Ages ago, in 2013, the blog tour visited with Michael Channels on his Back Porch. We were treated to view his collection of memorabilia. We took lots of pictures. One picture I took was of an arrest report that Michael had where Manson had been arrested for failure to pay a traffic ticket. On that arrest report Manson gave his address as 3924 Topanga Lane, Malibu.
Brass Tacks Press, a website that features all things Topanga, has an archive of photos that includes photos from the 1960's in Lower Topanga. Among those photos is a picture of a home that looks to be all boarded up and has a spiral staircase leading up to the second floor. There is a house number visible in the picture and it's the same house number that is on Manson's arrest report!
Photo Archive Scroll to the 1960's and the picture of the house is in that group about 3/4 of the way down the page.
At long last the house has finally been identified.
UPDATE
I've gotten a couple of emails that say the house number is photoshopped in the image of the house. I don't believe it is photoshopped.
David sent me a link to a piece about an artist named Earl Newman who was interviewed for Willamette Living Magazine.
The article states in the paragraph just below the rainbow trumpet:
He related a story about a house he’d sold to a friend in Topanga Canyon (Southern CA)… “…it was kind of a weird place, it was kind of off the main road into Topanga, the houses weren’t a big deal, I sold it to him for $5,000. He never moved in and kind of disappeared, so I went to check on the house, Charles Manson had moved in, so I kind of let it go.”
If you click on the link "Photo Archive" above and find the picture of the house, click on the picture and it will open in a new window. In the lower left corner of the picture it reads (pic:c/o Newman Family). The Newman family donated that picture to the archive. I have to believe that the picture is genuine.
On the last day of the tour we drove out to lower Topanga Canyon where part of the goal was to find the ‘Spiral Staircase’. The Spiral Staircase, as most know, is where Manson and the Family stayed for a time in 1968 and where Diane Lake joined the Family.
Descriptions of the Spiral Staircase can be found in Dianne Lake’s book and Ed Sanders’ The Family.
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Lake:
“The name came from the fact that the wooden house had a spiral staircase on the outside, which was the only way to access its upper floor. There was no first floor to speak of because years of neglect had left it filled with sand. It was nestled into an area people dubbed the snake pit, probably because it was in a floodplain and had a lot of perfect hiding places for snakes. Up the road a bit was the Rancho Hotel, which had small bungalows where people would stay to have easy access to the beach.”
*****
“The staircase entrance led right into one of two living rooms. The bathroom and small galley kitchen were just the right size. Surprisingly, all the plumbing worked and the fixtures were brought to a shine. The view from the kitchen window reminded me of a jungle, the trees and vines so overgrown that they created a natural barrier to the rest of the world. Even though the Pacific Coast Highway was a short walk away, this house was far back enough from the road to feel isolated.”
Lake, Dianne. Member of the Family: My Story of Charles Manson, Life Inside His Cult, and the Darkness That Ended the Sixties (Kindle Locations 1751-1754). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
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Sanders:
“When Manson and the group first arrived, they lived at a secluded house at the mouth of Topanga Canyon near the Pacific Coast Highway. The house was called the Spiral Staircase, after a spiral staircase at its entrance, and it had slid off its foundation and rested askew. Apparently its first floor had a creek flowing through it. The place was located behind the Raft Restaurant on Topanga Canyon Lane, and according to Manson there were windows that opened out onto the hill in back and some doors opening on a twenty-five-foot drop straight down into the creek.”
Ed Sanders, The Family, pp 23, 2002 Edition.
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There are many legends regarding the Spiral Staircase. What is known is that it was located in an area in lower Topanga collectively known as The Rodeo Grounds. More specifically, the building stood in a part of the Rodeo Grounds known as The Snake Pit. The Snake Pit got its name from the number of rattlesnakes there and the unsavory types who gravitated to the cottages in the late 60's and after. Local legends claim that devil worshippers, motorcycle gangs and drug dealers once hid in the Snake Pit.
The Spiral Staircase stood somewhere behind what is today called the Topanga Ranch Motel.
