Whitley Heights 101

The Father of Hollywood’s Home

Not only was Hobart J. Whitley considered the Father of Hollywood, he was solely responsible for the vision and creation of Whitley Heights. After buying the land on the hill, he spent a year designing the curvy streets and street lighting before selling the lots of land. In June of 1920, the opening of Whitley Heights was announced and during the summer, he had a barbecue on the hill as the official opening of the new neighborhood. In addition, he built a lighted sign, “WHITLEY HEIGHTS”, which was the first of its kind to light up Hollywood Hills. Shortly after, he and a group of men, constructed the Hollywoodland sign up in the Mount Lee area of Hollywood Hills. Below is the Whitley Heights sign that illuminated the area; directly to the right of the sign is H.J. Whitley’s house. A replica of Whitley’s house is directly below at 6640 Whitley Terrace which was built in 1920 for Emma Hambleton. Emma owned land adjacent to Whitley Heights called The Araby. In 1921, she sold Whitley the land for $55,000. Ironically, he previously owned the same plot of land, which is now the Iris Circle area of Whitley Heights. Whitley sold the land for $2,000 in 1903 and bought it from Hambleton for $53,000 more.

In 1919, Whitley purchased two plots of land in Whitley Heights. On this piece of land, the Whitleys would build their home for $20,000 and on 6630 Whitley Terrace, a Spanish style house would be built for $8,000 for their daughter, Grace. The land which the house of 2073 Grace Avenue sits, was actually chosen by Mr. and Mrs. Whitley thirty years prior when they were visiting California on their honeymoon. Margaret Virginia “Gigi” Whitley convinced her husband to build a European villa using the address “6643 Whitley Terrace” because she wanted her new house to stand out from all of the others on the hill. Whitley sent architect, Arthur S. Barnes to the Mediterranean to study the architecture of homes in Spain and Italy. The original eight room house now consists of 3,342 square feet and two stories and has access on both Grace Avenue and Whitley Terrace. Below is construction of the house in 1919; the building permit lists A.S. Barnes as the contractor and E.C. Wiseman as the architect.

According to Gaelyn Whitley Keith, the Whitley’s great-granddaughter, who wrote The Father of Hollywood in 2006, both Hobart and Gigi had a hand in designing the home. Gigi was in charge of the design and Hobart concentrated on the minor details of the home. The Italian Villa, consisted of two stories, stucco, a Mission tile roof, and French windows and doors. The Palladian entrance on Whitley Terrace was surrounded with urns and statuary, an arched colonnaded facade, lower columns, Corinthian capitals, upper floor Ionic capitals, Acanthus detail in the plaster cornices, arched plaster friezes over the French doors, curved colonnades on the terrace and stained glass windows.

Gigi wanted a home complete with eloquent balconies, lush gardens, rustling Palm Trees and a magnificent view of the ocean and mountains. She also had in mind an estate mixed with formal and informal areas to satisfy each family member. The interior of the house displayed various pastel silks and taffetas, and embroideries. Upon entering the main entrance on Grace Avenue, to the left was the spacious living room. In the center of the living room floor was a huge oriental rug that had been purchased on one of the trips they had taken to the Orient. The house also contained a collection of art objects and contemporary furniture of the 1920’s. On the center wall in the living room, hung paintings of Gigi’s parents, Margaret and William Ross. Throughout the house, the walls were plastered with rich finishes that complimented the texture of the furniture. Below is an earlier photo of Hobart and Gigi and their son, Ross, and daughter, Grace.

Above the main level were all of the bedrooms, including the master suite. The master suite opened up to an outside balcony. There used to be an outside porch next to the bedroom that served as an aviary for Gigi’s canaries. The house included quarters for the staff and housekeeping area on the ground floor. Beautiful manicured gardens with a “park-like” appearance surrounded the west of the home, including sweeping lawns, splendid trees and colorful flowers. There was also a small cottage and play area near the formal gardens were their grandchildren used to ride a miniature train around the yard. Below is a photo of the house right after it was built.

Also described in the book, “The Father of Hollywood”, was the Whitley’s interactions with some of their celebrity neighbors. One of Gigi’s favorite parties on the hill was a “lavish affair” given by William Powell and his wife, Carole Lombard, who lived at 6861 Iris Circle between 1931-33. They had a dinner, which was served on the terrace overlooking the valley, complete with a 10 piece orchestra that played. They lived between Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. Marie Dressler lived at 6809 Iris Circle.

While standing on the her terrace, Gigi would often see Rudolph Valentino drive up the hill in his Roadster going to his residence at 6776 Wedgewood Place, in which he lived there between 1922-24. He would always wave to her while passing in his rumbling convertible. As HJ and Gigi would walk around the neighborhood in the evening, they would pass Barbara La Marr’s house at 6672 Whitley Terrace, the brown stucco house with the red tiled roof. Sometimes they would see her in her little sun porch spending time with her baby with a smile on her face. Continuing down the road to 6691 Whitley Terrace, they would see Norma Talmadge and thought it was odd that she had finials shaped like pineapples. Next door, at 6697 Whitley Terrace, was a large villa owned by director Robert Vignola. Rumors in the neighborhood suggested that Marian Davis and William Randolph Hearst used the home as a “romantic hideaway”. Up the street, was a mansion located at 2020 Grace Avenue where actress Blanche Sweet was living at in the early 1920s. Carmen Miranda lived in a bungalow on Padre Terrace and Leo G. Carroll, had a home on Grace Avenue. Later, Gloria Swanson, Bette Davis, an Tyrone Powers lived in Whitley Heights. Below is the backside of the residence on Grace Avenue.

One interesting rumor was that Barbara La Marr resided at this residence, according to a history of Hollywood book, but she lived down the street. However, the book describes numerous secret passageways in the home, including one from the master suite to the chauffeur’s room. In 1925, the porch was enlarged and a 16 x 17 room was added as an additional maids room. In 1931, H.J. Whitley died at the age of 83 while he was at his son, Ross’ house in the Whitley Park Country Club in Van Nuys. When he died, he had lost a lot of money in some real estate investments over his last years and died practically broke. Gigi ended up putting the house up for sale in 1937:

The house was bought by British inventor, Percival Purdy and his wife, Amanda, who in 1939, built the detached garage and an addition to the garage. A year later, the Purdys added a carport/garage and bathhouse. Purdy invented machine parts and had a very lucrative business in London, England: Purdy Patient Machinery Company. Percival died at the home in 1948 and the house remained in the family. In 1995, his son, David, retiled the roof. It would be interesting to see the inside of the house and where all the hidden tunnels lead to.