C.F. DeWitt owned the mansion until 1936 when he sold the home in the wake of his wife’s suicide the previous November. DeWitt remarried and lived to 76, dying in February of 1946. In recent years, his former home has been renamed "Park Hill" and, although there have been some inevitable changes in kitchen and bathrooms, the home remains remarkably as built.
"YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama has been hearing for months already that Miz Perry(Katy Perry) wants to unload her never-lived in L.A. compound, 'Park Hill', and—so the scuttlebutt went—she unsuccessfully had it shopped around off-market for a few months in the high seven millions before finally hoisting the grand estate on the open market today with an official (and notably lower) asking price of $6,925,000.In June 2011, almost a year after nine time Grammy-nominated international pop music super star Katy Perry wed her now ex-husband—that would be raunchy and unkempt looking British comedian Russell Brand—in a lavish ceremony in India they dropped six and a half million clams on "Park Hill", an historic, double-gated celebrity-style compound of nearly three acres nestled onto a private promontory just above the frequently traffic clogged mouth of Laurel Canyon in West Hollywood (CA).
According to the good people at Paradise Leased and The Movieland Directory, 'Park Hill' was built in the mid-1920's for successful real estate developer C. F. DeWitt who lived in the house until shortly after his wife committed suicide in the house in the mid-1930's. Eventually the house was bought by Dan Laiken, the ex-CEO of National Lampoon who was put in the pokey in 2010 on a securities fraud conviction. It was Mister Laiken’s people who sold the house to Miz Perry and Mister Brand.
Alas, the erstwhile couple broke up in a blaze of tabloid publicity and speculation just a few months after purchasing 'Park Hill'. Mister Brand chivalrously granted complete ownership of 'Park Hill' to Miz Perry who—so we've been told by someone in the position to know—never actually occupied the property. (She moved, instead, to a modest if hardly inexpensive rental in a storied West Hollywood apartment house and he snatched up a contemporary crib at the tippy-top of the Bird Streets neighborhood above the Sunset Strip where all the streets are named after—you got it—birds.)
Current listing details reveal Miz Perry’s unwanted real estate albatross looms over a parking lot-sized motor court, stands three stories high at the back, measures in at a roomy but hardly humongous 8,835 square feet and contains a total of seven bedrooms, seven full and four half bathrooms. There are also two fireplaces—living room and library—and loads of original architectural detailing and vintage fixtures such as the silhouette chandelier that hangs in the stone-walled and marble floored front foyer and stair hall.
The mansion’s public rooms are nothing if not baronial and include a capacious, 45-foot long double-height living room with dark-stained wood floors, a heavy beamed wood ceiling, massive carved stone fireplace that originally warmed an Italian castle and a towering Palladian window that opens to a small terrace with big city view. The room’s quirky pièce de résistance is an old timey minstrel’s gallery from where musician once serenaded residents and party attending guests. The partially panelled dining room isn't exactly the size of a royal banquet hall but is absolutely impressive with its hand-stenciled honeycomb pattern wood ceiling.
Some of the other living and entertaining spaces include a library with fireplace, media lounge, and spacious, center island country kitchen with snack counter, built-in banquette seating, high grade appliances and fixtures and an adjoining breakfast room with a hand-painted groin vaulted ceiling. All in all it looks like the kitchen in a suburban macmansion but anyone who pay seven million for this place can surely afford to replace the existing kitchen with something more stylish and/or suitable for a house of this magnitude.
The bulk of the property’s landscaped grounds are at the front of the house where’s there’s a giant circular drive but there are balconies and terraces all around, some with city views, and tucked back into the steep, planted hillside there’s a lagoon-style swimming pool with waterfall.
In addition to the main manse, the impressively scaled compound includes a two story detached structure with a three car garage upstairs and a caretakers apartment plus art/music studio below. A second detached guest house sits high on the hillside above the swimming on a legally separate lot and includes a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom according to listing details."
Last sold: Dec 2013 for $5,565,000.
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| ENTRANCE GATE, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD
CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT
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| ENTRANCE GATE, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT
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| Acres of meandering paths led among deep green tree shrubs. Settings were available for contemplative thought, reading or tending the gardens. |
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| The grounds of "Park Hill" estate were once known for harboring the largest reserve of flowering camellia shrubs in the US. The estate’s camellia garden is world-class and is a living legacy of a later owner, Ralph S. Peer, who was president of the American Camellia Society. In 1959, one of the world’s largest camellia bushes, an enormous 30-foot high specimen, was transplanted into the garden from its original site in Pico Rivera where it had been planted in 1887. |
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| ENTRANCE, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| "PARK HILL", C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| ENTRANCE HALL,C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| One of the most impressive features of the DeWitt mansion is its dramatic oval entry hall sheathed from floor to ceiling in cut stone and featuring a marble floor imported from Florence, Italy. A sweeping staircase leads up to a musician’s balcony overlooking the enormous living room. Anchoring the room is an elegant 19th Century fireplace, which once warmed an Italian castle and a beautiful fountain composed of mosaic tiles commissioned specifically for the house and handmade in Italy. |
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| ENTRANCE HALL, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| ENTRANCE HALL, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| LIVING ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| The hand-carved patterns in the diamond-shaped panel have been touched with burnished gold. |
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| LIVING ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| LIVING ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| "HONOS - ALIT - ARTES" Designed by Frederick Wilson |
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| LIVING ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| CORNER IN LIVING ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| SOUTHEAST END OF LIVING ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| VIEW - "the frequently traffic clogged mouth of Laurel Canyon in West Hollywood." |
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| MINSTREL GALLERY, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| VIEW OF STAINED GLASS WINDOW FROM MINSTREL GALLERY, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| LIBRARY, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| DOOR IN LIBRARY, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| DINING ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| An exquisitely turned mahogany door such as this provides its own note of decoration. The delicately wrought panels will catch the eye of the beauty lover and hold it with their delicate finish. |
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| BREAKFAST ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| Showing Gray and Black Everlastic Tile Floor installed in Kitchen, Pantry and Service Quarters of the C. F. DeWitt Home. Corner of the Kitchen shown here. |
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| BEDROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
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| BEDROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT |
THE INDIVIDUALITY AND BEAUTY, CHARACTERISTIC OF THE EARLY GLASS WORKER, ARE REPRODUCED IN THE GLASS MOSAIC AND STAINED GLASS WINDOWS MADE IN OUR STUDIOS FOR THE C. F. DeWITT RESIDENCE, HOLLYWOOD
The doors above offer examples of beautiful workmanship in sufficient variety to sustain interest.
Achievements in Door Designs - Charm, variety, skill, the soundest of materials—these qualities reflect the good taste of the home builder and the aim of The California Door Company. For exterior and interior use, doors such as these offer the very acme of design, workmanship and finish—every panel an interesting picture in its individual frame. Ask your dealer for "California" Doors
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| THE CALIFORNIA DOOR CO. 237-241 CENTRAL AVENUE LOS ANGELES |
Achievements in Door Designs - Charm, variety, skill, the soundest of materials—these qualities reflect the good taste of the home builder and the aim of The California Door Company. For exterior and interior use, doors such as these offer the very acme of design, workmanship and finish—every panel an interesting picture in its individual frame. Ask your dealer for "California" Doors
I read an advertisement for this property that noted "the interior needs a complete remodeling". What a thought; a Spanish exterior and minimalist modern interior. The house has a wonderful feel of "old Hollywood".
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