Whitley Heights 101

2146 Fairfield Avenue

2146 Fairfield Avenue was built in 1921 by architect Arthur S. Barnes for sisters Margaret and Clara Orwig. The house was demolished in 1963 when the city bought a portion of Whitley Heights on Fairfield Avenue and Alta Loma Terrace to build a museum which never happened. Instead, the land was utilized as a parking lot across the street from the Hollywood Bowl. As a result dozens of Whitley Heights were destroyed for a parking lot. Below, 2146 Fairfield Avenue sat diagonal from 2139 Fairfield Avenue which stands today. 2149 Fairfield Avenue was the house with the dome that was across the street and also demolished.

When the house was built, Margaret Orwig was 60 years old and Clara Orwig was 55 years old. Both never married nor had any children. The Orwigs were born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Joseph and Jane Orwig. Joseph was a Lieutenant and Captain of Company G of the 4th PA Regiment, which served in the Civil War. In 1893, the Orwigs moved to Des Moines with their six children. In 1920, the then widowed Jane Orwig moved to Los Angeles to an apartment building located at 670 S. Alvarado Street (across from the De Luxe Theater). Below, a look at the 600 block of Alvarado Street in 1923. Orange Street intersects with Alvarado Street on the right side where the De Luxe Theater was located at 656 S. Alvarado Street. The next building, with an interesting faux-gabled entrance, would have been the site of the Westlake Theatre. The Orwig’s lived directly across the street from the De Luxe Theater in the building that was set back from the street- 668-670 S. Alvarado Street, surrounded by the palm trees. On the far right, Alvarado Street intersected with 7th Street. The property used to be located where current day MacArthur Park Lake in located.

The Orwig family was known throughout Los Angeles for their careers in the arts. Margaret was a decorator and Clara was a poet and playwright who wrote several articles for Screenland and Picture Play Magazines in 1920:

One of her poems titled “Prayer for a Home” was published in Ladies Home Journal in April of 1924. Clara may have been describing this bungalow as they were living in the house at the time. Clara and Margaret’s sister, Mary Orwig Everett, was a well known painter of coastal landscape and portraits. All of the sisters enjoyed attending the Hollywood Bowl and were good friends with Josephine Wallace who was the aunt of Henry Wallace, the Secretary of Agriculture during the 1920s. Everett’s daughter, Louise Everett Nimmo, followed in her mother’s footsteps and also became a well known painter. Initially, Nimmo sketched many coastal scenes from Laguna Beach to Monterey. By the late 1920s, she had turned more to the desert county of California, Arizona, and occasionally New Mexico.

Margaret and Clara Orwig remained at 2146 Fairfield Avenue (also called 2182 Fairfield Avenue) until the late 1939 when they moved to their sister, Margaret’s house located at 980 S. Manhattan Place as she was now in her 70s and needed help. They rented 2146 Fairfield Avenue to actress Maude Turner Gordon in 1939, who had recently sold her house, one block over on 6705 Alta Loma Terrace (that area was also demolished for the museum and now a parking lot). Below, the red arrow was Gordon’s house on Alta Loma Terrace and the blue arrow was were 2146 Fairfield Avenue was located. Bette Davis’ house was the house to the right of the red arrow.

Maude Turner Gordon was born in 1868 in Franklin, Indiana and was active on Broadway between 1908 and 1925. One of her last stage plays was “Big Boy” which starred Al Jolson in 1925 and was made into a film in 1930. Gordon starred on the screen in 1914 until 1938 with over 80 credits. She purchased her first house in Hollywood in 1926 and then bought the Alta Loma house in 1930 before selling it in 1939. During the 1920s, Gordon had minor roles in films starring: Billie Burke, Thomas Meighan, Ethel Clayton, Marion Davies, Mae Murray, Claire Windsor, Bebe Daniels, and Norma Shearer. During the 1930’s she worked with William Powell, Carole Lombard, Ramon Navarro, Marion Davies, and Barbara Stanwyck,. She appeared in two Greta Garbo films: “Susan Lennox (Her Fall and Rise)” and “Mata Hari” both in 1931. In 1933, she appeared in the Marx Brothers film “Duck Soup” and Norma Shearer’s “Marie Antoinette” in 1938. Gordon died in 1940 at the age of 72.

Before 2146 Fairfield Avenue was demolished in 1963, director and actress Marcella Cisney Cisney acted in four films between 1949 and 1951: “The Undercover Man” starring Glenn Ford, “Abandoned” starring Dennis O’Keefe, “Prison Warden” starring Warner Baxter, and “Hard, Fast and Beautiful” starring Claire Trevor. During the 1950s, Cisney became one of televisions first female directors, directing 110 episodes of a soap opera called “Woman with a Past” starring Jean Stapleton in 1954. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled after the first year. She also served as producer and director at the Pasadena Playhouse, Laguna Playhouse, and Las Palmas Theatre in Hollywood. After marrying director Robert Schnitzer, they moved to University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and created a pilot project in the professional theater that would become a model for the rest of the country. During their twelve years at Michigan, the Schnitzers produced more than 125 plays including 23 sent to New York for Broadway and off-Broadway production. Both retired and moved to New Haven, CT.

Below, the site of this former home before it was demolished, now a parking lot. Alta Loma Terrace extended on the south side of Highland Avenue were there were 10 bungalow homes prior to eminent domain.