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Western Heights was the Holmby Hills of its day, minus the Playboy Mansion. Los Angeles' early 20th century movers and shakers got their celebrity cred, though, from living in stately manors designed by architectural stars such as Paul Williams and John C. Austin.
Beginnings
Western Heights -- southwest of Koreatown and bounded today by Washington Boulevard, the Santa Monica Freeway and Arlington and Western avenues -- began modestly, when the first cottage was built in 1903 or '04, said local historian and author Don Lynch.
In addition to the wealthy local professionals who built there and in similar neighborhoods nearby, business titans from the Midwest and East Coast who liked to summer in Southern California built there too. The community was well established by World War I.
Streetcars that ran along Washington Boulevard transported the Heights' businessmen to offices downtown. When automobiles came into fashion in the '20s, some of the area's wealthier residents headed to the fashionable new western frontier: Beverly Hills.
What it's about
Some of these homes have names and libraries, which says a lot about their original owners. The 10-room Baker residence on West 21st Street, for example, was built in 1910 for the James Blair Bakers, who entertained the Hearsts and...