Dream House or Nightmare? : Couple Want to Save Mansion, Developers Want It Out of Their Way
As a landmark mansion sits crumbling behind a tall chain-link fence, the battle over its fate drags on in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The latest chapter in a two-year dispute took place Tuesday, when a group of Korean and Israeli developers, who want to build apartments where the McKinley Mansion stands at 310 S. Lafayette Park Place, faced off one more time against Rod Daniels of Granada Hills.
Daniels and his wife, Sherry, dream of saving the mansion and moving it to the San Fernando Valley, but say the effort has made them “broke.”
Meanwhile, the 13,000-square-foot Italian Renaissance-style mansion sits just north of Lafayette Park, a remnant of another era. Its windows are boarded up, tiles are stripped off the roof and graffiti mar its stone balustrades. Dead trees and tall weeds surround the driveway.
The ornate, 20-room structure with a gazebo, terraces and pavilions was built in 1914 by an Ohio millionaire as a winter home. It is named for Mator McKinley, a wealthy mortuary owner who bought it in 1945, and was designated a cultural-historic monument by the city in 1987.
The latest twist in the mansion’s saga began in 1988, when Daniels agreed, for $1, to take the house off the property that John and Kyung Kwon, Sandra Park, Myong Bok Lee, along with Menashe Kozar and Ami Mor wanted to redevelop. The block was once lined with such mansions, but now the McKinley is one of two left. The others have been replaced by apartments and condominiums.
The house is important to preservationists, said Barbara Hoff of the Los Angeles Conservancy, because “it’s the last of the great mansions. It’s a survivor.”
The developers attempted to tear down the structure without a demolition permit on New Year’s Eve, 1988, but were stopped by city officials. The group last year pleaded no contest to criminal charges filed by the city attorney and agreed to pay a fine of $12,680.
But they have fought Daniels, who then sued for damages and breach of contract because the developers tried to tear down the mansion after he agreed to move it. The developers then asked the court to rescind the agreement because Daniels has not moved the house and cannot afford to.
The Daniels, who are real estate investors, admit that they are broke, but say the house is their dream. “We want this more than anything,” Sherry Daniels said as she watched her husband prepare to give testimony in Judge G. Keith Wisot’s courtroom. She is passionate about the mansion. “Outside it looks real formal, cold,” she said. “But inside, it’s warm. It’s all wood, all imported from Europe.”
She added: “We just celebrated our 25th anniversary, and we’re broke now like we were then.”
Attorney Lawrence Silver, representing some partners in the development group, asked Rod Daniels, 46, to detail his debts. “I have no assets,” Daniels said.
“You don’t have the money or the capacity to move the mansion, do you?” Silver asked.
“I have the capacity,” Daniels said, “I just don’t have the money.” Later, he said that it would take about $2 million to move and restore the house.
Wisot ordered the parties back into court today for final arguments and his ruling. But the case will not end there. There could be appeals, and once the civil trial is over, Deputy City Atty. Craig M. Takenaka said he will still hold the developers accountable for damage to the landmark, whether or not they want it demolished.
“It’s a real nightmare. It’ll never end,” Joseph S. Fishbach, an attorney who once represented the developers but no longer is involved, said. “And this poor house just sits there.”
