The Villa Aurora is truly a hidden gem in Los Angeles. Initially built in the 20s by the Los Angeles Times as a demo house for new building technologies, the Villa Aurora was purchased by Marta and Lion Feuchtwanger who were escaping Nazi Germany. Their home became a cultural hub for an array of émigré luminaries including Fritz Lang, Thomas Mann, and Bertolt Brecht, among many others. Upon the Feuchtwangers' death, the house and its library of some 30,000 volumes were given over to the care of USC who ultimately took responsibility for the books while the house was sold to Friends and Supporters of the Villa Aurora, a non-profit organization with the support of the German government, who restored the house and opened it to an ongoing artists residency in honor of its history. The house is not regularly open to the public, but they offer tours by appointment and there are a handful of public events each month that are worth the wait.