Actor’s Gift Benefited Cathedral
Arnold Schwarzenegger gave up a $2-million house to help pay for some big doors.
The actor in 2001 donated a Santa Monica house valued at $2.12 million to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
After it was donated to the church, the home on the 300 block of 21st Street was sold by the archdiocese on May 15, 2002.
During the interim period, the church did not actually use the property and it was never a residence for Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, though Schwarzenegger formally made the donation to the archdiocese through Mahony.
The entire proceeds from the sale were used to fund the actor-turned-politician’s donation to help build the new downtown Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, according to Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the archdiocese.
Schwarzenegger’s donation paid for a major portion of the cathedral’s great bronze doors, designed by artist Robert Graham, Tamberg said.
Rising three stories, including a crowning tympanum, the doors are 2 1/2 feet thick at the hinges and are so massive that they must be opened with a motorized hydraulic system.
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