{"nrhp_refnum":"12000811","name":"Yamashiro Historic District","other_names":["Bernheimer Villa &amp","Oriental Gardens"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"1999 N. Sycamore Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Los Angeles","county":"Los Angeles County","state":"CA","lat":34.10560484100006,"lon":-118.35316344099999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2012-09-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A seven-acre hillside estate in Hollywood, Los Angeles, built around 1913-1914 for brothers Adolph and Eugene Bernheimer, with a Japanese-style villa, terraced gardens, and related buildings and structures.","why_significant":"The nomination argues Yamashiro is an excellent and prominent example of Asian eclectic (orientalist) architecture in Hollywood, an early example of the fantasy architecture that later shaped the movie palaces. It also conveys the original vision of the Bernheimers and architect Franklin Small through its villa, terraced gardens and imported pagoda.","narrative":"Yamashiro is a seven-acre hillside estate above Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. German-born cotton merchants Adolph and Eugene Bernheimer, who collected Asian art, bought the land in 1913 and commissioned New York architect Franklin M. Small to design a villa based on seventeenth-century Japanese traditions. Completed in 1914, it sits within concentric terraced gardens laid out by Adolph Bernheimer and landscaper Andreas C. Orum. The district includes nine contributing resources: the Main House, Garage, Groundskeeper's Cottage, Menagerie House, a hotel complex built in the early 1950s, the gardens, and three garden structures, including a South Gatehouse, Resting Pavilion and a Japanese pagoda over 600 years old. The property was closed to the public during World War II, later used as a boarding school, then converted to a restaurant and hotel after 1948. It was listed for its architecture, as a prominent example of orientalist, fantasy-influenced design in Hollywood, and it retains much of its original character despite alterations.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Franklin M. Small (New York architect); Walter Webber (supervising architect); gardens by Adolph Bernheimer and Andreas C. Orum","architectural_style":"Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals/Asian","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Main House operates as a restaurant (since 1960); the Hollywood Hills Hotel still operates as a hotel with some residential rentals; the cottages are used as residences.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:29.774511-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/12000811.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000811/79b341fa43-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000811/79b341fa43-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Toglenn","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yamashiro_Restaurant_Hollywood_2019_by_Glenn_Francis.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Toglenn</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yamashiro_Restaurant_Hollywood_2019_by_Glenn_Francis.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123859644","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamashiro_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30622975"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/los-angeles-county/yamashiro-historic-district-12000811/"}