Whitley Heights 101

2249-2255 Cahuenga Blvd.

In 1924, real estate agent and developer, John Elsbach purchased a large lot between Cahuenga Blvd. and Iris Circle and hired architect Carl Jules Weyl to create three bungalow homes and a detached 3 car garage on a downward slope. The garage was on the top of the hill, followed by 2255 Cahuenga, a bungalow house with 4 rooms. 2251 Cahuenga sat right below 2255 and was very similar to it with 4 rooms. On the bottom of the hill was the last house, 2249 Cahuenga, was the largest bungalow, consisting of 5 rooms. The garage was accessed on Iris Circle with the intent that each bungalow would have one garage space. Below, a photo of the top two bungalows appeared in the August 2, 1925 edition of the Los Angeles Times. The top photo is a recent photo.

Elsbach (1900-1980), a broke interior decorator, had just moved from San Francisco in 1922 and was hired by the real estate firm, Metcalf & Ryan. Elsbach excelled in the real estate field and purchasing this land and building this 3 house court was his first investment. Elsbach would make some lucrative real estate investments during his lifetime- he was a partner in building the Lido Isle and Yacht Club in Newport Beach and later owning La Quinta Hotel & Country Club in Palm Springs. He was featured as a multi-millionaire in a 1930 issue of Fortune Magazine.

When Elsbach first moved to Hollywood, he was renting a house in the French Village around the corner on Highland Avenue. He rented the Normandy “Monkey House” (see below) which was owned by artist Minnie Munchmore. Elsbach moved into 2249 Cahuenga Avenue after the homes were completed in 1924.

Elsbach used his interior design skills to work with Weyl and create 3 Italian villas with wrought iron interior doors, beamed cathedral ceilings in the living & dining area, and unique glass ironed windows. All three houses share the similar features. Weyl first partnered with Henry Goherty and together they built the Baine Building (1926), Hollywood Playhouse Theater (1926-27), Fred C. Thompson Shops (1928), and Yucca Vine Tower (1929). After their partnership ended in 1928, Weyl moved his office into the Fred C. Thompson Shops and went on to build the Brown Derby Restaurant #2 in 1929.

When the Depression hit and building commissions dried up, Weyl joined Cecil B. DeMille Productions and then Warner Brothers as an art director from 1935 until his death in 1948. Recently, Weyl was named a Hall of Fame Inductee at the 29th Art Directors Guild Awards in February of 2025. Weyl’s set designs at Warner Brothers included: “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1948), “Casablanca” (1942) and “Saratoga Trunk” (1945). He also worked on several Bette Davis films-The Sisters, The Letter, and The Great Lie.

Unfortunately, the talk of the “Five Finger Plan”-the widening of some of the streets during the 1920s was approved and Cahuenga Boulevard was widened in the early 1930s. As a result, 2249 Cahuenga Avenue had to be moved or be demolished. Below, is the exact area where 2249 Cahuenga Avenue was located. 2241 Cahuenga Blvd. and the apartments at 6860-62 Iris Circle are seen just after where 2249 used to be located.

Artist Alice Barney the purchased the 2249 Cahuenga bungalow and moved the house to 3138 Oakshire Drive in the Hollywood Hills just south of Universal City. In 1927, at age 70, Barney moved to Hollywood, California, to be near her oldest sister. There she continued her painting, opened a small theater called the Theatre Mart, and wrote plays, including a rewrite of her daughter Natalie’s play “The Lighthouse”, which won the Drama League of America contest in 1927. She was living at 1635 Ogden Drive and had to move because her chauffeur committed suicide; Barney found him hanging on a rafter in the garage and needed a change of scenery.

Barney moved the house in 1930 and made improvements to the house by adding a den and another bedroom and bathroom, attaching a garage and adding a “driver’s room” in back of the garage. Less than a year later, in 1931, at the age of 74, Alice Pike Barney died of a heart attack.

2251 Cahuenga Blvd., the house in the middle, is currently for sale for $999,000. Since the house was last sold in 2024 for $1.185 million, the owners have tried to sell the house three times in 2025. Since the house has no garage and street parking (the top house was awarded the entire garage) and the sole access to the house is a stairway, this is not the best selling point. Asst. Director Eric Locke (The Merry Widow, Ninotchka) lived here in 1930. Director Lynn Shores (Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum) lived here in 1937-38.

The house at the top of the hill, 2251 Cahuenga Blvd., was changed to 6850 Iris Circle in 1940 and it got sole custody of the garage; it last sold in 2003 for $575,000.