A LOT OF CLASS; WOODLAND HILLS MAN CREATES A LANDMARK.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy 

During morning and evening rush hours, 14,100 motorists drive by the corner of Mulholland Drive and Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Woodland Hills, according to Caltrans.

I figure 14,000 of them have been rubber-necking Jeff Everson's place for a couple of years now. I know I have.

He owns that big house with the deep blue awnings behind the high stucco-rock walls and queen palm trees - right next to the vacant lot that looks like a cross between Death Valley Days and an Indian burial ground.

If you've been wondering what the heck that's all about, stay tuned. You're about to find out.

First, a little history: The house was originally owned by the Marx sisters, Barbara and Linda, who moved it in 1984 from Van Nuys to an empty lot they owned at Mulholland and Topanga.

Rumor had it that the house was once owned by President Eisenhower's older brother, Edgar, and that Ike had actually slept in it from time to time when he was in town, which wasn't often.

``But I have no historical documentation to back that up,'' said Linda Marx, who now lives in Laughlin, Nev. ``It's just what we were told when we bought the place.''

OK, close enough. It was soon after moving the house to its new location that the Marx sisters ran afoul of the neighbors, who weren't thrilled about a big, pink house from Van Nuys being dropped in their low-key, rural neighborhood and basically dominating the terrain.

``The neighbors always gave us problems, and not just because of the pink color,'' Linda Marx said. ``We wanted a Mulholland address, but they fought us, so we had to take a Topanga address.''

This is worth noting not just because the Marx sisters got a less snooty address, but because the house was dropped on the lot with the front door facing Mulholland instead of Topanga - so it's backward.

Now, this causes people familiar with the occult to stop by from time to time to ask the current owner, Jeffrey Everson, if he's seen any ghosts in the place.

``I guess a house that's backwards is supposed to be haunted,'' Everson said. ``But I haven't seen any ghosts around.''

Either way, Linda Marx said she and her sister, now deceased, got a bad rap on the place.

``Personally, I liked the pink, but it was never really that color,'' she said. ``It was actually a rose stucco that looked pink, that's all.''

Pink, rose stucco or haunted, it didn't make any difference to Everson, who was sitting in Solley's Restaurant one morning back in 1994 having a cup of coffee when his eyes fell on a familiar picture in the newspaper real estate ads.

That big pink house at Mulholland and Topanga he had been driving by for years was for sale.

``The place had always intrigued me, and I really liked the neighborhood, so I wound up buying it,'' said Everson, the ex-husband of Cory Everson, who has a woman's body-building show on ESPN.

Everson has his own body-building magazine, ``Planet Muscle,'' and does promotional work for protein drinks, in addition to having a body-building show on the E channel.

In the last four years, Everson has basically had the entire 5,000-square-foot home gutted, spending $1 million in improvements, in addition to the more than $1 million he paid for the house, he said.

Inside those 13-foot-high rock walls motorists see from the outside every day is a veritable rock fortress with waterfalls - inside the house and in the back yard - lush gardens, a bird aviary and some of the most unique furnishings you're ever going to see.

You expect to meet a mountain lion around every corner.

But no matter how much Everson's been able to afford beautifying his home inside those walls, he's had to come outside and be greeted by a vacant lot adjacent to his property along Mulholland that was an eyesore.

According to his escrow records, it is city property that was slated to be used by the state to widen the highway from Mulholland to Topanga back in the '80s. But it never happened.

What did happen was a lot of weeds, trash, weekend used car sales on the property, and homeless people camping out, the neighbors said.

``It had become sort of a `Twilight Zone' area,'' Everson said. ``Out of just benign neglect, the city wasn't cleaning it up. They just didn't have the manpower.''

But Everson did. He hired a crew, and $20,000 later, a vacant lot with weeds was turned into a rock garden with a totem pole, statues, walkways, beautifully colored boulders, an old buckboard with a cowboy sitting on top and plenty of cactuses.

``What he has done is truly a gift to all of us who live in the neighborhood,'' said neighbor Anne McElvroy.

``Jeff's turned an eyesore into a beautiful piece of landscape,'' said another neighbor, Sam Mazkin.

``Since he moved in, he's done a lot of nice things for everybody,'' said yet another neighbor, who did not want his name in the paper.

You get the picture? Everson's the man in this neighborhood.

His neighbors say they'll go to the mat for him, sign petitions or anything he needs if the city ever gives him any guff for taking over that vacant lot and improving it.

Not that the city ever would since the city doesn't have a clue it may actually own the lot.

``I'd be very surprised to learn that property was ours,'' said Chris Westoff, an assistant city attorney who handles legal matters for the city's Public Works Department, which overseas the city's land holdings.

``Why we would have a vacant piece of property with value like that doesn't make any sense,'' he said. ``The county assessor's office would know.''

So, I checked with the county assessor's office.

``Our records show Mr. Everson owns all that property,'' said Rose Mora, a public information officer who pulled the records.

``There are no special instructions on the deed. The whole piece of property appears to have one owner: Mr. Everson.''

Now, it's not every year you get Christmas in October, but Everson was feeling pretty good when I told him the news Friday morning as he was preparing to catch a flight for a body-building trade show in Florida this weekend.

He still doesn't believe it, though. He figures maybe the assessor's records are wrong, but who's he to fight City Hall? If they want to give him some land, he'll take it.

``All I ever wanted to do was beautify an eyesore in my neighborhood, and I think I've accomplished that,'' he said.

And that's the story behind that vacant lot at Mulholland Drive and Topanga Canyon Boulevard that looks like a cross between Death Valley Days and an Indian burial ground.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo: (1 -- color in Bulldog edition) Jeffrey Everson, who landscaped his back yard to include an exotic pool and waterfall, also fixed up the adjacent vacant lot.

(2 -- color -- ran in Bulldog edition only) A car makes its way along Topanga Canyon Boulevard past a totem pole on the lot adjacent to Everson's property.

(3 -- Valley edition only) Jeffrey Everson had the vacant lot adjacent to his landscaped with cactuses, statues and relics.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer