Who are the four people inside the $500,000 marble crypt?

Hollywood’s first art director is the architect behind a local masterpiece: Las Orquideas villas on Orchid Avenue, just east of the Magic Castle. Las Orquideas nestled in the Hollywood Hills, 1929 (USC) Wilfred Buckland — who worked extensively with Cecil B. DeMille and Jesse Lasky — built the Spanish Colonial Revival complex, a recreation of his favorite hillside village in Andalusia, in 1928. The nine units feature double-volume living rooms, balcony dining rooms, arched en

Over the past century, 6720 Sunset Boulevard has seen murder, prostitution, rockstars … but it all began with a wife-swapping scandal! Denver transplants Edmund and Blanche Scholtz bought the home in 1921 and added a bungalow court of several duplexes to the property between McCadden and Las Palmas. Their 17-year-old daughter Jane enjoyed the Hollywood socialite scene. 6720 Sunset Boulevard in 1918 (USC) The next year, she married dancer-actor Walter Emerson, grand-nephew of

Next-door neighbors are inescapable, especially when you’re both retired. The homes of Eugene O’Brien and Robert Vignola were in such close proximity, the former film star could literally drop in — jumping from his balcony onto the director’s patio. Whitley Terrace in the early 1920s: The home of Robert Vignola is on the far right, with Eugene O'Brien to its left. In 1929, writer Basil Woon visited Vignola on Whitley Terrace for the article “You Can’t Get Away With It in Holl

Doctor to the stars Hans Schiff built a shining example of International Style in Whitley Heights — by architect and interior designer Paul Laszlo. 6624 Whitley Terrace was photographed by Julius Shulman for the February 1940 edition of The Architectural Forum (J. Paul Getty Trust) In 1939, a decade after the neighborhood’s Mediterranean restriction ended, German-born Schiff hired the Hungarian émigré to design his family’s modern home at 6624 Whitley Terrace, characterized b

Carrie Jacobs-Bond’s home, The End of the Road, was the beginning of a new chapter. In 1916, the 54-year-old songwriter settled in Hollywood, buoyed by the success of her hits “I Love You Truly” and “A Perfect Day.” At the end of Pinehurst Road, in the valley below Yamashiro, Jacobs-Bond built a three-level craftsman. Its name symbolized the realization of her dreams: She had amassed an estimated $1 million fortune in royalties ($30 million today, with inflation).

On Hollywood Boulevard, there is one last vestige of residential architecture: the home of pioneering sisters Mabel, Carrie, and Grace Janes. Now, No Vacancy cocktail bar. The Misses Janes School (Hollywood Historic Photos) In 1905, the trio moved with their parents Herman and Mary Janes from Illinois into this majestic Queen Anne on Prospect Avenue, as it was then known — built in 1903 by none other than H. J. Whitley, the Father of Hollywood. Its architects, Dennis & Farwel

Before Adriana Caselotti voiced Snow White, she had her own fairytale cottage on Cahuenga Boulevard. Adriana Caselotti In 1935, her father, singing teacher Maestro Guido Caselotti, was operating a studio out of a “handsome English type home” — pitched roof, Juliet balconies, and battlement—when he received a call from a Disney casting agent asking if he recommended any of his students who could play a princess.

Although Jean Harlow didn’t live in Whitley Heights (despite rampant rumors to the contrary), her acting/voice coach Samuel Kayzer did, at 6617 Whitley Terrace — and the majestic home is still there . Jean Harlow in front of 6617 Whitley Terrace Here is an incredible video of Jean leaving Kayzer’s home after a lesson and taking off in her Cadillac, in candid footage shot by "Father of the Travelogue" Burton Holmes, who lived around the corner on Grace Avenue, in 1931.

Such a dramatic house may not be the most inconspicuous hiding spot for your mistress — but then again William Randolph Hearst was not a subtle man. 6697 Whitley Terrace, with Robert Vignola at left In 1923, the media tycoon built this Mediterranean villa on Whitley Terrace to stash actress Marion Davies, who he allowed to live here with her favorite director, Robert G. Vignola. The trio had collaborated several times on films for Hearst’s Cosmopolitan Productions, including

When The Fontenoy on Whitley Avenue was built in 1928, it was advertised as “the first of its kind on the Pacific Coast” — and it remains one-of-a-kind. (University of Southern California) The 13-story high-rise has a most unique layout: Four “little homes” per floor (a one-bedroom and three singles), so everyone gets their own corner view: the beautiful green hills “dotted profusely with costly mansions” (north); the city and its “countless lights at night” (south); blue wat

On the corner of Franklin and Cherokee sits “10 stories of luxury and comfort”: the Montecito. Ahead of the residential hotel’s 1931 grand opening, reservations were accepted to rent the 79 furnished units, a mix of singles ($90) and doubles ($175). Amenities included subterranean garage, 24-hour service, Hollywood views — and eventually a commissary, despite one opposing councilman’s argument that residents were too “lazy” to go to the market.

The “happiest bride in Hollywood,” Carole Lombard made her honeymoon home with William Powell in Whitley Heights. Following their June 1931 wedding, the Paramount stars moved into a romantic four-bedroom Spanish Villa on Iris Circle with panoramic views, vaulted ceilings, tiled courtyards, and a two-car garage tunneling beneath the living room.

One of Hollywood’s oldest landmarks, Yamashiro is a work of art. Yamashiro (USC) In 1911, German-born brothers Adolph and Eugene Bernheimer purchased seven hilltop acres from H.J. Whitley on the promise of building an exotic home. Three years (and hundreds of craftsmen from Japan) later, they completed their very own replica of a 17th-century temple located in Yamashiro, a mountainous region near Kyoto.