Wattles Mansion from “Troop Beverly Hills”

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After re-watching Troop Beverly Hills a couple of weeks back and subsequently stalking the mansion where the Nefler family lived, I became just a wee bit obsessed with tracking down some of the other locales featured in the 1989 flick.  Thankfully IMDB had quite a few sites listed on its Troop Beverly Hills filming locations page, one of which was Wattles Mansion – a historic and oft-filmed at Hollywood estate that, amazingly enough, I had never before heard of.  So I immediately dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place the following weekend.

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Wattles Mansion was originally built in 1907 by Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, the legendary Los Angeles-area architects who were also responsible for designing the Ambassador Hotel, the Huntington Art Gallery, Pasadena’s Wentworth Hotel (now the Langham), Occidental College (aka California University from fave show Beverly Hills, 90210), the California Institute of Technology, and the Beverly Hills Hotel.  The large Mission Revival-style dwelling was commissioned by a wealthy Omaha, Nebraska native named Gurdon Wallace Wattles to be used as his family’s winter residence.  The estate, which sat on 49 acres and was called“Jualita”, featured 6,167 square feet of living space, seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a wood-paneled library with a hand-painted ceiling, black-and-white checkerboard marble flooring, a terracotta tile terrace, wood-beamed ceilings, and a full basement.  The home’s extensive 5-acre formal garden area consisted of a Japanese Garden, an Italian Rose garden, a Spanish garden, an American garden, a palm court, sparkling ponds, and several fruit orchards.  In an amazing show of generosity, Gurdon opened his beloved gardens to the public upon moving into his new home and it was not long before they became a wildly popular tourist attraction.

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After Gurdon passed away in 1932, his widow, Julia Vance, and their son, Gurdon Wallace Wattles Jr., continued to live at the mansion.  In 1968, they sold the property to the City of Los Angeles and the Department of Parks and Recreation subsequently took over.  Sadly, the city lacked the money necessary to maintain the large estate and it quickly fell into a serious state of disrepair.  Gurdon’s formerly glorious gardens were taken over by drug dealers, squatters, and vandals, and what they didn’t destroy, a series of mudslides in the 1980s did.  Thankfully, in 1983 the Hollywood Heritage preservation group leased the property and began a massive restoration project before moving in and using the historic mansion as their headquarters.  It was at that time that the abode, which is a City of Los Angeles Cultural Monument, became a popular filming location.  For reasons that are not entirely clear, Hollywood Heritage was served with an eviction notice in 2008 and finally vacated the property in May of 2009.  The mansion is currently being maintained by the Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation once again.  (I snapped the interior pictures through one of the estate’s front windows.)

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The piece of property, which you can see in the above aerial view, is now made up of three separate areas.

Wattles Mansion aerial view

The section denoted with a pink square above, which measures 4.2 acres, was turned into a community garden in 1975 and has been continuously maintained by local residents.  It is private and not open to the public.  The middle section, which is denoted with a blue square, is a park known as Wattles Garden Park.  It is open to the public daily from dusk until dawn.  The mansion and formal garden area, which is denoted with a purple square above, is not open to the public, but is available for use as a special event and wedding venue.

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And although the formal gardens are not accessible to the public, from what was visible from the park, that area once again appears to be in a sad state of disrepair.  According to sign a posted on the premises, a restoration is currently in progress, so hopefully they will not look that way for long.

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Wattles Mansion actually stood in for two different locations in Troop Beverly Hills. It first appeared as the Beverly Hills Rest Haven where Phyllis Nefler (aka Shelley Long) and her group of Wilderness Girls performed their community service requirement.

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While there, Phyllis and her daughter, Hannah (aka Jenny Lewis), taught a group of senior citizens how to do the “Freddy” dance, so I, of course, just had to do a little recreation of that scene while I was stalking the place.  Winking smile

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In a later scene, the northern-facing side of Wattles Mansion and the formal garden area were used as the location of the “khaki” fashion show that was hosted by Robin Leach and featured cameos by Pia Zadora and Dr. Joyce Brothers.

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Wattles Mansion was also used extensively as the demon-haunted home inherited by Jonathan Graves (aka Peter Liapis) in the 1985 horror-comedy Ghoulies.

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The real life interior of the mansion, including the kitchen area and the formal library, appeared in Ghoulies, as well. You can check out some great interior photographs of the place here.

