#28: Zane Grey Estate (Altadena)

An inspired Mediterranean Revival home, once occupied by the author of Riders of the Purple Sage

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 24, 2002

While it may pale in comparison to the eye-popping grandeur of Pasadena’s “Millionaire’s Row” on S. Orange Grove (think the Gamble House, Cravens Estate, Fenyes Mansion, etc.), Altadena’s version on Mariposa St. west of Lake Ave. has its own collection of handsome estates from a bygone era.

+LA Times feature on the Mariposa mansions

The Zane Grey Estate was designed by Myron Hunt & Elmer Grey, an architectural duo responsible for some spectacular residences for well-to-do folk (including Henry Huntington of Huntington Gardens fame), colleges (e.g. Occidental College & Throop Institute, the forerunner to CalTech) and churches. By himself, Hunt designed the Rose Bowl!

This particular Mediterranean Revival beauty was completed in 1907 for inventor Arthur Woodward and his wife Edith Woodward, and regarded as the first “fireproof” home in Altadena owing to its construction of reinforced concrete. Apparently this was at the insistence of Edith, who had survived the 1903 Iroquois Theater Fire, the deadliest single-building fire in US history.

The home was purchased in 1920 by author Zane Grey, best known as the writer of the popular western novel Riders of the Purple Sage. He was also a world-class angler, the first non-native fisherman to catch big game in Australia, New Zealand and tropical Mexico, and a prominent member of the Tuna Club of Avalon (see visit #169).

Grey expanded the mansion, added a 3,500-square-foot library (I guess he had a lot of large-print books?), and lived in it until his death in 1939. Grey’s son inherited the estate, then sold it to another family in 1970 in a less-than-ideal state (according to one source, “The house smelled of cigars and sardines and was covered with over sixty tons of vines growing into the windows and choking off all natural light”).

In recent years the estate has taken on a lot of roles, including an Air BnB rental and the site of a only semi-legal underground farmers market. It was most recently bought last year, which means that you can gaze upon the immaculate exposed beams and southwestern-inspired interior design on Redfin.

…Or you can just watch an amateurish selfie video that I shot through the fence 🙂 (see above)