The appropriately named ‘Greenacres’ was built 1926-29 on 16 acres. The Spanish-style house, which had 44 rooms and 26 bathrooms still exists on a sadly reduced 6 acres at its modern address of 1740 Green Acres Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, off Benedict Canyon Drive. It required 15 servants to run for Lloyd, his wife the former actress Mildred Davis, and their three children.
House and grounds, were created at a cost $2-million under the careful supervision of Lloyd. Not only was he an accomplished actor who had made his stage debut at the age 12 in 1905 and on screen seven years later – he was also had a head for business, more so than could be said for many of his contemporaries such as Buster Keaton.
The final landscaping included a dozen formal gardens, an equal number of fountains, and an 800-foot-long canoe pond fed by a 120-foot waterfall pouring down the hillside. The owner of this ebullience, his family and guests could disport themselves in a 250,000 gallon Olympic-size swimming pool 85-feet by 40-feet; a tunnel ran around it with underwater windows for photography.
If they tired of this, they could play a 9-hole golf course that, on special occasions, became 18 holes by combining with next-door neighbour Jack Warner’s through a normally locked gate.
The three Lloyd children had a four-room playhouse in one of the gardens, which came complete with a thatched roof, plumbing, electricity and miniature furniture.
All these water features and their surrounding lush plantings were maintained by a 50,000 gallon water reservoir, with 16 full time gardeners supported by 84,000 square feet of greenhouses.
Harold Lloyd kept ‘Greenacres’ intact until the day he died there on 8 March 1971 of prostate cancer. A month previously, following one of California’s not infrequent earthquakes, he still found the strength to inspect the property for any damage.
His family had hoped to maintain ‘Greenacres’ as a museum under state protection. Alas, as with so many magnificent creations it was not to be. In 1975 it left the possession of the Lloyd family and the grounds were divided except for the main house on its six acres now owned by a billionaire. The remaining ten acres were cleared and covered by apartment houses.
