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For a hundred years it's been among the most mysterious places in Los Angeles.
Petroleum deals that made its owner one of America's richest men - - and ensnared him in one of the nation's biggest political scandals --were played out behind its thick walls.
Kings and cardinals and tycoons were invited inside for balls and elegant dinners that were said to rival those at the White House. But nearly everybody else, even kids trick-or-treating at Halloween, was barred from setting foot anywhere near it.
The Doheny Mansion was off limits.
But now the Catholic women's school that has owned the landmark for 40 years is opening it for public tours that are intended to become a regular feature.
Docents recruited and trained by Mount St. Mary's College staged a tour test run in April at the estate, built in an eclectic blend of Gothic, Mission and French styles. Their next set of guided tours is planned for July 12, with others scheduled for Oct. 11 and Jan. 24.
College leaders have carefully guarded the home and original 1898 furnishings. They hope that restoring some of the mansion's public mystique will generate momentum -- and cash -- for its continued upkeep.
"Attitudes change. Sometimes you're very protective when you're conserving something," said MaryAnn Bonino, the mansion's curator. "We want to raise the consciousness of the public about what is here."
The college, whose main campus is in Brentwood, obtained 8 Chester Place north of USC after Estelle Doheny died in 1958. She had willed it to the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles for educational purposes.
She was the widow of Edward Doheny, who in 1893 drilled the city's first oil well and later became rich from petroleum production in the San Joaquin Valley and Mexico.
But she hated the mansion when her husband bought it for her in 1901.
He was living in a converted...