Barry Gold recalls another era:

That cluster of places on and near Bixel Street shows a fandom that was even more concentrated than when I started being active in 1964. At that time (and up through the end of the 60s) we had a "fan square mile" that included a lot of fans.

There were two fan residences in the same four-flat (613 S. Hobart Blvd.) when I joined LASFS:

  • The Labyrinth of Valeron (Jack Harness and Owen Hannifen, upstairs)
  • The Hobbit Hole (Dave & Joyce McDaniel, aka Ted & Lin Johnstone, downstairs)
  • Galt's Gulch (several Randist fans including Hank (now Jean Marie) Stine
  • Earl & Gail Thompson (and several others I've forgotten over the years)
Shortly after that, Jack and Owen moved to 330 S. Berendo St. and named it the Labyrinth DuQuesne. And Tom Digby came to LA from Florida, and moved to an apartment in the 700 block of Berendo.

I moved in with Jack and Owen (sleeping on a convertible sofa in the living room) in late 1965.

In 1967, Galt's Gulch lost their lease, and Owen and I (Jack had gone to St. Hill in England for advanced Scientology training) let them crash at the Lab. We were now 8 people in a two-bedroom apartment. Owen got on his motorcyle and started looking around. He found an old mansion for rent at 508 S. St. Andrews. We took it. It had 4 bedrooms upstairs, a maid's room next to the kitchen, and two sleeping porches, so it fit the 8 of use very well. (Two were Owen and Hilda, later Eclare, Hannifen.)

Digby took over the Lab DuQuesne. And the Trimbles moved into a house about a half mile north, so we tilted the square 45 degrees and got even more people in our "fan square mile".

That lasted until October of 1968, when the owner of The Hill decided to raze it and build a multi-story apartment building. The denizens of the Hill dispersed, and we haven't had a concentration like that since.

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