Historic Mansion to Move--in Bits and Pieces

The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to allow the historic McKinley Mansion to be moved from Lafayette Park to a posh San Fernando Valley neighborhood.

Rod Daniels, the new owner who has been trying for more than a year to move the 13,000-square-foot home to Chatsworth, said he faces just one remaining hurdle: money.

“But it’s not going to stop us at all,” Daniels said. “We’re going to be out begging.”

Daniels, a real estate investor, will pay only about $15,000 for the house, which was nearly demolished less than a year ago. Yet, he said, moving, repairs and renovation will cost at least $2 million, and the lot in Monteria Estates will cost nearly $2 million more. Loans that were in place a year ago have since been lost, partly because of delays caused by the city bureaucracy, Daniels said.

Built in 1917 by Mayor H. McKinley, a mortuary owner, the mansion was declared a historic monument in 1987. It has stood vacant since 1986.

Moved in Pieces

Once financing is arranged, Daniels and his wife, Sherry, who have restored several smaller houses, plan to have the main house moved at night in three pieces. A gazebo, carriage house and the remaining green Italian tile roof will come separately.

Along the way, the house will have to be lifted over two freeway underpasses, Daniels said.

There almost was no mansion to move.

In January, six people--including a couple who owned the mansion at that time--were stopped from demolishing it to make way for an apartment complex. Several months later, they were charged with violations of numerous city codes and for using a demolition permit issued for another address.

Arbor Destroyed

Before a neighbor alerted authorities, a crew had destroyed two porticoes, a grape arbor and some of the roofing tile.

Even before that incident, the vacant house had been seriously damaged by transients and looters.

The mansion’s new location will be at Winnetka Avenue and Devonshire Street amid other large estates. The Daniels plan to have an architectural historian and preservation architect restore the mansion, and they have hired a landscaper to re-create the original grounds.

The home will be open for free public viewing at its original address--310 S. Lafayette Park Place--from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the next three Saturdays, Daniels said.