Watercolor Wednesdays

"The job of an artist is to offer a sanctuary of beauty to an ugly world."

GNO

Girls Night Out!

90210 Mosey

Greystone Barn and Greenhouse

The City of Beverly Hills purchased the property from Mr. Crown in 1965 for approximately $1.3 million with plans to install a 19-million gallon water tank on the property as its hilltop site provided tremendous natural water pressure. This site continues to serve as the City of Beverly Hills’ largest reservoir. 

Greystone Gardens

Construction of the palatial manor home began February 15, 1927.  The estate took three years to complete at a cost of over $3 million, an almost unimaginable sum in real estate at the time. The original cost to construct Greystone’s entire estate was $3,166,578.12, the Mansion alone cost $1,238,378.76. The extraordinary result became known as Greystone for its abundant use of stone construction and its rather somber gray appearance. In addition to the Mansion, originally located on the grounds were stables and kennels, tennis courts, a fire station, gatehouse, swimming pool and pavilion, a greenhouse, a lake, babbling brooks and cascading waterfalls.

Greystone Mansion

Greystone Mansion and the surrounding grounds with which it shares its magnificent beauty, are rich in California history. Edward Laurence Doheny, the original proprietor of the Greystone land, was born in 1856 in the small Midwestern town of Fond du Lac,Wisconsin. By the time he was a young teen, Doheny’s adventuresome spirit and love of the wilderness led him to prospecting for gold and soon thereafter, oil. In 1892, Doheny and his friend Charles A. Canfield, were the first to strike oil in Los Angeles.

They later discovered large oil deposits in Mexico which, combined with their Los Angeles holdings, made them the largest producers of oil in the world at that time. Edward Doheny and his wife Carrie Louella Wilkins had two children. Their first, a daughter Eileen, passed away when she was just seven years old. On November 6, 1893, their only son, Edward “Ned” Laurence Doheny, Jr., was born and grew up as heir to one of the world’s great financial empires. Ned went on to marry Lucy Smith of Pasadena and in 1926 Edward Laurence Doheny Sr. gave his son as a wedding gift a premium parcel of land consisting of 12.58 acres with sweeping citywide views.

But on the night of February 16, 1929, only five months after the family had moved in, Ned Doheny was found shot to death inside the home, at the age of 36 and the victim of an apparent murder-suicide perpetrated by his longtime personal friend and aid Hugh Plunket. Lucy continued living at Greystone until 1955, after which she and her second husband Leigh M. Battson sold the majority of the original land to the Paul Trousdale Corporation, developers of Beverly Hills’ prestigious “Trousdale Estate” homes. The following year Lucy and her husband sold for approximately $1.5 million the remaining 18.3 acre parcel, including Greystone Mansion, to Henry Crown of Chicago-based Park Grey Corporation. Mr. Crown, however, never formally occupied the site but instead leased it out as a popular filming location, a legacy Greystone still maintains today.

Colonial Drug

Corner drugstores have historically been a fixture of both urban and rural communities. Before the large chain drugstores of today they provided for the community's health and served as an important community meeting place with their soda fountains. Colonial Drug is a recreation of the original business that George A. Simmons owned and operated in Highland Park after World War I. Formerly located just a mile away from Heritage Square at the corner of Avenue 57 and Figueroa (then Pasadena Ave.), Colonial Drug served the local community for six decades. In memory of George A. Simmons, the Simmons family generously donated the original fixtures, vintage soda fountain, and his unique collection of drugstore products to help Heritage Square recreate Colonial Drug from the ground up.

Heritage Square Museum

Heritage Square Museum is a living history museum that explores the settlement and development of Southern California during its first 100 years of statehood.

The eight historic structures located at the museum, constructed during the Victorian Era, were saved from demolition and serve as a perfect background to educate the public about the everyday lives of Southern Californians from the close of the 19th Century into the early decades of the 20th Century. 

From the simplicity of the Longfellow-Hastings Octagon House to the opulence of the William Perry Mansion, the Museum provides a unique look at the lifestyles of the people who contributed so much to the development of modern Los Angeles.

Over the past four decades, Heritage Square Museum has acquired and begun the restoration on eight historically significant buildings along acres of period appropriate landscaped grounds.  

110 Walkway