Site: Hillside

This rambling, approx: 2.5 acres (vacant land) Laurel Canyon Estate with three separate entrances, rises up unmortared stone steps, embellished with colorful tile, to seating nooks built into the hillside, and with faux rock caves large enough to sleep in. Consisting of 10 contiguous vacant lots with sprawling park-like grounds, it is truly magical and gives the impression of stepping into what one could imagine to be a forest where Pan, the God of Field and Woods in Greek Mythology, frolicked around.

Once the site of the 1960’s/1970’s strident pop iconoclast, Frank Zappa’s legendary ‘Log Cabin’, steeped in Rock and Roll history and home to Rock Royalty, this property was the premier gathering place of the 1960’s/1970’s Los Angeles Rock and Roll Scene. Built in1915 as a massive log cabin tavern/roadhouse and later becoming a masculine retreat for wealthy men, it was once owned by the early former rodeo rider turned western star, Tom Mix. The building itself was not a humble log cabin by any stretch of the imagination. The Cabin was huge vault-like and cavernous, boasting a 2,000 + square foot formal living room, dominated by a granite hearth of feudal proportions, many guests rooms and a huge bowling alley on the basement level.

Upon Frank Zappa’s occupancy during the Spring of 1968, an eclectic array of visitors came to stay, including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison of the Beatles fame, Mick Jagger, Joni Mitchell, Mama Cass, Cosby Stills and Nash, John Mayall, Timothy Leary, The Byrds and The Animals et al. One of Zappa’s projects at this time was producing the GTO’S, a band compromised of flamboyant regulars. He also held auditions for his Straight and Bizarre record label, during the intervals between guests. One of the unsigned artists who auditioned here for Zappa’s label was Alice Cooper. Tiring of constant attention, the Zappa’s moved out but the rock and roll parties continued because of its close proximity to the Sunset Strip and world renowned Troubadour nightclub. Although on Halloween in 1981 the Log Cabin burned down, this property will always remain a historic link to Los Angeles music history.