Greystone: The Doheny Mansion That Became a City Park

It was built as a 55-room gift from an oil fortune and saved from demolition by the city in 1965. The gardens are open daily, and you can see inside the mansion one weekend a month.

At the top of Loma Vista Drive is the most dramatic house in Beverly Hills, and the public owns it. According to the city, Greystone Mansion & Gardens: The Doheny Estate has a 46,000-square-foot mansion with 55 rooms and formal gardens on 18.5 acres. The house was completed in 1928 for the Doheny family. The city bought it in 1965 and dedicated it as a public park in 1971.

An oilman’s gift

Oil magnate Edward L. Doheny built the estate for his son, Edward “Ned” Doheny Jr., and his family. Architect Gordon Kaufmann designed the Tudor Revival house and its English-style formal gardens. Ned, his wife Lucy and their five children moved in during the fall of 1928. Four months later, in February 1929, Ned Doheny died in the house along with his secretary and longtime friend Hugh Plunkett. The case has been argued about ever since.

How it was saved

Lucy Doheny stayed on the estate until the mid-1950s. She then sold it to developer Paul Trousdale, who turned much of the old Doheny ranch into Trousdale Estates. The mansion went to industrialist Henry Crown, who rented it to film studios and, in 1963, planned to demolish it and subdivide the lot. The City of Beverly Hills bought it in 1965 to stop that from happening. The estate became a city park in 1971 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. From 1965 to 1982 the city leased the mansion to the American Film Institute.

Visiting

Grounds: open to the public daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to the city’s current listing.
Inside the Mansion: the first floor and the theatre open on the first weekend of each month, January through November, on either Saturday or Sunday. The city lists Nov. 7, 2026, as the next date. Advance reservations are recommended.
Address: 905 Loma Vista Drive.
Photography: all posed and commercial photography needs a permit.
Supporting it: the city accepts tax-deductible donations for Greystone’s restoration through its Community Charitable Foundation.

Greystone is also a busy filming location. Among other productions, it appeared in There Will Be Blood (2007), a film loosely based on the life of the elder Doheny, which restored and used the mansion’s two-lane bowling alley.