Child’s Fancy Has Father Fighting for Mansion
Most parents buy their 10-year-old girls doll houses or their first formal dress. Rod Daniels wants to buy his daughter a historical mansion.
Daniels, 42, of Granada Hills has been trying for months to purchase and renovate the McKinley Mansion, a Los Angeles landmark.
The house, built in the style of the Italian Renaissance, is the subject of a bitter fight involving its owner--who wants to tear it down--cultural preservationists, and Los Angeles city officials.
Daniels wants to move the mansion, now on Lafayette Park Place in the Westlake area of Los Angeles, to Granada Hills. The 13,000-square-foot mansion would sit on 2 1/2 acres down the street from Daniels’ present residence.
“I remember going out not long ago to see the McKinley house with my daughter, Shevie, when we heard it was going to be torn down,” Daniels recalled Friday. “Shevie said, ‘Daddy, that’s the mansion you’ve been promising me.’ ”
Clan to the Aid
Although Daniels said he doesn’t have the $4.5 million in the bank that would be needed to buy the mansion, he indicated that family and friends have said they would help.
Meet the Daniels family, a large clan that has been buying property and restoring houses for several years. Most have been single-family homes built after 1948, but none has the prestige and magnitude of the McKinley Mansion, which is on Los Angeles’ official list of historic cultural monuments.
Describing the excitement in pursuing it, Daniels said: “The family already have all their rooms picked out.”
He said he promised his daughter a house where she could live when she got older. A previous house that Daniels lived in was turned over to his 22-year-old son. His present home will eventually be turned over to his 16-year-old son “when he gets 18 years old or becomes more responsible.”
“We want nice places for the kids to live,” Daniels said. “So I’m going through all this trouble for Shevie. She didn’t want to see the house torn down.”
The Daniels family takes its development dreams seriously. One of Daniels’ dreams, for example, would be to move the 500-room, newly closed Ambassador Hotel from Wilshire Boulevard to Agoura.
“If we can put a man on the moon, we can move that hotel,” Daniels said. “Of course, it would take millions of dollars. But I would like to give a damn hard try.”
Overtures Rejected
The owner of the McKinley Mansion, Jason Lee, has rejected Daniels’ overtures. Lee has been going through a lot of trouble to demolish the mansion, while the Los Angeles Conservancy, a private organization dedicated to saving and revitalizing historical monuments, is going through a lot of trouble to save it.
Lee wants to build a 140-unit apartment complex on the site.
Last weekend, he hired contractors to demolish the house after obtaining a permit that Los Angeles city officials later determined had been issued by mistake.
Neighbors complained about the demolition, and police and a building inspector intervened. But before officials could revoke the permit, the front patio superstructure and adjacent arbor had been smashed, and a number of gashes had been made in the main part of the house.
City officials Thursday gave hope to Daniels and the preservationists when they granted a temporary reprieve on the mansion’s destruction. They ordered Lee to cease demolition, to weatherproof the building and to repair the damage within 30 days.
Daniels said that in the meantime, he would try to talk to Lee and buy the house. He took it upon himself to place plastic sheets on the roof to protect the exterior from rain damage.
Lee could not be reached for comment.
‘A Big Project’
“This would be a big project, moving that house out here,” Daniels said. “But the heck with worrying about how tough it would be. The Valley just doesn’t have that many historical monuments, and this would be a perfect home for this area.”
Conservancy officials said they would be happy to see the mansion pass into Daniels’ hands. “We consider Mr. Daniels to be a very serious and concerned person who has excellent intentions for the house,” said Jay Rounds, executive director of the conservancy.
However, if Daniels were to get possession of the house, Rounds said, he would prefer that Daniels leave it where it is. “We would like to see it stand as a reminder of earlier periods and history of the area. Once that context is lost, a significant historical status is lost.
“But if it’s necessary for the home to be moved in order to preserve it, then we would be happy for the Daniels to be the ones to move it,” Rounds said.
It would take about $2.5 million to buy the desired site and move the McKinley house from Los Angeles to Granada Hills, Daniels said. The house would have to be moved in sections, and it would take about a year before it could be reassembled and ready for habitation, he said.
Keeping the house where it is would cost much more, Daniels said. “In its present state, it would take about $6.5 million to buy and fix up,” he said. “At that cost, and with the value of the property, we would probably wind up selling to someone else who would just tear it down anyway. Plus, it doesn’t fit in that area anymore.”
Last Remnant
The mansion, which was built in 1917 by Maytor H. McKinley, a mortuary operator, is surrounded by apartment buildings. It is the last of a handful of large family homes that dominated Lafayette Park Place.
If the house is moved, an association of interior designers has already expressed interest in making it a model home, which would save the Daniels family significant renovation costs. The society would pay for the interior design in exchange for rights to show the house and the publicity that would follow.
Marsha Broderick, a member of the society, said that means the house would probably be open for a month to the public after renovation before Shevie and the family moved in.
“It’s a special project,” Daniels said. “I hope we can preserve this history.”
If not, they’ve still got the Ambassador to look forward to.
