Castle had a large family life before Spector

For nearly 80 years, this reinforced concrete castle near Fremont Avenue and Valley Boulevard remained relatively unknown -- even after it was purchased by rock 'n' roll producer Phil Spector in 1998. But when actress Lana Clarkson was shot to death in the foyer in February 2003, notoriety replaced anonymity.

(Spector is charged with murder in Clarkson's death; he contends that she committed suicide.)

Until then, little excitement had penetrated the chateau's 3-foot-thick walls, hidden in the massive Himalayan deodar cedars, pine, palm and avocado trees on the property.

The mansion, with more than 30 rooms, was completed in 1927 by a French American sheepherder named Sylvester Dupuy. Locals called it "the castle." But the Dupuy family thought that "sounded too pretentious," like a feudal lord to the serfs.

"So we called it 'The House on the Hill' or just 'The Hill,' " said Dupuy's grandson, Frank Dupuy, 83, of Altadena.

"My grandfather envisioned us all living together like the 1980s TV program 'Dallas,' " Dupuy said in an interview. And that's just what they did for nearly two decades.

"My father helped build it. The women of the family prepared French meals, and everyone pitched in to make wine," the grandson said.

The Dupuys' celebrations included entertaining French athletes during the 1932 Olympics, held in Los Angeles.

But the family's penchant for privacy fueled rumors that the castle served as a hide-out for gangsters and ghosts. In 1939, The Times described it as having all the "glamour of a nudist colony without a knothole."

In a way, the mansion's origins date to the late 1870s, when Sylvester Dupuy was born in his uncle's ranch house adobe. A few years earlier, his parents, Marie and Raymond, had emigrated from the town of Pau in the French Pyrenees. They joined family and a thriving French community in Los Angeles, where they helped transform a tumbleweed wasteland into a thriving sheep ranch.

But within two years, Marie died giving birth to twin boys. Raymond returned to France with Sylvester and his three other children.

While growing up, Sylvester dreamed big, promising himself that he would one day build his own chateau like the ones that covered the French hillsides. When he turned 14, he returned to Los Angeles to herd sheep for his uncle.