After an at times rancorous debate over the future of a lavish Beverly Hills estate, the City Council affirmed the previous findings of staff that the house at 1001 N. Roxbury Drive is not historic. The meeting stretched long past midnight – the second time, for this particular issue–and forced the Council to grapple with potential shortcomings of the city’s tools to protect historic buildings.
The 10,000-square-foot property was built in 1942 for Mildred Naylor by Beverly Hills master architect Carleton Burgess in the Regency Revival style. Many celebrities and luminaries have been neighbors to the house, including George and Ira Gershwin, Lucille Ball, Diane Keaton, and Madonna, but itself has never been owned by a “person of great importance,” according to a staff report.
