"It once belonged to Julian Eltinge, a vaudeville performer who usually played women-so convincingly that audiences were often shocked when he revealed himself to be a man. Starring in musical comedies like The Fascinating Widow, The Crinoline Girl, and Cousin Lucy (all title roles written for him), Eltinge went on to become one of the highest paid movie stars of the 1920s. One prominent critic cleverly dubbed him "ambisexstrous.""
"Starring in musical comedies like The Fascinating Widow, The Crinoline Girl, and Cousin Lucy (all title roles written for him), Eltinge went on to become one of the highest paid movie stars of the 1920s. In 1918 Eltinge built a castle-like, Spanish Revival house atop a steep hill. Below it, he installed a formal "Andalusian garden." Water flowed from an octagonal fountain into a long, rectangular pool that ended near a pergola of classical columns."
A half-acre lot overlooking the Silver Lake Reservoir carries layered cultural and architectural history. The parcel once belonged to vaudeville star Julian Eltinge, noted for convincingly performing female roles and later becoming a top movie star; his estate included a castle-like Spanish Revival house and a formal Andalusian garden with an octagonal fountain, long rectangular pool, and classical-columned pergola. The Silver Lake neighborhood contains key queer-history sites such as the Mattachine Society and Black Cat Tavern protests. Ownership later passed to Charles Knill, then to Scott Boxenbaum, who agreed to restore the formal garden as a condition of sale.
Read at Architectural Digest
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