Highland Park – IAMNOTASTALKER

October 24, 2017October 23, 2017

Rebecca’s Apartment from “Lights Out”

I am always tickled when I spot a location I have already stalked pop up in additional productions. Amazingly, that happened twice in the past month with today’s locale, the former Highland Park branch of the Security Trust & Savings Bank. I originally learned of the site thanks to its many appearances as the Battle Creek Police Department/FBI field office on CBS’ short-lived 2015 series Battle Creek, which was one of my and the Grim Cheaper’s favorites. I ran out to stalk the building the day after the show was given the ax, just prior to writing this Scene It Before post for Los Angeles magazine. Flash forward to earlier this month. Not only did I spy the branch in a Season 1 episode of my and the GC’s latest obsession, Leverage, which we have been feverishly binge-watching on Netflix, but I also recognized it immediately as the apartment building where Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) lived in the 2016 horror movie Lights Out, the main house from which I blogged about on October 3rd. So I figured that, even though I previously covered the building for LA mag, it was worthy of its own Haunted Hollywood write-up.

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The Security Trust & Savings Bank’s Highland Park branch was designed in 1923 by Parkinson & Parkinson, the father-and-son architecture team that also gave us Union Station (which I briefly blogged about here), Bullocks Wilshire (which I blogged about here), and Los Angeles City Hall (an oft-used filming spot that I somehow have yet to stalk).

Throughout the 1920s, Parkinson & Parkinson built a series of branches for the Security Trust chain, all of which boasted very similar brick and concrete Renaissance Revival-style façades. While there were about a dozen of the structures dotting the L.A. landscape at one time, most have been lost to the wrecking ball. But the Highland Park outpost still stands.

As does its sister branch and virtual twin, the former Security Trust & Savings Bank at 5303 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, which was erected in 1926 and currently houses The Federal Bar. That property (pictured below) has appeared in everything from Perception to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia to Parks and Recreation. You can read my 2015 post on it here.

The Highland Park structure, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #575, boasts 2 stories (plus a basement), 11,500 square feet of space, and a marble and granite interior.

I managed to snap a photo of that interior, which is really quite spectacular, through one of the building’s side windows while I was there.

I am unsure of the exact date that Security Trust & Savings shuttered the Highland Park branch or what the site was utilized for afterwards. In recent years, though, the property has been the cause of much controversy, beginning in 2004 when City Councilman Ed Reyes started spearheading a campaign to transform it into a “constituent service center” that would provide office space to several municipal departments. The only problem with Ed’s project, which was dubbed “Highland Park City Hall,” was that the building’s then owner, Dr. Richard Rutgard, wasn’t interested in selling – at least not for the price that was being proposed. The original bid of $1,590,000, made on September 30th, 2004, was quickly denied. In 2006, a higher offer of $2 million was introduced, but it was, again, declined. The city continued to make offers up until March 2007, to no avail. Then, the following month, a move was made to acquire the former bank branch via imminent domain. Rutgard subsequently filed a lawsuit and, though he did lose the property, he was eventually awarded a settlement of $725,000 in 2009.

The Highland Park City Hall project never found its footing, though, and the former bank was left vacant and unused, except for the occasional filming. And then things got really hinky. Per the California Code of Civil Procedure, if a site is taken over via imminent domain, the city has ten years to either complete its plans with said site or propose a reauthorization of the existing stated public use. If neither of those actions are taken, the property must be offered back to its original owner. In this case, the city did not complete (or even begin) the renovation project within the decade. And while a reauthorization was proposed, it was not done so by the ten-year deadline. Regardless of that fact and over objections from Rutgard’s lawyers, according to The Eastsider website council members went ahead and approved the reauthorization. What the wha? Talk about shady! Not to mention unethical and seemingly illegal (though I’m no lawyer, so what do I know?). I am unsure of where this leaves the bank, but hopefully it will be rehabilitated and brought back to its original glory à la The Federal in the near future.

Security Trust & Savings Bank’s Highland Park branch pops up a couple of times toward the beginning of Lights Out. It is there that Teresa first sees – and gets attacked – by the shadowy being that has been tormenting her brother at night. For those who have not seen the movie, the utterly creepy segment involves Teresa waking up to discover the specter at the end of her bed. If you’re feeling brave, you can check out a portion of the scene via the movie’s trailer here.

The bank building is shown from both its Avenue 56 and Figueroa Street sides in the film.

Only the exterior of the site appeared in Lights Out. The interior of Rebecca’s apartment was a soundstage-built set.

As I mentioned earlier, Security Trust’s Highland Park branch was also featured in an early episode of Leverage. In Season 1’s “The Bank Shot Job,” which aired in 2008, the building portrayed the Imperial Valley Bank in Juan, California, where Nathan Ford (Timothy Hutton) and his team thwarted a robbery.

The structure’s real life interior appeared in the episode, as well.

As I also mentioned earlier, the former bank portrayed Battle Creek PD on Battle Creek. Only the building’s Avenue 56 side was ever shown on the series.

The inside was not utilized, either. The interior of the Battle Creek Police Department, as well as that of the FBI field office were sets.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Security Trust & Savings Bank’s Highland Park branch, aka Rebecca’s apartment from Lights Out, is located at 5601 North Figueroa Street in Highland Park.

October 18, 2017October 20, 2017

The Smith Estate from “Insidious: Chapter 2”

Considering I’ve been stalking full-time for close to a decade and annually covering Haunted Hollywood locales for just about as long, you’d think I’d have the market on spooky sites cornered by now. That is definitely not the case, though. I am continuously discovering new-to-me spots, scary and otherwise, which speaks more to the vast history and landscape of Los Angeles than anything else. There’s always somewhere fresh to be explored in this magical place we call LaLaLand. One frequent horror film star that I only just learned about is the Smith Estate, a historic Highland Park Victorian so sufficiently looming and mysterious I fell in love with it upon sight. The pad literally looks like it was ripped right off a scary movie screen – so much so that I couldn’t help but pretend to be screaming in my ubiquitous header photo.

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The Smith Estate was originally built in 1887 for David P. Hatch, a practicing judge who also wrote books on the occult (fitting, considering his home!). I first came across information about the striking Queen Anne-style residence, which can be found at 5905 El Mio Drive, while researching the Finis E. Yoakum House, another Highland Park horror film regular that I blogged about here.

In the 1890s, the 4,528-square-foot, 6-bedroom, 3-bath pad, which sits on a 0.53-acre lot, was sold to Charles Smith, who ran the Los Angeles Railway’s Yellow Car trolley system. The Smith family continued to live on the premises through the late 1950s, garnering the home the moniker it is still known by today. (The house is also sometimes referred to as “El Mio,” after the street it is located on.)

In 1988, after a succession of different occupants, then L.A. deputy mayor Michael Gage and his wife, Lacey, purchased the Smith Estate, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

The Gages sold the dwelling to its current owners in 1997 for $290,000. Zillow estimates the property’s worth at just over $2 million today!

Situated atop a towering butte, the Smith Estate seems to loom over the entire city. As I got out of the car and walked up to it, all I could think was, ‘This is a real life house on Haunted Hill!’

Because of its elevated layout, the property can be viewed from all sides, which made for an unusual stalk.

The Grim Cheaper and I had a blast venturing 360 degrees around the structure snapping pics of every angle.

I absolutely love the photo below! Spooktastic!

Toward the lower portion of the sloped lot, we came across what we believe to be the home’s original garage. Because of the way it is situated, I am guessing that there is, or at least was at one time, some sort of underground passage leading from the garage to the residence.

At the front of the house is an adorable in-law unit situated above the property’s detached three-car garage.

I would so live there!

Due to its aesthetic, it is not hard to see how the home came to be a favorite of horror movie directors.

The Smith Estate’s most famous onscreen appearance is in 2013’s Insidious: Chapter 2, in which it portrays the residence of Lorraine Lambert (Barbara Hershey), where Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson), his wife, Renai (Rose Byrne), and their children move after having to leave their own house due to the events of the first film.

According to the movie’s production notes, director James Wan said of the property, “This was an amazing location. It’s really cool because the house is situated on the top of a mountain and the surrounding neighborhood houses are literally underneath it, so it is an amazing vantage point for views around Los Angeles.” The pad’s hill top locale truly does give its such a fabulously imposing presence. It would have such a different feel to it if it was situated on flat land.

The Smith Estate looks much the same in person as it did onscreen. Not much set decoration is needed to give the place that chilling quality horror flicks require.

The real life interior of the home was used in Insidious: Chapter 2, as well. Shooting on the premises really helped Rose Byrne get into character. In the production notes, she is quoted as saying, “These places they find are very eerie and weird, and dark and low-ceilinged, and that for me is very scary. I just think, ‘How could you live in this house?’ It’s just my sensibility; I’m just way too sensitive for it. Even more than the ghosts and all those sequences, it’s the houses that get me.” Me, too, Rose. Me too!

You can check out a video of the Smith Estate’s interior here.

In 1967’s Spider Baby, aka The Maddest Story Ever Told, the Smith Estate plays the role of the Merrye (pronounced “Mary”) House, home of the Merrye family, history’s only sufferers of Merrye Syndrome – “a progressive age regression” causing victims to retreat “beyond the prenatal level, reverting to a pre-human condition of savagery and cannibalism.” Yeah, I know – sounds like a real winner of a movie. Winking smile

The Smith Estate also portrays the mysterious residence that college student Scotty Parker (Rebecca Balding) moves into in 1979’s The Silent Scream, though the property is made to appear as if it is situated on the coast in the flick.

Unless the dwelling underwent a serious renovation after The Silent Scream was filmed, it seems that only its exterior was utilized in the flick. As you can see in the screen captures below as compared to the video I linked to earlier, not only is The Silent Scream home’s main stairwell in a completely different place than that of the Smith Estate, but the two interiors just don’t seem to match at all.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Smith Estate, from Insidious: Chapter 2, is located at 5905 El Mio Drive in Highland Park.

October 3, 2017October 3, 2017

The “Lights Out” House

“Lights Out Cast Accidentally Cursed the House Where they Filmed.” So blared a headline from an Entertainment Weekly article about the 2016 horror film. As you can imagine, the words had me drooling. I first learned about the movie back in January from fellow stalker “sparklesnow” who left a comment on one of my Instagram photos asking for some help in tracking down the large Tudor-style estate where virtually all filming took place. When I popped “Lights Out” and “house” in to a Google search, the EW column was the first item kicked back. In it, actor Alexander DiPersia was quoted as saying, “A week after we finished shooting the basement scene [which] is very terrifying, I got a call from friends saying, ‘Turn on the news.’ And the house was on fire, like right after we finished shooting. From the basement, smoke was emanating up. We cursed that place.” A locale that was not only featured in a horror flick, but that also got vexed by the production? Count me in! I couldn’t imagine a place more perfectly suited to my Haunted Hollywood postings. So I set right out to track it down.

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Thankfully, the search was not very hard. Being that Lights Out was released in July 2016, I knew that filming had to have taken place in 2015. So I scoured the internet for reports of any fires at L.A.-area residences that year and came across this Los Angeles Daily News article detailing a blaze that struck a three-story home located at 140 South Avenue 59 in Highland Park on November 7th. One look at Street View images of the dwelling in comparison to the pad shown in the movie’s trailer confirmed it was the right spot. Fortunately, the inferno, which was put out within 43 minutes of the fire department’s arrival, does not appear to have caused much damage to the locale because, as you can see below, the Lights Out house is currently standing and seemingly intact.

In real life, the property is known as the Finis E. Yoakum House, named for the doctor-turned-faith-healer who commissioned it. Following a serious buggy accident in Denver in 1894, Yoakum migrated to Los Angeles, hoping the city’s temperate climate would aid in his recovery from his many injuries. A few months after arriving in La La Land, he attended a Christian Alliance prayer meeting, where he was blessed by a priest and almost immediately healed. The experience inspired Yoakum to assist others who were suffering. In 1900, he opened up his Queen Anne-style residence at 6026 Echo Street in Highland Park to those in need, providing shelter, clothing and food for free. In return, the residents performed charitable acts and helped around the property, which Yoakum dubbed the Pisgah Home, named for the mountain from which Moses first spotted the promised land. It was not long before Finis’ crusade took on momentum, transforming into a religion that became known as the Pisgah Home Movement.

In short time, more space was needed to house Pisgah Home’s growing number of residents. Several cottages were added to the Echo Street property and those that couldn’t fit in the ancillary structures would sleep in tents in the yard. Yoakum and his wife even had to move into a tent themselves at one point so that their residence could be utilized for those in need. In 1915, Pisgah Home members constructed a new, much larger Tudor-style dwelling for Yoakum and his family just up the road at 140 South Avenue 59.

The doctor only lived in the lavish structure for five years before passing away in 1920. After his death, the various properties making up Pisgah Home, most of which still stand today, were divided up amongst his family and the Movement. The Finis E. Yoakum house, which is a Los Angeles Historic Cultural-Monument, was subsequently sold and today is a privately-owned residence.

The 19-room estate, which looks much the same today as it did when it was originally built, features 8 bedrooms, 5 baths, 6,140 square feet of living space, a finished basement, several fireplaces, a 0.41-acre plot of land, a large swimming pool, and a detached 2-car garage.

Sadly, not much of it can be seen from the street.

In Lights Out, the Finis E. Yoakum House served as the residence of Sophie (Maria Bello) and Martin (Gabriel Bateman). I watched the movie shortly before writing this post and, let me tell you, it is absolutely terrifying – in the best way possible. I mean, the trailer alone was enough to make me want to sleep with the lights on for at least a week.

The sprawling property was used extensively throughout the flick.

Even the real life interior (which is exquisite!) was utilized in the filming.

Though undeniably beautiful (that woodwork and detailing!), I can see why the house was chosen for the movie. It definitely has a looming quality to it. Those stairs and doors just look like they give good creak!

As Alexander DiPersia mentioned in the EW article, Lights Out’s basement scene was particularly harrowing. According to IMDB, the mannequins featured in the segment were not props, but actually belong to the Yoakum House owners, who store them in the cellar! Shudder! Whether or not the home was actually cursed during the production, causing the fire that later broke out there, I’ll never know, but one thing’s for sure – I wouldn’t ever want to set foot in that basement to find out!

The Yoakum House is actually a frequent horror film star. In the 2014 thriller Ouija, the property was featured as the home of Debbie Galardi (Shelley Hennig), though only interiors were used.

A residence just a few doors down at 5915 Echo Street was utilized for all exterior shots.

Well, almost all exterior shots. The Yoakum House’s pool did make an appearance in the film.

The dwelling also popped up in interior scenes in Ouija’s 2016 sequel, Ouija: Origin of Evil.

In non-horror-movie-related news, the Yoakum House portrayed the bed and breakfast owned by Heaton (Kevin Pollak) and Rita Upshaw (Illeana Douglas) in the 2013 dramedy Chez Upshaw. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior were utilized in the shoot.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Finis E. Yoakum House, aka Sophie and Martin’s residence from Lights Out, is located at 140 South Avenue 59 in Highland Park.

October 21, 2011September 29, 2017

Abbey San Encino from “Dexter”

As I have mentioned several times before on this blog, I absolutely cannot watch an episode of fave show Dexter without having my iPad next to me and a web-browser open to the Seeing Stars website’s extensive Dexter filming locations page. And this season has been no different. While watching the episode titled “Once Upon a Time . . . “ two Sundays ago, I became just a wee bit obsessed with the amazing abandoned church where serial killer Professor Gellar (aka Edward James Olmos) and his young protégé, Travis Marshall (aka Colin Hanks), conduct their various crimes. Gary, who runs Seeing Stars, of course, had the location listed on his site. As it turns out, it is a historic building named Abbey San Encino and it is located in the Highland Park area of Los Angeles, just west of South Pasadena. So, figuring it fit in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk the place this past weekend.

Abbey San Encino, a private home which took over a decade to construct, was designed and built by a wealthy printer/typographer named Clyde Browne. Clyde, who originally hailed from Ohio, had moved onto the property, into what was then just a frame building, with his wife Grace Wassum in 1904. In the summer of 1915, he began construction on his dream home which, according to a fabulous Big Orange Landmarks article, he modeled after several different historic properties including the chapel at Holyrod Palace in Scotland, Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo in Carmel-by-the-Sea, and Mission San Francisco de Solano in Sonoma. For his building materials, Clyde used a myriad of artifacts, such as bells, crucifixes, hinges, and lanterns, that colleagues picked up for him from various abandoned edifices across Europe. Browne also salvaged numerous materials from several defunct buildings in the Los Angeles area, most notably the Van Nuys Hotel, which had closed shortly following Prohibition. The 2,627-square-foot Abbey San Encino was finally completed in 1921 and boasted a chapel, a massive cellar, with what looks to be an actual jail cell, a bell tower, and a central courtyard. For whatever reason, Browne and his family did not move into their new home until 1924, three full years after it was completed. When Clyde passed away in 1942, his son moved into the Abbey where he raised Clyde’s two grandsons, songwriter Edward Severin Browne and singer Jackson Browne – yes, that Jackson Browne.

In fact, Jackson actually used a photograph of the Abbey’s inner courtyard on the cover of his second album, “For Everyman”. And, amazingly enough, his brother Edward still lives on the property, along with his wife, to this day.

Abbey San Encino is a true architectural wonder and was declared Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #106 on November 15, 1972.

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Abbey San Encino first showed up in the Season 6 episode of Dexter titled “Once Upon a Time . . .”, in the scene in which Travis dropped off several bags of mannequins at Professor Gellar’s lair.

The door through which Travis tossed the bags of mannequins is pictured above.

The interior of Professor Gellar’s hideout appears later in that same episode, in the scene in which the Professor reprimands Travis for visiting his sister. And while the interior shown on Dexter does resemble the real life inside of the Abbey, which you can see photographs of here, filming did not actually take place there. I believe that for all of the interior scenes, producers most likely built a set based on the actual inside of the Abbey at Sunset-Gower Studios in Hollywood where the series is lensed.

The interior of the hideout showed up once again at the very end of the “Once Upon a Time . . . “ episode, in the scene in which Travis brought the Professor a jogger named Nathan (aka David Monahan) whom he had kidnapped.

The exterior of the Abbey was also featured in this past Sunday night’s episode of Dexter, which was titled “Smokey and the Bandit”, and I am guessing that it will also be appearing in all of the future episodes of Season 6, as well. And, according to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, the property is going to be used as the new home of Russell Edgington (aka Denis O’Hare) in the upcoming season of True Blood.

Abbey San Encino–Dexter Filming Location

You can check out a video which shows interior photographs of Abbey San Encino by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Gary, from the Seeing Stars website, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Abbey San Encino, aka Professor Gellar and Travis Marshall’s hideout from Season 6 of Dexter, is located at 6211 Arroyo Glen Street in Highland Park. You can visit the property’s official website here.