This little building at 5540 Hollywood Boulevard facing Garfield Place was designed and built by Frank Meline on spec for owner, a G.M. Benethun of Freeport, Illinois. Plans for the 2-story structure, to be of travertine stone with a tile roof, were announced in November 1920, as its neighbor to the west, the Apollo Theater at 5546, was under construction. It was to contain 2 storefronts on the first floor, 9 offices and 4 apartments on the second floor.

LA Times 11/21/1920.

Klett Brothers Company furniture leased the retail space of the building while it was still at the planning stage, turning it into one large storefront with a mezzanine. The brothers, as Klett & Nobel, had only recently opened the past summer, in another new building a few doors to the east, 5528 Hollywood Boulevard. only recently. Between August and September 1920, they became Klett Bros.

LA Times 7/10/1920

How could they afford to sell such wonderful pieces at such nominal prices? As it turns out, they couldn’t. A bankruptcy sale was held on the premises in April 1922 and the Bros vacated the building by the end of the month.

Hollywood Daily Citizen 4/12/1922.

In May 1922, another furniture store moved in, the Aristo Furniture Company.

Hollywood Citizen News 5/12/1922

In July 1927, the proprietor retired and liquidation of the company’s assets began. It was a long goodbye; the process took nearly a year.

LA Times 8/21/1927

The building continued to fill a need in Hollywood; its various spaces served as studios for dance instructors and other similar uses. Another furniture retailer moved in, briefly. Private Detective Harry Von Wittenberg had his offices here in October 1932; Located at 7556 Hollywood Boulevard in the 1940s and 1950s, Von Wittenberg worked as a snoop for Robert Harrison, publisher of Confidential magazine.

Dorothy Anton aka Dorothea D’ Anton, specializing in Hawaiian and South Sea Island dancing, was a tenant for several years, overlapping with the Hawaiian Craze. LA Times 5/20/1932.

Misbehaving private detective Harry L Von Wittenberg had offices here briefly in late 1932. Hollywood Citizen News 10/12/1932.

A rare survivor of the low-rise development of this section of the boulevard in the early 1920s, 5540 Hollywood Boulevard is extant, albeit dwarfed by apartment towers built around it in 2016.

5540 in 2009. Google map image.

Google map image.