The House on G Street—A Real Estate Staple with More than a Century of History
The Henry Levy House sits at 155 S. G Street in Oxnard, California, a quiet stretch of road lined with homes that have seen the city shift and reshape itself over the past hundred years.
The house stands back from the curb, its wide front porch and deep eaves casting long shadows in the afternoon light.
It was built in 1915, a time when Oxnard was expanding—money was moving through the city, and so were the men shaping its economy. Henry Levy was one of them.
At its core, this house was an investment, a display of wealth earned through grain, beans, and banking. Even so, at a whopping $15,000 to build the house, Levy felt the house went over budget.
Henry Levy, a partner in The Bank of A. Levy built his fortune by financing farms, funding businesses, and making sure money kept flowing in Southern California’s growing economy.
He picked Homer W. Glidden, a Los Angeles architect, to design his home.
Glidden had already left his mark on California with Upland’s Old Carnegie Library and municipal buildings that defined early civic architecture.
For Levy, the choice was strategic—an architect who understood not only style but durability.
The house itself is a blend of Craftsman and Tudor styles, two movements that favored strong, clean lines and practical elegance.
The 18-room layout includes five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and details that hint at careful craftsmanship.
Two fireplaces—built with handcrafted tiles from Ernest Batchelder’s Pasadena workshop—anchor the space, their rough, earth-toned surfaces adding texture to rooms lined with dark wood.
At 5,000 square feet, the home was larger than most in the area, built on a triple-wide lot totaling 21,000 square feet, it was clear this was built as an estate, not just a residence.
Even now, with Oxnard’s real estate market shifting, the Henry Levy House holds value—not just in its size but in its legacy.
Whether it’s things to do in Oxnard, California, for history lovers, or buyers looking for a landmark property, this home still draws attention.
Its small, detached garage and rear workshop (originally built as a maid’s quarters was rebuilt in the late 90s and will soon be converted to an ADU) reflect the practical needs of early 20th-century homeowners, but its porch and exposed beams tell a story of permanence.
A house built to last. A house that still stands.
A House Built on Beans and Banks—The Levy Legacy in Oxnard’s Market
In 1915, when Henry Levy moved into the Craftsman-style house on G Street, Oxnard was booming.
Money was changing hands, businesses were expanding, and farmland was turning profits.
The Levy name carried weight in these transactions—especially in banking and agriculture.
The Bank of A. Levy, founded by Henry’s brother-in-law, Achille Levy, financed land purchases, loaned capital to local farmers and secured its place as one of the most trusted institutions in Ventura County.
The bank was formed out of Achille and Henry’s bean and brokerage business, A&H Company.
The Levys weren’t just bankers—they were middlemen, brokering deals between California’s fertile fields and the buyers who kept warehouses stocked.
Their brokerage business was at the center of the region’s economy, handling deals that fed markets from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
From their offices, shipments of lima beans, barley, and wheat were sold by the ton, moving through Oxnard’s rail lines and out to the world.
The house reflected this success. At a time when most homes in the area were modest, Levy’s 5,200-square-foot estate stood apart.
The house wasn’t just large—it was designed to impress.
Meetings with business associates, discussions over land deals, and banking negotiations didn’t always happen in the office; some took place in the study or at the dining room table, where heavy sliding doors shut out the noise of the growing city.
Levy’s money built more than his home. His bank fueled Oxnard’s expansion, funding projects that reshaped the city—new buildings, new businesses, new ambitions.
While deals were made downtown, the house on G Street stood steady, its porch facing a town that refused to stand still.
Decay and Revival—Shifting Values in a Changing Market
By the 1940s, Oxnard was no longer the same city it had been when Levy built the home.
The rise of industrial agriculture meant that the once-powerful independent brokers were giving way to larger corporations.
The personal handshake deals that had fueled the local economy were being replaced by contracts signed in corporate offices.
Inside the house, things were changing, too. The second floor expanded, with a large bedroom suite added for Henry’s sister-in-law, which matched the evolving style of luxury homes in the mid-century.
Many of her paintings were donated back to the current owners and line the walls of the house.
The fireplaces remained, and their Batchelder tiles stayed intact, but homeowners’ needs had shifted, with the house selling for the first time in 1977.
The elder Levy’s had all passed away, and the house had fallen into severe disrepair.
Local meat market owner and sheriff, Ken Wenrich purchased the house and set out to start restoring it back to its former glory.
In 1983, the house sold again, this time to local insurance magnate Al Barkley, in a time when kitchens were being modernized, open spaces became desirable, and grand old homes like Levy’s faced an uncertain future.
By the 2000s, the real estate market had moved again. Buyers were looking for sleek, updated properties—something easier to maintain.
A house built in 1915, with its original woodwork, hand-laid tile, and historic fixtures, required a different kind of owner.
The kind willing to invest in preservation, not just aesthetics.
In the 70’s, a fence went up, marking a subtle retreat from the world outside. In the 80’s a basketball court was installed which was then replaced in 2020 with a 15,000 gallon koi pond—a quiet touch to a house that had seen decades of change.
The Henry Levy House had weathered it all, but as Oxnard’s property market continued shifting, its future depended on those who understood its past.
In 1999, the house became a part of the larger Henry T. Oxnard Historic District, National Landmark #161, comprising 144 houses along F & G Streets.
