Events Calendar

Wednesday May 26th at 7:00 PM. A prime Hancock Park 1927 Mediterranean Revival Architectural Masterpiece has been fully renovated, restored, decorated and enhanced into its present pristine  condition by the legendary design firm of Ron Wilson Interiors and its owner, Joseph Guidera as his personal residence.  This distinctive estate has all the hallmarks of a truly unique and special property: built in the 1920s for a direct descendant of Los Angeles oldest original Spanish land grant holding families, designed for large-scale entertaining and yet with many smaller intimate personal spaces in a grand period revival style by noted architects, constructed by a local well know builder of most prestigious luxury homes of the era, and now restored to all of its former glory.

$25 Member price (Pay Below with a small Paypal fee)*
$35 Non-member price (Pay Below with a small Paypal fee)*
*After your purchase you will be emailed the special presentation link by 6pm the day before the presentation and by 12pm on the day of the presentation.

Wednesday May 26th at 7:00 PM

The Windsor Square Hancock Park Historical Society

presents its first

History and Virtual Home Tour of 330 N. June Street

Featuring an interview and guided tour through this historic property by President Richard Battaglia and home owner Joseph Guidera followed by question and answer period with Mr. Guidera.

Patrick J. Watson was born in 1876 to his parents, Colonel James Alexander Watson of Scotland and Maria Dolores Dominguez on the old Manual Dominguez Rancho, which encompasses much of present day cities of Torrance, Wilmington, Compton, Carson, San Pedro and the South Bay area of Los Angeles. This was the first Spanish land grant in CA from King Carlos of Spain. Patrick Watson was the vice president of the Watson Land Co and in 1923, he sold his share of the original Rancho property to The Pan American Oil Company which was a subsidiary of the Doheny Company. In the mid-1920s, Patrick Watson & his wife, Miss Mamie O’Farrell of San Francisco, were looking to move off of the original Rancho property and decided to build a new home for themselves in the fashionable and developing area of Hancock Park.

Patrick hired the notable Architectural firm of Hunt & Burns to design his new family estate on a large double access lot located on a prominent corner in the new district of Hancock Park.  During their tenure together, Sumner P. Hunt and Silas R. Burns built some of the most beautiful buildings in the Los Angeles area including:  Automobile Club of Southern California, Headquarters – 1921-1923, Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles – 1910, The Wilshire – Ebell Club, Clubhouse – 1926-1927, Los Angeles Public Library, Vermont Square Branch – 1913, McKinley House, Lafayette Park, Los Angeles, CA – 1917, Scripps College, Claremont, CA – 1929, The Los Angeles Tennis Club – 1927 and The Wilshire Country Club – 1919.

For his new home, Patrick Watson would enlist the services of the Sweden-born master builder C.J. Nordquist who had a well-deserved reputation for building some of the grandest homes and public buildings in Los Angeles.

August 25th, 7:00 PM. Do you want to read something funny?  Let’s say, a novel set at a divorce ranch in Reno in the 1930s?  A book with memorably eccentric characters, sparkling dialogue, a satisfying plot twist, and some romance and sex?  A feel-good literary comedy/western?  Here it is, then, the book you’ve been looking for: Julia Claiborne Johnson’s Better Luck Next Time.”— author of Dear Committee Members and The Shakespeare Requirement

The eagerly anticipated second novel from the bestselling author of Be Frank with Me, a charming story of endings, new beginnings, and the complexities and complications of friendship and love, set in late 1930s Reno.
$10 Presentation only  – Members (Pay Below with small Paypal fee)*
$15 Presentation only  – Non Members (Pay Below with small Paypal fee)*
$31.74 Better Luck Next Time book signed by author Julia Claiborne Johnson – Available for pick up at Chevalier’s Bookstore or shipped for an additional $6
*After your purchase you will be emailed the special presentation link by 6pm the day before the presentation and by 12pm on the day of the presentation.

