Jack Oakie, PC: Wikipedia
In 1937, actress Barbara Stanwyck built a roughly 6,000-square-foot residence on a hilltop in Northridge, in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. The house was part of Marwyck Ranch, a roughly 130-acre thoroughbred breeding and training operation associated with Stanwyck and her business partner and agent, Zeppo Marx. In 1941, comedian Jack Oakie purchased the estate and renamed it Oakridge, eventually making it his longtime home with actress Victoria Horne. After his death in 1978, Victoria continued efforts to preserve the property. Oakridge was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1990, and she donated it to the University of Southern California in 2000. When residential development later threatened the surviving estate, the City of Los Angeles acquired its remaining 9.47 acres in 2009. Stanwyck lived at the Northridge property from 1937 to 1939. After marrying Robert Taylor in 1939, she and Taylor moved closer to the Hollywood film community, and Stanwyck eventually sold the estate. In 1941, Oakie acquired the property and renamed it Oakridge. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1944, and Vardon died in a 1948 plane crash. Oakie married actress Victoria Horne in 1950, and the couple continued to make Oakridge their home. Oakie maintained a citrus orchard on the property and kept Afghan Hounds, reportedly having as many as 100 dogs on the grounds at one point. When Oakie died in 1978, Victoria remained at Oakridge for another 25 years and became closely associated with efforts to preserve the estate as the San Fernando Valley around it underwent rapid development.
Because it offered space and privacy while remaining within reach of the city’s film studios, hollywood figures were drawn to the area. The home’s architectural history is disputed: it has traditionally been attributed to architect Paul R. Williams, although Robert Finkelhor is listed as the architect of record on the original building permit. Stanwyck lived at the property for about two years before marrying actor Robert Taylor and moving closer to Hollywood. Oakie, best known for playing Benzino Napaloni in Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, maintained a citrus orchard and Afghan Hounds on the grounds. He initially lived there with his first wife, actress Venita Vardon. The landscape around Oakridge has changed dramatically since Stanwyck established the estate. In the 1930s and 1940s, Northridge and surrounding parts of the Valley were substantially more rural, with agricultural land, citrus groves, horse ranches and large country properties.
Pat LoPresti, who served as outreach committee chair for the Oakridge Estate Park Advisory Board, has discussed Oakridge in the context of this earlier San Fernando Valley, recalling a period when citrus groves and Hollywood figures were part of Northridge’s landscape.