Whitley Heights 101

6749 Whitley Terrace

6749 Whitley Terrace was originally listed as 2041 Whitley Avenue until the 1950s after Whitley Heights was dissected for the 101 Freeway. Below is an early view of the property with 2020 Grace Avenue (Francis X. Bushman residence) to its left surrounded by the many palm trees. Director Jay A. Howe build this residence originally as a five room house in 1921. The following year, Howe added a private garage to the residence.

Below is another aerial view of the home several years later after the 1926 addition of adding another garage, a library, and another bedroom and bathroom. The house was now a total of 2,715 square feet with three bedrooms and three bathrooms. This photograph was taken after 1929 as now 2053 Lloyd Lane is to the right of this home. (The Lloyd Lane home was built by producer Lewis Lewyn and his wife, actress Marilyn Mack and was moved in 1950 to 6801 Iris Circle to avoid the 101 Freeway demolition).

Jay Alexander Howe was born in 1889 in Kansas and moved to Los Angeles and became an actor with the stage name of Kitty Howe. Howe completed 5 short films between 1915-1916 before transitioning to writing and directing. By 1916, the young 17 year old was getting married to Ester Carolyn Stevens. Howe had worked for Fox Film Company and then signed a long-term with Hal Roach Studios in 1923. Howe had directed 98 short films between 1917-1928. He directed the Will Rogers comedy, “Great Moments from Little Pictures” in 1923. He was also known for directing Harold Lloyd’s, The Kid Brother (1927), All for the Dough Bag (1920) and Stowaways and Strategy (1917). In 1924, he was directing a movie and used Chuck P Morgan, an animal trainer, who was killed on the set when a horse he was riding stumbled and crushed him on the ground. Howe also write several screenplays between 1917-1933. In addition, at age of 50, he went into carpentry for the motion picture studios by age 60 he was building homes. Howe died in November 1962 in New Mexico.

Below is Howe (left) with Will Rogers in 1923.

Howe only stayed in this Whitley Heights home until 1923 when he sold the home to William Fraser, the uncle of actor Harold Lloyd. The trio had worked together when Howe directed one of Harold Lloyd’s films “The Kid Brother”. Fraser was the general manager of the Harold Lloyd Corporation. When Lloyd decided to open his own production company and make his own films, many critics did not think an actor could run their own company. Fraser had been working for the United States Forest Service and Lloyd thought he would make a good business manager. Fraser had also attended Cornell University and Stanford University. Lloyd’s intuition paid off as his company was very successful in making films. Fraser had arranged that Lloyd’s films would go through Paramount Pictures which proved to be very lucrative.

Between 1924-1934, Fraser helped to produce 9 Harold Lloyd films: Girl Shy (1924), Hot Water (1924), For Heaven’s Sake (1926), The Kid Brother (1927), Speedy (1928), Welcome Danger (1929), Feet First (1930), Movie Crazy (1932), and The Cat’s Paw (1934), several of which were talking pictures. Fraser retired in 1944 and died in Encino in 1952. Fraser only lived at 6749 Whitley Terrace until 1926, when he sold the home to a mason contractor.

The mason contractor and his family lived in Whitley Heights until 1936, when they sold the home to the Spencer family. Jack and Rose Spencer owned a jewelry store and had a very talented son, Lester, who was a gifted violinist. Not only did Lester play for several philharmonic orchestras and started his own string quartet, he worked for 20th Century Fox Studios around the same time he was drafted to the Navy in World War 2.

The house has access from a long winding driveway off of Whitley Avenue:

The front doorway opens up to a foyer: (love the picture of Peter Sellers)! The dining room can be seen to the left. The living room and kitchen are also located on the left side of the home. The other side of the downstairs boasts a little theater room.

The stairway is located near the living room:

There are three bedrooms upstairs and a huge bathroom with an old fashioned bathtub in the center of the room.

One other notable tenant was tv producer Steven DePaul in 1990. DePaul is a producer and director, known for NYPD Blue (1993), Person of Interest (2011) and Grimm (2011). He was also co-producer of NYPD Blue from 1993-1997, director of The Good Doctor 2017-2022, NCIS: Los Angeles 2019-2013, and directed 8 episodes, The Unit, Las Vegas.