The Piru Mansion is a Queen Anne Style home located in Piru, California.
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The Piru Mansion was completed by 1890. It was created by Piru's founder, David C. Cook, a wealthy publisher of Sunday School tracts and supplies from Illinois, who had wanted to establish a "Second Garden of Eden,"[1] specifying, tradition says, the planting of Biblical apricots, dates, figs, grapes, olives, and pomegranates.[2]
Cook's house became known as the Piru Mansion because of Sunkist's "Mansion Brand" valencia oranges, which can still be found in the area. The mansion originally utilized natural gas as it possessed no electricity or running water.
In 1968, the mansion was purchased by the Newhall family. Scott Newhall began restoring it after the earthquake of 1971, during which the two chimneys were knocked down. In February 1981, a spark from a painter's torch ignited the house while it was being painted and burnt it to the ground.
The owners, seeking to reconstruct their home, utilized old photographs and the assistance of people who had restored the house during its lifetime. The new mansion was completed in December 1983.
In 1994, the Northridge earthquake also knocked down two chimneys. In 2003, after the damage was repaired, the Piru Mansion was sold to its fourth owner, David Newhall Hill, a relative of the Newhall family.
The Piru Mansion has been shown in numerous films, as well as television and commercials. Some of the films the mansion has been used in are: Murder She Wrote, Charlie's Angels, The Incredible Hulk, Payne, Ping!, American Wedding, and many others.
Most recently, Piru Mansion was used as the home of Ellis Wyatt in the movie version of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
Some of the actors and actresses who have acted in productions shot at the Piru Mansion include: Shelley Winters, June Allyson, Buddy Ebsen, Ricardo Montalban, Robert Duvall, Patty Duke, James Garner, Angela Lansbury, Shirley Jones, John Larroquette and many more.[1]