Gray Residence in Los Angeles: Exterior as Home of Eppes Family in Numb3rs

Summary: The Gray Residence in the historic West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles lends its exterior for outdoor images of the Eppes family home in Numb3rs.

Gray Residence, popularly known in 21st century as Numb3rs home: Raul (savemejebus), CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr

For many reasons, it is understandable that mathematics genius Charlie Eppes, portrayed by David Krumholtz (born May 15, 1978), decides to buy his childhood home upon learning of his father Alan's intention to sell.

Exterior shots of the Eppes family home in the TV series, Numb3rs, which ran for six seasons from January 23, 2005, to March 12, 2010, reveal an attractive, comfortable architecture. The entrance projects a disarmingly welcome impression by way of the simple lines of its wide porch.

Although the Eppes home is fictionally placed in Pasadena, a rosy city with a resplendent architectural heritage in southern Los Angeles County, the actual location of the Gray Residence, now popularly known as the Numb3rs home, is over 15 miles (24 kilometers) to the southwest in the historic West Adams neighborhood of southern Los Angeles. The home's physical address is 2515 4th Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90018. Its GPS (Global Positioning System) coordinates are given as 34°2'2" north, 118°19'17" west.

The home is known as the Gray Residence or, more fully, as the Lucian and Blanche Gray Residence. The carefully restored home has changed hands only three times.

The original owners, Lucian Gray, an attorney, and his philanthropist wife Blanche, had the house built in 1909 at a cost of $8,900.00 ($200,000.00+ in 2015). They lived in the Craftsman style home for five decades.

The second owner, Dr. Ruth Janetta Temple (Nov. 1, 1892-Feb. 8, 1984), purchased the Gray residence after the death of her husband, real estate developer Otis Lawrence Banks (Nov. 22, 1891-Aug. 14, 1959). Dr. Tempe was a a trailblazer whose achievements included graduating from Loma Linda Medical School in 1918 as the school's first black graduate, opening the first medical clinic in southeastern Los Angeles, and serving as the first public health officer for Los Angeles.

The third, and current, owners, David Raposa and Edward Trosper, have owned the house since David's purchase in 1986.

Online real estate database Zillow, founded in 2005 by two former Microsoft executives, gives a current zestimate, an estimate based on publicly available information, of over $750,000.00 for the house's value.

The home was designed by Arthur Seelman Heineman (Nov. 9, 1878-Feb. 4, 1972), an Illinois transplant who moved from Chicago to Pasadena in 1894. Arthur is credited with inventing the motel. On Dec. 12, 1925, he opened the first, the Milestone Motel, in San Luis Obispo, California.

The pleasing architecture of the Gray Residence exemplifies the American Craftsman style that developed from the British Arts and Crafts Movement founded in 1861 by textile designer and social activist William Morris (March 24, 1834-Oct. 3, 1896).

A group of architects, designers and educators in Boston, Massachusetts, succeeded in transplanting William Morris' design aesthetics onto American soil by holding the First American Arts and Crafts Exhibition in April 1897 at Boston's Copley Hall. The group formed The Society of Arts and Crafts in June 1897.

Known as the American Craftsman style, the name honors The Craftsman, an influential magazine founded in 1901 by furniture manufacturer Gustav Stickley (March 9, 1858-April 1, 1942), an early champion of the style. Stickley's home in Syracuse, New York, is considered the first exemplar of the American Craftsman style.

The Gray Residence appears on the Los Angeles Department of City Planning's List of Historic-Cultural Monuments in South Los Angeles as HCM #600, designated Sept. 27, 1994, by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission.

In addition to exterior shots of the Gray Residence, scenes for Numb3rs also have been shot in the back yard, with a lot size of 7,000 square feet, and in the interior, which includes 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms over a spacious area of 3,733 square feet.

The back yard's koi pond serves as a calming spot for Charlie and as a backdrop for family gatherings. In "When Worlds Collide," the 18th episode of season five, airing Friday, May 26, 2008, Charlie shares with his FBI agent older brother, Don, played by Rob Morrow (born Sept. 21, 1962), that the oldest koi in the pond is named Tombrello. The koi's namesake is Thomas Anthony Tombrello Jr. (Sept. 20, 1936-Sept. 23, 2014), Chair of the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, from 1998 to 2008, at California Technical Institute, the real-world inspiration for CalSci in Numb3rs.

Interior scenes benefit from David Raposa and Edward Trosper's careful collection of vintage furniture, including reclining chairs designed by Gustav Stickley. The impressive table at which Charlie and Don gather with their father Alan, played by Judd Hirsch (born March 15, 1935), is an antique burl-wood dining table.

As series co-creator Cheryl Heuton has observed, the Gray Residence imparts a textured atmosphere of age and grace to scenes played out in a real house instead of on a set. The quiet elegance of the Gray Residence facilitates the dynamics enjoyably conveyed by the Eppes trio as they bring their work home or leave cases at the door.

the Eppes brothers, FBI special agent Don (Rob Morrow) and math-genius Charlie (David Krumholtz), in CBS crime drama television series NUMB3RS (Jan. 23, 2005, to March 12, 2010): NUMB3RS @NUMB3RS via Facebook Nov. 13, 2008

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Gray Residence ("Numb3rs" home), 2515 4th Avenue: Raul (savemejebus), CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/47266767@N00/4127844748/

"#Numb3rs photo day. The Eppes house.": Nicolas Falacci @NickFalacci via Twitter May 18, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/NickFalacci/status/733037432120082433

the Eppes brothers, FBI special agent Don (Rob Morrow) and math-genius Charlie (David Krumholtz), in CBS crime drama television series Numb3rs (Jan. 23, 2005, to March 12, 2010): NUMB3RS @NUMB3RS via Facebook Nov. 13, 2008, @ https://www.facebook.com/NUMB3RS/photos/a.56109232904/56109307904/

For further information:

City of Los Angeles. Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM) List: City Declared Monuments. March 30, 2010.
Available @ https://web.archive.org/web/20100615144658/http://www.preservation.lacity.org/files/HCMDatabase032410.pdf

Hobart, Christy. "Arts and Crafts by the 'Numb3rs.'" Los Angeles Times > Collections > Houses. Feb. 17, 2005.
Available @ http://articles.latimes.com/2005/feb/17/home/hm-numbers17

Nicolas Falacci @NickFalacci. "#Numb3rs photo day. The Eppes house." Twitter. May 18, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/NickFalacci/status/733037432120082433

Marriner, Derdriu. "How Numb3rs Taught Me to Love Math and Friday Night TV." Earth and Space News. Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/01/how-numb3rs-taught-me-to-love-math-and.html

NUMB3RS @NUMB3RS. "Added a new photo." Facebook. Nov. 13, 2008.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/NUMB3RS/photos/a.56109232904/56109307904/