Gamble, Lynn H., ed. First Coastal Californians. Santa Fe, NM: School for Advanced Research Press, 2015.
Gamble, Lynn H. The Chumash World at European Contact: Power, Trade, and Feasting among Complex Hunter-Gatherers. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2008.
Gibson, Leroy A. Jr. and Gail M. Goldwyn. Looking Beyond the Mirror. Woodinville, WA: Gail Goldwyn’s Books. 2017.
Gibson, Michael J. “Creating Sacred Spaces in the Suburbs: Roman Catholic Church Architecture in Postwar Southern California.” Master’s Thesis. University of Southern California. August 2009.
Golla, Victor. “Linguistic Prehistory.” In California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity. Ed. Terry J. Jones and Kathryn A. Klar. Plymoth, UK: AltaMira Press 2007.
GPA Consulting. SurveyLA Historic Context Statement: African American History of Los Angeles.
Prepared for City of Los Angeles, Office of Historic Preservation. February 2018.
GPA Consulting. Westside Historic Context & Survey Report: City of Ventura. Prepared for the City of Ventura. 2011.
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Grant, C. Handbook of North American Indians. No. 8: California. Ed. Robert F. Heizer.
Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institute, 1978.
Greenwood, Roberta G. Archival Study/Historic Overview, Downtown San Buenaventura Redevelopment Study Area. Pacific Palisades: Greenwood and Associates. May 1980.
Grissim, John. The Complete Buyers Guide to Manufactured Homes and Land. Sequim, WA:
Rainshadow Publications. 2003.
Heizer, Robert F, Ed. “Handbook of North American Indians.” California, Volume 8.
Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. 1978.
Hertel, F.W. Ventura Avenue Oil Field. Ventura County, California. 1928,
Hill, David W. The Streets of Ventura. Ventura, CA: Museum of Ventura County. 2008.
Historic Resources Group. Historic Resources Survey Update: City of Ventura, California – Downtown Specific Plan Area. Prepared for the City of Ventura. 2007.
Historic Resources Group. SurveyLA Context Historic Context Statement: Japanese Americans in Los Angeles, 1869-1970. Prepared for City of Los Angeles, Office of Historic Preservation. August 2018.
Howe, Catherine Phillips. “A History of Ventura College, 1925-1958,” Master’s Thesis.
University of Southern California. 1958.
Hoye, Richard, et al. Images of America: Ojai. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing. 2007.
Jackson, Glenda J. Ventura. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing. 2005.
“John T. Martin.” Interview by Robert David Breton. April 21, 2012. https://cityofmissionviejo.org/sites/default/files/Documents/FinalTranscript_Martin_ John_April%2021%202012.pdf (accessed March 28, 2020).
Kanner, Diane. 1906-2006: A.C. Martin Partners, One Hundred Years of Architecture. Los Angeles, CA: A.C. Martin Partners. 2006.
Longstreth, Richard. “Sears, Roebuck and The Remaking of the Department Store, 1924-
42.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. Volume 65, No. 2. June 2006.
Los Angeles Times. Newspaper.
Ludlum, Andy. “Saticoy’s Prisoner of War Camp.” Museum of Ventura County. https://venturamuseum.org/research-library-blog/saticoys-prisoner-of-war-camp/ (accessed March 18, 2020).
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Makepeace, LeRoy McKim. Sherman Thacher and His School. Centennial Edition. Ojai, CA:
Ojai Printing and Publishing Co. 1989.
McLendon, Sally, et al. “Cultural Affiliation and Lineal Descent of Chumash Peoples in the Channel Islands and the Santa Monica Mountains.” National Park Service. Final Report, Volume 1. 1999.
Meridian Consultants. “Andora Subdivision Project.” Environmental Impact Report, Cultural Resources Assessment, Appendix E. Prepared for the City of Los Angeles.
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Moorpark Enterprise. Newspaper.
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Myrick, David F. “Ventura County Railroads, A Centennial History, Volume I: The Railroad Comes to Ventura County.” The Ventura County Historical Society Quarterly. Volume 33, No. 1. Fall 1987.
