Ground Report

It’s been a year since I’ve been living in Los Angeles when I found myself a place for privacy, walking and book reading – Greystone Mansion Park. It is located in the very heart of Beverly Hills at the 905 Loma Vista Drive, BH, CA 90120. The entry in the park is absolutely free and, the most important, they have a huge parking lot.

Apparently, there are only few people who know about this place, I come here quite often and, until now, not even once I saw groups of tourists. I recommend it to all, as a compulsory program.

The park is opened for visitors, daily, from 10 am to 5 pm. During summer time it is recommended to call prior visiting (310.285.6830) and see if there aren’t any closed events. The thing is that they often have here weddings and movie shootings.

From park’s territory the view opens to the neighbor mansions:

As well as to the city, far away:

At the beginning, the land was the property of the oil tycoon Edward Doheny. In 1926 he gave the land to his son, Ned Doheny, as a wedding present. For a few years, Ned and his wife didn’t have any use for this land, but, after all, they decided to build a sumptuous mansion, and they assigned the construction to the architect Gordon Kaufman. In September 1928, Ned and Lucy Doheny moved into the residence with their five children.

Few months after moving in, the young wife found her husband dead together with his secretary, who had been the husband’s best friend for many years. Even now it is not clear if this was a murder or a double suicide. There are a few legends about this double death. Some think that they were more than friends and the wife killed both of them out of jealousy, some others think that they fought because the secretary asked for a raise. It is known that, instead of calling police, Lucy Doheny called the family doctor first and the authorities came at the place of the incident only after three hours.

According to the official version, it was stated that Ned Doheny committed suicide and, because of this, he wasn’t buried in the same cemetery with the old family, as this is a huge sin for Catholics.

Lucy Doheny continued living at the mansion for many years ahead and, only in 1955, she and her second husband took the decision of selling the property.

In 1965, the city of Beverly Hills acquired the mansion and its surroundings. In 1971 Greystone Park was opened to the public and in 1976 it was officially recognized as a national historic landmark.

Beside from closed events, in the park also take place concerts of classical music, various festivals, movie screenings and theatrical productions, events that everyone can attend (yet, to some of them you have to buy a ticket).

For more information I recommend visiting their website:

http://www.greystonemansion.org/

Written by Katia Rekho

Photos by Julia Kunitsa

PS: Don’t forget to tell your friend about this wonderful place!