Villa Bonita is an historic apartment building on Hillcrest Road in

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

. The building is located a short walk from the corner of

Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It begins in the east at Sunset Boulevard in the Los Feliz district and proceeds to the west as a major thoroughfare through Little Armenia and Thai Town, Hollywoo ...

and Highland Avenue, just north of Franklin Avenue and west of Highland. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1986 based on its architecture. Designed by local architect Frank Webster in 1929, the building's owner was Sidney Ullman,

Rudolph Valentino Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred ...

's business manager and agent. Like many in the industry, Ullman used his profits to invest in real estate. This tremendous source of capital enabled Hollywood buildings to exercise their creativity without regard to cost, as each builder tried to outdo the others. Local architect Frank Webster designed this building, which was built at a cost of $75,000 in May 1929. Villa Bonita is a seven-story residential apartment building exhibiting character-defining features of the Spanish Colonial Revival style. Alterations include the addition of a penthouse and a metal roof sign in the early 1930s and addition of a sunroom in 1989. The quality of detailing throughout the structure is remarkable for a building of its size, making it a prime representative example of multi-unit housing in Hollywood during its prime period of significance. The seven-floor building was originally built for the cast and crew of director

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...

. Since then, it has housed the likes of

Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian-American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Olivia ...

and

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five A ...

. Although Villa Bonita residents held a variety of jobs, tenants of the building, particularly in the 1930s and 1940s, tended to be employed in the local entertainment industry as artists, singers, musicians, film corporation executives, etc. For example,

Ethelind Terry Ethelind Terry (14 August 1899 – 17 March 1984) was an American stage and film actress. Career Terry starred in one of the most famous Broadway shows of the 1920s, the musical '' Rio Rita'' produced by Florenz Ziegfeld. She also starre ...

is recorded in the 1939 Los Angeles City Directory as residing in the Villa Bonita. She was an opera and musical comedy actress starring in several productions, including “Sons O’ Guns” at the

Carthay Circle Theater The Carthay Circle Theatre was one of the most famous movie palaces of Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood's Golden Age. Located on San Vicente Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, it opened in 1926 and was demolished in 1969. The auditorium ...

in Los Angeles in 1932, and “Rio Rita” on

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. The proximity of Villa Bonita to Hollywood’s core commercial and entertainment district made 1817 Hillcrest Road a desirable address for those working in the local industry. Architect Frank Webster embraced the turn-of-the-20th-century period revival-style architecture trend with his design for Villa Bonita. Webster lived and worked in the Los Angeles area, completing designs for a variety of buildings in Southern California, including a two-story multifamily residential building located at 2601-11 Beachwood Drive in Hollywood (c. 1926), a three-story hotel in

Topanga Canyon Topanga () (Tongva: ''Topaa'nga'') is a census-designated place (CDP) in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located in the Santa Monica Mountains, the community exists in Topanga Canyon and the surrounding hills. The narrow s ...

(c. 1925), several buildings in

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

, and a five-story hotel and apartment building in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

(c. 1925). Due to the lack of scholarship regarding his work, it is difficult both to assess the extent of Webster’s architectural impact on Southern California and whether or not the buildings identified above are extant. The Villa Bonita, however, appears to be among his significant work. The building has a small lobby with marble floor, ornate moldings and brackets, and original chandelier. Metal mailboxes occupy a portion of the north wall. An original paneled elevator and a central stairway provide access to the upper floors. The building is bisected by an east-west hallway. Each of the 24 apartments contain a dining area, kitchens with breakfast nooks, and baths. Interiors are largely intact, featuring casement windows; entry has original cabinetry and hardware. A low wall surmounted by an ornamental iron fence encloses a small landscaped courtyard at the front of the building. No other features are present within the boundaries. Other tenants:

Emma Dunn Emma Dunn (26 February 1875 – 14 December 1966) was an English actress. After starting her acting career on stage in London, she became known for her works in numerous films and Broadway productions. Career Emma Dunn appeared onstage in ...

Carl Held Carl Held (born September 19, 1931), sometimes credited as Karl Held and Christopher Held, is an American actor who has worked extensively in both American and British television. Career Held is best known for his role as Garth in the 1980s s ...

(apt. 51),

Lois Collier Lois Collier (born Madelyn Earle Jones; March 21, 1919 – October 27, 1999) was an American actress born in Salley, South Carolina. She was sometimes credited as Lois Collyer. Early years Collier's father was Ernest Jones, a pharmacist, of S ...

and film director Walter Bacon. A photography book about the building titled ''Villa Bonita'' by photographer Pamela Littky with text from

Cameron Crowe Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an American journalist, author, writer, producer, director, actor, lyricist, and playwright. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, for wh ...

was released in 2016. See also: *

List of Registered Historic Places in Los Angeles This is a List of the National Register of Historic Places in the city of Los Angeles. (For those in the rest of Los Angeles County, go here.) Current listings :' ...

List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in Hollywood This is a list of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States. The list includes Hollywood, as well as Griffith Park and the communities of Los Feliz LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science an ...

* Hollywood Heights, Los Angeles

References

{{LAHMC Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Residential buildings completed in 1929 Apartment buildings in Los Angeles Buildings and structures in Hollywood, Los Angeles