Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles, California
by David Hockney
Nichols Canyon is an area in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles County, California. It begins at Hollywood Blvd. on its south end and snakes its way north into the hills below Mulholland Drive. Nichols Canyon has two large year round water falls over 100 feet high and several natural and man made small water falls. The two larger falls are the only natural water falls in the City of Los Angeles.
Nichols Canyon was named after John G. Nichols who served as mayor of Los Angeles between 1852 and 1853 and again from 1856 to 1859. He was a businessman and a builder who lived in the first brick house to be built in Los Angeles, and he was the first mayor to expand the city. In 1851, his son John Gregg Nichols, was the first Anglo American to be born in the city.
In the early days, approximately 3/4 mile up the canyon, was a small sales office with an old western type porch and roof overhang where canyon children would gather to play in the stream and make forts in the native sycamore, oak, sumac, sage, yucca and laurel. It is now known as "Rick E. Lake", named after the current owner. The property features 150 ft. of waterfront on a year-round stream with four waterfalls. Prior to being converted into a residence, the structure served as the real estate office for the Nichols Canyon developement (1941). Remodeled several times, the home was featured in the 1976 issue of House Beautiful's Home Remodeling magazine. Expanded to the present 2bd/2ba configuration, the interior now features a rustic antique heart pine interior, inspired by James Cagney's 1930 cabin in Lake Arrowhead.
Today, few of the original bungalow and Cape Code style houses remain, having been expanded or replaced entirely. Home to many celebrites throughout the years, Nichols Canyon is a favorite jogging and cyclist road.
There are many quirky stories to be told about the Canyon. For instance, on the evening of May 13, 1874 a sheriff's posse from Los Angeles camped near the mouth of Nichols Canyon a mile and a quarter northeast of Greek George's ranch house. The next morning, in a shoot out at Greek George's, they captured the Mexican bandit, Tiburcio Vasquesz. The present day Los Angeles County Park of Vasquez Rocks was on of his favorite hidouts.
In more recent times one of the more bizzare residents of Nichols Canyon was Father Yod, an ex-marine and self styled guru for lost and wayward youth. He founded the Source restaurant in the 1970's. He lived in a three bedroom house that at one point housed nearly one hundred people. Everyone slept in a beehive like complex of cubbyholes. In 1974 he took his cult of followers to Hawaii to avoid a child endangerment charge.
The British artist David Hockney was resident as well. He crated a acrylic painting on canvas called Nichols Canyon in 1880. The bright colors depict the winding road and landscape of the Hollywood Hills in the late 1970's. The two story red-roofed white house featured prominently in the center of the painting is the Michiels House, which is located approximately one mile up Nichols Canyon Road from Hollywood Boulevard. As in the Hockney painting, there is a stop sign and a right hand turn in the road in front of the house. Members of teh Michiels family have lived in this home for three generations. Next door lived Ava Gardner who purchased her Nichols Canyon home in 1948. this home is featured in Architectural Digest, Hollywood at Home, March 2006. In the mid 1950's it ws home to Madeline Foy O'Donnell, one of the original Eddie Foy and the Seven Little Foy's of Vaudeville fame.
Frank Sinatra, Rudy Vallee, Ricky Nelson, George Harrison, Ava Gardner, John Cassavetes, Anthony Perkins, Doc Severinsen, Steve McQueen, Bud Ekins, Telly Savalas, Betty Garrett, Larry Parks, Joe Cocker, Guy Williams, Alex Murray, and Melissa Mathison, are just a few of the celebrities in the music and movie industry that lived, worked, and played in Nichols Canyon over the years. More recent residents include Kevin Costner, Julia Roberts, Richard Dreyfuss, Ryan Seacrest, Bruce Willis, Janice Dickenson, Renee Zellweger and Rob Lowe. Movies filmed in Nichols Canyon include Lethal Weapon II, Unknown World, Laurel Canyon and the Limey. It is also a favorite location for shooting commercials. Many authors such as David Freeman, Jackie Collins, Michael Connelly, Harley Jane Kozak, Carol Wolper and Robert Crais, have used Nichols Canyon as a location. Budy Miles wrote a song named Nichols Canyon Funk. Most recently Nichols Canyon was identified as where a murder victim lived on the TV series "The Closer."