Local legends also claim the Rodeo Grounds got its name from the fact that Tom Mix (a 1920’s cowboy actor) held actual rodeos there for the cowboys who worked the ranches in the region. In 2005 the state of California conducted a historical/archeological review of the area. Part of the objective was to identify any historically relevant buildings in the area before the state bulldozed the cottages down for a state park. That study was unable to confirm the Tom Mix connection.
The Motel in 1939
Another rumor claims that William Randolph Hearst (or more likely one of his companies) owned the property in the 1920’s and built an auto court there where his Hollywood buddies could come and spend the weekend. Names like Peter Lorre and Errol Flynn come up in that discussion. Hearst did not build the auto court (Topanga Ranch Motel) but may have built the cottages along Topanga Lane (in the Snake Pit) that included the Spiral Staircase. One rumor claims the Spiral Staircase was actually a dining hall, dance pavilion and ‘speak easy’. Fact or fiction? Again, the state study could not corroborate those claims.
Peter Lorre’s first movie according to IMB was in 1930. Errol Flynn’ first was 1933 so it is unlikely they hung out there in the 1920’s with Hearst.
Sometime around 1930 Hearst’s corporation sold the area to the Los Angeles Athletic Club (LAAC) who proceeded to rent the cottages for the next 80 years on a month to month basis to various squatters and other bohemians. By the 1960's there were no formal written leases for the cottages. If you moved in to a place you just started paying the rent to the LAAC. The LAAC was an absentee landlord and left the place pretty much alone. In 2001 the LAAC sold the land to the state which in 2006 leveled the cottages in the Snake Pit and Rodeo Grounds converting the area into a state park.
Where was the Spiral Staircase?
According to this Manson arrest report from 1968 (thanks, Deb), the address of the Spiral Staircase may have been 3924 Topanga Lane (or Topanga Canyon Lane). That address no longer exists. [Aside: note the booking date on the report, 2-15-67, clearly that is a typo.]
The map at the top is from 1925. The one below that is from the web site, below. The 1925 map shows the then existing buildings. I marked the Snake Pit (lower circle) and the Rodeo Grounds.
Here are a couple aerial photographs. The first is from 1927. The Snake Pit is behind the motel (the organized buildings in the bottom, center). Many of the cottages where there in 1927 which is at least some evidence that William Randolph Hearst did build the original cottages in the Snake Pit. The Rodeo Grounds is the the rectangular area in the upper right. The creek is the snake-like line.
Three photos from 1940, 1964 and 1971.
1940
1964
1971
I believe the most probable location for the Spiral Staircase is at the “X”. It is at the end of a dirt road (Topanga Canyon Lane) and rather secluded. It stands on the edge of the creek and is no longer there in the 1971 photograph. Depending on who tells the story, The Spiral Staircase was either torn down after the January 1969 flood or was washed away during that flood.
The January 1969 Flood
[Aside: new ‘shacks’ or cabins were built by the residents after the various floods and fires that swept the area over the years.]
More aerial photos can be found here: http://mil.library.ucsb.edu/ap_indexes/FrameFinder/
It has been a personal goal of mine to find an actual image of the Spiral Staircase. I have not been successful to date. One reason may be because only Manson and the Family actually called it ‘The Spiral Staircase’. No local sources use that name, except in connection with a bookstore further up the valley. It could be that the 'Spiral Staircase' is like 'The Yellow Submarine' a Family name for the house.
Various sources claim the Spiral Staircase was owned either by a woman named “Ginger” or by a fellow named “Bay Johnson” in 1967-1968. I have not been able to confirm either owner and given the LAAC owned the land from about 1930 until 2001 it is more likely they were renters if they were connected to the property at all.
Some have claimed that this photo of the band, Love shows the Spiral Staircase. It is not the Spiral Staircase.
