Spadena House, California: A Piece Of Bavaria in Beverly Hills

Table Of Content

• Inside the Beverly Hills "Witch's House"
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• The Fascinating History Of The Beverly Hills 'Witch House'
• Witch’s House
• The Spadena House is a perfect example of storybook architecture
• Enchanting Photos Of Spadena House, The Storybook Cottage In The Middle Of Beverly Hills
• MLA citation style:
• The Fascinating History Of The Beverly Hills Witch House

Creating a bewitching effect in Los Angeles, storybook architecture offered an exaggerated medieval style with many of the buildings designed with crooked walls and swayback roofs. Originally built in 1921, the Spadena House was created as the offices and dressing rooms for Irvin Willat’s film studio in Culver City, Calif. Located on the corner of Walden Drive and Carmelita Avenue, the storybook house was built in the early 1900s for a Hollywood silent film, then went on to become one of L.A.’s most recognizable private homes. Long after the storybook architecture craze died out in California, Spadena House remained standing as a testament to the era. A second family moved in during the 1960s and renovated much of the interior, but they left the exterior mostly intact. This whimsical cottage in the middle of Beverly Hills started as an office space for a silent film studio in the early 1920s.

Inside the Beverly Hills "Witch's House"

Unfortunately, the home is not open to the public for tours, but don’t let that stop you from a quick (and respectful!) look-see on a walk through the neighborhood. Many tour buses drive by the property, so you can catch a glimpse of the magic that way, too. At the corner of Walden Drive and Carmelita Avenue, the Spadena House, more affectionately known as the Witch House, is unlike anything else in Beverly Hills. The home is within walking distance of Beverly Hills staples such as the Waldorf Astoria, Neiman Marcus, Starbucks, and Los Angeles Country Club, but the exterior appears to be straight off the pages of a storybook. Thanks to the pointy, lopsided roof, tiny windows and stucco with a distressed paint technique, the storybook home has been described as the quintessential Hansel and Gretel house. Since its move to the affluent suburb, the house has been the subject of many urban legends.

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There’s a house in Beverly Hills, California, that might be the perfect place to go when trick-or-treating. The pitched roof is covered in unusually-shaped dark shingles, giving off the illusion of a dilapidated gingerbread house. The designer of the Spadena House went on to play a major role in storybook architecture. With no two windows or angles alike and a whimsical storybook architecture, the Spadena House is undoubtedly one of the most unique homes in all of Los Angeles.

The Fascinating History Of The Beverly Hills 'Witch House'

Libow is also partly responsible for making it Landmark #8 for the City of Beverly Hills in 2013, so it’s here to stay. From the gnarled trees, a half-eaten pumpkin, hand-crafted “No Trespassing” sign, organic lines of the carpentry and the wooden bridge crossing a mystical moat with a ceramic glass base, to the sunken roof, the house is every witch’s dream abode. This whimsical ‘Witch House’ brings storybook imagination to life through flawless attention to detail.

Please use the following steps to determine whether you need to fill out a call slip in the Prints and Photographs Reading Room to view the original item(s). In some cases, a surrogate (substitute image) is available, often in the form of a digital image, a copy print, or microfilm. But Fort Oliver was not Oliver’s first attempt at historically elaborated architectural design. Around 1920, Oliver designed the most iconic storybook structure in Los Angeles, now known as the Spadena House—or the Witch’s House, if you’re spooky.

It should come as no surprise that he was instrumental in the rise of storybook architecture. Having worked as a member of the art department for over 30 films from 1919 to 1938, he brought a unique design perspective that challenged standard conventions of domestic architecture. The storybook design began with Harry Oliver, an art director for a film studio.

Enchanting Photos Of Spadena House, The Storybook Cottage In The Middle Of Beverly Hills

People were struck by its extraordinary and appealing exterior, even after the studios shut down. The Witch House was built in the 1920s and served as a set and office for Willat Studios. The home was used for several silent films such as Hansel and Gretel. To prevent this, Libow ended up purchasing the $1.3M home for himself and has since worked with Hollywood art director Nelson Coates to restore the property. Renovations have included incorporating more Gaudi-esque elements to further the “cottage” feel of the building.

In 1921, Einar C. Petersen, a Swiss-trained Danish artist, designed and built the still-standing Petersen Studio Court on Beverly Boulevard, considered the forerunner of the storybook style. The cottage community was based on Petersen’s hometown, the port of Ebeltoft, Denmark, a fishing village known for its ancient half-timbered houses and cobblestone streets. In what is now Koreatown, Studio Court’s eccentric caretaker would live on-site until his death at the age of 101, constantly adding on to his own little sliver of Denmark in LA. “Hollywood, as always giving the public what they wanted, began cranking out exotic stuff,” Gellner says. Films like The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Robin Hood, set in historic time periods and featuring recreated foreign locations, were smash hits. “The backdrops constructed for these films were works of art in themselves, and many of the same techniques were eventually applied to storybook style buildings,” he says.

