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Greystone Mansion

Architect
Gordon Kaufmann
Style
Tudor Revival
City
Los Angeles, CA
Greystone Mansion
Photo: Los Angeles, CC BY-SA 3.0
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Oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny gave this 55-room, 46,000-square-foot Tudor Revival mansion to his son Edward "Ned" Doheny Jr., completed in 1928 at a cost of over $3.1 million — about $58 million today — making it the most expensive home in California at the time. Architect Gordon Kaufmann designed the estate on 16 acres with formal English gardens. Ned, his wife Lucy, and their five children moved in that October; four months later, on February 16, 1929, Ned died in a guest bedroom in a murder-suicide with his secretary.

the building

The main staircase. Greystone's main staircase has become one of the most photographed sets in Hollywood, appearing in film after film shot on the grounds since the City of Beverly Hills opened the estate as a public park.

the style

Kaufmann worked in Tudor Revival, giving the Doheny family estate the half-timbered massing and English-manor formality expected of a great private house of the era, set off by 16 acres of formal gardens.

More on Tudor Revival

the architect

Gordon Kaufmann designed Greystone as one of his major Los Angeles residential commissions.

significance

The City of Beverly Hills purchased Greystone in 1965 and opened it as a public park in 1971; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and remains a frequent film location.

nearby

All 315 buildings in Los Angeles