The Windsor Square Hancock Park Historical Society

presents

BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME

with author Julia Claiborne Johnson

Please join us WEDNESDAY August 25th, 7:00 PM

It’s 1938 and women seeking a quick, no-questions split from their husbands head to the “divorce capital of the world,” Reno, Nevada. There’s one catch: they have to wait six weeks to become “residents.” Many of these wealthy, soon-to-be divorcees flock to the Flying Leap, a dude ranch that caters to their every need.

Twenty-four-year-old Ward spent one year at Yale before his family lost everything in the Great Depression; now he’s earning an honest living as a ranch hand at the Flying Leap. Admired for his dashing good looks—“Cary Grant in cowboy boots”—Ward thinks he’s got the Flying Leap’s clients all figured out. But two new guests are about to upend everything he thinks he knows: Nina, a St Louis heiress and amateur pilot back for her third divorce, and Emily, whose bravest moment in life was leaving her cheating husband back in San Francisco and driving herself to Reno.

A novel about divorce, marriage, and everything that comes in between (money, class, ambition, and opportunity), Better Luck Next Time is a hilarious yet poignant examination of the ways friendship can save us, love can destroy us, and the family we create can be stronger than the family we come from.

Sunday, December 12th, 5 – 7pm. Please save the date to join us for our annual Holiday Party at the Landmark Home of Joseph Guidera.

**SOLD OUT**

5pm – 7pm

303 North June Street

$45 for Members
$55 for Member’s Guests
Open to members and guests who have been vaccinated

The Windsor Square Hancock Park Annual Tea has been sold out. We look forward to seeing you there.

Please mark your calendars to join your fellow members of the Historical Society for our annual holiday party on Sunday, December 11th at 1:00. This year we will be enjoying the festivities at the much-loved 100-year-old Tam O’Shanter in Atwater Village. This was Walt Disney’s favorite place for lunch and the plaque on table 31 is a testament to it.  Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, fresh salmon, roasted chicken, Martinis and rum toddies, etc.

Sunday, December 11th at 1:00
Tam O’Shanter
2980 Los Feliz Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039

Festive all year long and especially this time of year.

Members: $75
Guests: $85

*This event is SOLD OUT*

You are cordially invited to attend
THE WINDSOR SQUARE HANCOCK PARK HISTORICAL SOCIETY
ANNUAL TEA

Sunday, February 26th, 2023
1pm – 4pm
Wilshire Country Club
301 North Rossmore

Special Guest
Councilwoman Katy Young Yaroslavsky

Guest Speaker
Photographer & Author Tom Zimmerman
Spectacular Illumination: Neon Los Angeles 1925-1965

Please join us for our annual Holiday Christmas Party at world-famous Lawry’s Prime Rib this year. The original location was on Restaurant Row on La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California, and was opened in 1938 by Lawrence L. “Lawry” Frank and Walter Van de Kamp. It now has restaurants all over the world.

Please bring a Toys For Tots gift.

Member and guests: $125 (with a small Paypal fee)

Our Holiday dinner will be in the Oval Room, can hold up to 100 and includes:

PLATED HORS D’OEUVRES
Potato Pancakes with Caviar & Creme Fraiche

SALAD COURSE
Lawry’s Famous Original Spinning Bowl Salad
Crisp romaine, iceberg lettuce, baby spinach, shredded beets, chopped eggs, croutons, Lawry’s Vintage Dressing, with sourdough bread

ENTREE SELECTIONS
The server will take orders for the choice of one at dinner
Roasted Prime Ribs of Beef
8 oz. Cut Carved to order, served with mashed potatoes, Yorkshire pudding,au jus, whipped cream horseradish
Choice of:
Creamed Spinach
Creamed Corn
Salmon Rockefeller
Skuna Bay salmon, sautéed spinach, scampi shrimp
Crispy Roasted Chicken
Half of a jidori bird, wilted chard
Vegetarian Entrée of the Day

DESSERTS
Vanilla Ice with hot fudge ( no berries)

Classic Dinner
Includes freshly brewed Lavazza Coffee or Harney & Sons Hot Tea

For more on the rich delicious history of Lawry’s go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawry%27s_The_Prime_Rib

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