Whitley Heights 101

6681 Whitley Terrace

6681 Whitley Terrace was built in 1938 by contractor Herman Hemming for an insurance salesman named Sidney Wooley. The two-story Early American house with a Georgian entrance has access both on Whitley Terrace (shown above) and on the second floor in the rear at 2056 Grace Avenue. Since the Los Angeles County Assessor recognizes the property using the Whitley Terrace address, the residence will be referred to using that address. The property was last sold in 2014 and since then, there has been interior alterations and before and after photographs will be shown. Below, the property shown before its makeover as the house used to be painted green with white trim.

According to the LA County Assessor, the property has a total of 1,676 square feet with 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. The house was last sold in 2014 for $950,000. Below, before and after photos of the home as seen on Grace Avenue.

Upon entry from the Grace Avenue entrance, the living room is to the right, the dining room is on the left and there used to be an “L” shaped stairway going down to the ground floor. With alterations, there is now a spiral staircase that replaces the former stairway.

The spiral stairway has opened up more space and the wall between the kitchen and living room as been removed thus creating a great room.

There is a middle floor which consists of a kitchenette and bedroom/office area. The is another set of stairs which lead to the bottom floor where the entrance to Whitley Terrace remains along with a 2 car garage.

In 1969, set designer Archie B. Sharp purchased the house and built a patio area with a gazebo and jacuzzi on one side of the house.

Sharp was born in Honolulu in 1931 as his father, Archie Sharp II, was working at one of the newspapers. His father was born in Denver, Colorado to Archie Sharp I and wife Rhonda in 1901 and they had just married in 1900. The Sharps moved to the Redlands area soon after. In 1910, his grandfather made local headlines when he was arrested on a vagrancy charge:

The story was described as unusual as Sharp moved to Los Angeles away from his wife and asked her to send their son, Archie Sharp II, to him and he would stay with an “aunt”. Mrs. Sharp consented but little Archie went into a “public home” instead. Sharp returned to his house in Redlands and introduced his wife to a “cousin” who was named Ruth Randall. That evening, Sharp and Randall took out an opium apparatus and asked Rhonda Sharp if she would help them roll the drug into tiny balls. Horrified, Mrs. Sharp contacted the police and both her husband and the young woman where arrested and held in jail. She kicked her husband out of the house, filed for divorce and took legal possession of the property. Sharp ended up paying a $150 fine and the Sharps eventually made up. Five years later, the divorce suit was dismissed.

Years later, Rhonda finally left Archie Sharp I and moved to Los Angeles and when their son was old enough, Archie Sharp II, moved to Honolulu and sold cars for a living and then returned to Los Angeles in 1921 and worked in the newspaper industry. In 1925, Sharp II, made the news when he had to go to the local pier in San Pedro for work and ran into two old friends friends that he had hung out with when he was living in Hawaii.

After Archie Sharp II, married Hazel Cooper in 1924, he returned to Honolulu for several years to work in the local newspaper and Archie Sharp III was born in 1931. They returned to Los Angeles by 1935, where their second son, James, was born. Arthur III attended UCLA where he graduated in the 1950s and became involved in set design for local theaters. He also created several game show set designs: “Name Droppers” in 1969, “The Parent Game” in 1972, “Almost Anything Goes” 1975 to 1978, American Gladiators in 1989, and “The Newlywed Game”. Sharp also created the set design for “The Andy Williams Show” between 1962 to 1967 and for two television movies: “The Missiles of October” which aired in 1974 about the Cuban Missile Crisis and “Dreamer” in 1979 which starred Tim Matheson, Susan Blakely, and Jack Warden.