Philanthropists may help save historic beachfront property
PCH — A major philanthropic organization may help renovate the Marion Davies Estate, a once-glamorous beachfront mansion that has been boarded up for the past 10 years, it was announced Wednesday.
Officials from The Annenberg Foundation said they are reviewing the 70-year-old property at 415 Pacific Coast Highway and will decide this summer whether to help City Hall preserve the historic site. It will cost an estimated $17 million to make the grounds ready for public use.
Wallis Annenberg, daughter of Walter Annenberg and vice president of the foundation he began, was alerted to plans for the property by an article in a local Santa Monica newspaper, which prompted discussions between the foundation and city staffers, Annenberg officials said. City Hall last year had agreed to look into partnering with private developers in order to push the expensive project forward.
“Wallis remembers, in her earlier days, attending events and functions at the Sand and Sea,” said Leonard Aube, managing director of the foundation’s Los Angeles office. “One of the reasons that we have a presence in Los Angeles is that members of the Annenberg family make their homes in and around the Los Angeles area. As such, the members of the family, in their roles as trustees, have a particular interest in contributing to the quality of life and the fabric of the community here in the Los Angeles area.”
The Annenberg Foundation, whose headquarters are in Pennsylvania, granted nearly $200 million to 40 different groups throughout the country last year. Walter Annenberg was a distinguished publisher, broadcaster, diplomat and philanthropist who served as ambassador to the Court of St. James from 1968 to 1974. He also founded journalism schools at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California.
Before officials from the foundation decide whether to give money to City Hall for the project, Aube said an analysis of the site and its historical significance must be completed. That process will take four to eight weeks, Aube said, adding it was too soon to say whether the foundation will be willing to pay the entire estimated $17 million to renovate the property.
“We have no idea,” he said. “We really haven’t formed any opinions about that.”
The estate, once occupied by William Randolph Hearst’s mistress Marion Davies, was bought by the state of California in 1960 and leased for decades to the privately-run Sand and Sea Club.
At the time, the property was at the center of a battle between local restaurateur Michael McCarty, who won approval from the City Council to build a hotel there, and residents determined to prevent new beach hotels from developing in Santa Monica. When an initiative passed that squashed McCarty’s project, the City Council voted to terminate the Sand and Sea lease and take control of the property.
From 1990 until the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the estate was open to the public for recreational use and was often rented for various film shoots, including the popular television series “Beverly Hills 90210.”
It has been abandoned since 1994, due to a lack of funding.
There are no specific designs for how the property will be restored. City Hall’s rehabilitation plan calls for preserving the history of the site, encouraging a “light touch” on the site, creating a community oriented destination, providing public recreational facilities, increasing public beach access, creating a range of uses, encouraging a wide array of visitors and providing year-round use, Aube said. The Annenberg Foundation was encouraged by those goals, and officials said they also would focus on public access.
Barbara Stinchfield, director of City Hall’s community and cultural services department, said if the grant money does come through, a team of architects, land-scapers and engineers will be hired immediately. Community input would then be taken for as long as six months before work on the site would begin. The actual construction phase of the project could last about two years, Stinchfield estimated.
“We would like to move ahead as quickly as we can, get council review and a final decision from The Annenberg Foundation,” she added. “We’re kind of poised and ready to go, and once the foundation decides whether it’s a go for them, and once the City Council has an opportunity to discuss this with the foundation, then we’d like to very quickly proceed with the community input process.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 27, 2004. Read the original PDF.