Product Description

With the completion of the American railroads in the 1880s and the publicity that followed, Los Angeles business elite lured Easterners and Midwesterners to Americas recently conceived Eden. A city of farms and groves was transformed into a city of houses. From Pasadena to Santa Monica, diverse architecture revealed the independent spirit of early residents. Queen Anne-, Arts and Crafts,- Beaux-Arts-, Moorish- and Mission-style houses were designed by the citys first generation of trained architects. Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, Greene & Greene, Robert D. Farquhar, and Alfred F. Rosenheim initiated Los Angeles engagement with national and international architectural developments.

Los Angeles Houses, 1885-1919 is a portrait of where and how Angelenos lived in and around downtown before the city was transformed by the grand scale residential developments of the 1920s. 38 of the early Los Angeles houses are profiled with over 350 archival duotone photographs and landscape and floor plans, brought together for the first time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #522390 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-01
• Released on: 2007-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

From Publishers Weekly
These two volumes in Acanthus's Urban Domestic Architecture series cover a 50-year period that saw a thousand-fold increase in population in an area whose architecture, according to Watters, reflected a city in search of a past to inform its future. In 1885, Charles Lummis walked from Cincinnati to Los Angles with a conviction that the purity of California's Spanish past should pave the way for architectural development. But the few Mission Revival projects he sponsored were soon overwhelmed by homes built in developments for the very wealthy, who favored adaptations of the types of homes they had left behind in the East or the Midwest. There were Queen Anne and colonial revival mansions and English country estates, with the occasional medieval castle or Moorish palace. Watters cites Elmer Grey, one of the more thoughtful and intellectual of the architects, who wrote in 1916 that California's peculiar province is... to harmonize the styles of other climes, and her own distinctive style to consist of beautifully welded hybrids. In Volume II, Watters shows that by the 1920s a Mediterranean revival style, sensitive to the climate and terrain, dominated the field. Each volume contains an introduction to the changing social situation from a time when oil wells were pumping in Beverly Hills until Hollywood and aeronautics helped the city weather the Depression. In all, Watters, who teaches at USC's architecture school, discusses 80 homes, illustrated with 400 color (not seen by PW) and black-and-white archival photographs and floor plans, a valuable record of houses now mostly lost to later development. Short biographical profiles of the architects provide helpful information on the many unfamiliar names. (Oct.)
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Review
Houses of Los Angeles documents many of the great heartbreak homes magnificent architecture and gardens built to blend with extraordinary natural settings, all destroyed by developers, city governments and an assortment of tycoons. --Los Angeles Times

Sam Watters shows L.A.'s architectural history in all its resplendent, unhinged opulence...from the first mogul's Moorish villas, French chateaux and emperor's palaces, to the beginnings of Bel-Air and Beverly Hills. --Black Book

This beautiful double volume is an invaluable addition to the history of residential architecture in America, especially as it includes interior decorating deatails of the period, representative landscaping, and many fascinating architectural details. It is full of ideas for landscape designers, architects and decorators who are interested in how these imposing houses were furnished and how people once lived in them. --1stdibs.com

About the Author
Sam Watters was educated at Yale University, the University of Marseilles, and the Royal Herbarium at Kew. He is the editor of American Gardens, 1885-1935, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest Regions (Acanthus Press, 2006). He teaches at the architecture school of the University of Southern California.

Customer Reviews

Houses of Los Angeles, 1885-1919
This set of two volumes is absolutely terrific! The two volumes cover Los Angeles architecture from 1885 until 1935. The photographs and floor plans are extremely interesting. It is wonderful to see how these homes were furnished when they were new. The books give a brief history of each house and tell whether the home is still in existance and its current use. The variety of architecture in Los Angeles was so varied and most certainly a trendsetter for the entire country during those years. These books are a must for all architects, interior designers, local historians and all who are interested in houses.

CITY OF ANGELS
These books from Acanthus Press are always so elegant and well done and this one is no exception. The images are well crafted, you cant help but appreciate how crisp and clear they are. The text is informative, it's not a scholarly thesis, but then again, that's really not what is called for here, you get enough information to appreciate the house being discussed and get a breif synopsis; perfect. This book along with it's companion volumn is a must have if you have any interest in this genre. Highly recommended.

Brilliant Book
This two-volume study of historic Los Angeles houses from 1885 to 1935 is brilliant. The writing is excellent - witty and insightful and the historic photos are superb. Highly recommended.