Whitley Heights 101

6607 Padre Terrace

6607 Padre Terrace is currently for sale (as of November 2023) for $1.495 million. The Spanish Style home was built in 1922 by architect P. Hale and contractors Morrow & Baer for silent screen actor Wilbur Higby. Padre Terrace is a tiny street that is comprised of four residential lots that sits below Emmet Terrace is Whitley Heights.

Higby also had the home next door located at 6615 Padre Terrace built the same year this home was built and he used the same architect and contractors. Higby also built the residence above this lot located at 6612-6614 Emmet Terrace in 1925, where he and his family would reside. However, the family resided in this house for about a year after it was built and then rented it out.

By 1928, the Ojai Apartments were built next door, partially obstructing the views of these homes. Below, 6612-14 Emmet Terrace is seen below with the red dot. This property, 6607 Padre Terrace can be seen below the Emmet Terrace home. To the left is 6615 Padre Terrace and to the right is the Ojai Apartments. The Higby’s kept and maintained 6607 Padre Terrace as a rental property until the mid-1930s.

6607 Padre Terrace is a one-story Spanish style home which sits on a downslope on Padre Terrace. The main floor is the garage and the main entrance of the home is accessed through a set of stairs on the right of the property that lead up to the front door on that side of the home. Upon entry is a living room that sits over the 2-car garage. A wide, long balcony runs the length of this side of the living room that looks out over garden cul-de-sac. In the back of the home is the kitchen and dining area and 2 ensuite bedrooms sit on the left side of the home. In the back of the home is a patio, complete with and outdoor wood burning fireplace suitable for outdoor dining on a winter night!

Wilbur Higby was a vaudeville actor born in 1887; he met his wife Carolyn on the road and she became his stage manager, marrying in 1908. Carolyn already two children from a previous marriage and they had a daughter, Mary Jane, who became part of the show business, acting and dancing in the plays at a young age.

The family moved to Hollywood by 1920 and then had these two houses on Padre Court built. The Higby’s stayed in his home and then started rented it out to the Redmayne family long-term until the early 1930s. The Redmayne’s were a retired couple from New York that moved out west with their three daughters, who were all in their 20s.

Soon after the Redmayne family moved into this rental, there was a dispute with Carolyn and one of their daughters, Daisy. On December 28, 1923, Carolyn Higby filed a lawsuit against Daisy Redmayne, for $20,000 of asserted slander and libel. The suit came as an aftermath of an argument over a lease on this property. Mrs. Higby claimed that Daisy wrote several letters to the Hollywood branch of the California Bank in which slanderous statements were made, one of which she called Mrs. Higby “a thief”. Apparently their dispute was settled outside of court and the Redmayne family became long-term renters for many years.

Wilbur Higby moved to the silent screen in 1914 and first worked for director Francis Ford in “Lucille Love: The Girl of Mystery” through Universal Film Company. This movie, which was filmed in San Diego, had a runtime of 5 hours long due to being a “serial” film with 15 stories that appeared in several episodes.

After appearing in a dozen short films, Higby had minor roles in silent films that starred notable actors and actrresses. Higby appeared in Hoodoo Ann (1916) starring Mae Marsh, Reggie Mixes In (1916) starring Douglas Fairbanks, Flirting with Fate (1916) starring Douglas Fairbanks, Diane of the Follies (1916) starring Lillian Gish, The Matrimaniac (1916) starring Douglas Fairbanks, The Midnight Man (1917) starring Jack Mulhall, The Answer (1918) starring Alma Rubens, Madame Sphinx (1918) starring Alma Rubens, Broken Blossoms (1919) starring Lillian Gish, I’ll Get Him Yet (1919) starring Dorothy Gish, George Fawcett & Richard Barthelmess, True Heart Susie (1919) starring Lillian Gish, The Terror (1920) starring Tom Mix, Richard the Lion-Hearted (1923) starring Wallace Beery, and Lights of Old Broadway (1925) starring Marion Davies. His last film, The Mighty Barnum (1934) also starred Wallace Beery.

Mary Jane Higby also broke into show business, but turned her talents to radio during the 1930s. Her signature role was playing Joan Davis, the female lead of “When a Girl Marries”, a part she played for 18 years. She married actor Guy Sorel and moved to New York City in 1945. In 1968, Cowles Publishing Company published Tune in Tomorrow, Higby’s account of her life in radio’s golden age.

In 1938, a movie extra named Clyde Ladd and his mother rented 6607 Padre Terrace. Other than the letters Clyde would write to Hollywood Magazine and Photoplay Magazine during the 1930s praising actresses Margaret Sullivan or the poor decision the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences made for choosing Claudette Colbert, Clark Gable, and director Frank Capra to win awards. Ladd’s claim to fame was as an uncredited extra in “Around the World in 80 Days” in 1956. Ladd spent his lifetime living in Los Angeles with his mother, listing his work as a “movie extra”. Below is the area before 1928 when the Ojai Apartments were built. The arrow shows the top of the roof of 6607 Padre Terrace which sits below Emmet Terrace. 6621 Emmet Terrace is the house on the left and 6627 Emmet Terrace is on the right. The roof of 6615 Padre Terrace can be seen below 6627 Emmet Terrace.

6607 Padre Terrace, which was once for sale in 1949 for $13,000, has had minimal changes to the home. In 1938, the owner added a door to where an existing window was and changed the garage doors. In 1944, the roof was replaced. In 1998, a portion of the garage wall was replaced to repair a crack in the wall and all windows were replaced. Finally, in 2017 a voluntary foundation seismic retrofit was completed.