(Flickr pic by Girlfactor.)
(Flickr pic by Phoebe Prescott.)
The L.A. Times today calms down fears that Yamashiro Restaurant or the Magic Castle are in danger. But, as the paper reports, the land beneath the properties is indeed for sale:
The family that has owned the properties since shortly after World War II has been flooded with offers from developers that want to add new structures to the 10-acre site, which is near Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood & Highland and other attractions, a broker said today.
The terms of any sale would stipulate that Yamashiro and the Magic Castle, a private club for magicians, would continue to operate as they have for decades, according to the manager of the properties.
The owners are descendants of mid-century landlord Thomas O. Glover, who bought Yamashiro for $150,000 in 1948. Glover's 11 descendants are ready to give up day-to-day control, his step-grandson Andy Ulloa said.
Bids have already surpassed $70 million, says the paper, which also noted the history of both landmarks:
The Magic Castle is an Edwardian mansion with French and Gothic elements built in 1908 by Redlands financier and orange grower Rollin Lane and his wife, Katherine. His family moved away in the 1940s, and by the 1960s it was a maze of small apartments.
Glover and television writer Milt Larsen turned it into a clubhouse for magicians in 1963, and today it is headquarters for the Academy of Magical Arts Inc. Magicians perform nightly for guests of the academy, who have to have reservations and know the password to open a sliding bookcase in the lobby and get inside.
Yamashiro is a replica of a palace in the Yamashiro Mountains near Kyoto, Japan. It was completed in 1914 by the Bernheimer brothers, who wanted a mansion to house their Asian art collection and brought hundreds of craftsmen from the Orient to build it. The grounds were elaborately landscaped, and a 600-year-old pagoda was imported -- now probably the oldest structure in California.
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