The Fenyes Estate is a historic two-acre estate complex located at 160-170 Orange Grove Boulevard in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

along what was once known as "Millionaires' Row". The

Pasadena Museum of History Pasadena Museum of History is a private, nonprofit museum and research library located in Pasadena, California. It is the only institution dedicated to the history, art and culture of historic Pasadena and the west San Gabriel Valley. Headquarte ...

maintains the century-old estate and offers docent-led tours of the Fenyes Mansion, the Curtin House, and the Finnish Folk Art Museum and gardens. In 1905, Adalbert Fenyes, a Hungarian

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

and the first Pasadena doctor to use an

X-ray machine An X-ray machine is a device that uses X-rays for a variety of applications including medicine, X-ray fluorescence, electronic assembly inspection, and measurement of material thickness in manufacturing operations. In medical applications, X-ra ...

, and his wife Eva Scott Muse Fenyes commissioned a two-story house from architect Robert D. Farquhar. Designed in the Beaux Arts manner, the mansion was completed at a cost of $20,325, In 1911, architect Sylvanus Marston of Marston & Van Pelt completed an addition consisting of a studio, conservatory, and laboratory. Like many of the large old homes along Orange Grove Boulevard, the Fenyes Mansion reflects the opulent neoclassical tastes popular at the turn of the century. Fenyes' wife, Eva, was an accomplished artist and world traveler who met her husband in Cairo, Egypt. The estate and gardens were used as sets for a number of early motion pictures for film industry notables such as

Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor and filmmaker best known for being the first actor to play the masked Vigilante Zorro and other swashbuckler film, swashbu ...

and

D. W. Griffith David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the n ...

. The estate is listed as a Pasadena Cultural Landmark and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 5, 1985. Marston & Van Pelt also designed the 1915 Curtin House, a smaller French-influenced house on the grounds for Eva Fenyes' only daughter, Leonora Curtin, who inherited the mansion from her mother. Leonora Curtin had one daughter also named Leonora who was known as Babsie. A linguist who spent time among the Pueblo Indians, Babsie traveled widely, spending time in Santa Fe and Pasadena until she met Yrjo Alfred Paloheimo, a Finnish diplomat whom she married in 1946. Paloheimo was Finland's Consul for the Southwest area and the Fenyes Mansion served as the Finnish consulate's office for seventeen years. Paloheimo also established the Finnish Folk Art Museum, a Swiss chalet-style building. Paloheimo and his wife adopted four Finnish children, who together donated the estate to the Pasadena Museum of History in 1970.

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in California Houses completed in 1915 Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Pasadena, California Museums in Los Angeles County, California Houses in Pasadena, California 1915 establishments in California {{California-museum-stub