Life within a fairy tale - Los Angeles Times

Life within a fairy tale.

Posted: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 08:00:00 GMT [source]

It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact year that the storybook home made its sojourn from Culver City to its current spot in Beverly Hills. However, the earliest records on file show building permits from 1924. This coincided with the addition of a 2-car garage at the rear of the Beverly Hills witch house. Willat Productions closed its doors in just a couple of brief years. The brothers planned to have the studio razed, but producer Ward Lascelle stepped in. He wanted to have it moved to Beverly Hills where it would stand as his personal residence.

Every aspect appears antique including the features created since Libow’s acquisition of the Spadena house. He estimates that around 98% of what you see inside the home is relatively new despite looking like it was salvaged from a medieval cottage in Germany’s Black Forest. As you wander its arched corridors, three bedrooms, four bathrooms, and comprehensive kitchen, you may recognize a distinct lack of right angles if you’re particularly observant. This was an intentional choice for Libow, who incorporated Feng Shui into much of his interior design. Beneath the exaggerated wooden shingles of the swayback roof, you’re now greeted by an interior that matches the home’s festive fairytale exterior. The real estate agent found particular inspiration in the works of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi whose curving contours, kaleidoscopic tiles, and art nouveau aesthetic breathe life into the streets of Barcelona.

Over the decades, the various residents of the Spadena house instituted alterations further distancing the home from its production studio roots. One family, most likely the Greens, added a skylight to bring more natural vibrance into the nearly 4,000-square foot floor plan. From its delightfully distressed appearance and exaggerated features, the Spadena house doesn’t look quite of this time. But it exhibits a type of architecture that was somewhat popular during Hollywood’s golden age. Meanwhile, the house’s history of appearances on the big screen has continued as well. Most notable is the 1995 film Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone.

Today, the Witch’s House is owned by the real estate agent Michael Libow, who has had it lovingly restored. Oliver’s other storybook style masterpiece is also still an LA landmark. This is the famous Tam O’Shanter, originally called Montgomery’s County Inn, which was the brainchild of Lawrence Frank, one of the co-founders of Van de Kamp’s Dutch Bakers (Oliver would also design its iconic windmills). Frank hired Oliver in 1922 to design a building that would garner as much public attention as the Witch’s House, and Oliver delivered. The Beverly Hills storybook abode at the corner of Carmelita Avenue and Walden Drive looks more like a movie set than a house. And, in fact, that's what it was before it moved to this location.

In the 1960s, a second family moved in and renovated the interior, making some exterior alterations including adding a skylight visible from certain angles. Just blocks from the glitz and glam of Rodeo Drive, the unique home features tiny whimsical windows and pointy, lopsided roofs, and an intentionally dilapidated design, making it one of L.A.’s most unique homes. Willat was an American film director of the silent film era who directed 39 films between 1917 and 1937. Continue reading all about the wonderfully witchy house that is now a landmark in the heart of Beverly Hills. Also known as the Witch’s House in Beverly Hills, the magnificently mystical home looks like it’s been plucked straight out of a fairytale — or a Hocus Pocus film set.

The witch house’s first residents were the Spadena family, who lent the property their name. During renovations, Libow told the Los Angeles Times, "We're going for a Gaudí-esque cottage look," referring to Antoni Gaudí and his signature organic style of design and architecture. With a crooked roof, rustic gardens, a rickety fence, and a moat, the property looks like it was plucked straight out of a fairytale. In fact, Spadena House is the epitome of the storybook architectural style that gripped Los Angeles in the 1920s and '30s. The Spadena House, also known as The Witch's House, is a storybook house in Beverly Hills, California.

But there were no wands for Libow to wave, no wishes to be granted. The home had been delivered to him on the nimbleness of the wind, stoking the fires of passion in him, and ultimately tapping his liquid resources. Ultimately, the only element left at the magic man’s disposal was pure, hard earth. Little did the fair folk of Beverly Hills know he was not only returning the Spadena house to its former glory, but getting it closer to its fabled inspiration than it had ever been.

He built the Witch's House in 1921, partly inspired by the illustrations in old books and magazines, and by what moviegoers at the time were clamoring to see. It’s had its fair share of cameos (you may recognize it from the silent film Hansel and Gretel (1923) and Clueless) since it was originally designed as a multi-purpose set by Harry Oliver, an art director at Willat studios. Oliver went on to play a significant role in the architectural Storybook style. Oliver, an Oscar-nominated art director, originally built the structure in Culver City as part of the Willat silent film studio. In either 1926 or 1934 (accounts vary) the Witch’s House was relocated to Beverly Hills. There it has remained a private residence, although it almost returned to Culver City to serve as a historic museum.