Today’s Los Angeles Times has a followup article on the sale of the Oakey Estate. I wrote about this back in January. The Oakey Estate is one of the last vestiges of “Old Hollywood” left in the Valley. Located near Devonshire and Reseda, behind the Chevrolet Dealership, the 11-acre estate was originally the home of Barbara Stanwyck, who later sold it to comedian Jack Oakey and his wife Virginia. This was the era of the big estates in the valley; just down Devonshire to the west, at Oso and Devonshire, was the estate of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
Anyway, Virginia Oakey died in 1994, donating the land to USC. Just recently, they sold it to a developer (but of course), who was going to develop the land but preserve the manor house. Los Angeles negotiated a complex deal last year involving Greystone/Lennar Homes with plans to acquire Oakridge from USC in which the city would drop its landmark status for the open land behind the Oakie house, allowing Greystone/Lennar Homes to build 28 homes on the south and west sides of the property–and Greystone/Lennar would sell the Oakie home to the city for $1 million.
But that developer’s plans fell through, and now Westlake Village-based Trimark Pacific Homes is acquiring the land. Trimark claims to be unaware of the previous agreement to sell the Oakie residence to the city, and they now plans to have a professional appraisal done before announcing the structure’s selling price. This will likely cost the city more $$$. USC does support the city’s effort to preserve the home.
Why am I so interested in this? Well, it’s near my backyard. It’s actually closer to ixixlix‘s backyard, being about 1 block away as the crow flies. Adding this subdivision will add to the surface traffic in the area, which is already poor (and likely to become worse as a nearby DeadMarket is transformed into a Kohls). Also, being a history nut, I am sad whenever we lose a piece of valley history. It would be lovely if the city had acquired the whole spread, and people could get a little chance to see what the valley was like in the 1940s and 1950s, before the subdivisions hit. We lack a truly great park in the valley (O’Melveny doesn’t count).
