Events Calendar
Welcome to the Windsor Square Hancock Park Historical Society Calendar. We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events.
Most of us know Patty from being the recently elected President of The Ebell, proprietor of The Larchmont Buzz, a longtime member of the society, and resident of Fremont Place and She currently serves as a member of the Fremont Place Association Board. During her busy life, she somehow found time to write a book on the origin and history of everyone’s favorite street, Larchmont Boulevard. The book is available at Chevalier’s Book Store and the society and Chevalier are teaming up to help each other out during these odd times. Patty has new photos as well as information not shared in the book previously. With her unique presentation, Patty is happy to sign and personalize each book purchased through the historical society. Each book will be purchased directly by us from Chevalier’s Book Store and hand-delivered by elves directly to your door with your desired personalized greeting in it. Please think of friends and family who may like this sweet gift for Christmas, Chanukah, birthdays, etc. Presentation: $10 Presentation + copy of book: $30 (+small paypal fee) Zoom link will be provided after purchase of tickets
Windsor Square Hancock Park Historical Society
PRESENTS
Larchmont Blvd
by
Patricia Lombard
Wednesday
November 18
@7:00pm
Presentation + copy of book: $30
Just Presentation: $10
(+small paypal fee)
Zoom link will be provided after purchase of tickets
![](https://windsorsquarehancockpark.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Larchmont-Blvd-Book.jpg)
Most of us know Patty from being the recently elected President of The Ebell, proprietor of The Larchmont Buzz, a longtime member of the society, and resident of Fremont Place and She currently serves as a member of the Fremont Place Association Board. During her busy life, she somehow found time to write a book on the origin and history of everyone’s favorite street, Larchmont Boulevard. The book is available at Chevalier’s Book Store and the society and Chevalier are teaming up to help each other out during these odd times. Patty has new photos as well as information not shared in the book previously. With her unique presentation, Patty is happy to sign and personalize each book purchased through the historical society. Each book will be purchased directly by us from Chevalier’s Book Store and hand-delivered by elves directly to your door with your desired it to be personalized. Please think of friends and family who may like this sweet gift for Christmas, Chanukah, birthdays, etc.
![](https://windsorsquarehancockpark.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Larchmont-Patty-Lombard.jpg)
Presentation: $10
Presentation + copy of book: $30
(+small paypal fee)
Zoom link will be provided after purchase of tickets
Larchmont Chronicle pioneer and historical society co-founder, Jane Gilman has written a book about what she knows best, Hancock Park. She puts Hancock Park into the palm of your hand with ease and grace. This is a sweet book that would be a great gift for the holidays. Each book will be purchased directly by us from Chevalier’s Bookstore and autographed by Jane, herself. Please think of friends and family who may like this sweet gift of Hancock Park for Christmas, Chanukah, birthdays, etc.
$30 + ($3 shipping) includes personalized book + presentation
$30 curb-side pick up of personalized book at Chevalier’s Bookstore
$10 for just Jane’s Zoom presentation
The
Hancock Park Windsor Square
Historical Society
PRESENTS
Inside Hancock Park
by Jane Gilman
December 16, 2020 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Please join us in celebrating Jane’s new book wonderfully capturing the history of Hancock Park. Jane Gilman is the former president of the Historical Society and former longtime owner of our terrific local paper The Larchmont Chronicle. She was the first recipient of the Greater Miracle Mile Chamber of Commerce “Trailblazer Award” and our own local treasure.
$30 + ($3 shipping) includes personalized book + presentation
$30 curb-side pick up of personalized book at Chevalier’s Bookstore
$10 for just Jane’s Zoom presentation
(Pay below with a small Paypal fee)
Following your purchase you will receive your personal password to the presentation on the day of the event .
![VIRTUAL HOME TOUR 303 N. JUNE ST. @ Virtual Event](https://windsorsquarehancockpark.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/DSC_2244b-300x218.jpg)
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
![](https://windsorsquarehancockpark.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Better-Luck-Next-Time-674x1024.jpg)
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.
Wednesday, September 22nd. 7:00 PM. In 1933, “Fortune” magazine suggested to the American fashion industry that they could benefit from the showmanship demonstrated by the Hollywood designers in order to compete with the French couturiers. The Hollywood designer “Fortune” most praised was Adrian of M-G-M. It was a logical choice as Adrian’s design for Joan Crawford in the 1932 film “Letty Lynton” dominated the fashion industry for the next two years. Join us for Adrian, American Designer, Hollywood Original by Richard Matukonis-Adkins.
$10 Presentation only – Members (Pay Below with small Paypal fee)*
$15 Presentation only – Non Members (Pay Below with small Paypal fee)*
$55 Presentation and electronic book, Member price (Pay Below with small Paypal fee)
$60 Presentation and electronic book, Non-Member price (Pay Below with small Paypal fee)
Purchase e-book or additional e-books separately
*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
Adrian, American Designer, Hollywood Original
with author Richard Matukonis-Adkins
Please join us Wednesday, September 22nd. 7:00 PM
![](https://windsorsquarehancockpark.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Adrian-American-Designer-748x1024.jpg)
Despite offers to go into the retail business as early as 1928, Adrian did not enter the commercial fashion world until 1942, after leaving M-G-M, but taking his fame with him. In 1944 he would win the prestigious Coty Award for fashion design. One of the reasons he did so was his innovative Trompe l’oiel painted imagery on fabric, a tasteful solution to the L-85 fabric restrictions of World War II. So proud of the award was Adrian that he added the line “American Designer” to all his advertisements in the prestigious fashion magazines.
By 1952, he had achieved all his dreams. He was famous, successful, married to a lovely woman, movie star Janet Gaynor, father to a son, Robin, had traveled to Africa, and was working happily in fashion, theatre, and fine art. Unfortunately, a weak heart demanded he give up his fashion business. His “retirement” however, was hardly inactive.
Attendance at a film festival in Brazil in 1952 led the Adrians to build – by hand – a home outside the new capital of Brasilia. They spent half their year in Brazil and half in Los Angeles. Janet made a return to movies in 1957, and Adrian designed his first stage production since 1924, a musical version of his film hit “Grand Hotel”. Dual offers came to Janet and Adrian to continue theatrical work, her to star in “Midnight Sun” with Arthur Hill, and for Adrian to design for the musical which became “Camelot” and for which he was awarded a posthumous Tony Award, shared with Tony Duquette, who completed the production after Adrian suddenly died three months into the assignment.
The nostalgia boom began just a few years after Adrian’s passing, but the surviving pieces of his film work were soon commanding high prices at auctions, with the Judy Garland-worn ruby slippers becoming the most valuable of all movie artifacts. Also, his couturier work began to be presented in museum exhibitions all over the world.
According to their son, Robin, neither Janet nor Adrian dwelt in the past. He would probably be a little surprised at the attention his work still receives, but would nonetheless be pleased about it, I’m sure.
I have studied Adrian and his work for the last two decades, with the result being my book, “Adrian – American Designer, Hollywood Original” and I am pleased to be able to share new information with those familiar with his work and to introduce him to new audiences who know the designer, but not as much about the man.
![A Garden Tour](https://windsorsquarehancockpark.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/gardentour-194x300.jpg)
LOVE GARDENS?
The Windsor Square Hancock Park Historical Society is showcasing 5 beautiful local gardens.
Enjoy Music, Plant Sale & Raffle Items
Docents available at each garden.
Refreshments will be served.
JUNE 5, 1-5pm
Tour begins at 166 S. Plymouth
Members $40
Non-Members $50
Partner Organization $40