Whitley Heights 101

2019 Grace Avenue

2019 Grace Avenue is a 2,685 square foot mid-century traditional house which was built in 1950 by owner Eva Taweal. Taweal had previously built another Whitley Heights home located at 1987 Whitley Avenue in 1939 with her husband, Louis. Taweal hired engineer E.R. Quam to build this 2-story, 3 bedroom, 4 bathroom house located across the street from Kendra Court. Taweal resided in the home until her death in 1958. Above, is the east side of the home, has a door on the bottom floor which leads outside to a patio area. The left side of the top floor is the living room which has a balcony on the outside of the home.

The front entry to the house is on the top floor which opens up to the main living area and a sitting room. When the house was last in 2023, the front sitting room was painted in green and has a fireplace.

After the sitting area is a hallway leading to the dining room on the right and the living room which is located in the rear of the house. There is a stairway leading to the bottom floor where two bedrooms are located. The railing of the stairway is the same as the railing of the balcony outside which encompasses two sides of the living room.

On the right side of the top floor is the kitchen and eating area, powder room, main bedroom and bathroom.

The stairs lead down to two bedrooms, a family room and two other bathrooms.

In 2004, Barbara Warner Howard, daughter of Warner Brothers executive, Jack Warner, purchased this house for $1.45 million. She sold the house in 2014 for $1.6 million. Below, Howard with her parents, Jack and Ann Warner.

Howard was born in Los Angeles in 1934. Her father’s first marriage ended in 1935, when he left his wife for another woman, Ann Page, with whom he had Barbara and became the step father to Page’s daughter from her previous marriage named Joy Page. Joy Page became an actress and appeared in ‘Casablanca’ in 1942.

Barbara grew up residing in one of the most glorious homes in Beverly Hills. Located at 1801 Angelo Drive, the 19,612 square foot house, has 99 bedrooms and 48 bathrooms, worth over $134 million dollars, the property is known as ‘the Jack Warner estate’. Warner built the property in 1927 and was later purchased by Jeff Bezos.

Barbara spent much of her childhood in boarding schools in Europe before returning to Beverly Hills. She grew up amongst the greatest film starts of all time. Judy Garland sang at her sweet sixteen birthday party, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor attended her debutante ball, and she once climbed through a window at the legendary Brown Derby restaurant to escape the wandering hands of film producer Robert Evans. In 1954, Barbara was linked to actor Guy Madison after he divorced actress Gail Russell.

On December 22, 1955, she married Parisian restaurateur Claude Terrail at the age of 21 in Fairfax, Virginia. Terrail inherited the famed “Tour d’Argent” from his father in Paris, located near the Notre Dame church. This restaurant still exists and claims it was founded in 1582. In 1956, her ex-boyfriend, Michael Coburn-Waterfield, was sent to prison for four years for stealing $70,000 from her safe in 1953. In 1960, it was revealed that Coburn-Waterfield took the money during a party she was having at her father’s house when he was out of town. A New York playboy, Coburn-Waterfield had blackmailed the young woman out of the money.

On July 6, 1960, Barbara and Claude divorced Terrail in Paris based on “reciprocal wrongdoing” with no details exposed. They had a 2 ½ year old daughter which would spend 6 months a year with each parent. Terrail had initiated the divorce. In 1962, she married French pianist Raymond de Senechal at the age of 28. After her second divorce, Barbara returned to Los Angeles and began dating screenwriter Cy Howard (pictured below). Howard was known for ‘My Friend Irma’ (tv series 1952-54), Smother Brothers Comedy Hour (1967-69) and his last film was Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976). Howard, who was somewhat of a playboy in his younger years, was linked to actresses Paulette Goddard and Ann Southern and married actresses Nan Wynn and Gloria Grahame before marrying Barbara Warner in January of 1977.

They were married until his 1993 death and residing at 10230 Sunset Boulevard, known as the ‘Cy Howard’ estate and featured in Architectural Digest in 2000.

Barbara Howard, who died in 2022 at age 88, sold 2019 Grace Avenue in late 2013 for $1.6 million to TV producer Nick Weidenfeld and his wife Amanda and since then, this property has seen two other owners.