Mary Cummins, Real Estate Appraiser, Real Estate Appraisal, Los Angeles, California, Mary Cummins.

Mary Cummins is a real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California with 38+ years of experience. Cummins provides real estate appraisals for banks, lenders, mortgage brokers, Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs), lawyers, Courts, factors and private parties for lending, lawsuits, probate, estate planning, divorce and all types of litigation. Cummins provides 1004, 1073, 1025 and other form reports, narrative reports and historical appraisals besides real estate research and appraisal advice.

Showing posts with label 6643. Show all posts

Friday, September 4, 2020

Whitley Heights, H.J. Whitley personal residence on Whitley Terrace, by Mary Cummins real estate appraiser

Whitley Heights, Mary Cummins, real estate appraiser, Los Angeles, California, H J Whitley, personal residence, home, 6643 Whitley Terrace, 90068, real estate, appraisal, appraiser, lawsuit, complaint

Los Angeles home development Whitley Heights was built in the 1920's by H. J. Whitley aka Hobart Johnstone Whitley. Whitley designed the hilly development with curvy streets, walkways and stairways. The homes were generally Spanish or Mediterranean in style on custom upslope and downslope lots with mountain, city and some even had ocean views.

Whitley's personal residence above was at 6643 Whitley Terrace alternate address 2073 S Grace Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90068. It's a street to street property. The home was built in 1919 at a cost of $12,000. The architect was E. C. Wiseman. Contractor was A. S. Barnes who was the architect and designer of most of the homes in Whitley Heights. The home is 43' x 39', eight rooms, six bedrooms, four baths, 3,342 on 9,384 sf site.

From the Historical home listing, "Italian Villa, two stories, stucco, Mission tile roof, French windows and doors, Palladian entrance on Whitley Terrace with urns and statuary. Arched colonnaded facade, lower columns Corinthian capitals — upper floor Ionic capitals. Acanthus detail in plaster cornice. Arched plaster friezes over French doors, curved colonnades on terrace. Stained glass window."

Whitley died June 1931 and his wife sold the home in 1938. It was listed for sale at $25,000. It has been owned by Geoffrey Purdy, Amanda Helena Purdy, the Purdy family since that time. Below is the newspaper ad advertising it for sale in 1937.

Below is the Google map street view of the home in case you want to check it out.

Below is the plat map.

Below is the original permit.

More about Whitley Heights. Below are some photos of Whitley Heights homes which have sold within the last five years.

"Whitley Heights is a residential neighborhood and historic preservation overlay zone in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Central Los Angeles, California. Known as a residential area for actors and other people in the motion-picture industry, it is divided between a hillside single-family district and an apartment area. It is notable for an attempt by its homeowners' group and the city to close off public streets to outside traffic, an effort that was ruled illegal by the courts.

The preservation zone is split into two parts by the Hollywood Freeway (U.S. Highway 101) running through the Cahuenga Pass. Streets within the zone's northern part are a one-block portion of Cahuenga Boulevard, Iris Drive, and some of Whitley Avenue; it consists almost exclusively of single-family homes. The southern zone, about 80% of the original plot, embraces Fairfield Avenue, Wedgewood Place, Whitley Avenue, Cerritos Place, Hollyhill Terrace, Grace Avenue, Emmet Terrace, Las Palmas Avenue, and Milner Road, and is almost exclusively zoned for apartments. It is within walking distance of the Hollywood Bowl, and Hollywood Boulevard is nearby.

Hobart J. Whitley bought the hillside area in 1901 and 1903, and hired architect Arthur Barnes to build houses in a Mediterranean style he thought would suit Southern California's climate. Five years later, Whitley Heights was seen as a "magnificent hill of forty acres situated in the very center of Hollywood and overlooking the entire city."

As a contemporary account noted, "This hill has been one of the show places of Hollywood for some time. Here. Mr. Whitley intends erecting a handsome home at some future date, and toward this end, he has cultivated and beautified the grounds, laying them out in winding roads and planting a great variety of rare trees and shrubs, some of which were imported from the Hawaiian Islands and Mexico."

In 1918, Whitley commissioned architect A.S. Barnes to design Whitley Heights as a Mediterranean village on the steep hillsides above Hollywood Boulevard. Whitley sent Barnes to tour the Mediterranean area to study its architecture and landscaping of Italy's historic hill towns before returning to the Southland, where he designed most of the Whitley Heights houses between 1918 and 1928. The development grew during the 1920s, and it became the first Hollywood celebrity community.The streets in the development were dedicated to public use in 1920 and 1921, and they were improved by the city between 1924 and 1927. Most of them had no sidewalks, with stairways built from level to level to encourage walking.

