You’re driving through the pristine, manicured flats of Beverly Hills, surrounded by crisp white Neoclassical mansions and minimalist glass boxes that cost forty million dollars. Then, you turn the corner at Walden Drive and Carmelita Avenue. Suddenly, the 21st century vanishes. You are staring at a house that looks like it was melted by a blowtorch and then left to rot in a dark forest. This is the Witch's House Beverly Hills, though its formal name is the Spadena House. It’s weird. It’s jagged. It honestly looks like it belongs in a Brothers Grimm nightmare rather than a zip code famous for Rodeo Drive and plastic surgery.
Most people assume it’s just some eccentric billionaire's vanity project. They’re wrong.
The story behind this place is actually way more Hollywood than that. It wasn't even built in Beverly Hills. It started its life as a movie set in Culver City. Back in 1921, Willat Studios needed a dressing room and office space that doubled as a functional set for silent films like Hansel and Gretel. The architect, Harry Oliver, was a legend in the "Storybook" movement. He didn't want straight lines. He hated them. He wanted the roof to sag like it was weighed down by centuries of moss and sorrow. When the studio went bust, the house didn't die. A producer named Ward Lascelle actually moved the entire structure to its current spot in 1926. Think about that for a second. They hauled this crooked, crumbling-looking wooden mass across town before the 405 freeway even existed.
The Architecture of a Nightmare
If you look closely at the Witch's House Beverly Hills, you’ll notice the details are intentionally "bad." The stucco is pitted and uneven. The shingles on the roof are laid in a chaotic, overlapping pattern that makes it look like the house is molting. This style is called Storybook architecture, a brief but intense design craze in Los Angeles during the 1920s.
Hollywood was booming. Veterans were coming home from World War I after seeing European villages that were hundreds of years old. They wanted that "old world" charm, but they wanted the Hollywood version of it. Harry Oliver took it to the extreme. He gave the Spadena House a moat. A real, functional moat filled with green water and koi fish. There are wooden shutters that look like they were hacked out of a tree with a dull axe.
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It’s tiny. At least, it looks tiny from the street.
The house sits on a corner lot, and the landscaping is just as aggressive as the building. High, spindly fences and overgrown, twisted greenery shield the private residence from the thousands of tourists who stop their Ubers every day to snap a photo. It’s a private home. People actually live there. Imagine trying to eat your cereal while a tour bus idles outside your breakfast nook.
The Man Who Saved the Witch
By the 1990s, the house was falling apart. Stucco was crumbling. The "charming" decay was becoming "actual" decay. The land in Beverly Hills is worth so much more than any single house, so the threat of the bulldozer was very real. Most buyers saw a teardown. They saw a chance to build another boring, beige box.
Then came Michael Libow.
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Libow, a prominent local real estate agent, didn’t want to flip it. He wanted to save it. He bought the Witch's House Beverly Hills in 1998 and spent years meticulously renovating it. But he didn’t "modernize" it in the way most people do. He leaned into the weirdness. He hired experts to make the interior match the exterior. Most people don't realize that when he bought it, the inside was actually pretty standard for the 20s. Now? It’s a labyrinth of custom-carved wood, uneven floors, and Gaudi-esque curves.
The renovation wasn't just a weekend project. It was an obsession. Libow worked with production designers to ensure that every new piece of wood looked ancient. He kept the moat. He kept the "creepy" vibe. He essentially turned a movie set that became a house back into a living piece of cinema.
Why We Are Still Obsessed
Why do we care about a lopsided house in a neighborhood of giants?
Contrast.
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Beverly Hills is a place of curated perfection. It is a city of "the look." The Spadena House is an affront to that. It’s the architectural equivalent of a middle finger to the HOA. It reminds us of a time when Hollywood was a wild west of creativity, where you could literally move a fake cottage into a residential neighborhood and call it a day.
There’s also the Halloween factor. For decades, this has been the spot for trick-or-treating. It’s reported that thousands of kids descend on this single corner every October 31st. The owner leans into it, often decorating with even more elaborate, spooky displays. It’s one of the few places in LA where the myth of the city meets the reality of the city.
Misconceptions You Should Drop
- No, it wasn't built for a movie star. It was built for a studio.
- No, it isn't haunted. Well, there are no recorded deaths or "spooky" histories other than the design itself.
- No, you cannot go inside. It is a private residence. Don't be that person jumping the fence.
- The moat isn't filled with swamp water. It’s a managed pond, though it’s designed to look murky and "witchy."
How to Actually Visit (The Right Way)
If you’re planning to see the Witch's House Beverly Hills, don't just put "Walden Drive" into your GPS and park in the middle of the street. The neighbors are tired. They’ve seen it all.
- Walk, don't drive. Park a few blocks away in a public garage or a less congested street. The walk through the Beverly Hills flats is gorgeous anyway.
- Golden Hour is king. The way the sun hits the "distressed" shingles around 4:00 PM or 5:00 PM makes for much better photos than the harsh midday sun.
- Respect the line. There is an invisible boundary. Stay on the sidewalk.
- Look for the details. Notice the chimney. It looks like it’s about to topple over. That’s intentional. Look at the bridge over the moat. It’s a masterclass in faux-aging.
The Spadena House is a rare survivor. In a city that loves to tear down its history to build something with more square footage, this weird little cottage stands as a testament to the power of whimsey. It’s a reminder that sometimes, the most valuable thing you can own is the house that everyone else thinks is a ruin.
What to do next
If you've already seen the Spadena House, your next stop should be the O'Neill House just a few blocks away. It’s a tribute to Antoni Gaudi and features swirling, liquid-like white facades that make the Witch's House look almost normal by comparison. To see more Storybook architecture, head over to Los Feliz to check out the "Snow White Cottages" on Griffith Park Boulevard. These were built by the same crew that worked for Disney and served as the inspiration for the film. Exploring these pockets of "fantasy architecture" gives you a much deeper understanding of how the film industry literally built the aesthetic of Los Angeles.
Keep your eyes on the rooflines. In LA, the history isn't always in the museums; it’s usually hiding in plain sight on a residential corner.