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Randomly enough, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’s Mariska Hargitay made her feature film debut in Ghoulies.  She is pictured in the grey sweater above.  The actress was just 21 at the time that the movie was filmed.

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Wattles Mansion also appeared in Diana Ross’ ultra-weird 1985 music video for her single “Eaten Alive”, which was co-written by none other than the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson.

Eaten Alive Music Video–Filmed at Wattles Mansion

You can watch that video by clicking above.

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In the 1989 movie Rain Man, Wattles Mansion stood in for the institution where the psychiatric evaluation of Raymond Babbitt (aka Dustin Hoffman) took place.

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Wattles was where Jose (aka Jacob Vargas) first met Maria (aka Jennifer Lopez) in the 1995 flick My Family.

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And finally, the mansion popped up in the Season 3 episode of The O.C. titled “The Man of the Year” as the supposed Montecito-area boarding school attended by Marissa Cooper’s (aka Mischa Barton’s) sister, Kaitlin (aka Willa Holland).

Until next time, Happy Stalking – and Happy Voting!  Don’t forget to vote for me today to be the new face of About MeSmile

Stalk It: Wattles Mansion, from Troop Beverly Hills, is located at 1824 North Curson Avenue in Hollywood.  The interior of the mansion and formal garden areas are not accessible to the public, but Wattles Park is open daily from dawn until dusk.  You can visit the official Wattles Mansion website here.

The “Troop Beverly Hills” House

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A couple of weeks ago, fellow stalker Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, mentioned that he had recently stalked the residence belonging to the Nefler family – Phyllis (aka Shelley Long), Freddy (aka Craig T. Nelson), and their daughter, Hannah (aka Jenny Lewis) – in the 1989 comedy Troop Beverly Hills.  Well, let me tell you, after hearing that I literally just about had a heart attack!  TROOP BEVERLY HILLS? TROOP BEVERLY HILLS!  How in the heck had I forgotten about that movie??  I absolutely loved it as a teenager and remember renting it countless times from the video store around the corner from my house.  Due to some sort of brain lapse, though, I had not thought about or seen the flick in years.  So when Mikey mentioned it, I immediately ran to my local Blockbuster to rent it.  Shockingly though, the sales clerk informed me that the store did not carry the title!  And neither did any of the other Blockbusters within a ten mile radius of my apartment!  (Perhaps this is why the chain has been floundering in recent years!  I mean, hello!  How does a video store not carry a major 80s classic like Troop Beverly Hills????)  I was further shocked to discover that my local Borders Books did not have the movie, either.  (Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010, Borders in 2011 – a coincidence?  I think not!  Winking smile)  Thankfully, Troop Beverly Hills was available for purchase on iTunes (oddly enough, they do not offer the flick for rent), so I immediately purchased it and, because iTunes does not allow one to burn a purchased movie onto a DVD, was forced to watch the entire hour and forty minutes on my tiny computer screen.  But I have to say that it was completely and totally worth it!  What a fabulous, FABULOUS flick!  And, immediately after watching it, I, of course, dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the Nefler mansion.

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The 6 bedroom, 6 bath, 7,694-square-foot, Spanish-style abode, which was originally built in 1916, was featured numerous times throughout Troop Beverly Hills.

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And, amazingly enough, the residence still looks almost EXACTLY the same today as it did when the movie was filmed over twenty-two years ago!  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

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The only difference is that there is now a large, three-car garage located on the northern side of the property.

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For some reason, while watching the movie, the inside of the Nefler house just did not look real to me.  So, while I could not find any interior photographs of the home online, I am fairly certain that all of the interior scenes were filmed on a set inside of a studio soundstage somewhere in Hollywood and not at the actual residence.

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I believe the backyard that was shown in the movie was also a set, as it does not match up to the home’s real-life backyard.

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As you can see in the above aerial view,  the mansion’s real-life pool is not the same shape as the one that appeared in the movie and its position in relation to the house also does not match up with what was shown onscreen.  And while it is possible that the backyard was completely remodeled in the two-plus decades since filming took place, I do not find that scenario to be very likely.

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According to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory website, the house has also had several celebrity inhabitants over the years, including movie star Betty Compson, producer Samuel Goldwyn, silent film star Charles Ray, and actor Charles Smith.

Big THANK YOU to Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, for telling me about this location!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Troop Beverly Hills house is located at 901 North Camden Drive in Beverly Hills.