The Enchanted Hill, a Hollywood dream made real by Wallace Neff, Fred Thomson, and Frances Marion

In a short while our hill resembled a gigantic wedding cake. pine trees studded every tier, while on top rose a huge house with a drawing room two stories and a half high, rare tapestries on the walls, an Aeolian pipe organ, and windows overlooking five acres of lawn. Beautifully laid out on the terrace were a tiled barbeque, an aviary, and a hundred-foot swimming pool. Fred and his horses and I had gone Hollywood!

Frances Marion

via Lost Hollywood – The Enchanted Hill of Fred Thomson and Frances Marion | Paradise Leased.

Not surprisingly, Mister Allen’s decision to bull doze all that was beloved up on The Enchanted Hill worked the nerves and the fired up the wrath of architectural buffs and historians. Yes puppies, it was and is his property to do with as he pleases. None the less, in Your Mama’s humble and utterly meaningless opinion it was a crying damn shame for Mister Allen to tear down the rambling, multi-winged mansion that defined a particular sort of California architectural dream.

via The Real Estalker: Let’s Talk About Paul Allen…Again, Shall We?.

My two cents, darlings? And please be aware that there are times I can go absolutely Sicilian when riled… But the barbarity, the lack of appreciation for history, architecture, landscape, and community evidenced by Paul Allen in his razing of the Enchanted Hill is beyond comprehension, so, I decided to think about his actions, perhaps as he would…and this is what I came up with:

Every time Paul Allen buys another yacht, another island, another fighter jet… or the biggest parcel of land left in Bev Hills—with an architectural, cultural, treasure on it, which he completely destroys in order to etch his mark—perhaps he feels just one step closer to immortality.

I have news for you Mr. Allen, we’re all going to go.

What do you want your legacy to be? When your obituary is written (and it already is, ducky, sitting in files all over the world waiting to be finished) wouldn’t it be nice to have a final note? “Paul Allen tore down the historic Enchanted Hill to build yet another grand compound which he abandoned. On deep consideration he decided to right what he had done wrong and he restored to Beverly Hills a dream, an icon, for all to see shining on the hill.”

Let the extant blueprints and photographs be a guide to your philanthropic conscience, sir. And bring Angelo Drive and the legacy of Hollywood back to life.

Architectural treasures lost, Los Angeles… | BEGUILING HOLLYWOOD.