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Joan Crawford Geography
This
page features Joan's homes, schools, and haunts, and is divided into 3 sections below:
Youth Los Angeles New York City
See each section for links to interior photos, if available.
To
see the surrounding area, click
on a map link below addresses to go to the corresponding MapQuest page.
For other Joan locations, see also the separate Movie Sets and Vacation Spots pages.
South Cherry Street. San Antonio.
From Joan Crawford, by Bob Thomas:
"The
family lived, according to Joan, on South Cherry Street
in 'a drab little
rented house on the wrong side of the tracks.'"
Click here to see 9 more photos of South Cherry Street, shot by me, Christmas '07.
804 D Avenue, Lawton, Oklahoma.
According
to the "Jazz Baby" bio, Joan lived here with her mother, brother, and stepfather Henry Cassin
at
some point during the 1910 to 1916 time period. (Photo by
John March, Jazz Baby.)
910 D Avenue, Lawton, Oklahoma.
According
to the 1910 Comanche County census, the Cassin family lived here in that year,
at least.
(Thanks to Gregg, a Lawton
native, for sending in these two recent photos of the 910 D Avenue house.)
Scarritt Elementary School, Lexington and Askew streets, Kansas City, Missouri.
Map of Askew Ave & Lexington Ave
Joan attended school here as a third-grader beginning approximately in 1916;
after a
few months,
she transferred to St. Agnes Academy.
403 E. 9th Street, Kansas City.
In this picture, the name of the laundry is different, but in 1918 or so and
for a few years afterwards,
it was known as "City Gate Laundry."
Joan
and her mother and brother worked here and lived on the premises.
The New Midland
Hotel, where the family had originally lived (with stepfather Henry Cassin)
upon arriving
in Kansas City in 1916 or so, was located across the street.
St. Agnes Academy, 128 N. Hardesty at Scarritt, Kansas City.
Joan
attended this Catholic school as a scholarship/working student for 3 years (4th
through 6th grades),
from approximately 1916 to 1919. This building no longer stands. (Photo:
Jazz Baby.)
Budd Park, 199 N. Hardesty, Kansas City.
Where Joan would hang out and sometimes pick up boys (and where she first met friend Ray Sterling as he played football).
Click here to see three more shots of Budd Park, taken by KC resident and Joan researcher John Linville in November 2006.
Rockingham Academy, 4343 Campbell, Kansas City.
Joan attended this 14-room boarding school as a scholarship/working student
for 3 years, from approximately 1919 to 1922.
Click here
to see 8 more Rockingham shots, all by John Linville.
Joan's stepfather Harry Hough's home, 4407 Genessee St., Kansas City.
Joan's
mother moved in with Hough in 1919. Joan would occasionally
come home from
the Rockingham Academy to stay here...when Hough wasn't putting the moves on
her.
Click here to see 2 more Hough-home shots, both by John Linville of KC.
Click here to see 7 photos from the home's sale listing in 2012.
Westport High School and Northeast High School, Kansas City.
Joan
attended her first dance at Westport High in 1920 and first saw her future close
friend Ray Sterling in a play at Northeast High in 1921.
(info according to Jazz
Baby; photos courtesy of John Linville)
Main Hall, Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri.
Joan
lived at Main Hall during her one semester at Stephens College in the fall of
1922.
The building no longer stands. (Photo: Jazz Baby.)
Hampton building, 303 Bellefontaine, Kansas City.
This
6-unit building in northeast KC was home of the Cook Sisters,
who briefly
gave Joan a place to stay here in the Spring of 1923 after she was kicked
out of her stepfather Hough's house.
(Photo courtesy of John Linville, November 2006.)
Hotel Washington, Culver City (1920s and today)
3927 Van Buren Place
After arriving in Los Angeles in January 1925, Joan was quartered at this hotel.
Built in 1923 by R.P. Davidson, it was located at 3927 Van Buren Place, 4 blocks from the MGM studio on Washington
Avenue.
The hotel still stands today but is now called the "Hotel West
End."
(Recent
photos courtesy of dearoldhollywood.blogspot.com.)
