Antique & Vintage Postcards

Stone steps rise beside a cascading white waterfall, a classic Japanese stone lantern standing guard at the bend of a winding rocky path, as a sweeping timber-and-tile teahouse crowns the hillside above — this atmospheric real-photo postcard captures the "Water Falls" feature of Hollywood's celebrated Bernheimer Gardens, the grand Japonisme estate built by collector and importer Charles on the slopes above what is now Yamashiro restaurant. The stone lantern (tōrō), the arching timber footbridge glimpsed behind it, and the dramatically curved roofline of the upper pavilion all speak to the remarkable authenticity of the garden's Japanese elements, many shipped directly from Japan in the early 1910s. The cursive manuscript caption on the image face reads Water Falls / Beautiful Bernheimer Gardens, and the AZO box-stamp back places production between 1918 and 1930. Together with companion cards PC-05236 and PC-05238, this forms part of a cohesive original set documenting one of early Hollywood's most talked-about private estates before its transformation after Charles's death in 1932.