4053 Woking Way, Los Angeles, California 90027
Step this way, but please be respectful of the homeowner (as well as property line) of this private residence. For our next stop, we'll visit what is technically Walt and Lillian Disney's third home together (if you count the newlywed's apartment at 4637 Melbourne Avenue, Los Feliz, and their prefabricated second home at 2495 Lyric Avenue, Los Angeles).
After seven years of marriage , Walt and Lillian were ready to expand their family. With a baby on the way, the Lyric Avenue home was looking a bit snug. Walt quickly turned his attention to a five-acre property in the hills of Los Feliz. With the help of architect Frank Crowhurst (who would go on to design additions for the soon-to-be-built Hyperion Walt Disney Studios), Walt would co-design a monumental Tudor style home with French Normandy elements. In an effort to complete the home in time for the arrival of the new child, the $50,000 12-room home would be constructed in an astonishing two months. The 12-room house featured four bedrooms, four and a half baths, a small screening room, a gym, an enclosed porch, a pool, a pool house, and a children's playhouse. Things seemed to be running on schedule, however no one could have predicted what would happen next. Lillian and Walt would suffer a painful mis-carriage.
During that dark time, the Disneys went ahead and moved into their home, and then continued to dwell at 4053 Woking Way from 1932 to 1950. Eventually, Diane would be born to them (in 1933), and the Disneys would go on to adopt another daughter Sharon (in 1936).
The selection of this location for the new Disney home was wise indeed. Woking Way had all the scenic beauty & privacy one would expect of Hollywood's hills, and yet was accessible to several points of interest. The house was conveniently located approximately one mile from Walt Disney's Hyperion Studios (which had been built just a few months earlier, during the spring of 1931). Family wasn't far away - Walt's uncle Robert Disney lived only 1 1/2 miles away on Kingswell Avenue (near the site of the old Disney Bros. Cartoon Studio location).
Walt's daughter Diane was born approximately one year after he and Lillian moved to their Woking Way address. When Diane was old enough to attend school, both Los Feliz Grammar School and Immaculate Heart High School were about a 5-minute drive from their Woking Way home.
Despite heavily lush landscaped beds shrouding the home, you can a catch glimpses of the former Disney second house from several sides due Woking Way's winding road (which encompasses the premises).