But I still wondered how it got there and how I missed it. I had grown up just blocks away (it is at the high 80's, I grew up for a long time at Century Blvd, which is the 100 block).
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Today on the Big Orange Landmark site I found out.
Turns out when I was growing up, this was the site of Pepperdine College. There was a mansion there (pictured above) and 35 acres of grounds. Pepperdine built a school there and used the Mansion (called "The President's House") as the admin building.
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After they moved to Malibu in the 80's, they tried to sold the land around the campus, and tried to sell the building. The building was never sold.
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The ultimate owner even offered it free in 1986 if someone would move it.
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But, apparently the move and the land needed at the far end came to about $600,000 which the Mansion wasn't worth in 1986 (although it would have been a bargain a few years later). As a matter of fact it sounds really similar to the Ambassador Hotel which couldn't find a buyer, even at free.