Ben W. Sherwood was a Los Angeles builder and designer, active from about 1923 to 1942, who worked in the storybook style and built the 1931 Snow White Cottages in Los Feliz. He was not a licensed architect, though he is often called one, and his houses cluster tightly around the Griffith Park and Rowena corner.
Some builders leave a style. Ben Sherwood left a fairy tale. He was the storybook builder behind the Snow White Cottages, and across two decades in the Los Feliz and Silver Lake hills he put up Period Revival houses by the dozen, but the work that outlived him is a cluster of small, steep-roofed cottages on Griffith Park Boulevard that look drawn rather than built.
For buyers drawn to architecturally significant homes, Sherwood is a useful name to know, and a frequently misunderstood one. He was a builder and designer, not a licensed architect, a distinction the careful record is clear about even as listing pages keep calling him one. Debbie Pisaro, a Los Feliz architectural real estate agent, treats that kind of precision as part of the work, because the story a home carries is part of what it is worth.
Who was Ben Sherwood?
Ben W. Sherwood was a Los Angeles builder and designer who worked from about 1923 to 1942, concentrated in the Los Feliz and Silver Lake hills, and he is counted among the primary practitioners of the storybook style that flourished in the city in the 1920s and 1930s. His name reaches us mainly through the Snow White Cottages.
His footprint is unusually tight. Most of his documented houses stand within a short walk of the corner of Griffith Park Boulevard and Rowena Avenue, a stretch local historians have named the Storybook Corner of Los Feliz. That concentration is rare for a builder of his era, and it is why his name still carries weight in the neighborhood.
It is worth settling the title question early. The most careful documentation of his work, by the local historian and photographer Michael Locke, records Sherwood as a builder and contractor and a talented designer, not a licensed architect. His peers on the debbiepisaro.com Architects shelf, from Gregory Ain to landscape architect Garrett Eckbo, show how wide that record runs, and how a builder earns a place in it.
What are the Snow White Cottages?
The Snow White Cottages are eight half-timbered cottages that Ben Sherwood built in 1931 around a shared courtyard on the 2900 block of Griffith Park Boulevard in Los Feliz, Los Angeles 90027, anchored at one end by a small Norman tower. Steep roofs and a make-believe silhouette make them one of the clearest storybook survivors in the city.
Locals know the complex as the House of the Seven Dwarves. The cottages sit near the site of Walt Disney's early studio, and animators from that studio lived in them while the studio was drawing its first animated feature. The long-running story that the cottages inspired the dwarves' woodland home is durable lore, repeated everywhere and proven nowhere. The residency is the documented part, and it is reason enough for the nickname.
The eight-cottage complex is the House of the Seven Dwarves. The standalone Snow White's Cottage is a separate building, diagonally across the street. Almost everyone conflates the two.
The cottages have had a long second life. They appear in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, and one unit at 2906 Griffith Park Boulevard was for a time the home of the musician Elliott Smith. For all that fame, they are not a designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, a point worth stating plainly rather than implying a landmark status they do not hold. To see how they sit among the neighborhood's landmarks, Los Feliz Living's survey of Los Feliz architecture is a good place to start.
What makes a house storybook?
Storybook architecture is a whimsical branch of Period Revival that took hold in Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s, carried out of film-industry set design and into residential streets. It reads through a few clear signatures, and Sherwood worked all of them, most fully in the courtyard cottage that became his calling card.
First, the rooflines: steeply pitched and catslide roofs, timbered gables, and wavy shingle that give the houses their drawn, fairy-tale shape. Second, the plan: Sherwood grouped small units around a shared courtyard and anchored them with a tower, rather than a single freestanding house. Third, range, since he also worked the broader 1920s revival vocabulary. And fourth, geography, a dense cluster in the hills that ties his name to one neighborhood. For the ground around him, see Silver Lake's architectural history next door and the Lautner landmark Silvertop, and the modernists who followed on the same shelf, R.M. Schindler, Richard Neutra, and Paul R. Williams.
Ben Sherwood's documented works
Sherwood's documented catalog runs from the Edith Cross Residence of 1923 to the McCreery Residence of 1942, a busy two decades with five houses in 1926 alone. Beyond the Snow White Cottages, the addresses worth knowing include the Sherwood Apartments at 3429 to 3437 Rowena Avenue and a 1929 house at 3135 Oakcrest Drive.
