“(It was) the biggest house on the beach—the beach between San Diego and Vancouver”
– Colleen Moore
The Hearsts
The opulent Santa Monica home tycoon William Randolph Hearst gifted to his mistress silent movie actress Marion Davies was built in 1929. It was originally called Ocean House but it was soon changed to Beach House, which stuck, and became part of Hollywood History.
The mansion in which Hearst and Davies dwelled was built on 5 acres of land and contained 110 rooms and was 3 stories tall. In addition to the main mansion, there were 4 guests houses that served as quarters for the 32 servants who worked at the property and additional space for other guests to stay.
“It almost got to be as big as the White House. Bigger, maybe. Just like you build with little blocks, he added on and on. But little blocks wouldn’t have cost the money.”
– Marion Davies
At a cost of $7,000,000 (over $111,000,000 adjusted for inflation), the property was designed by Julia Morgan, a San Francisco-based architect that also worked on Hearst’s San Simeon estate. Other features of the property included 37 fireplaces, 55 bathrooms, tennis courts, gardens, and a 110-foot heated saltwater swimming pool lined with Italian marble, replete with a Venetian marble bridge at its center.
The Versailles of Hollywood
Once it was finished the house was known as the “Versailles of Hollywood”. Davies was known for her lavish costume parties, which were the hottest ticket in Tinseltown. These were themed parties similar to those she hosted at San Simeon.
The list of typical guests that would attend these illustrious galas was a venerable who’s who of Old Hollywood. Joan Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Clark Gable, Gloria Swanson, Carole Lombard, and William Powell were just a handful of the famous guests that would make an appearance.
But the house wasn’t always fun and games. During the Great Depression Davies would open up her home and offer meals to anybody that worked in the movie business who was in need. She was also known to discreetly slip money or jewelry into the pockets of the guests of her parties that she knew were down on their luck.
World War II
Davies would continue to live in the Beach House until 1942, when concerns about a Japanese invasion during World War II, caused her to vacate the property. Five years later the property was sold for $600,000 to hotelier Joseph Drown.
Drown would turn the main house into a hotel. The rest of the grounds he turned into a limited-membership beach club called the Sand and Sea Club. In 1949 when the hotel opened and removed the marble bridge at the center of the pool, Davies stated:
“…the pool was ten feet deep in the middle, and I think it was absolutely wrong for them to remove it…”
Closing
The hotel closed in the early 1950s, and the mansion, and a piece of Hollywood history was demolished in 1956. This, to the protests of Hollywood legends Harold Lloyd and Darryl F. Zanuck. The land which hosted lavish parties for decadent Hollywood stars was sold in 1959 to the State of California and turned into a parking lot.
The Sand and Sea Club did remain open, and remained popular with stars such as Goldie Hawn. It was also used as a shooting location on the television series Beverly Hills 90210. Due to the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, extensive damage caused the property to permanently close.
Transformation
By the mid-2000s the heyday of the property was forgotten as it languished in a state of decay. Philanthropist Wallis Annenberg, who had spent summers at the Sand and Sea Club made a financial commitment of over $27,000,000. She intended to transform the property into a first-class public facility.
Now known as the Annenberg Community Beach House. It was developed as a design-build partnership between Frederick Fisher and Partners Architects, and Charles Pankow Builders. The pool was revitalized with mosaic tiles. One of the guest houses, the North House, was restored and is the focal point of the property.
The new buildings and landscape elements of this project of Hollywood history were designed to inspire a public gateway to the beach. This in turn, returning the site to its former status as a landmark to Southern California.
