In the early 1920’s Frank Lloyd Wright sought to create a new architectural vocabulary for California. One not based on Spanish Colonial, Mission, or Craftsman. Wright almost never pointed to inspiration for his designs, but one can certainly have a hunch he tapped the ancient Mexican and South American civilizations for the look of his concrete textile block homes in Los Angeles in 1923 and 1924.
The first of these homes was the Alice Millard House in Pasadena, 1923.
This was the second home he designed for this particular client. The previous one was done 17 years earlier in Highland Park, Illinois, for her and her late husband. Wright said he was proud to have a repeat client. “Out of one hundred and seventy-two buildings this made only the eleventh time it happened to me. So, gratefully, I determined she should have the best I had in my portfolio.”
Indeed it is regarded as one of his best. Brendan Gill wrote “La Miniatura is assuredly among the most beautiful houses to be found anywhere in the world, regardless of size.”
Gill questioned, however, the wisdom of the site chosen for the home. It is an arroyo. “For obvious reasons (it is) not thought desirable as a building site. So Mrs. Millard was able to acquire the arroyo property at a low price. Flying in the face of conventional prudence, Wright and she decided to build at the bottom of the arroyo, where a small pool would be dug to reflect the house.” All four of the textile block homes Wright built in L.A. in 1923 and 1924 had water damage issues. Gill may well have a point. But clearly both client and architect loved where the house was built.
“The interior is as exquisite in its shapeliness as the exterior and has a plan of remarkable ingenuity, comprising three full floors and terraces at four levels, with easy access to it surroundings and to the street.”
The concrete block as a construction material was not new in 1923. But Wright’s construction method was unique. As well as his attention to design pattern. He envisioned this becoming a low cost way to build elegant homes–a design goal he remained interested in decades after these first experiments. Unfortunately the textile block homes of this period all went over-budget and proved to be very difficult to build. They are imperfect works of great art. But as works of art they are very important in history. The effort to save these homes has been a challenging cause, if not heroic. The fate of the Millard house has been uncertain for years. One investor wanted to move the house to another site. I suspect it was determined to be infeasible, and would have been a disaster. From what I can tell the house is currently for sale. Here is the agent selling the home–providing some great interior shots for us to see.
Mom and Dad rented an apartment in this grand house at 5th and Grape, San Diego’s Bankers Hill, during World War II. They told about being able to nearly make eye contact from one of those windows with people in airplanes landing at Lindbergh.
Mom and Dad in Balboa Park, a short walk from their home. The listing is from the 1944 Voter Register. Dad was a rifle instructor in the Marines. Mom worked in an aircraft factory.
A map of the corner at 5th and Grape from 1906. It is the footprint of the house where Mom and Dad lived. It was the Mossholder Residence.
The Mossholder Bio.
What’s there today. The two grand homes on this side of the block were demolished for a parking lot. The retaining walls and stairs leading to the residences remain–the corner stairs covered in vines.
A glimpse of the original stairs and retaining wall at the corner of 5th and Grape. A sleeping bag indicates the vines provide shelter for someone still calling this corner a home.
As so often the case, great architecture was demolished to make parking lots.
The remnants of the second home on that block leveled for parking are very visible. And interesting to look at.
The medical clinic would do the neighborhood a favor by repairing and painting these doors. And help save a tiny slice of history too.
The stairs are still in use today.
Someone has taken the time to plant some flowers.
An impression at the base of the stairs. The same “stamp” is at both sides below the bottom step. Likely whomever built the stairs and retaining walls.
The 1908 City Directory shows a couple possibilities about the origin of the Jennings stamp.
Thanks to Sarai Johnson for providing some of these great visuals from her archives.
It is one of San Diego’s most familiar landmarks. The regal Art Deco Streamline Moderne Fat City building located at 2137 Pacific Highway. It is home to Fat City Bar and Steakhouse, China Camp (now closed), and Denny’s. Its owner, Tom Fat, renown restaurateur and prominent figure in San Diego’s Asian Pacific Islander community, passed away in 2007 at age 66. Some four years later the landmark building that is/was home to his highly successful eateries appears headed for demolition.
