The “Waxwork” House

It’s finally that time again, folks – time for my annual Haunted Hollywood stalkings!  I intended to commence this year’s postings with a real doozy of a murder case, but got held up a bit in my research.  I am currently awaiting some documents from the County of Riverside that should provide more clarity as to the precise location where the killing took place and will write about it just as soon as they arrive.  In the meantime, I thought I would instead kick things off with a locale from a horror classic.  Now, as I’ve mentioned many times, a fan of slasher flicks I am not.  But this past July, my friend Owen tipped me off to a spot that he thought would figure in nicely to an October post – the Hancock Park home that masked as a waxwork, aka a wax museum, in the 1988 horror film of the same name.  As he informed me in his email, the “cool-looking” brick pad boasts “great windows and a turret!”  Interest piqued, I added the address to my To-Stalk List and headed right on out there this past weekend.

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Finally watching Waxwork last night did little to turn me into a horror fan.  In fact, I have to say the movie was pretty darn terrible (though star Zach Galligan sure is a cutie!).  The premise?  A morose old man named David Lincoln (David Warner) attempts to set off the “voodoo end of the world” by bringing eighteen of the most evil people who ever lived back to life.  How does he do this, you ask?  By creating wax effigies of each person and feeding them the souls of the various patrons who visit the waxwork he has built inside of his private home in the middle of suburbia.  And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for two meddling high schoolers, Mark (Galligan) and Sarah (Deborah Foreman), who thwart his plan.  Like I said, Waxwork isn’t good.

But Owen was right – the house is fabulous . . . and fabulously creepy!

Though burned to the ground by Mark and Sarah at the end of Waxwork, in real life the pad still stands proudly at 255 South Rossmore Avenue.  (In actuality, a miniature was used in the filming of the fire scene.)

While it looks much the same as it did onscreen in 1988, sadly views of it from the street are largely eclipsed by a massive hedge that now lines the front of the property.

Only the exterior of the residence appeared in Waxwork.  The interior of Lincoln’s eerie home was just a set, as evidenced by the double doors that opened from the living room into his onsite wax museum.

Originally built in 1924 for L. Milton Wolf, in real life the dwelling boasts 7 bedrooms (!), 3 baths, 3,878 square feet of living space, a pool, a detached garage with what looks to be an upstairs in-law unit, and a 0.43-acre plot of land.

The house is somewhat historically significant, too!  As Owen informed me, its longtime owner Loretta Lindholm was responsible for the installation of the many ornamental lights that now dot the streets of Hancock Park.  For her efforts, she received a Los Angeles City Council Commendation!

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Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen for telling me about this location! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: The Waxwork house from Waxwork is located at 255 South Rossmore Avenue in Hancock Park.