Ralph J. Bunche House, Victorian house in South Los Angeles, United States.

The Ralph J. Bunche House is a Victorian-Bungalow style house at 1221 E. 40th Place in South Los Angeles, the boyhood home of Nobel Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche. A 2006 Los Angeles Times description noted sunlight through modified bay windows, scrubbed wood floors and an airy parlor, den and dining room. It is a private residence today.

The house was built around 1900 and became the childhood home of Ralph Bunche in 1918, who later became the first person of color to win a Nobel Peace Prize. The building marks the beginning of a career that made Bunche an important international peacemaker and diplomat.

The house is a private residence and cannot be visited. From 2004 to about 2011 it housed the Dr. Ralph J. Bunche Peace & Heritage Center, an interpretive museum furnished with photographs and memorabilia from Bunche's life. Its oral history project with UCLA recorded memories of Bunche in Los Angeles and of the Central Avenue and Dunbar Hotel community; the recordings moved to UCLA around 2011.

The house at 1221 E. 40th Place is a private residence and is not open to visitors, so the building and its rooms cannot be toured. It stands in a residential block of South Los Angeles, one-half block from Jefferson High School, and can be viewed from the public street. The 1976 Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument designation (No. 159) and the 1978 National Register listing concern the exterior and history, not public access.

The house sits near Jefferson High School, where Bunche graduated as valedictorian before achieving the same honor at UCLA. This dual achievement underscores an extraordinary academic journey in both secondary and higher education.