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The center of attention when several historic Los Angeles homes were opened to the public Saturday was not an exquisite Tiffany lamp or a polished 90-year-old oak stairway.
Those touring several streets in the West Adams area were intrigued instead by a newly restored turn-of-the-century showplace that was famous as the neighborhood rock house until last year, when neighbors rallied to drive the drug dealers out.
"The front door had been knocked in by police battering rams," homeowner Jodi Siegner told wide-eyed visitors to the seventh-annual West Adams Heritage Assn. tour. "The living room was used for the storage of drugs.
"There were bloodstains on the walls and floor. We collected buckets of hypodermic needles when we moved in. The garage had been partitioned into three rooms for prostitution. They didn't miss a trick."
The house sits near the end of the 2600 block of Van Buren Place, a carefully manicured, tree-lined street of large Craftsman-style homes built between 1904 and 1910.
Although some houses on surrounding streets are in disrepair, residents of the area have banded together to protect the area's unique architecture and view restoration of the home...