It Stretches Out Regally and Sphinx like
Tom Fat took over the boarded-up site in 1977 and brought the classic art deco complex back to its former glory. He practiced sustainability before anyone even heard about it. That trait was likely learned from his father Frank Fat. In 1939, Tom’s father took over a run-down building in Sacramento, only a block from the Capitol building, and turned it into the celebrated Frank Fat’s restaurant.
Fat City – China Camp Neon
The restoration and remodeling took nearly 3 years. The crowning touch was the installation of a mile of neon–certainly San Diego’s most wonderfully opulent neon showcases. A richly colorful and now rare art form. Tom Fat paid homage to an elegant era of design by bringing back this building’s flamboyance and flair.
Tom Fat’s great work earned him a 1981 Orchid Award–one of San Diego’s highest architectural honors. Fat City’s neon art and architecture became feature articles in San Diego Magazine, Designer’s West, Times Magazine, Lighting Dimension, and the Smithsonian Neon Art photo magazine.
The restaurants helped energize the restaurant scene of all downtown. The Fat City Steakhouse became ground zero for power lunches and dinners where local leaders were known to gather. Tom Fat was highly involved in and dedicated to the community. He was close to elected representatives, and many called upon him for advice.
Our research is still in progress. But we know this Art Deco treasure was built between 1940 and 1942 as Big Top Restaurants. Then a few years later it was just known as Top’s. The early name most famously associated as proprietor was Yale Kahn. He and his brothers were sons of Russian Immigrants who instilled a sense of hard work in their children. Brothers Irvin, Henry and Julius Kahn made their mark in San Diego with real estate development in Clairemont, University City, Rancho Penasquitos, and Mira Mesa.
But Yale Kahn was a fulcrum around which all the major popular nightclub entertainment in San Diego spun. The San Diego Union stated “Yale Kahn, a man whose knack for business earned him a spot in San Diego history†(San Diego Union November 8, 1959). Constantly in the news media spotlight during the 1950s, the Kahn brothers brought nationally and internationally famous performing acts to his restaurants and nightclubs and rubbed shoulders with politicians and business people throughout the region.
Top’s was San Diego’s Hot Spot for Entertainment
At Top’s Nightclub Yale brought in top stars of the day. Nat King Cole, Shelley Winters, Nelson Eddy, Van Johnson, Don Ameche, Susan Hayward, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, to name a few. He made Top’s an entertainment capitol in San Diego.
Yale Kahn also ran the Texas Liquor Houses, the Roaring 20’s Nightclub on Fletcher Parkway in El Cajon, the nightclub in the Clairemont Bowl and Bradley’s (restaurant and nightclub) at Horton Plaza in the mid 1950s, making entertainment available to families. But one of Kahn’s most popular venues were the Chuck Wagon Restaurants in San Diego–most notably the Midway Chuck Wagon with its Gaslamp Room.
The Stars of the Gaslamp Room
The Midway Chuck Wagon and Gaslamp Room drew enormous crowds to see such famous entertainers as Louis Prima, Billy Daniels, Shelly Berman, Mort Saul, and Dr. Dean (hypnotist). Regis Philbin worked there as a Master of Ceremony.
Some common links between Tom Fat and the Kahn Brothers. They all stood in high esteem in the eyes of politicians and business people in the San Diego Region. Top’s night club attracted both political and business leaders, just as Fat City Steakhouse did years later. This magnificent structure stands as witness to their noble efforts, these exemplary business leaders in San Diego history.
Tom Fat once told an interviewer: “I have learned, through the years, that I am my father’s son. He had an immense influence over everything I’ve done. Foremost was giving back to the community, which Fat had done since coming to San Diego in 1976 to expand his family’s business.
Yale Kahn and his brothers built the Circle Arts Theater on Kearny Mesa. It was a dome shaped fine performing arts center, a theater in the round. They were also admired philanthropists with United Way and the United Jewish Fund.
