Hous

It was 1983 when Navy veteran and former florist Jerome Shipanik purchased this Spanish-style home on a quiet cul-de-sac in Eagle Rock . As his home hits the market, he shares how eminent domain afforded him a charmed and adventurous life and why the dining area is his favorite room. Jerome: “In the late 60s, early 70s, the City took my house and store to expand the new freeway for the airport. They gave me $90,000 for the house and $10,000 for the store. I put everything in the bank and spent the next year driving through Mexico. I drove from one side of the country to the other. It was wonderful. One of my close friends wrote books on the Mayan Indians and pyramids, and my sole interest was to go down to Yucatan. This afforded me all those pleasures.” Returning to Los Angeles, he remembers bicycling every day on the beach and visiting friends who lived along the coast. One of his friends was a retired English woman. She owned a house on the strand in Manhattan Beach and tw...