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Old Posted May 4, 2010, 4:53 PM
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GaylordWilshire GaylordWilshire is offline
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Location: NYC
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Sweet Daddy Grace

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It turns out that this Berkeley Square house had quite a colorful end. I've now got a name (but still few pictures) for just about every house built on Berkeley Square--some are of original builders, most are from the early-to-mid-20s, and some are of later tenants, such as Bishop C. M. ("Sweet Daddy") Grace. It seems that the bishop, the East Coast's answer to Sister Aimee, bought this house in 1958 and died in it less than two years later. And did Mr. Haig unload it on him knowing that the "10" was about to come through?

Jet magazine, March 20, 1958:

"Daddy Grace Pays $450,000 for Calif. Mansion"

"Plunking down $450,000 in cash, Bishop C. M. (Sweet) Daddy Grace bought a million-dollar, 85-room mansion in the swank Berkeley Square section of Los Angeles as a West coast haven for his flock. In Southern California's biggest residential deal in 25 years, the 74-year-old cult leader handed former owner Haig M. Prince "more than $300,000 in cash" plus approximately $150,000 in currency for the 42-year-old English Tudor estate. The showplace has a swimming pool, a grand ballroom with a $17,000 piano and $230,000 in Oriental rugs, Ming vases and artwork. At week's end, Grace's followers were busy painting the mansion red, white and blue."

Jet

Jet


Btw, I'm not sure who Mr. Haig was, but he built this building on the nw corner of Broadway and 2nd St.

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