Hollywood Moves In—The Levy House on Screen
By the 1990s, the Henry Levy House had become more than just a historic property—it had a look.
A broad front porch, shadowed eaves, and the kind of interiors that could pass for old money or new mystery, depending on the lighting. It wasn’t long before Hollywood came knocking.
In 1996, Melrose Place picked the house for its fifth season, using it as the Bel Air home of Dr. Dan Hathaway, played by actor Greg Evigan.
Three episodes were filmed here, transforming the Oxnard landmark into a television set.
The show had already built a reputation for drama—scandals, betrayals, and late-night showdowns. The Henry Levy House fit right in.
A year later, cameras returned. This time, they were for a made-for-TV thriller called What We Did That Night, also known as Murder at Devil’s Glen.
The movie starred Ricky Schroder and carried the weight of a classic ’90s crime mystery—flashbacks, secrets, and a house that seemed to have seen things.
In January 2025, the Henry Levy House became a movie set again. The production team behind I Am Your Driver transformed the home into a backdrop for two days of filming.
The film stars actor Jeremy Piven as a sadistic limousine driver who terrorizes teenagers on prom night.
Lights, cameras, crew—another entry in the home’s long history with Hollywood. It wasn’t the first time its walls had been on screen, and it likely won’t be the last.
The house has a way of pulling people in.
The Spirits That Linger—Paranormal Tales and Market Appeal
The Henry Levy House has been many things—a banker’s estate, a film set, a piece of Oxnard’s history.
But over the years, another story has settled into its walls.
It started with the small things. Doors unlocking on their own. Footsteps echoing when the house was empty.
Objects moving slightly out of place. Then came the security footage—a locked door caught swinging open, no one near it.
Homeowners noticed the patterns. Some rooms felt heavier, charged with an energy that was hard to explain.
By 2022, the stories had made their way to television. Ghost Adventures aired an investigation of the house, bringing its Season 23 finale to Oxnard.
Host Zak Bagans and his team investigated its hallways, setting up cameras and recorders.
They captured a voice—soft, distant, caught on the second floor. The Levy House had always been quiet, but this was something else.
The episode aired on Thanksgiving night, drawing viewers into the dimly lit hallways of the Levy House, where whispers seemed to come from nowhere.
Whether the cameras caught proof of something beyond explanation or just the creaks of a house more than a century old, the house’s presence on screen only added to its story.
Neighbors had their own versions of the past. Some spoke about the Levy sisters, who had once walked these halls and whose presence was still felt decades later.
Others talked about shadows—figures in the corners of rooms, glimpses of something just outside of sight.
Some guests woke in the night, certain they weren’t alone—shadows at the bedside, a weight in the air.
Stories like these drive some buyers away, while others see opportunity. Haunted houses sell, especially the ones where history clings to the walls.
The Henry Levy House was already a landmark. Now, it has a reputation.
A House Waiting for Its Next Chapter—Real Estate and Restoration
In 2017, the Henry Levy House went on the market for the third time with a listing price of $1.15 million, then again in 2021 to the current owner, Eric Andrist at $1.325 million, who became the fifth owners.
The house had survived more than a hundred years, but real estate in Oxnard had changed.
Buyers wanted open floor plans, modern kitchens, and less upkeep.
This house came with original woodwork, five bedrooms, and a history that stretched back to California’s early banking days—features that didn’t fit every buyer’s checklist, not to mention historic district rules that now must be adhered to when considering any renovations to the exterior.
A house like this needs an owner who understands that it is an investment and a commitment, and in 2021, new owners took over, balancing preservation with the demands of modern living.
The work moved carefully—no rushed renovations, no stripping away history. The wood-paneled rooms stayed, and much of the non-historic changes that took place over the years started to be restored.
The Batchelder-tiled fireplaces held their place. The detached workshop and garage remained, standing as they always had.
Outside, landscaping was refreshed, and the koi pond, added in 2020, became a centerpiece of the backyard with new surrounding cobblestone paver walkways.
In October 2023, the Henry Levy House received a new roof—not because it was failing but because insurance demanded it.
An inspector had estimated 15 more years of life in the old wood shake roof, but policies don’t always favor history.
The work was just another expense in the ongoing fight to keep an old house standing.
By November 2024, the house entered Oxnard’s political scene. A sign supporting Luis McArthur for mayor was posted on the property.
McArthur, a 35-year veteran of the Oxnard Police Department, won the election, a shift in city leadership that started, in part, on the front lawn of this historic home.
The new mayor has now vowed to not only help revive the entire historic district, but to bring new life to the annual Christmas Tree Lane festivities that line the streets and bring thousands of visitors by the house for three weeks every December.
The original Levy family were movers and shakers in the old days of Oxnard, and now the house had a hand in shaping politics today.
Andrist and his partner of 38 years, Jeff Rizzo (who passed away in 2023), came to Oxnard from L.A.’s entertainment industry hoping to retire there and hopefully turn the house into a Bed and Breakfast and possibly a place where locals could host weddings and Quinceañeras.
But history isn’t always easy to maintain. Repairs take time, and original materials are harder to find and replace.
The market isn’t always kind to century-old homes. Even now, in 2025, the house stands as both a landmark and a challenge—a beautiful example today of a piece of Oxnard’s rich past.