March 08, 2006

Doheny Murder at Greystone

Carolyn Kellogg at LAist.com recently posted an excellent account of the murder of Ned Doheny, son of oil tycoon Edward Doheny, in 1929. February 16th marked the anniversary of this grissly murder. The tragedy took place at the historic Greystone Manor in Beverly Hills, a magnificent local landmark publicly owned and operated as a city park.

A brief history of Greystone Mansion, courtesy of the City of Beverly Hills:

In 1925, Edward Doheny, the most successful oil producer of his time, gave his son Edward "Ned" Lawrence Doheny, Jr. a 12.58-acre land parcel. It was part of the original 425-acre Greystone land parcel, the largest family estate in the history of Beverly Hills.

Construction of Ned Doheny's estate began in February of 1927 and was completed a year later at a cost of $3,166,780. Ned, his wife Lucy, and their five children moved into the mansion in September of 1928. The home included 55 rooms in 46,054 square feet of living space. The estate also included tennis courts, a swimming pool, a green house, a fire station and kennels. Sadly, Mr. Doheny was murdered in this home, a very rare unsolved mystery in Beverly Hills.

In 1954, the largest portion of the property was sold to Paul Trousdale Corporation and became the adjacent residential neighborhood of very beautiful "Trousdale Estates" homes. In 1955, the remaining 18.3 acres of land, including Greystone Mansion, were sold to Henry Crown of the Park Grey Corporation, Chicago, for $1.5 million, but Mr. Crown never occupied the site.

The mansion remained vacant until 1965, when the City of Beverly Hills purchased the property from Mr. Crown for $1.3 million, planning to locate the City's largest water reservoir, a 19-million gallon tank, on the site. In 1971, the entire site, including the mansion, was formally dedicated as a City of Beverly Hills public park. In 1976, Greystone Mansion was recognized as a historic landmark and placed on the Registry of Historic Places. It is the site of many civic events, weddings, filming, a summer day camp and the City's tree farm.



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