Sherman Oaks Business Profile
During the 1989-1990 time frame I must have picked this up somewhere in Sherman Oaks. There is a lot in here, but for now I will focus on 14050 Valley Vista Boulevard in Sherman Oaks which was originally the home of Herbert J. Yates, the founder and President of Republican Studios (now CBS) in Studio City.
Yates made a fortune in tobacco by the time he was thirty, in 1910. By the 1920s he was in the recording industry buying out dimestore record labels. He also was funding Fatty Arbuckle and Mack Sennette’s film efforts. In 1935 he merged several studios including the Mack Sennette lot in Studio City and Ventura Place. He greatly increased its size, changed its name to Republic Studios, and featured Roy Rogers and Gene Autry in his films. Yates died in his Sherman Oaks in 1966.
The home at 14050 Valley Vista still stands. My wife believes it is the grandest structure along Valley Vista, and the most elegant home in the Sherman Oaks/Studio City area (it is no secret she does not like my modern architecture). Yates built the home in 1939. It is considerably set back from the street. Its wide frontage is impressive, and I believe it is the largest useable lot remaining along Valley Vista.
Great stuff! I have a question. I am an architectural historian and I work with a mid century modern residential site (www.usmodernist.org) I am currently working on the houses of the Case Study architects and Thornton Abell in particular. In his collection in Santa Barbara (a great architectural archive of many of the great CA architects if you ever get the chance to go up there, plus the setting at UCSB is amazing – not sure how any kid can study with that view!) they have the house at 14050 Valley Vista being built for Yates in 1945. They also have remodels for him at 14051 and 52 at the same time. Unfortunately it just gets muddy from there. The L A permits show a house being built in 1939 for a Mr. Hull, who was a lumberman. Unfortunately he’s listed in the 1940 directories but no address. There are several permits for both names, both saying “new construction”. I’m wondering if what happened was that Mr. Hull was in fact the first owner of the property and then Mr. Yates came along in 1945 and had the house either changed completely or entirely rebuilt, although I found no demo permit and in those days you didn’t just randomly tear down a perfectly good house that was only 6 years old. I also think the 14051/52 addresses in the collection may have been part of the original property as they both done the same year, 1945, and nothing shows up for either house after that. I’ve contacted the archives to see if in fact the 1945 date was a remodel and not an original date. My gut feeling is that it was possibly a remodel or change of some kind and the original date you have of 1939 is correct, but he just wasn’t there yet. Any help is appreciated – sounds like you found some great information so the collection may actually have something that is off. Certainly not unusual I’ve found doing research! Thanks for your help and thanks for the interesting information! I was at L A Valley College just a few years after you (1993-94), just in time for the earthquake, lol!
I have received an answer from the Thornton Abell archives in regards to the house. It was in fact built in 1939, but not for Mr. Yates. Mr. Yates purchased the property and had a pool house and lounge area added to the property, as well as a game room and terrace, by Abell, to the original 1939 house. The collection shows the changes were all part of the 14050 Valley Vista property, so its unclear why there were additional addresses of 14051 and 14052. The original 1939 permit does not list the original architect. Mr. Hull appears to have been the original owner.