In keeping with the Spooky Season, I have two vintage photos of a famous Los Angeles home known to many as the "Witch's House" (aka the Spadena House). Here's a picture of it from January of 1955! It looks like it's straight out of a fairy tale, or perhaps a silent German Expressionist movie.
The Witch's House, also known as the Spadena House, is an enchanting house in the heart of Beverly Hills that appears to be plucked straight out of a fairytale. The house was built in 1921 for a silent film movie studio, Willat Studios in Culver City, to serve as its offices and dressing rooms. When the studio closed, the Spadena family moved the home to its current location in Beverly Hills, where it has been since 1934.
I scrounged this relatively-contemporary photo from the Internet - in the bright sunshine, the house doesn't look so scary. But at night, you just might get eaten by a witch!
Major-
ReplyDeleteThat house certainly does look as though it was built by a Hollywood studio set designer - and it evidently was. Seems an odd choice for either a set of dressing rooms or offices - although that idea does strike a familiar chord with a certain famous theme park and the Callens & Dominguez homes...
Thanks, Major.
What a cool and creepy house! I'd never heard of it before. The roof shingles are especially... um... troublesome. Like Nanook noted, I'm not sure why they made the house to look like it's falling apart, if it was intended to be used as offices and dressing rooms.
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody live in it now? Or is it open for tours? I'm trying mightily to picture it as a happy abode, like the Seven Dwarfs cottage. But no. It looks creepy no matter how I look at it and squint my eyes.
I like the yard equally as well as the house itself. Especially the rickety railing. Despite the house's appearance, it must cost a lot to maintain it.
A truly interesting Saturday offering, Major. Thanks.
The north facing facades of the Disneyland 1983 NEW FANTASYLAND restrooms are modeled after the “witch’s house” .
ReplyDeleteNibble, nibble, like a mouse....
ReplyDeleteI've always been fascinated by the Witches House, and for an interior tour see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t1CtVdODj8&t=37s The realtor that bought the house after listing it himself: is our people. Restoring and preserving rather than TREing. I drove past this house in the 80's and haven't seen it since, but perhaps it's time for a return visit. For those seeking even more Storybook architecture, LA has more than a few of these fanciful creations in various degrees. The Witches House may be the epitome of fanciful, but also check out The Snow White Cottages, in the backyard of the old Disney Hyperion Studio: https://www.robertloerzel.com/2019/09/29/looking-for-hollywood-history-and-david-lynchs-los-angeles-part-3/ The story is about locations for the David Lynch film Mulholland Dr., and there are a lot of interesting tidbits in the article. My thoughts on the Witches house, even 40 years ago, is that I thought it was odd that Beverly Hills was the final resting place of this house. Home of the Clampetts and other "like" mansions such as Pickfair. I suppose in the early 30's the flats of Beverly Hills were a various combo of storybook, colonial column, tudor, and Spanish colonial revival so a witch house possibly wouldn't have even be noticed (?) Hard to not notice even in crazy LA. The house is very much close to Santa Monica Blvd, and a stones throw from the old "Wilson's House of Suede" where Wilshire and SM converge. It's kind of a major "marker" for LA commuters. Wilsons is no longer there, but there is a shadow of the former building and...a Starbucks. Give thanks to ex-martian Pia Zadora for tearing down Pickfair. The story is "termites and ghosts"....riiighhhhtttt.... sounds like a big bag of LA TRE to me. Thanks Major!
ReplyDeleteWhoa, this is weird. And the story is as weird as the house.
ReplyDeleteI knew there was a lot of “storybook” architecture in LA, including those Bu just mentioned, but this one is new to me.
We updated one in Santa Monica best described as “Spanish-Tudor” or “Spudor”, the kind of place Zorro would build for Anne Boleyn, but nothing like this!
“Ex-Martian”, snort. She was well known for being taste-free.
Thanks Major!
JG
I wonder what that beam near the chimney is. Is it structural, or just decorative? I can't tell if it's still there in the newer photo.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I saw this house in one of my dad's books of Storybook Style houses. My parents' place was a tudor in an area of storybook-like houses, and my dad was a bog fan of the style.
