PRESS RELEASE
HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE

Re:  Wattles Mansion

Press Contact:   
Info@hollywoodheritage.org
(323) 874-4005

After 22 years of volunteer work saving the highly significant Wattles Mansion and Gardens, Hollywood Heritage was handed a 30 day “Notice to Vacate” by the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks without even the courtesy of a discussion or a phone call. 

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Events will go forward:  The group raises funds for restoration with bookings for corporate events and weddings.  These events will go forward as planned.

$2.5 million restoration:  Through volunteer effort with no City funds, Hollywood Heritage has invested $2.5 million to restore and transform a landmark the City had allowed go to ruin.  Hollywood Heritage has been honored by the California Preservation Foundation, the State Historical Resources Commission, the State Office of Historic Preservation, the City of Los Angeles, and twice by the Getty Preserve LA program grants. 

Huge volunteer effort:  The preservation group, with nearly 1,000 members,  has drawn on uncountable volunteer hours from our membership, aided by the Southern California Historical Rose Society, the Tinseltown Rose Society, the UCLA School of Landscape Architecture, the Oaks School, the West Hollywood Sheriff's Department, and many others.

Eviction Notice a complete surprise:  The group was never contacted nor told the real source of the City’s action, and learned it with the rest of the City from the Los Angeles Times.  The group did know that the City had finished an “Audit" and presented it to the Parks Commissioners. 

“Audit” did NOT find financial malfeasance:  Hollywood Heritage has been maligned and damaged in the press by an implication that there is some kind of financial malfeasance in the handling of the Wattles Mansion.  There is not.  The Audit found no events where the proceeds did not go directly into the Wattles bank account;  no personal gain to any individual from Wattles income or expenditures;  no conflict of interest; no expenses not related to restoration, repairs, and maintenance. 

Hollywood Heritage expects that a fair review of the false and misleading statements that were made will absolve the organization of any cloud or inference of wrongdoing.

Hollywood Heritage was not given an opportunity to correct the erroneous information in the so-called “Financial/Compliance" Audit.  City officials failed to ask for clarifications on any questionable items, and Auditors failed to return repeated contacts from the organization’s CPA and Treasurer.  Statements such as “the organization failed to carry required insurance” were patently false. 

The “Audit” equally faulted the Parks Department, a fact not reported in the Press.  The Parks Department’s License Agreement with Hollywood Heritage actually expired 13 years ago, and the City invoked a clause for eviction in an agreement 13 years expired.

The City provided Hollywood Heritage a mild and helpful draft of its results, but for some reason handed the Parks Commission a completely different and inflammatory version.

Lowest impact events to protect neighbors:  In 22 years the group has tried various formulas of fundraising which will ensure progress on the restoration and maintenance.  The current plan—involving from zero to 3 rental events per month--has proven to be lower impact regarding times and disruption than other possible uses at the Estate. Hollywood Heritage has responded many many times to the neighbors’ complaints in this single family neighborhood.  Neighbors reports to the Los Angeles Times invented problems that are not Hollywood Heritage's:  the group has never permitted outdoor amplified music;  always required valet parking despite no City requirement for it;  rigidly enforced time restrictions; and virtually eliminated filming.

Continuing improvements to lessen impact on neighbors:  Hollywood Heritage has received no neighbors complaints in the past 2 years, on the cell phone set up specifically for neighbors.  Following the last meeting with the Curson Homeowners Association, Hollywood Heritage followed up on every request,  on top of an already-Draconian event rental agreement:

  • increased on-site parking with a $60,000 paving project;
  • hired event security to close doors and enforce the event agreement;
  • posted a “Neighbors Page” on the website with all event dates listed;
  • set up a cell phone complaint line during events. 
  • cones off street parking 3 hours early to be sure workers involved in set-up do not park on the street
  • severely limited the number of events
  • eliminated Sunday morning load-outs by forcing caterers to load out Saturday night

No better plan:  Some dream of converting the Mansion to a House Museum, with school bus tours for kids and picnics in period costume.  Many dream of restoring the fantastic Japanese Gardens, deep up the canyon.   Perhaps the Parks Department imagines baseball diamonds and soccer fields.  Certainly many dog owners argue and agitate for dogs running off leash and creating a “Runyon Canyon West."  But these dreams have no basis in fact. The Parks Department apparently has no plan or specific expertise to take over the property, and has no funding allocated for it.  Their costs would likely be 3 times that of Hollywood Heritages, so if booking of events is in their plan, there would need to be 3x as many to cover costs.

Will the Parks Department promise no outdoor amplified sound?  Will they limit the operating hours and the number of events?  No filming”  Will they monitor events better than Hollywood Heritage?

Historic importance:  The Wattles Estate is the only remaining intact example of the once plentiful Hollywood estates from the period preceding Hollywood’s association with the film industry, the era when Hollywood was primarily an agricultural community and a wintering home for wealthy Easterners and Midwesterners.  It is a Los Angeles Historical-Cultural Monument.  It has been determined eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Mansion and Gardens are located on the central 3.5 acre portion of the 49 acre Estate, which rises from Hollywood Boulevard at Curson Avenue up into the foothills.  It was a showcase for trends in early twentieth century garden design.  Like the Huntington Gardens, designed also by Hunt and Grey, it held multiple garden environments:  orchards, lawns, formal Spanish and Italian Gardens, an “American” or connecting garden with palm-lined paths, and a Japanese Garden. 


IF YOU SUPPORT HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE'S CONTINUED STEWARDSHIP OF WATTLES MANSION and GARDENS:  Please: