Author: Vanessa Armstrong / Source: Atlas Obscura
If you visited Hollywood, California, you would likely walk by the Chinese Theater and try to avoid the heckling, slightly off-trademark superheroes cajoling people for tips.
If you pushed through the tourist-laden crowds and walked a couple of blocks north, you might also glimpse a turreted building nestled at the foot of the Hollywood Hills with the words “The Magic Castle” emblazoned in front. If you were lucky enough to know a member and get inside this private club, you would be dazzled by its five bars adorned with oddities such as stuffed owls and a miniature floating blimp, as well as its four theaters that range in size from 26 seats (for intimate, close-up magic) to 130 seats (for stage magic).If you traveled 80 miles east of Hollywood to the small, palm tree-lined town of Redlands, you might stumble across Kimberly Crest, an elegant mansion inspired by 16th-century French chateaus and surrounded by a little over six acres of manicured gardens. If you happened to be there on a day they gave tours, you could walk through the house’s well-preserved rooms, which reflect the rich life of the family that had lived there for three-quarters of a century.
What you might not realize, however, is that these two landmarks—the Magic Castle and Kimberly Crest—started out as nearly identical buildings.
But nothing remains static. Over the last century, California has changed, and these buildings have changed with it, becoming two distinct landmarks that represent two different towns. Their paths diverged early in their histories, causing their very architecture to shift in ways that reflected their residents and the community around them.
How they each got to their current state is a story in itself.
1897-1909: The Beginning
It began in 1897 in Redlands, California. Cornelia Hill, a well-to-do woman who had traveled across the globe, moved to the area from New York’s Hudson Valley after losing her husband and at least three of her six daughters to tuberculosis. She bought three-and-a-half acres on a hill and had the home built that same year for $13,000. The building was in the châteauesque style, inspired by the castles that dotted Europe in the 16th century. This elaborate house was the only one of its kind in Redlands (one of the few on the West Coast, in fact) and was surrounded by a citrus grove that covered most of the land, save for a fountain and a small lawn.
Hill didn’t spend many years in the house, however, and in 1905 she sold it to John Alfred Kimberly for $29,000. Kimberly was one of the founders of the multinational personal care company Kimberly-Clark, and he and his wife Helen moved from Wisconsin to Redlands, ostensibly to retire. The mansion soon became known as Kimberly Crest, and the couple did a few immediate renovations, including enclosing an outside portico and removing most of the citrus groves to put in Italian-style gardens.
Soon after the Kimberlys settled in Redlands, they became acquainted with Rollin Lane, another Wisconsin native who was an officer at the local bank. In addition to knowing each other through business (Lane was likely involved in the deal in which the Kimberlys bought the house), the Lanes knew the Kimberlys socially; an article from the time talked about Rollin and his wife Katherine winning a card tournament at a party held in the Kimberlys honor.
According to the architectural historian George Siegel, Lane liked Kimberly Crest so much that he used its blueprints when he built his own house in Los Angeles. The Lane Residence, which was commonly called the Holly Chateau, was completed in 1909 on a small notch of land carved out of a larger tract that encompassed the hill that rises abruptly behind the house. Given its smaller lot size, the building did not have gardens on the same scale as Kimberly Crest and was surrounded by commercial lots and residential plots for more modest homes.
At first, the only major difference between the two structures was that, for unknown reasons, the large tower and the turret on the south side of the buildings were swapped.
1910-1945: Two Prestigious Private Residences
The first few decades of the houses were similar, with both the Lanes and the Kimberlys holding parties with the other socialites in their respective towns.
At the Holly Chateau, little of note happened during this time, save for Katherine Lane entertaining people ranging from children at a local orphanage to the president of the Hollywood Women’s Club. At Kimberly Crest, the family oversaw some additions to the estate. In 1925, they constructed an additional bedroom that enclosed…
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