Whitley Heights 101

6611 Hollywood Boulevard

A December 7, 1902 article in the Los Angeles Times promotes “The Hollywood Ocean View Tract” indicating that sales have broken all records and that the tract “has no rivals, it has no competitors, only imitators”. Besides putting a photograph of H.J. Whitley’s house in the center, a “high grade mission home” was pictured in the lower left corner. During the late 1800s and early 1900s the popular architectural styles of homes included: the Italianate, Queen Anne, Folk Victorian, and Eastlake/Stick styles. With the turn of the century the “arts and crafts movement” which was born in eastern Europe rejected the rigidity and formality of the Victorian era and embraced styles that emphasized craftsmanship and function. The mission revival style house was born in California in the 1890s and owes its popularity to the release of the book “Ramona” and Mary Pickford making the publication into a movie in 1910. The film short was filmed at the Mountain View Hotel and at Rancho Camulos, now a museum on Ventura County.

Mission Revival structures are generally covered with stucco with
sculpted parapets, and arched openings reflecting Southern California’s Mexican heritage. The homes are typically two or three stories high, have low pitched roofs with gables and wide eaves, arched arcades enclosing large, front porches, a mixture of small square windows, and long, rectangular windows. The mission revival homes also have Moorish detailing and towers and may be mixed with other house styles. Paul de Longpre’s former house that was on the corner of Hollywood and Cahuenga Boulevards was an excellent example of mission revival homes.

The mission revival house mentioned in the 1902 article was located on the Hollywood Ocean View Tract on Prospect Boulevard between Whitley Avenue and Magnolia Avenue. In 1910, Prospect Boulevard was renamed to Hollywood Boulevard. Magnolia Avenue was changed to Cherokee Avenue prior to 1912. Prior to 1911, this house was referenced on “Prospect between Whitley and Magnolia” and then given the street number of 341 Prospect. After Prospect Boulevard was changed to Hollywood Boulevard in 1910, the house number changed to 6611 Hollywood Boulevard. Below, the house can be seen on Prospect Boulevard on the left. The road after the house is Whitley Avenue which dead ends on Prospect Avenue. The next house on Prospect Avenue was Jane’s house which was opened up into a school. The house after was Whitley’s house.

This mission style home was built in 1902 and bought byR.L. Buzard, a wealthy banker from Pennsylvania who died the following year. Andrew Groh and his wife, Lindie, purchased the 9 room house from the estate of R.L. Buzard in December of 1903 for $6,000.

According to “Out West” magazine that was published in 1904, the house belonged to the Grohs. By this time, Andrew, a retired attorney, was in his 70s and his wife, Lindie was 16 years younger than him. The Grohs spent a lot of their time traveling around California, visiting relatives in Chicago and even going to Europe.

In 1912, the Grohs purchased a home in mountains of Lookout Mountain, which is now known as Laurel Canyon. Unfortunately, Andrew lost his balance up at their newly constructed summer house and fell down the canyon into road below. Although his injuries did not appear fatal, he later died in a hospital at the age of 76.

The widowed Mrs. Groh remained in the Hollywood home and kept the summer house on Lookout Mountain which was called “Linda Vista”. In 1917, Lindi married a childhood friend that she ran into one day. They married in Santa Barbara and moved to Pasadena.

Lindie had rented the Hollywood house to Alta Beach who opened a “tea room” called the “Hollywood Inn” which was in operation during 1917.

By the end of 1917, the tea room changed ownership to Mabel Cameron who renamed the tea house to “Cameron Tea House”. In July of 1919, Cameron had expanded the business to include catering and needed a bigger place. She moved out of the building in December of 1919 and Howell, a florist, temporarily moved into the house until February of 1920. In July it was announced that Oliver Van Amberg would erect a building on this site.

Luckily, the house was bought in 1920 and relocated just down the street to 1925 Wilcox Avenue north of Franklin Avenue.

Below is the house on Wilcox Avenue shortly after it was moved in 1920 as evidenced by the newly planted streets in front of the house.

In 1922, the Motion Picture Director’s Association purchased the property. They planned to remodel the bottom floor to be used as their new clubhouse. The interior of the building would be decorated to suit the “old Italian style” of the exterior. They also planned to build an addition to the rear of the property for an assembly hall which would be designed with a “studio effect” and would be utilized for association meetings and exhibition of exceptional motion pictures.

The MPDA was formed by 26 film directors in 1915 in order to maintain honor and dignity of the profession, be an influence to the morality of its members, and aid in helping distressed members, including the wives, widows, and orphans. Original members included; William DeMille, John Ford, Sidney Olcott, William Desmond Taylor, Marshall Neilan, and Lois Weber, who was the only female that was granted membership. Taylor had been the president of the association in 1921 when he was murdered in his home. The association was dissolved in 1936 when its members helped create the Screen Directors Guild.

For the next several years, MPDA published a magazine, regularly held meetings at the clubhouse, and honored directors John Ford, King Vidor, and Henry King there. In 1925, they were even offered a substantial amount of money to sell the property in order to build a hotel and they declined.

By May of 1928, the MPDA decided to sell the clubhouse located at 1925 N. Wilcox Avenue and move temporarily to the corner of Hollywood Blvd. and Cherokee Avenue. It was sold in June for the amount of $45,000 to Mrs. Bool who planned to erect a 200 car class A garage. By September, the house located at 1925 Wilcox Avenue had been demolished for the Wilcox Garage. Since then, the building has serviced as an automotive building. Most recently, 1915 Wilcox Avenue is home to Caliber Collision who leases the building. Several years ago, the land was almost bought to put up a hotel, but the 1928 building was named a historical landmark so the hotel was never built. Currently the building is up for sale.