As a business and community leader, Tom Fat served or chaired numerous organizations, boards and task forces, including the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau, Super Bowl Host Committee, San Diego Restaurant Association, San Diego Foundation, San Diego Film Commission, Little Italy Association and Asian Business Association, which he helped found. He was also instrumental in expanding the Kyoto Laureate Symposium Series, held here annually.
But of all the things that mattered most in Tom Fat’s life, San Diego’s Asian Pacific Islander community came first. They saw Tom Fat as its heart, soul and, in some ways, its conscience.
The legacies of Yale Kahn and Tom Fat are intimately linked with the superb Art Deco building at 2137 Pacific Highway. And it will be demolished for the above. For THAT!
At a time when we should be observing and utilizing the best practices in sustainability, we continue to burden our rapidly shrinking landfills with huge amounts of demolition rubble of grand historic buildings such as Top’s/Fat City. Evaporating their embodied energy.
This senseless disregard for history–and of such compelling legacies–is something that is almost sickening to try and describe. The feeling you get when you hear about someone taking a hammer to a rare museum sculpture, a knife to a beloved painting, book burnings, or using antiquities for target practice. What words can accurately describe a mindset that doesn’t value our past, the memories of those who came before us, or the cultural riches we inherit?
At this point we are gathering our research to help defend this important historic resources. For now, be aware and outraged this project is even being considered. We will track this development to make sure it goes through the process properly. That the Historical Resources Board has a chance to weigh in, and that feasible alternatives to demolition are properly studied.
Your comments to this posting will be valuable to submit as part of the public dialog, so please don’t hesitate to speak up here. It will help send a message to save this building.
Although Frank L. Hope, Sr. worked in a variety of styles, he was notable as a pioneer Modernist architect whose streamline architecture of 1930’s influenced the acceptance and rise in popularity of Modernism in San Diego.
To call him Frank L. Hope, Sr. is not quite correct. His father, the actual Frank L Hope Senior was a railroad executive and prominent San Diego resident. His son is the above mentioned Frank L. Hope, Jr.
But then Frank L. Hope, Jr. had a son also named Frank L. Hope, Jr. It has been suggested we leave Frank L. Hope, Sr. out of the discussion altogether. And refer to the son as Frank L. Hope Jr, the elder. And his son as Frank L. Hope, Jr. the younger.
Frank L. Hope, Jr. the elder, had worked with Requa, Jackson, Lillian Rice and William H. Wheeler before establishing his own firm in 1928. Hope worked on a number of important commissions including designing a number of custom streamline homes in Pt. Loma. He also designed a good amount of streamline commercial buildings including the 1936 Santa Fe City Offices 1200 Fifth Avenue NW corner at B Street, (demolished) and City Motors Ford (demolished last year).
His son Frank L. Hope Jr. the younger, joined the firm in 1955. Hope Jr, the elder, retired in 1965. The Hope Design Group through 3 generations of Hope family architects had a huge part in creating modern San Diego.
The big dumpster out in front is rather ominous, but the work permits applied for relate only to interior remodeling. SOHO is keeping a close eye on this to make sure the exterior character defining streamline elements are not destroyed.
Streamline Moderne is a part of the Art Deco period of architecture. Also in the Deco fold is Egyptian and Aztec Revival. Above, a Deco detail. The mail slot.
When I see the twin roof peaks of this house in Point Loma pointing to its view of the Pacific Ocean, I think of the bows of a catamaran. This 1961 custom designed Pacific Style modernist home was once featured in either Life Magazine or Sunset Magazine–research on that is still in progress. But one member of SOHO’s Modernism Committee remembers it.
Those extremely steep peaked roofs brings to mind a Tiki influence but also coincides with Googie or Futuristic Mid Century Modern architecture.
The landscaping, the lagoon-like pool, the lanai shaded patio area all speaks to a Pacific and Island influence. The strong influence of Hawaii being granted Statehood in 1959 and a nation wide fascination with Pacific Island culture and design, including Tiki craze.
