‘Sanctuary From City’ Without Commute : Crestwood Hills: Hillside community just minutes from Westwood offers country atmosphere, sense of privacy.
In the fall of 1988, while searching for a new home, James Ehrenclou and his wife, Martine, happened upon the small hillside community of Crestwood Hills nestled at the top of Brentwood’s Kenter Canyon. Drawn by its landscape and sheltering environment, the Ehrenclous knew their search was over.
“Crestwood Hills has a wonderful feeling of country and of being away from it all and yet here we are, 10 minutes from Westwood,” said Ehrenclou, whose architectural firm, Ehrenclou Associates, is a short drive away in West Los Angeles.
“I’m from New England and, for me, it’s like living in the Adirondacks. My wife is from California and she says it’s like living in Big Sur.”
Either way, you get the idea.
A community of about 400 homes, Crestwood Hills is roughly bounded by Hanley Road to the South, Kenter Avenue to the west, and Tigertail Road to the east and north. The majority of its original modestly sized dwellings lie sheltered and partially hidden along its winding streets by lush hedges and towering evergreens.
According to Ray Siegel, one of the community’s original founders and considered by residents to be its local historian, Crestwood Hills began as nothing less than the Utopian dream of four musicians, who got together one night at the end of World War II and decided it might be fun to pool their limited resources, buy some land, build their homes and raise their families side by side.
Siegel, a studio musician, who moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1946 with his wife, Joan, recalled, “We went away that evening and mentioned our plan to a few friends. Before we knew it, there were 25 . . . then there were 100 people, including other musicians, artists and members of the faculty at UCLA, who said, ‘Sounds like a good idea, count us in.’ ”
As the numbers grew, the original group decided to form the Mutual Housing Assn. “We’d been told by the City Planning Commission that if we had 400 members we’d be considered a community and would be entitled to a school and other amenities. So our goal became 400 members,” Siegel said.
“We opened an office at Melrose and Robertson, where we took turns interviewing people who wanted to join. One of the first questions we asked was whether they had any objection to an integrated neighborhood. If they squirmed the least bit, we turned them down.
“In a relatively short time, we had almost 500 members,” he said.
The organization then settled on 800 acres up in the hills of Brentwood, at a cost of $500 per acre.
“In 1947, our organization had a terrible crisis,” Siegel said. “We learned that the sale was threatened unless our members included restrictive covenants in their deeds. Although we argued to our members that the covenants were unconstitutional and would soon be struck down, we lost many members who dropped out on the principle of the thing.”
In time, the architectural-engineering team of Jones, Smith & Contini were hired to design a number of housing plans that could be easily built. They ranged in size from 1,100 to 3,000 square feet, at a cost of between $10,000 and $30,000.
According to Siegel, “The architectural style was meant to be ‘functional modern.’ No wasted space and constructed of redwood, plywood, concrete and glass. We didn’t want the conventional stucco boxes that were being built.”
James Ehrenclou explained that although his home is not one of the original Crestwood Hills structures, it was built in keeping with the community’s original design concept, “simple and functional.”
With gently pitched roof-lines and subtle placement of the dwellings at varied angles to the street, “the homes are meant to blend with the natural landscape.”
Siegel recalled that a contest was held among the earliest members to name their new community. The winner was given first lot choice. “There’s no particular story behind it,” said Siegel. “We simply liked the name of Crestwood Hills.”
By 1954 nearly 200 homes had been built in the hillside community and Siegel was elected president of the newly formed Crestwood Hills Assn.
At the outset, this community of like-minded residents set aside a choice section of their land in the center of their community to create a park. Together, they built a co-op nursery school for their children and a clubhouse, where picnics, concerts and community meetings are still held today.
One of the first steps taken by the association was to appoint an architectural review committee to administer a set of regulations designed to control the types of homes being built.
Today, James Ehrenclou is one of two architectural advisers on that Committee, which is currently headed by Don Axon, past president of the Southern California chapter of the AIA.
“One in every three houses submitted to the architectural committee is a situation where someone is trying to overbuild or change the character of the neighborhood,” said Ehrenclou.
Betsy Laties, who moved to Crestwood Hills in 1959 with her husband George, has served on the Architectural Committee and is quick to point out that although the architectural regulations have been tested through the years, the courts have consistently upheld the covenants and required people to remove houses, lower roof lines, remove a swimming pool (built when the owner attempted to subdivide a lot) and make other less drastic modifications.
“Admittedly,” said Ehrenclou, “we have to deal with the fact that peoples’ needs and desires change as technology and styles change, but we also have to try to preserve the original intent of the community as best we can.”
In 1975 Crestwood Hills residents voted to renew the regulations and to maintain the authority of the architectural review committee to the year 2026.
After living in Santa Monica for three years, Fariba and Hersel Molayem, who both work in their family owned beauty supply business, moved to Crestwood Hills with their young children, Michael and Mona.
The Molayems purchased their 2,000-square-foot, 4-bedroom home in 1991 for $617,000.
“The school was our first priority,” said Fariba Molayem. “Although Kenter Canyon School is a public school and funds are tight, it is a little community school. Michael went there for kindergarten and now he is in the first grade.”
Barbara Levin, a teacher with the L.A. Unified School District, and her husband Gerald, a practicing dermatologist, bought a lot in 1947, built their home and raised four children in Crestwood Hills.
“We were looking for something rustic. When we found this land--with this view, my father came up and said, ‘If you don’t buy this piece of land, I will, because it’s the closest I’m ever going to be to heaven.’ ”
“Our home was built into the lot. I’m sure we could have had a larger house if we’d cut down more, but the land wasn’t created for the house, the house was created for the land.”
“We just love it up here,” said Levin.
Adeline Green, with the Prudential California Realty in Brentwood, lived in Crestwood Hills from 1955 through 1969. “The area has always had great appeal because of the incredible views of the ocean and the city.”
“The average home in Crestwood Hills is valued today between the mid-$500,000s and $900,000. There are some exceptions that exceed $1 million.”
In 1959, Betsy Laties and her husband George were both on staff at Caltech and had been living in Sierra Madre, when they transferred to UCLA. To avoid the long commute, they looked for a home near UCLA and found that Crestwood Hills duplicated the neighborly country life they’d enjoyed in Sierra Madre.
Then, in 1961 the Brentwood/Bel-Air fire claimed 49 homes in the Crestwood Hills area. The Laties’ home was totally destroyed, but they rebuilt and have remained in their beloved community ever since.
“Every morning I have deer in my yard and every night the coyotes serenade me,” said Laties.
Martin Liebhold moved to Crestwood Hills more that 30 years ago with his late wife, Frances, and their three children. “We were drawn to this house because of the country-like setting,” said Liebhold. “Being so close to town and so much in the country is such a wonderful combination.
“Today Crestwood Hills is greener and lusher than ever before. Even though it has been built up, we still have a great deal of privacy,” Liebhold said.
“The curious thing about Crestwood Hills,” says Ehrenclou, “is that we have this great sense of community and yet, for the most part, it’s a community of isolationists, or at least it seems that way. We’re all bonded together and support the strength and perpetuation of the community. However, it’s not because we want to socialize. It’s because we value our environment.”
At a Glance
Population 1992 estimate: 161 1980-90 change: N/A
Median age: 48.1 years
Annual income Per capita: 92,990 Median household: 142,500
Household distribution Less than $30,000: 10.0% $30,000 - $60,000: 2.0% $60,000 - $100,000: 10.2% $100,000 - $150,000: 18.4% $150,000: + 51.1%