Montmartre Cafe (1930 and today)
8763 Hollywood Blvd.
An early haunt of Joan's after her arrival in Hollywood.
Site of tea dances and her weekly girlfriend lunches with her circle of starlet friends.
(Photos courtesy of Norman.)
513 N. Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills.
Joan lived here from mid-1927 until September
1928. (MGM loaned her the $28,000
purchase price; Joan bought the house
from Herbert Howe, a Photoplay
columnist and former
lover of silent star Ramon Novarro.)
The house was built in 1925, was 3950 square
feet, and sat on a quarter-acre lot. It had 5 bedrooms and 5 baths.
Click
here
to see one interior photo of the dining room when Joan lived there, as well
as
a recent exterior photo and six photos of the house when it was put on the market for $3.5 million in
February 2005.
426 N. Bristol Avenue, Brentwood.
Joan lived in this 8103-square-feet house from September 1928 until her 1955 marriage to Pepsi executive Al Steele.
(She sold the property to Donald O'Connor in 1957.)
County tax receipts for the property from 1929 and 1931.
Click here
to go to the December '31 "New Movie" magazine article that has
architectural drawings of the house as well as many more interior shots. And here for 2 color interior shots courtesy of Bryan Johnson.
Click here to see renovation photos: 2 exterior pictures
of renovations being done at the address in May '04 and February '05; 2 exterior photos
of the final results, shot by Joel W. Marsh in December '06; 1
exterior shot from April 2012, thanks to John. |
8008 West Norton Avenue.
This apartment was used only as an
office for Joan's secretary Betty Barker. Joan never lived here during her visits to
Los Angeles after husband Steele's
death, though she did use this return address on her stationery during this
time.
Click
here
to see two more photos of this West Hollywood apartment (all courtesy of Ged).
Joan's
actual Los Angeles address post-Steele through the early 1970s was in a building
owned by Loretta Young:
8313 Fountain Avenue, Apt. D, which was only a few blocks
away from Norton Ave. Map of 8313 Fountain Ave
It was a two-bedroom, two-floor condo, for which Joan
paid @ $400 per month.
If you have any photos of the Fountain Avenue address,
please e-mail
me.
36 Sutton Place (at 55th Street).
This
was husband Al Steele's "bachelor pad," where he and Joan stayed while
waiting
for their East 70th Street apartment (below) to be renovated.
It's a
17-story red brick building, built in 1949 and converted to a co-op in 1962.
There are 101 apartments in the building.
2 East 70th Street, at Fifth Avenue.
Joan
lived in this 8-room (renovated from 18-room) corner penthouse apartment overlooking
Central Park from 1957 to 1967.
Click here
to see interior shots and to read Joan's description of the apartment from My
Way of Life.
(Photos courtesy of Bryan Johnson.)
Imperial House. 150 East 69th Street, between Lexington Avenue and 3rd Avenue.
The
Imperial House was built in 1960 on the former site of the New York Foundling
Hospital.
It has 30 floors and 378 apartments. It was converted to a co-op in
1971.
Joan
lived in the 9-room apartment 22-G from 1967 to September 1973. The apartment
cost @ $500,000.
Click here
to see interior shots and to read Joan's description from My Way of Life.
Also included on this page is a floor plan of the apartment and color photos of how it looked when put on the market for $5.5 million in 2007.
From
1973 to her death in May 1977, she lived in the 5-room apartment 22-H, which
cost $85,000.
Click here
to see interior shots and to read the accompanying Architectural Digest
text,
as well as Joan's reaction to the 1976 magazine article.
NOTE:
It's
been incorrectly reported on the findadeath.com site that this building
has been torn down.
As of 2010, it's still standing.
Addendum: Ferncliff Mausoleum
Joan
is interred with her husband Alfred Steele at Ferncliff (Unit 8, Alcove E, Crypt 42),
which is located in Hartsdale, New York, about 40 miles north of New York
City.
Click here
to see March 23, 2006, photos of Joan's crypt, the mausoleum, and environs;
here
to see May 10, 2007, photos;
here
to see March 23, 2008, photos; and
here
to see March 23/May 10, 2009, photos.