On the evening of June 23, 1920, the residential subdivision of Whitley Heights was opened with a festive barbecue that gathered an assemblage of businessmen and politicians. "The occasion was attended with a special significance as it was the scene of a reunion of many men who were connected with Mr. Whitley in his first efforts to make the vegetable gardens into a wealthy city more than twenty years ago, men who had gathered at a similar affair in 1902 to watch the turning on of the first electric lights in Hollywood," wrote The Times. The subdivision already had several homes on the terraces that divided the hill into four grades. Three years later, in 1923, the Whitley Heights Civic Association was founded.

Preservation zone

"The hill's narrow, winding streets, paved in 1926, connected by flights of pedestrian stairs and supported by retaining walls, still serve the community . . . Electrical lines and utilities placed in underground conduits, another novel concept for the times, as well as the original street lamps, function as they did in the late 1920s." — Los Angeles Times

In 1982, Whitley Heights was made a state historic district by the California Historical Resources Commission after research done by actor Brian Moore, president of Whitley Heights Homeowners. Moore traced property titles in the area, gathered old photographs and articles, and read through the papers of Hobart J. Whitley, which were housed in the special collections library at the University of California, Los Angeles.

He was impelled to begin his research in 1981 after a bungalow was demolished by a developer who wanted to build tract homes. To qualify for the designation, an area had to be at least 50 years old and retain many of its original characteristics. At the time almost all of the homes, with their red tile roofs, balconies, and arched windows and doorways, were original. Later, the district was also made a national historic place, the first such in Hollywood. In 2004, the area was made into a Los Angeles historic preservation overlay zone."

Below are photos of some homes which sold within the last ten years on the local MLS.

Mary Cummins of Cummins Real Estate is a certified residential licensed appraiser in Los Angeles, California. Mary Cummins is licensed by the California Bureau of Real Estate appraisers and has over 35 years of experience.

Mary Cummins, Mary K. Cummins, Mary Katherine Cummins, Mary, Cummins, #marycummins #animaladvocates #losangeles #california #wildlife #wildliferehabilitation #wildliferehabilitator #realestate #realestateappraiser #realestateappraisal #lawsuit real estate, appraiser, appraisal, instructor, teacher, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Brentwood, Bel Air, California, licensed, permitted, certified, single family, condo, condominium, pud, hud, fannie mae, freddie mac, fha, uspap, certified, residential, certified resident, apartment building, multi-family, commercial, industrial, expert witness, civil, criminal, orea, dre, brea insurance, bonded, experienced, bilingual, spanish, english, form, 1004, 2055, 1073, land, raw, acreage, vacant, insurance, cost, income approach, market analysis, comparative, theory, appraisal theory, cost approach, sales, matched pairs, plot, plat, map, diagram, photo, photographs, photography, rear, front, street, subject, comparable, sold, listed, active, pending, expired, cancelled, listing, mls, multiple listing service, claw, themls, historical appraisal, facebook, linkedin

Mary Cummins

Mary Cummins of Cummins Real Estate Services has been in real estate since 1983, over 35 years. She is licensed by the Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers. Mary Cummins was an agent and broker licensed with the California Department of Real Estate selling residential income, commercial buildings, raw land and homes for Merrill Lynch Realty in Beverly Hills and Westside Properties in Los Angeles before concentrating on appraisals. Mary Cummins currently provides real estate appraisals, expert witness testimony, historical research, legal real estate research for mortgage brokers, banks, lawyers, factors, insurance companies, financial consultants and private individuals. Mary Cummins was born and raised in Southern California. Cummins attended Beverly Hills Good Shepherd Catholic School and Beverly Hills High School. Besides being on the Dean's list, Mary Cummins was a top ten national swimmer and competed on the men's water polo team. Mary Cummins began college at the age of 15 attending the University of Southern California on scholarship, majoring in Psychology/Sociology. http://www.animaladvocates.us http://www.facebook.com/AnimalAdvocatesUSA

Mary Cummins, Real Estate Appraiser, Animal Advocates, Los Angeles, California

Friday, September 4, 2020

Whitley Heights, H.J. Whitley personal residence on Whitley Terrace, by Mary Cummins real estate appraiser