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Description

Rare Promotional Broadside Map of Beverly Crest

Original subdivision promotional broadside map showing Beverly Crest, just east of Coldwater Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills.

At the bottom of the map, a pictorial illustration shows a "Portion of E. L. Doheny Jr. Estate." The estate, which would be the site of the construction of Greystone Mansion and later the site of the so-called Greystone Murders, was owned n the 1920s by Edward L. Doheny Jr., known as "Ned," son of E.L. Sr., who first struck oil in the Los Angeles area in 1892. At the beginning of the 20th century, the elder Mr. Doheny was pumping enough oil to rival John D. Rockefeller.

Greystone Mansion, when it was built,in the late 1920s, was the second largest house (56,000 square feet) in California after Hearst's Castle at San Simeon. Completed in 1928 at a cost of $5 Million, it was the largest house in Los Angeles.

Originally known as Wiltfong Canyon or Chinaman Canyon, Beverly Crest was a residential development first undertaken by George E. Read. Read started buying land in Benedict and Coldwater canyons in 1923, amid the hunting lodges that dotted that landscape. Read then began carving out a number of streets from the hills, creating a series of crests. He named the neighborhood Beverly Crest; the narrow lanes were named Lloydcrest, Read- crest, Cerrocrest, Claircrest, Gilcrest, Lindacrest, Ridgecrest, Waynecrest and Beverlycrest, among others. Development of the area began in 1926 and the 80 acres of land was divided into 178 residential lots. The lots ranged from one-quarter to three-quarters of an acre in size. Read had constructed two gatehouses, one of which remains, at the entrance to the subdivision on Schuyler Road.

This is apparently the first edition of the map, with a later edition showing additional subdivided parcels, different vignettes and Ridgecrest Drive as a cul-de-sac, ending at its south end. In the later edition, it curves back to the northeast. The later state is shown here: /gallery/detail/52410bb

Rarity

The map is apparently unrecorded. We locate no examples of this or any other maps of Beverly Crest in OCLC.

Condition Description
Repaired tear at right center margin. Includes numerous pencil annotations, including lot prices.