Virginia Robinson Gardens

Built in 1911 as the Beverly Hills residence of Harry and Virginia Robinson, founders of Robinson's department stores, this estate holds the distinction of being the city's first luxury estate. The main house displays Mediterranean Classic Revival architecture, while the 1924 Renaissance Revival Pool Pavilion was modeled after Villa Pisani in Italy. Recognized on the National Register of Historic Places, the California Points of Historical Interest list, and the City of Beverly Hills Local Register, the property has hosted guests including Marlene Dietrich, Elvis Presley, and Charlie Chaplin.

The Virginia Robinson Gardens, constructed in 1911 by Harry and Virginia Robinson, was the first residential estate in Beverly Hills and occupies a sloped property with uneven terrain and graded walkways. Virginia Robinson deeded the land to the County of Los Angeles in 1974 shortly before her death in 1977, and the grounds now function as a public arboretum maintained by the Department of Parks and Recreation with a small permanent grounds crew. The 1911 mansion, once the setting for prominent social gatherings, remains on the property alongside cultivated planting beds. The site's elevation changes and stepped pathways shape both composition options and the practical logistics of moving equipment across the grounds.

The Virginia Robinson estate in Beverly Hills was commissioned by Nathaniel Dryden for department-store heiress Virginia Robinson, whose gardens were designed in collaboration with Pasadena landscape architect Charles Gibbs Adams on a property acquired from Beverly Hills founder Burton Green. The open-walled loggia overlooking the Palm Jungle has no fourth wall and features two facing mirrored surfaces that reflect the palm tops. The Italian Renaissance Terrace Garden descends in eight graded levels via semicircular brick paths, with shrub-fringed staircases, plateaus, fountains, ponds, and statuary throughout the grounds.