PHOTO COURTESY MONICA BAYLESS
BRITTANY YEAROUT
Perspectives Editor
The once ivy-covered walls that formed Malibu’s fairytale castle, have now been replaced by ash and rubble, a shocking effect of the Malibu fire.
The castle was home to Lilly Lawrence, a community philanthropist and the daughter of a former Iranian oil minister under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Several works of art, family heirlooms, Faberge eggs, signed photos from U.S. presidents and many other collections were lost to the fire.
“My possessions don’t possess me. My house does not possess me,” Lawrence told the Los Angeles Times Monday.
Neighbor Monica Bayless and her husband watched firefighters battle flames threatening Lawrence’s home, while using their own hoses to protect their picturesque contemporary home.
“Watching her house go up in flames was horrible; it broke my heart, especially because she had such an incredible collection,” Bayless said. “But she has had a really good attitude about it, and is just a lovely, sweet lady.”
Although the castle was a prominent and beloved landmark, it is the person who lives in it that is important to the community, according to City Council Member and former mayor Ken Kearsley.
“The castle is Lilly, not the structure. The castle is a thing that can be rebuilt,” Kearsley said. “All that burned was bricks and stones and a lot of elegant nature, but she represents what is good in our community.”
Kearsley, who has been a Malibu resident for 39 years and is a friend of Lawrence, said the castle stood out as a symbol to the rest of the city, but that Lawrence was the heart of the castle because of her charitable events and civic duties.
“We like to call her princess Lilly. She is the most elegant woman in the world and is the most giving person who everyone wants to meet,” he said.
The castle hosted numerous events including the Malibu Celebration of Film, and One Book One City, where people in Malibu read the same book and then had a discussion.
The Castle stood atop a bluff off Malibu Crest Road overlooking the Malibu lagoon for the past 30 years. The facility contained 10,500 square feet with six bedrooms and eight bathrooms. It was recently listed for sale at $17 million, according to the LA Times.
The structure of the castle will be missed along with its colorful history and the priceless memorabilia it housed. But the memories of better times live on through Lawrence, who is the heart of the castle.
10-24-2007