We are learning more about whom the house is built for, but still don’t know the designer or architect.
In its day this house had to be one of Point Loma’s most spectacular modern homes. Clearly the home is laid out for major social function, capable of hosting a large number of guests.
It goes down past a bedroom and private patio…
And then it touches down on the ground. Sadly a lot of the wood is rotting. Also note the private enclosed angled patio wall.
This is horrible to see. Plastic covering the roof. There appears to be deterioration caused by water damage inside. Aside from serious condition issues we’ve learned the interior is spectacular, all original and highly intact–including original furniture.
Unfortunately the property has been subdivided. The former pool house is now a separate residence. An application has been submitted to remodel this building.
Detail of the lanai.
The pool house falls clearly in the Pacific Ranch Style house category with its board and baton siding and exotic roof beam.
Dates listed on this page of the photo album say 1923. Helen graduated from High School in 1921. Helen said she got married right out of high school to Val Rudolph Otto Martin when she was 18. Daughter Jeanne was born September 22, 1923 in Long Beach, presumably at the time Helen and Val began studio work in Hollywood. Note the stack of books and walking stick to her left.
913 Cherry Street, Santa Rosa. Evidently Helen and Val didn’t live here very long.
The house today is in Santa Rosa’s Cherry Street Historic District.
1942 Hollywood publicity photo for Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt. Photo from Santa Rosa Pressdemocrat
Hitchcock was captivated by the play Our Town. His creative mind was brewing a small town story that would become the film Shadow of a Doubt. He sought Thorton Wilder to write the script, and it proved to be a highly successful collaboration. Hitchcock considered a number of sites to represent his idyllic small American town. After careful scrutiny it was decided Santa Rosa would fulfilled his vision.
The Santa Rosa Depot is an important feature of Shadow of a Doubt. At the beginning this is where the murderous Uncle Charlie arrives. Hitchcock uses visual foreshadowing when the approaching train casts darkness over the whole station with a black cloud of smoke pumping from the locomotive’s smokestack. The depot figures prominently at the end as well when Uncle Charlie meets his demise there. The departing train puffs a barely noticeable trace of light smoke as the film ends.
The Shadow of a Doubt house.
Hitchcock and Wilder searched the town for the perfect house to match the one created in their script. The home owner was so proud to have his house chosen, he gave it a fresh new paint job. But that’s not what Hitchcock was looking for.
He got the owner to agree having the house painted again to look dirty! After shooting was done, Hitch made sure the house got yet another sparkling fresh coat of paint.
Hotel La Rose is seen in the film. A great looking historic hotel. Our friends who helped pass the nomination of the Homer Delawie home in Coronado to the National Register stayed here. A perfect choice!
The Empire Building in Old Courthouse Square is also in the film. It was built in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and completed in 1910.
There’s a glimpse of the old Kress in the film. Shadow of a Doubt was Alfred Hitchcock’s first full American production.
It sat vacant for years and it took dedicated effort by the community to save this 1937 Art Moderne jewel. It underwent a structural and architectural rehabilitation with a complete restoration of the exterior facade. Originally Rosenberg’s Department store, it is occupied today by Barnes and Nobel and Starbucks. Local businesses occupy the upper floors.
Another example of historic rehabilitation and restoration playing a key role in the revitalization of a downtown area.
Much of what was seen in Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt no longer exists. But through some luck and preservation efforts, a sample of that time does remain.
The history of La Vista del Arroyo Hotel dates back to 1882 when it was a two-story, wood-frame building, and series of small cottages.
In 1919, hotel tycoon Daniel M. Linnard, associated with such elegant Pasadena hotels as the Huntington and Green, purchased La Vista del Arroyo with the vision of developing the property into an opulent resort. Linnard commissioned the noted architectural firm of Marston & Van Pelt to design a large, two-story Spanish Colonial Revival hotel to replace the original structure. Once the popularity of the Vista had been established, select guests also built bungalows on the property.
