RPPC Bernheimer Residence Japanese Garden Temple Shrine Pacific Palisades, Calif

Description

This Real Photo Postcard features an early image of the historic BERNHEIMER RESIDENCE and JAPANESE GARDEN overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Pacific Palisades. California.  The date of this photograph was late 1920's.  The hand printed description also includes: TEMPLE OF HEAVEAN and SHRINES OF NIKKO.  Backside is clean and clear; never written on, never stamped or posted.
In 1924 Adolph Bernheimer began building his Residence and miniature Japanese Gardens on the bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean just east of the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and the Roosevelt Highway (later renamed Pacific Coast Highway).  The address was 16980 Sunset Boulevard, in Pacific Palisades adjacent to the City of Santa Monica.  Bernheimer was an avid collector of East Asian antiquities, and he housed his collection in the various structures he erected on the property.  It proved to be a popular tourist destination from the time of its opening in 1927 until the beginning of World War II in 1941.  Anit-Japanese sentiment forced the property to be vacated and the Gardens were abandoned.  The treasures once displayed at the Bernheimer Residence and Temples were sold at auction in 1951 and the structures on the propery were demolished soon after in the early 1950's.
The Photograph in this RPPC was taken before full development of the property by Adolph Bernheimer, likely prior to 1930.