Wattles Mansion

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This article is about Wattles Estate or Wattles Mansion. For Wattles House, see Wattles House.
Jualita or Wattles Mansion

Wattles Mansion exterior
Building Information
Name Jualita or Wattles Mansion
Location Los Angeles
Country United States
Architect Myron Hunt
Client Gurdon Wattles
Completion Date 1907
Style Mission Revival

The Wattles Estate, which was originally known as Jualita, is located at 1824 North Curson Avenue in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California. It was built in 1907 by wealthy Omaha, Nebraska banker Gurdon Wattles as a winter home. Today it has been split into several areas, including the Wattles Mansion, Wattles Park and Wattles Gardens.

The estate has been recognized as "the only remaining intact example of the once plentiful Hollywood estates from the period preceding the film industry, when Hollywood was primarily agricultural and was a wintering home for wealthy Easterners and Midwesterners."[1] According to the City of Los Angeles, "'Jualita' is one of the few remaining landscapes reminiscent of another era and tradition, possessing a genuine integrity of setting, design, workmanship, and association."[2]

Contents

[edit] History

Noted local architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey designed the Mission Revival residence in 1907 with grounds featuring a Japanese garden, an Italian Rose garden, a formal Spanish garden, a palm court and orchards. It was one of Hollywood's first tourist attractions.[3] Wattles was responsible for gradually transforming 49 acres of agricultural land into[clarify]orchards, thematic gardens and naturalistic landscapes.

After Wattles' death in 1932, his wife and his son continued to live on the property. Gurdon Wallace Wattles, Jr. negotiated the sale of the residence to the City of Los Angeles in 1965. In March of that year, the City of Los Angeles Board of Recreation and Parks Commission adopted Resolution 5135, designating the Wattles estate as an acquisition area, and purchased the property for $1,917,000 in June 1968.[4]

Hollywood Heritage, a private non-profit preservation organization, began restoration efforts in 1983, and today the estate serves as their headquarters. Over the next several years volunteers with the organization removed several feet of mud from the garden, replanted landscaping, and repainted and refinished the interior woodwork. Through their efforts, the Wattles Mansion has been returned to its original state. In 1993 the Wattles Mansion was designated as City of Los Angeles Cultural Monument No. 579. In 2000 the J. Paul Getty Trust donated $75,000 towards a Preserve L.A. planning project designed to further the site's preservation.[5] There have been reports of ghosts surrounding the mansion.[6]

[edit] Wattles Mansion

The home is two stories with a full basement. The first-floor rooms include a paneled library, a formal dining room, a large living room with a picture window to the south gardens, two large bathrooms off the entrance hall, a servant's dining hall and a kitchen and pantry. Five bedrooms and three baths are on the second floor.

Some of the original features in the Wattles Mansion include a black-and-white-checkerboard marble floor in the foyer, and intricately carved walnut bookcases and a hand-painted ceiling in the library. Hardwood moldings, white stucco walls, wood-beamed ceilings and hardwood floors with Oriental carpets are found throughout the house. There is a terracotta tile terrace and a wide, sloping lawn. Brick landings on a wide stairway go downwards towards landscaped terraces on each side, with a Spanish balustraded patio overlooking three acres of formal gardens.[7]

[edit] Wattles Farm

Once the avocado and fruit orchard of the Wattles Mansion, in 1975 a group of local residents converted a 4.2 acre section of the then-neglected Wattles estate into a community garden. Today this members-only organic garden is among the oldest community gardens in Los Angeles. It is run by a nonprofit organization called the Wattles Farm and Neighborhood Gardeners, Inc., in partnership with the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.[8]

[edit] Wattles Park

Many of the gardens surrounding Wattles Mansion have been designated as Wattles Park. In the 1970s and '80s the park was popular among L.A.'s punk scene.[9] Gurdon Wattles met the original head gardener during his world travels in 1910, and retained him for the next 20 years until his death in 1930. Gurdon's concept for the gardens was influenced by trips to Mexico and Japan; he bought a tea house, shrines and lanterns from Japan for use in the gardens. Four gardens were eventually developed, with the first corresponding to the architecture of the house, the second Italian, the third American, and the fourth Japanese.

Today the Wattles Park occupies approximately 50 acres of a long narrow corridor of space that rises 950 feet (290 m) from Hollywood Boulevard. The lower park is 4.13 acres in size and fronts on Hollywood Boulevard. The Wattles Mansion and formal garden area runs along the private roadway to the building. The early American garden area is directly behind the residence and was composed of rose and vegetable gardens. The Japanese teahouse along Curson Avenue was a gift to the City of Los Angeles from the City of Nagoya, its sister city in Japan. The Japanese garden portion of the grounds was designed by Fugo, an influential landscape architect in Japan. All of the shrubs, plants, and vegetation were brought directly from Japan for the garden.[10]

[edit] Cultural references

Author Lucky McKee used the park as a backdrop in the novel May. The mansion was featured on the television series The O.C., in the movie Troop Beverly Hills, and the sanatarium scenes in the film Rain Man were shot there as well.[11] It was also featured in Jennifer Lopez's first film, My Family.[12]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Wattles Estate", California Historic Preservation Commission. Retrieved 2/12/08.
  2. ^ "Wattles Mansion", City of Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Department. Retrieved 2/9/08.
  3. ^ "Wattles Mansion", Herecomestheguide.com. Retrieved 2/6/08.
  4. ^ "Jualita: a fond memory for a JLS graduate", The US Navy Japanese/Oriental Language School Archival Project. Retrieved 2/7/08.
  5. ^ "Getty Announces $1.4 Million in Grants for Architectural Preservation of Historic Buildings and Sites in Los Angeles County", BusinessWire. July 27, 2000. Retrieved 2/7/08.
  6. ^ Dillon, C.R. (2004) Those Pesky Spooks. iUniverse. p 126.
  7. ^ "Wattles Mansion", Herecomestheguide.com. Retrieved 2/6/08.
  8. ^ LaTempa, S. (2004) "A plot-driven garden story: Wattles Farm brings out the cook -- and picnicker -- in its gardener-members," Los Angeles Times. June 23, 2004. Retrieved 2/9/08.
  9. ^ Ruddick, S.M. (2001) Young and Homeless in Hollywood: Mapping Social Identities. Routledge. p 113.
  10. ^ "Wattles Mansion", City of Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Department. Retrieved 2/9/08.
  11. ^ "Kaitlin's School," Scenes from The O.C. Retrieved 2/6/08.
  12. ^ Lindquist, R.B. (2006) Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer's Guide to Exploring Southern California. St. Martin's Griffin. p 245.

[edit] External links