“The building featured on the cover of the "Love Story" double CD, with the spiral staircase was yet another different location (not "The Cedars" or the Trip house). Kenny Forssi, in a '90's interview said it was a geodesic dome type construction situated on the opposite side of the canyon from the Hollywood sign. It was some kind of temporary exhibit that was lit up at night, but nobody ever lived there. Love simply used it and the central spiral staircase for some early promotional photo shots.”
This isn't the Spiral Staircase either. That is not sand. It is shag carpeting.
It is 18726 W. Topanga Beach Road: https://plus.google.com/photos/106119680304600398704/album/5542069363653182689/6539096201485631186
Nor is this bookstore further up the canyon the actual Spiral Staircase. The manager claims that about once a year someone stops there asking about the Manson house. Although the bookstore was likely named after the Spiral Staircase, the manager insists, if he is asked, that the name has nothing to do with Manson. In fact, he gets rather defensive when the subject comes up (we asked him).
By using Photoshop, we are able to create a panoramic view of the entire area called the Snake Pit and Topanga beach. This is a complete view of the area during the time that the family would have been frequenting it in late 68' or early 69'. The points of interest are numbered and listed accordingly to the attached key. Both images are relevant to the key. Typically, the points of interest in this area are posted individually. This makes it difficult to get a mental picture of what the area actually looked like and what was where. Now you can, thanks to Photoshop. If there is anything missing, let us know and we'll add it to the image appropriately. Hope you like it!
The following is a research project done on the house known to us as The Spiral Staircase by our official Paparazzi, Ken. The first two photos are historical records, the second two are his.
There isn't a lot of info about The Spiral Staircase out there and what is, is mostly speculation. Through several years of research, there have been some discrepancies and some explanations found. On some websites, it is said that The Spiral Staircase was a two story Victorian that had slide off it's foundation. It is said that only the second story was used due to the first floor being full of sand. It being the only two story structure is also something that is also mentioned.
Well, there were no homes in the area called lower Topanga (aka The Snake Pit) built in the 1880's or 90's. This removes the possibility that The Spiral Staircase was a Victorian. After searching the Santa Monica Historical website, this image was found. It shows a two story Dutch Colonial Revival home in the exact location as where The Spiral Staircase was. Quite often, Dutch Colonial style homes are referred to as being Victorian because it best suits it if one doesn't know architecture. This image is pre 1933.
Building a house in a flood basin isn't always the best idea. This image helps to explain the house falling off it's foundation and why the first floor was full of sand. The Spiral Staircase was demolished in 1968 and this image might explain why. In 1968, due to heavy rains, there was heavy flooding that occurred in the Lower Topanga area. This probably is what brought an end to The Spiral Staircase. This image is of the same period that the family would have frequented the area and gives a good picture of what The Snake Pit looked like. The Spiral Staircase would of been behind the hill, to the left of the Palm trees in the upper left corner.
Note - The house in the lower left corner is the house that Clem, Linda and Sadie visited after leaving Saladin Nader's apartment.
Ken's recent image of where The Spiral Staircase was shows all that's left. A couple of cobble stone retaining walls and a few park benches.
Note - This is where Charles Melton's camp site was that Linda Kasabian took the $5,000. This is also where Tex says he and Charlie first listened to The White Albun.
The state started the Revegetation and Restoration Project in the Lower Topanga area and on Feb. 14, 2006, the last of the residents of what was known as The Snake Pit were evicted. The State set aside three houses declaring them Historical Landmarks. No money is being funded and no plans to restore them have been made to this date. These are the last three houses left of what was known as The Snake Pit. Each of these being a few hundred feet from where The Spiral Staircase was located.
A interesting link with some writings by the last people to live at The Snake Pit.
Something that might be of interest to all of you. I've done a lot of research on the area where the snake pit was. I have found enough info that William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies owned the property where the spiral staircase was at one time. I have found enough info to almost be able to say that William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies are the ones that built the spiral staircase as a weekend get away. William Randolph Hearst was having an affair with Marion Davies and the time that the house would of been built was while they were still being discrete about it. Hearst's wife wouldn't allow him to divorce her which would explain a hide away in a discrete location.
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