Cahuenga Peak (Los Angeles, California)

USA / California / Burbank / Los Angeles, California
 mountain, summit
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Elevation 1,821 feet.
This 138 acre parcel of prime mountain wilderness (temporarily blackened by fire) is for sale. The owner, Fox River Financial Services of Geneva, Illinois, is asking 22 million dollars. They bought the land from the Howard Hughes estate in 2002 for 1,675,000 dollars. The land is zoned R (residential) and local zoning ordinances would allow subdivision into (as many as) five parcels. The dark superimposed outline shows the actual boundaries of this property.
Hughes bought this land in 1940 with the intention of building a secluded retreat high atop Cahuenga Peak (with a 360 degree view of the mountains and the sea) reportedly to be a love nest for him and his naughty sweety, Ginger Rogers. Rogers wanted no part of it and so the mansion was never built. Hughes did manage to get the mountain top rezoned Residential and in 1949 he won a law suit against the city to obtain a 100 foot wide easement from Wonder View Drive. (When he bought the land, Hughes assumed he would be granted access via Mount Lee Drive by Tommy Lee, owner of Mount Lee. Lee refused, and that was the end of their friendship.)
These 138 acres have recently been appraised at six million dollars and the city has managed to raise five million toward buying the pacel and adding it to the west end of Griffith Park. Fox River Financial is holding firm at 22 million. They figure there must be some multi-billionaire out there (from the United Arab Emirates perhaps?) who would like to take advantage of the soft U.S. dollar and buy an as yet undeveloped mountain top right in the middle of Los Angeles.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahuenga_Peak
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   34°8'12"N   118°19'32"W

Comments

  • I don't have the story, but it is my understanding that this is now part of Griffith Park. I visited recently and climbed the peak. At the trailhead beyond Wonder View Dr, there is a monument that credits among others, Hugh Hefner and Steven Spielberg.
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