LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) vigorously will oppose a Hollywood developer’s plans to destroy a building steeped in seven decades of Hollywood history to make way for a mixed-use luxury project near Sunset and Vine. AHF also will file a formal nomination with the City of Los Angeles to designate the building an Historic-Cultural Monument.
The building is a two-story craftsman home at 6263 Leland Way built in 1911. Off Vine Restaurant had occupied the space for the past 34 years but closed permanently last Sunday (3/26/23). Starlet Beryl Wallace, who appeared in numerous Hollywood films and starred nightly in risqué revues at the nearby Earl Carroll Theater on Sunset Boulevard, lived in the home before it became ‘Off Vine.’
“Joni Mitchell famously sang ‘they paved paradise to put up a parking lot.’ This is exactly what will happen to the Beryl Wallace home if the developer is permitted to tear it down. It will become the entrance to an underground parking lot for another luxury development that will do absolutely nothing to address Los Angeles’ affordable housing crisis,” said Michael Weinstein, president of AHF. “We will do everything we can to block the demolition of the Off Vine/Beryl Wallace home as we separately seek its designation as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.”
Throughout the 1930s and ‘40s, Earl Carroll and Beryl Wallace were cultural institutions in Hollywood as well as professional and romantic partners. Carroll bought the Leland Way home for Wallace, and his Carroll Theater sported one of the most famous Hollywood landmarks: a 20-foot neon facial portrait of Wallace. The two died together in a Pennsylvania plane crash in June 1948.
Marilyn Wallace, a longtime AHF Board member and Beryl’s younger sister, lived at the Leland Way home in her youth. The Wallace family owned the property until 2019.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides cutting-edge medical care and services to more than 1.7 million individuals in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region, and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, visit us online at AIDShealth.org, find us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, and subscribe to our Ahfter Hours podcast.