{"id":265780,"date":"2010-02-02T11:38:30","date_gmt":"2010-02-02T16:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"1772 at http:\/\/atlasobscura.com"},"modified":"2010-02-02T11:38:30","modified_gmt":"2010-02-02T16:38:30","slug":"youngwood-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/265780","title":{"rendered":"Youngwood Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles<\/a>, California<\/a> | Eccentric Homes<\/a><\/p>\n

For the past fourteen years, controversy has stirred over a private residence in Hancock Park. The affluent Los Angeles neighborhood, known as the place where the Ku Klux Klan once left a burning cross on Nat King Cole’s lawn, has garnered much recent attention for another one of its residents: R&B music producer, Norwood Young. More specifically, the nearly 20 statues of Michelangelo’s David that adorn the front lawn of his estate.<\/p>\n

The street-side private residence, known as “Youngwood Court,” has been the subject of many lawsuits, traffic jams, and heated debates on aesthetic preference. Young purchased the home in the mid-1990s and — much to the chagrin of the local homeowner’s association — painted it white, erected an elaborate white iron gate, and set up 19 white statues of Michelangelo’s David.<\/p>\n

For over a decade, Young faced — and filed — numerous lawsuits against neighbors and city officials who sought to tear down his aesthetic vision. Today, Young has finally ended his long legal battle and continues to exercise his yard-decorating rights, earning LA City Beat magazine’s title as the “King of Hancock Park.”<\/p>\n

Though the David statues are the main attraction, Young adds to the spectacle by decorating his yard in thematic designs. This past year, Young celebrated his birthday with a tribute to the other “King,” Michael Jackson. Each David statue was fitted in a Thriller-esque jacket, and a 7-foot replica of MJ’s famous sequined glove was put on display.<\/p>\n

For his annual winter holiday tradition, Young dresses his Davids in Santa Claus hats and displays an African-American Mr. and Mrs. Claus on a gold throne. Not to be outdone by the Claus’, however, the holiday scene also includes a larger-than-life replica of Young himself, as well as a gigantic lights display of a crown and “Norrywood” sign on his roof.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles, California | Eccentric Homes For the past fourteen years, controversy has stirred over a private residence in Hancock Park. The affluent Los Angeles neighborhood, known as the place where the Ku Klux Klan once left a burning cross on Nat King Cole’s lawn, has garnered much recent attention for another one of its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}