This article originally appeared in the January 2013 issue of Architectural Digest.

When Dinah and Bill Ruch purchased their residence in Los Angeles’s Coldwater Canyon two years ago, they had no idea that a rich tapestry of Hollywood history had unfolded there. “We saw pictures of the house, and I said, ‘Let’s get in the car and buy it,’” recalls Bill, a retired entrepreneur. “We loved the indoor-outdoor feeling and Spanish Colonial details like the terra-cotta roof.” His wife, who serves as board president for L.A.’s Levitt Quinn Family Law Center, adds, “We honestly didn’t know anything about the previous owners. It was the lush landscape and the courtyard fountain that sealed the deal.”

Hollywood may be littered with pedigreed properties, but few are as steeped in delicious Tinseltown lore as this home (previously featured in the June 1978 issue of AD .) Built in 1935, it later belonged to Charles K. Feldman and Jean Howard. Feldman, a powerful talent agent, managed the careers of Lauren Bacall, Howard Hawks, John Wayne, and other industry titans, while also producing such noteworthy movies as A Streetcar Named Desire and The Seven Year Itch. Howard, a famous beauty and former Ziegfeld girl, came to L.A. as an aspiring actress and rose to prominence as a legendary hostess and a photographer of the entertainment world.

The pair bought the house in 1942, and following a renovation by silent-film star turned decorator William Haines, a pioneer of Hollywood Regency style, it became the backdrop for fabled parties, assignations, and assorted debaucheries. Humphrey Bogart, Marlene Dietrich, and Greta Garbo were among their frequent guests. Elia Kazan and Marilyn Monroe carried on an affair in one of the bedrooms while Arthur Miller typed away by the pool, plotting his own seduction of the screen siren. In 1960, when John F. Kennedy arrived for the Democratic National Convention, Feldman and Howard hosted a soirée to introduce the future president to the cream of the movie business. Details of that evening are sketchy, but by most accounts a good time was had by all.

After the Ruchs acquired the home, they called on a longtime family friend, Pamela Shamshiri of the L.A. interior design firm Commune , to revive the place. It was Shamshiri who unearthed the property’s storied past, which the couple eagerly embraced. “Bill and Dinah really wanted to bring the house back to its roots,” she explains. “I had to figure out how to do something that was fundamentally Spanish Colonial in style but still acknowledged the Billy Haines interiors, which included incredible custom pieces by Tony Duquette.”