Alison Martino's "Vintage Los Angeles"

I recently found the above vintage Polaroid photo when my mom was packing up our old house. That’s Edward G. Robinson standing in his driveway, directly across the street from where we lived on Rexford Drive in Beverly Hills. My mother snapped this from my upstairs bedroom window shortly after I was born, and it’s the only photo that we have of him. We used to see Mr. Robinson walking his seven dogs with his wife, Jane, while smoking that signature cigar of his. His house was on two lots, and was built by architect Samuel Marx, who had very recently completed his own masterpiece in 1939, The May Co Department Store at Fairfax and Wilshire Blvd. Robinson’s home was a picturesque Tudor style, which the actor contemplated selling in order to build a new home that would better accommodate his growing art collection. In fact, Edward had such an extensive art collection that he commissioned Samuel Marx to build a separate art gallery on the property. It was designed specifically to show off…

I couldn't think of a better place to set me loose! 
Graystone Manor is a hidden gem tucked away above Sunset Blvd in Beverly Hills. The mansion, built in 1927 is only open during special programs such as Music in the Mansion and Friends of Greystone events, although the outside grounds are open daily for visitors to enjoy! 



Greystone Mansion, and the surrounding grounds with which it shares its magnificent beauty, are rich in California history. Edward Laurence Doheny, who bought the land in the 1910s, was born in 1856 in the small Midwestern town of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. In 1892, Doheny and his friend Charles A. Canfield, were the first to strike oil in Los Angeles. They later discovered large oil deposits in Mexico which, combined with their Los Angeles holdings, made them the largest producers of oil in the world at that time. Edward Doheny and his wife Carrie Louella Wilkins had two children. Their first, a daughter Eileen, passed away when she was just seven years old. On No…