THE STAIRS OF YAMASHIRO

For 88 years Yamashiro has watched over the history of Hollywood. It has witnessed the birth of the film industry, the glamour of Hollywood’s “Golden Age”, the difficult times of war with Japan, and the current period of intense interest in Eastern cultures. Yamashiro started as a fabulous private estate and is now open to the public as a unique restaurant and public gardens.

Yamashiro means “Mountain Palace” in Japanese. It was the dream of the Bernheimer brothers in 1911 to build a hilltop mansion 250 feet above Hollywood Boulevard to house their priceless collection of Asian treasures. Hundreds of skilled craftsmen were brought from the Orient to recreate an exact replica of a palace located in the “Yamashiro” mountains near Kyoto, Japan. This dream became a reality in 

1914.

When they finished Yamashiro in Hollywood, 300 steps led up the hillside through superbly landscaped Japanese gardens to the 10-room teak and cedar mansion, where carved rafters were lacquered in gold and tipped with bronze dragons. A Sacred Inner Court formed a lovely garden in the center of the building and was filled with sculptured plants, stone hewn pools and rare fish. This Inner Court provided light and air to the surrounding rooms where the walls were covered with lustrous silks and hung with antique tapestries.

Landscaping at Yamashiro was a $2 million effort and resulted in California’s foremost Japanese gardens. Hillside terraces were filled with 30,000 varieties of trees and shrubs, waterfalls, hundreds of goldfish, and even a private zoo of exotic birds and monkeys. Miniature bronze houseboats floated 

along a maze of tiny canals through a miniature Japanese village.

 

In 1914, department store magnates the Bernheimer brothers built an exact replica of a Japanese palace on a hilltop in Hollywood to house their Asian art collection. They also constructed a 300-foot private cement staircase that went down the hill from the property into the back of the Magic Castle.


(the magic castle~ circa 1915

In the late 1920′s after the death of one of the brothers, the art collection was auctioned off and the palace served as the headquarters for the exclusive “400 Club,” created for Hollywood’s burgeoning movie business elite. It became Tinsel Town’s first celebrity hang-out, with all of the glittery chaos that such a concern would attract.

The building now houses the Japanese restaurant Yamashiro, accessed from Sycamore Avenue.

Today you can still see the 600-year-old pagoda which was brought from Japan and set beside a lake which once housed rare black Australian swans and is now converted into a modern swimming pool. Most of the Asian collection, however – the Buddhist and Satsuma art, the rare jades, tapestries and cloisonne chandeliers – were auctioned off in 1922 after one of the Bernheimer brothers died.

All that remains of the original steps is the top portion and the Asian-style architectural adornment in the form of a covered patio.  Rick Castro calls them the "Ghost steps." Castro says the missing steps are ghosts of a sort too. He imagines the the stars of the day and their entourages traipsing up and down them.  

Although most well-versed patrons are aware of Yamo’s famed cinematic history as the ideal spot for Hollywood flicks and TV shows; what they may not know is that, following her birth as the Bernheimer house, she also had a prior life as an elite film industry club, boys military school and brothel during the Great Depression – offering tourist rides for 25 cents and attention by actresses in desperate times.

At the onset of World War II, Yamashiro also came under attack by vandals as a victim of racism and was nearly destroyed by such damage until eventually purchased by Mr. Thomas Glover in 1948 for $50,000 – acquiring it only under the stipulation that Yamashiro must be allowed to operate undisturbed and unharmed. 12 years later, Yamashiro officially opened as a prominentJapanese restaurant in 1960 and remains under the current ownership of 11 Glover descendants today. Throughout the course of her life, the property went through serious changes both physical and otherwise. From what once began as a 10 acre, 10 room property laden with lacquered gold carvings, bronze dragons, 30,000 variants of plants and fish, an imported 600 year old pagoda (the oldest structure in California) and a daunting 300-step staircase leading up the hill from ground level has now become host to a magician’s club and two adjacent hotels – all of them adding to the “Hollywood’s biggest secret” repertoire of Yamashiro.

this story by Jason Ram- former employee 

posting complied by jason ram~ chal pivik & rick castro~ hollywood/antebellum correspondents