Here are some photos of this house under construction
ReplyDeletethat weird beam is indeed confusing.
a tour of abandoned/obscure/demolished LA movie studios would certainly make an interesting bus tour
Nanook, I agree about the house being built for dressing rooms and offices - it seems more likely that it was a set piece, and then later adapted for those other uses. But… who knows.
ReplyDeleteJB, I really wonder what the owner will do when they need the house to be re-roofed. Those shingles look like they are all cut by hand. Maybe there are “roofers to the stars” that will do such a thing? I do think that the current owner occasionally opens the house for tours, but I don’t know if anybody lives in it full time, otherwise. It has been featured on the “Vintage L.A.” Facebook page a few times, always around this time of year!
Mike Cozart, interesting!
TokyoMagic!, indeed.
Bu, I think the Witch House should be updated with vinyl siding. It’s economical, and practical! I always wondered where those cottages in Mulholland Drive were - sure, I could have done research, but that would have required effort. I hate effort! Beverly Hills in the 1920s or early 1930s was not the Beverly Hills that we think of today. I think anybody who visits BH today might be surprised to see that some of it is not quite as luxe as other parts, but isn’t that any city? I hate it when I read that some rich dimwit has torn down a beautiful L.A. house in order to build a monstrosity. Absolutely no appreciation for history. But they’re rich, so they’re right, I guess. “Termites and ghosts”, hoo-boy.
JG, I remember back in the days when I used to go to Melrose Avenue to check out the fun stores, there were a lot of neighborhoods with cute little storybook bungalows. Or a small house with Art Deco touches, stucco and glass blocks. And I’ve always liked the “Spanish Deco” houses that one still sees in certain areas.
Dean Finder, oh yeah I meant to ask about that beam, it appears to be gone now, and I can’t quite figure out what its purpose was in the past. It doesn’t seem to provide critical support, but it wouldn’t be there for no reason. I’d love to know!
LTL, thanks for the link. I’m sure L.A. has lost scores, if not hundreds, of beautiful and unique homes over the years. Developers hate old homes!
The scariest part of the house is likely the maintenance cost. Thinking of a re-roofing gives me the chills already! KS
ReplyDelete”… I think anybody who visits BH today might be surprised to see that some of it is not quite as luxe as other parts…”
ReplyDeleteI think I’ve mentioned here before that we stopped at a garage sale in Beverly Hills when we were using one of those “star maps” to gawk at celebrities’ homes (or, in several cases former homes). It was a nice house, but not a luxurious manor; that part of town looked like any other upper-middle-class neighborhood built in the mid-‘60s anywhere in California. Same sort of stuff everyone else has at garage sales - the giant, decorative wooden fork and spoon, old wall clocks from the early ‘60s, a 1972 Children’s Encyclopedia Brittanica set (minus the “WXYZ Atlas” volume), etc. I bought an album of early ‘60s movie themes and a Dr. Seuss record for I think $3.
Bu, Thank you for those links! So glad that the realtor bought the place and fixed it up. And as much as I like the exterior, I love the interior! All those rounded, crooked rooms and hallways really appeals to me.
ReplyDeleteLTL, thank you, too for that link. That one old photo of the house (under construction) shows it out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by flat featureless tracts of land. Of course, this was the original location, not the Beverly Hills property.
Major, the roof alone would probably cost many millions to re-do.
@ Chuck-
ReplyDelete"Same sort of stuff everyone else has at garage sales - the giant, decorative wooden fork and spoon..."
I've never even had the urge to procure [and then display] that sort of tackiness. Although it provided great fodder on one episode of Everybody Loves Raymond-! I'm certain many of the 'tasteful' tchotchkes I proudly display in my Penthouse are certain to bring groans and cries of 'tackiness' from at least a few folks-! (But then - what do they know, I ask you-?) I take great offense by anyone who finds tacky the 'full size' dog tag, emblazoned with this message:
PLUTO
If found,
please return to
MICKEY MOUSE
It's on display where others might append their mighty, oversized fork and spoon set.
Is it really a witch's house if it didn't rise up on chicken legs and run to Beverly hills like Baba Yaga's hut?
ReplyDeleteNanook, agreed - “…what do they know…?”
ReplyDelete