William O. Jenkins House, Mediterranean Revival mansion in Windsor Square, Los Angeles, US.

The William O. Jenkins House was a Mediterranean-style mansion at 641 South Irving Boulevard, built in 1922 and 1923 for businessman William O. Jenkins. It was designed by architect and civil engineer Thomas Beverley Keim, Jr., and cost $250,000. The two-storey house had a pale, smooth facade, a low-pitched roof of reddish tiles and two rectangular chimneys; a round-headed entrance arch sat at the centre, with three windows above it.

The residence was completed in 1923 as a private home for wealthy businessman William O. Jenkins. After the family moved away, the property sat empty for an extended period before changing hands to new ownership.

Locals nicknamed the empty house the "Phantom House" during the decade it stood vacant after the Jenkins family left in 1926. In 1950 Paramount rented it for Sunset Boulevard on condition that a new swimming pool be built for one of J. Paul Getty's former wives; that pool became the site of William Holden's floating corpse in the film's opening.

The property was located near Hollywood's production centers, allowing convenient access for filming operations. Visitors should know that the building no longer stands and survives only in archive footage and the film scenes in which it appeared.

The house's nickname, the "Phantom House", came from the decade it stood empty after the Jenkins family left in 1926, before J. Paul Getty bought it in 1936. Its most famous film moment was not planned: a Getty wife made Paramount build a new pool as a rental condition, and that pool became the site of William Holden's floating corpse in Sunset Boulevard.