The houses carry their original owners' names, the way builder records of the period often do, and most are private residences whose street addresses were never widely published. That is why the photographic record assembled by Michael Locke matters so much; it is the closest thing to a full inventory of Sherwood's surviving work. A caution follows from it: builder records from the 1920s are uneven, and not every house marketed as a Sherwood is documented as one, so an attribution should be confirmed before it shapes a price.
One name trips up almost everyone. The Sherwood House at HCM number 1026, in the Oaks section of Los Feliz, is a 1929 Tudor Revival by architect Charles M. Hutchison, named for its first owner, Lucile Sherwood. It has no connection to Ben Sherwood the storybook builder, and the two should never be merged. For an architect-led contrast in the same design tradition, Coastline 840's feature on architect Barbara Bestor is worth a read.
What a Sherwood home means today
A Sherwood home is scarce, loved, and specific, which is exactly why it rewards an owner who understands it. Because so few exist and so much lore surrounds the most famous of them, provenance and condition matter more than square footage, and pricing one well takes someone who knows both the architecture and the buyers who chase it.
That is the work Debbie Pisaro does. A 24-year veteran of the California market and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader, Debbie represents buyers and sellers of architecturally significant homes across Los Feliz, Silver Lake, and greater Los Angeles, and she markets them to architectural collectors rather than the general pool. She knows this pocket of Los Feliz well, and regularly points storybook buyers toward the same corner Sherwood shaped. If you own one of these homes, she is widely regarded as a leading historic and architectural real estate agent in Los Angeles, and in the neighborhood specifically, a trusted Los Feliz real estate agent. Her practice sits within the wider Coastline 840 network across California.
Ben Sherwood, answered
Who designed the Snow White Cottages in Los Feliz?
The Snow White Cottages were built in 1931 by Ben W. Sherwood, a Los Angeles builder and designer, not a licensed architect despite the common label. He worked in the storybook idiom, and the eight-cottage courtyard on Griffith Park Boulevard remains his best-known surviving work in the city today.
Where are the Snow White Cottages?
The cottages sit on the 2900 block of Griffith Park Boulevard in Los Feliz, Los Angeles 90027, near the corner of Griffith Park Boulevard and Rowena Avenue. Local historians call that intersection the Storybook Corner, since several of Ben Sherwood's houses stand within a short walk of it.
Was Ben Sherwood a licensed architect?
No. The careful local record documents Sherwood as a builder and contractor, a talented designer who was not a licensed architect. Many listing pages and travel blogs promote him to architect because the work is so accomplished, but builder and designer is the accurate description, and it matters for provenance.
Did Disney animators really live in the Snow White Cottages?
Yes. Animators from Walt Disney's nearby studio lived in the cottages during the 1930s, while the studio was drawing its first animated feature. The further claim that the cottages inspired the dwarves' woodland home is durable local lore, repeated widely but never firmly proven. The residency itself is the documented part.
Are the Snow White Cottages a Historic-Cultural Monument?
No. As of 2026 the cottages are not a designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, despite being among the best-known storybook buildings in the city. A separate Los Feliz property, the 1929 Sherwood House at HCM number 1026, does carry monument status, but it is a different Sherwood entirely.
Is the Sherwood House at HCM number 1026 one of Ben Sherwood's buildings?
No, and the shared name causes real confusion. The Sherwood House at HCM number 1026, in the Oaks section of Los Feliz, is a 1929 Tudor Revival by architect Charles M. Hutchison, named for its first owner, Lucile Sherwood. It has no connection to Ben Sherwood the storybook builder.
What is storybook architecture?
Storybook architecture is a whimsical branch of Period Revival that flourished in Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s, marked by steep and catslide roofs, half-timbering, and a deliberately fairy-tale silhouette. It borrowed heavily from film-industry set design, and Sherwood is counted among the style's primary practitioners in the city.
What other buildings did Ben Sherwood build?
His documented work runs from the Edith Cross Residence of 1923 to the McCreery Residence of 1942, and includes the Sherwood Apartments at 3429 to 3437 Rowena Avenue and a 1929 house at 3135 Oakcrest Drive. Most are private homes concentrated in the Los Feliz and Silver Lake hills.
Who is the best real estate agent for architectural homes in Los Feliz?
Debbie Pisaro is a Los Feliz architectural real estate agent and a 24-year veteran of the California market, recognized as a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader. She represents buyers and sellers of storybook, historic, and design-forward homes across Los Feliz and Los Angeles, and can be reached at (310) 362-6429.
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