dean for several days as part of a photo essay he was doing for Collier's magazine. Roth was to continue his essay by taking photos of Dean up at the races.

Shortly after Roth arrived at Competition Motors, Dean's father and uncle came to visit. While Dean, his friends and family waited for the race car to be finished, the group walked a couple blocks down the street to the Hollywood Ranch Market where they had doughnuts and coffee. This market no longer exists and is not to be confused with the Fairfax Farmer's Market which still exists over on Fairfax and 3rd Streets.

By around 1:30p.m. Dean and his entourage were headed for Salinas. Dean drove his Porsche Spyder, with his mechanic, Weutherich, as his passenger. Hickman and Sanford followed in the station wagon. Of course, Dean never made it to the races. Dean had a major collision with a 1954 Ford Tudor which hit head on. The accident was at the intersection of Highways 46 and 41, not too far from Paso Robles, in Cholame, California.

The log cabin house was demolished and replaced with the current house on the premises.