Greystone Mansion

Greystone Mansion, sometimes referred to as the Doheney Mansion is located in Beverly Hills,CA. This should definitely be a stop when visiting the L.A. area or Beverly Hills. Today the grounds (18.5 acres) are a Beverly Hill's city park open to the public and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The mansion itself is only open for special occasions. Over the decades, the mansion and grounds changed ownership several times and eventually was willed to the City of Beverly Hills. The mansion has been and will continue to be the site of many social gatherings.

The history of the mansion and the grounds is a much more interesting story and if you do visit you will want to know not only why and by whom it was built but also the very sad tale of it's original occupants. This mansion was at one time the scene of one of the Los Angeles areas most perplexing tragedies that had ties all the way to Washington D.C.


The home was built in 1926 at a cost of over $3 million and comprised 55 rooms in 46,000 square feet. It was built by Edward.L. Doheney for his son Ned and his new bride. E.L. Doheney was one of the richest men in the country at that time. He was one of the first oilmen to develop wells in Los Angeles proper. From there the oil baron's wealth spread with oil pumping out of the ground at many U.S. locations as well as from Mexico.

When historians speak of E.L. Doheney they invariably remember the old Teapot Dome scandal that took place in the early 1920's during the administration of President Harding. Many books have been written regarding the scandal but in short it had to do with bribes from oilmen to administration officials in Washington to gain access to the governments oil fields. Teapot Dome was a government owned oil field in Wyoming and part of the Naval Reserve supply. Edward L. Doheney himself (as well as Harry Sinclair of Sinclair Oil) was implicated in the scandal and essentially accused of bribing Harding's Interior Secretary Albert Fall. Allegedly Doheney's son Ned and his secretary Hugh Plunkett withdrew and delivered the bribe to Fall in a hotel room upon his father's orders.

Albert Fall, on left

The story ends sadly in late 1928. The Teapot Dome investigation was beginning to heat up. The next thing that happens is that both young Ned Doheney and Hugh Plunkett are found shot dead late at night at the mansion and not long before both were to testify about their involvement with the bribe to Albert Fall. This occurred only four months after the young Doheney, his wife, children and servants moved into the newly built mansion. The police were called several hours after the bodies were found and there were many questions left unanswered. Was it murder or murder/suicide?


There is much more to this story and there are several interesting books that are excellent reads. The story involves politics, oil money and government officials and a lot of side stories spin off from the main plot.


The Greystone park area today offers beautiful scenery and is definitely worth a visit and presents a good picture taking opportunity.


Here are websites that offer additional information:


www.greystonemansion.org


www.seeing-stars.com/live/Greystone.shtml


www.beverlyhills.org/attractions/greystone/default.asp