In 1926, Linnard sold the resort to former business partner H.O. Comstock. Comstock hired architect George H. Wiemeyer to redesign the hotel and add a grand six-story addition that consisted of a central bell tower and flanking wings set at an angle. The new Vista opened in 1931 with iridescent color, entertainment, and social gaiety. In 1936, Linnard repurchased the property and hired landscape architect Verner S. Anderson to improve the hotel’s grounds by designing formal gardens and adding fountains, tennis courts, and a swimming pool.
In 1943 the U.S. War Department acquired the hotel complex and converted it into the McCormack Army Hospital and offices for the U.S. Army. In 1949, the hospital was deactivated and the old hotel, under the care of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), housed a variety of Federal agencies from 1951 to 1974.
In 1981 the Vista del Arroyo was placed in the National Register of Historic Places and GSA began design work to restore the building as the southern seat of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1995, the building was renamed to honor Judge Richard H. Chambers, whose concept it was to bring a Federal courthouse to Pasadena.
The Texaco stations were the creation of renown industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague. His work is some of the most iconic of the twentieth century.
I am particularly interested in the sign. It seems to me an earlier version of what became their best known sign, as seen in the toy above. This particular style I’ve only seen once or twice in various Google searches.
I believe the sign to be very rare, and I hope the folks in Healdsburg can at least save the sign, if not the station itself.
Restored historic gas stations ad color and interest to the fabric of our urban landscape. We learn about the changing look of industrial or commercial design over the decades. It points to the rise and dominance of the automobile in our culture. The need for speed and convenience. These are just a few examples of the teaching that historic buildings provide.
Adaptive Reuse. SIGNAL STATION PIZZA Located at the historic gas station in St. Johns 8302 North Lombard Street (At North Charleston Avenue) Portland, Oregon
Adaptive Reuse. Packard’s in Ramona, is a popular coffee house.
San Diego Historical Resources Board Designation. Johnson’s Wilshire Gas Station 4689 Market Street, San Diego. The resource embodies the distinctive characteristics and character defining features of Googie architecture and retains a good level of architectural integrity from its 1962 period of significance.
The Appeal of Historic Design Features. This Gilmore Gas Station at the Fairfax Farmers Market in Los Angeles helps make this destination popular to locals and tourists alike.
Keeping Community Character. Mike Burnett (jumping) and Craig Abenilla (kneeling) own the Golden Hill architecture firm, Foun-dationForForm. Their plans to develop the site at 811 25th Street appears to utilize the mid century gas station at the site rather than demolish it. Kudos to you gentlemen!
It was a Texaco station with characteristic mid century design elements. Not nearly as old as Santa Rosa’s, but it is good news it won’t disappear. And we look forward to it it looking great, if not better than ever one day.
It should be illegal to paint over natural rock! Midcentury design elements at play here. A thick rock sign blade with circular cut out. Post and beam. Clerestory windows, Board and batton wall effect.
The former Texaco Station at University and First is a vintage Walter Dorwin Teague era building. It would be wonderful to see great things happen to this resource as we’ve seen in other cases.
Jesus Saves, but apparently not the building’s wooden siding or double hung windows. The rotunda windows still look good, but the windows on the far left and right all have that cheap looking plastic white patio chair look. These windows begin to blotch, deteriorate and become uglier and uglier only after a few years. The life span of vinyl windows is relatively short, regardless of the bogus advertising permeating everywhere.
Well adjusted and maintained wooden windows are not nearly as energy inefficient as vinyl propaganda contends. Plus wood is the only truly sustainable window option.
I restored my 75 year old windows. They look great, work perfectly–and they should be good for another 75 years. Unless someone comes along after I’m gone and destroys my good work with crappy vinyl. But hopefully by then most people will have learned the completely awful truth about vinyl.
The tasteless application of stucco over wooden siding as well as the vinyl window craze is doing as much damage to historic architecture as developers and speculators.
Architecture
