Doheny Estate/Greystone

Greystone is an 18.6-acre estate in Beverly Hills, now a city park, built between 1925 and 1929 for Edward L. Doheny Jr. by his father, an oil magnate. Architect Gordon B. Kaufmann designed the 55-room mansion, and P.J. Walker Co. built it at a cost of about four million dollars. Its three-foot-thick Indiana limestone walls, Welsh slate roof, and steel frame reinforced with concrete support interiors of Italian marble, carved oak and walnut, a theatre and bowling alleys. The style is described as Early Los Angeles Baronial, mixing Gothic, English and Italian forms. The grounds hold a firehouse, stables, garages, a greenhouse, a gatehouse and sixteen acres of formal gardens with fountains and sculpture. The Doheny family lived here until 1955, and citizens later saved it from subdivision. The city purchased it in 1964. The American Film Institute leases the mansion for its film studies center, and concerts and theatre take place on the grounds.