Mount St. Mary’s College

Mount St. Mary’s College. Doheny Campus. , A Millionaire's Mansion Turned Scholars' Retreat , Hidden from the hubbub of traffic, Chester Place is one of Los Angeles' first Millionaires' Rows, and one of its last Victorien citadels. , The city's earliest gated enclave became the downtown Doheny Campus of Mount St. Mary's College. Since 1962, college leaders have carefully tended all seven of the century-old landmark homes of Chester Place, as well as two more mansions in next door St. James Park - all part of the campus. , The flagship residence is the 22-room Doheny mansion, where cardinals and a future king of England once dined. Chester Place owes its existence to Judge Charles Silent, who mapped out 15-acres for an elite residential park in 1885, and named it for his son Chester. , In the meantime, an oil tycoon, Edward L. Doheny, had sunk the first major oil well in Los Angeles in 1892 and had become rich. Doheny lived out of a Pullman car while he was traveling for business, and found himself smitten with the alluring voice of telephone operator Carrie Estelle Betzold. The two wed and in 1901 Doheny bought the ornate 10,500-square-foot mansion at 8 Chester Place. It was designed by architects Theodore Eisen and Summer P. Hunt and came fully furnished. Edward Jr, nicknamed Ned, Doheny's seven-year-old son from his first marriage, moved in with the newlyweds. , Mrs. Doheny disliked the décor and brightened up its gloomy French Gothic interior with remodeling projects that would go on for decades. She built a small zoo for deer, rare birds and monkeys and added the Pompeian Room, with its domed ceiling of Tiffany glass. Not far away, she built a bowling alley and a shooting gallery called the "Wigwam." The Wigwam is now the campus commuter lounge. , Tragedy And Scandal In High Places , Ned Doheny married in 1914 and moved with his wife into the mansion next door, 10 Chester Place. In November 1928, the couple and their five children moved to Greystone mansion in Beverly Hills. A few months later, Ned Doheny's crazed secretary shot and killed Ned and then himself. , Estelle Doheny converted to Catholicism in 1918 and five years later commissioned architect Albert C. Martin to build the Spanish baroque-style St. Vincent de Paul Church, which still anchors the neighborhood. , Her faith served her well when her husband's empire - along with President Warren G. Harding's administration - tottered under scandal in 1921. Doheny had allegedly sent a $100,000 bribe to an "old prospector friend,” Albert Fall, the interior secretary. , Fall gave Doheny and others no-bid leases of federal oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California. In 1928 Fall was convicted of taking bribes, and imprisoned. Two years later, however Doheny was acquitted of bribing Fall. , The Teapot Dome scandal and his only son's death put Doheny's name in the headlines. When the public began showing up at Chester Place to gawk, Doheny hired an armed guard, bought more homes around the estate and leased them to relatives, friends and associates, creating a private enclave. , A Legacy Of Charity And Faith , Doheny died in 1935 at age 79. Mrs. Doheny lost her eyesight in later years, which prompted her to endow the Doheny Eye Institute in 1947. But her vision for Chester Place was undiminished. When she died in 1958, her mansion and eight others there became the property of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which in turn asked the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet to establish a two-year college using the mansions of Chester Place. , Today, students from all over Southern California arrive at the Doheny Campus to earn a wide variety of degrees including an associate in arts degree to a doctorate degree in physical therapy. , The magnificent old homes, rich in architectural detail, are now classrooms, administrative offices, student dormitories, and residences for a few of the sisters.