A Garden of Delights at Wattles Home
The Hollywood Hills estate at 1824 Curson Ave. has a colorful history. It was once a place of exotic beauty, a haven so magnificent that the owners opened the grounds to the public (and even built public restrooms onto their home) because they wanted to share it.
The Wattles Mansion, built in 1907, was Hollywood’s first tourist attraction.
In more recent years, the estate once again became a haven--to drug dealers and vandals, who nearly destroyed the roof and second floor of the mansion and turned the property into a dark and frightening corner of the historic neighborhood.
Recapturing the Glory
But today, the estate is in the midst of recapturing its former glory through the efforts of Hollywood Heritage. Though the city of Los Angeles acquired the Wattles property in 1968 from Gurdon Wattles’ widow, it leased the property to the preservation group in 1983 because the group had extensive plans to restore the house and gardens.
This weekend, the Roaring ‘20s will return to Wattles Mansion for the annual Hollywood Heritage picnic. On Sunday afternoon, the public can roam the tiered gardens, mingle in the formal courtyard and admire the stately mansion, built for the Wattles family by Hunt and Grey (designers of Beverly Hills Hotel, Pasadena Playhouse and Huntington mansion and museum).
During the picnic, the rose garden will be officially opened a second time (the first was in 1911). Surprisingly, when Hollywood Heritage began leasing 6 1/2 acres of the estate, a few rose plants remained, though they “hadn’t been watered in years,” says Don Hunt, renovation committee chairman. “There was a tremendous amount of erosion in many cases (throughout the gardens),” he says. “The dirt level was much higher than the brick (walkways). In some places we didn’t even know the bricks were there.”
Heritage volunteers went to work a year ago with the help of landscaping students from UCLA and a grant from Arco.
“There was a lot of overgrown vegetation,” Heritage president Richard Adkins says. “UCLA came in and dug out the original irrigation system--and there was some speculation whether it would even work. Much to our delight, it did. We are trying to use as much as possible.”
The city dictated that the home and gardens be returned to the way they were circa 1925, so everything from the paint to the plants are from that era.
“Many of those plant varieties are very scarce, very rare,” Hunt says. The group tracked down many of the old varieties in Canada.
Blooming Colors
Birds of paradise, azaleas, day lilies and jasmine that flourished in California gardens of the ‘20s now are thriving again at the estate. The workers were able to adequately re-create those days of vines and roses because of extensive research into California’s floral history and because color photographs dating to the ‘20s show the Wattles’ spectacular vegetation in detail.
In other early photos of the property, the surrounding area was covered by fields of squash, citrus groves and farmhouses. Neighbors and tourists who visited the estate in the early years also offer a wealth of information, says Adkins, adding that the group is always looking for more nostalgic tidbits from people who visited the mansion when it was merely a rose in a squash patch, so to speak.
Originally 49 acres, the country estate was built as a winter home for Nebraskan Gurdon Wattles and his family. There were two major periods of design--Mission Revival originally, and in 1926 revisions were done in Spanish Revival.
The Wattleses planted palms and built a Japanese Garden, complete with teahouse and bridge, and a covered colonnade that led up to it from the tiered gardens. Today, the colonnade (minus roof) still stands, but all that remains of the original Japanese Garden are a few ruins and some bamboo.
A second Japanese Garden was built in 1968 by representatives of Hollywood’s sister city, Nagoya, Japan, near the rose garden in Wattles Park and is maintained by the city.
Looking for Old News
Judie de Turenne, chairwoman of Hollywood Heritage, says the group is “interested in hearing from anyone who toured the estate from 1922 to the 1930s, particularly the rose garden.”
“Gurdon Wattles left an autobiography, and we have a lot of information from the family, but what we’re looking for is information on the public use of the place,” De Turenne says.
A goal of Hollywood Heritage, which also maintains the Lasky-DeMille barn, is to develop an archive of Hollywood memorabilia.
“We have quite an extensive collection already,” Hunt says, “but we want to make it a resource center on Hollywood history.” To help support their projects, the Wattles Mansion is rented out for meetings and filming (the most recent movie filmed here was “Rain Man”) and the gardens are rented out for weddings.
Treats for Visitors
On Sunday, visitors can tour the first floor of the bright and airy mansion. Classic cars and a vintage fashion show will be among the picnic festivities, and Wattles Mansion and F. Scott Fitzgerald memorabilia will be displayed in the house from noon to 5 p.m. For more information call (213) 874-4005 or (818) 244-4453. Admission is $10; seniors 65 and older and children 12 and under $6. Free valet parking.
There’s also a ‘20s celebration Sunday at the Workman and Temple Homestead, 15415 E. Don Julian Road, City of Industry, with jazz, an antique-car display and guided tours of the ranch. Snacks are available or bring a picnic lunch. Hours are 1-6:30 p.m. Call (818) 968-8492. Admission, $4; seniors 65 and older and students, $1; children under 5 are free.
