- Chateau Elysee
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The Château Élysée, now the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre.
The Château Élysée is a former hotel located at 5930 Franklin Ave. in the Franklin Village section of Los Angeles, California. It was originally built as a luxury long-term residential apartment for movie stars by Eleanor Ince, widow of Thomas H. Ince, the highly successful pioneer silent filmmaker who died in 1924. Designed by eminent architect Arthur E. Harvey as a prominent seven story replica of a 17th Century French-Normandy castle it is the most impressive of all the Hollywood chateaux built during the booming 1920’s.
In 1927 the firm of Luther T. Mayo, Inc. began construction on the four-story, seventy-seven unit turreted castle and its formal gardens on the three-acre former Ince family estate on the southwest corner of Bronson Avenue.[1] The property included a bubbling stream, a tennis court, and a pair of rubber trees that are more than a hundred years old.
In a spirit echoing her husband’s contributions in the formative period of the film industry, Mrs. Ince provided a home for many of the artists that were then being drawn to Hollywood. Residents included some of the most famous names of the 1930’s and 40’s. Most notably Bette Davis, Errol Flynn (room 211), Edward G. Robinson (room 216), Carol Lombard (room 305), Edgar Rice Burroughs (room 408), Humphrey Bogart (room 603), Clark Gable (room 604), Ginger Rogers (room 705), Ed Sullivan (room 501), Gracie Allen and George Burns (room 609) along with Lillian Gish, Katharine Hepburn, George Gershwin, and Cary Grant.
The Élysée operated like a hotel with daily maid service and meals served out of a formal dining room. As the center of the film world’s “chateau life” in the 1930’s, the Manor, as it became known, was often the scene of glamorous parties and saw frequent visits by Hollywood nobility dwelling in nearby estates.
Since 1973, it has been owned by the Church of Scientology, which calls it the Celebrity Centre. On September 23, 1987, the City of Los Angeles declared the building as Historical National Monument #329. In 1992, the buildings and grounds were restored.
References
- ^ Early Hollywood by Marc Wanamaker; Robert W Nudelman. Charleston, S.C. : Arcadia Pub., 2007
Coordinates: 34°6′16″N 118°19′08″W / 34.10444°N 118.31889°W
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument Lists Downtown Los Angeles • East and Northeast Sides • Harbor Area • Hollywood • San Fernando Valley •
Silver Lake, Angelino Heights and Echo Park • South Los Angeles • Westside • Wilshire and Westlake AreasCategories:- Hollywood
- Scientology properties
- Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments
- Buildings and structures completed in 1927
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