Artistic vantage in Echo Park

This Echo Park home was built in 1905-06 as a Craftsman-style duplex by A.J. Crawford, a contractor and builder, for his family.

The sellers, Bruce Richards and his wife, Kim Kanatani, have used it as a single-family home since they bought the property 16 years ago. The house still could be used as a duplex with some minor alterations, according to Ron Emler, who has the listing.

Richards, an art professor at Cal Arts in Valencia, and Kanatani, with the Museum of Contemporary Art in L.A., spent their years in the house working on it and improving it for themselves, but they are relocating to New York City, where she has accepted a position at the Guggenheim Museum. Richards used the second floor of the home as an art studio.

About this house: The two-story house, on a hilltop overlooking the city and Echo Park Lake, has a private drive adjacent to a public stairway leading down to the lake and a park. There is a detached carriage house with a hayloft and a full basement with wine storage.

The main house, which has a new roof, is a showcase of period workmanship. The house also has generously proportioned rooms.

Asking price: $669,000

Size: 3,810 square feet

Features: The home has six bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, a music room with pocket doors and a beveled-glass window. The living room has a fireplace, and the dining room has French doors that open onto a redwood deck and an updated kitchen. There is parking for three cars.

Where: Echo Park.

Listing agent: Ron Emler, Century 21 Exclusive Realty, (213) 324-1555.