From our front door we can see a single lonely house up on Campbell Hill. We finally took a hike up to inspect it late yesterday afternoon. It belonged to James Cagney (1899-1986), who came to the desert in the 1950s thru the 1970s when he needed a break from Hollywood. Read about it at the Historical Society here. A friend who has lived in 29 since he was a child remembers it and also John Hilton's house, who started the 29 Palms Art Gallery. Luckily the Hilton house is being well cared for (@johnhiltonhouse), but Cagney's is abandoned. Apparently the family refused to sell it. There's no fence or protection, so looks like homeless have moved in and out, and part of it has been burned. It's a lovely site, with killer views. The bones of the house are beautiful, wish it wasn't looking like this.
2 Comments
4/15/2020 10:45:12 am
The winds of time. Sad to see such a great entertainer's place so trashed.
Reply
Anna
4/26/2020 02:35:35 pm
Thanks for your comment. Yes, it feels very sad that the place is so badly abused. The desert is littered with houses like this, but not so famous.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
October 2022
Categories
All
AuthorsAnna does most of the writing. Ted does most of the photos. But sometimes we switch. We are repairing a distressed property in 29 Palms, California, and eventually hope to run an artist residency there. |