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New World Sun. Year Book. 1939.
Oxnard Daily-Courier. Newspaper.
Page & Turnbull. SurveyLA Historic Context Statement: Korean Americans in Los Angeles, 1905- 1980. Prepared for City of Los Angeles, Office of Historic Preservation. August 2018.
Rafu Shimpo. Newspaper.
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Robinson, William Wilcox. The Story of Ventura County. Title Insurance and Trust Company. 1956.
Sagara, M. Rosalind. SurveyLA Historic Context Statement: Filipino Americans in Los Angeles, 1903-1980. Prepared for City of Los Angeles, Office of Historic Preservation. August 2018.
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San Buenaventura Research Associates. Phase I/II Historic Resources Report: Ojai Valley School Upper Campus 10820 Reeves Road, Ojai, CA. March 21, 2017.
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Schofield, Mildred Ranger. “A Brief History of Eugene P. Foster.” portal.countyofventura.org [archived] (accessed June 23, 2020).
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Sheridan, Edwin M. History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties California.
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Sheridan, Edwin M. History of Ventura County, State of California. Los Angeles: Harold McLean Meier. 1940.
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Taylor, Frank J. and Earl W. Welty. Black Bonanza: How an Oil Company Grew into the Union Oil Company. New York, NY: Whittlesey House. 1950.
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Triem, Judith P. Ventura County: Land of Good Fortune. Second edition. San Luis Obispo: EZ Nature Books. 1990.
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Westergaard, Waldemar. “Thomas R. Bard and Ventura County’s Sheep Industry, 1870- 1884.” Historical Society of Southern California. Volume 11. 1918.
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APPENDICES
Elizabeth Bard Memorial Hospital (City of Ventura Landmark No. 19), 1930. Source: USC Digital Library.
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APPENDIX A: BIOGRAPHIES OF LOCAL PRACTITIONERS
The practitioner biographies below provide a brief overview of known architects, builders, landscape architects and other designers practicing in Ventura during the survey’s period of study. This list includes a number of individuals, partnerships and firms on the City’s List of Architects and/or Builders, supplemented by field reconnaissance and additional property- specific research conducted as part of this historic resources survey update.1 Biographical information is derived from a variety of primary and secondary sources, including the Pacific Coast Architecture Database, AIA Directories and Membership files, Withey's Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, Ancestry.com, and multiple online newspaper databases.
This information is not intended as a comprehensive list of all significant architects or designers that may have practiced in Ventura over time. Rather, it is included here for reference and to provide guidance in evaluating the relative architectural significance of individual properties and historic districts within the City of San Buenaventura.
Abrams, Edmund C., AIA (1901-1962)
Born: Oshkosh, WI
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (c. 1927) Firm(s): Chief Designer, Guy Rothwell, Architect (c. 1928, 1938-c. 1953); Principal, Edmund C. Abrams, Architect (1953-unknown)
Biographical info: Edmund C. Abrams was born in 1901, the son of a clothing merchant in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. By 1920, Abrams was living with his parents in San Luis Obispo.
Abrams graduated from USC with a degree in architecture c. 1927. By 1928, he was living in Honolulu where he was on the staff of local architects, Guy Rothwell and architect C.W. Dickey. In the mid-1930s, Abrams left Hawaii to engage in government work in Bogota, Columbia. In 1936, he returned to California and did architectural work in Ventura until 1938. It was then that he returned to Honolulu to become chief designer for Guy Rothwell. During his tenure with Rothwell, he was chief designer of Honolulu’s Sears, Roebuck and Co. (1941). In the 1940s, he designed a project for the Hawaii Housing Authority as well as several commercial works. In 1953, Abrams left the employ of Rothwell and established his own firm in Honolulu. He died in Hawaii in 1962 at the age of 61.
Ache, William W. (1886-1957)*
Born: Nazareth, PA
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): Draftsman, Parkinson & Bergstrom (c. 1906); Draftsman, Edwin Bergstrom (c. 1920)
Biographical info: William Whitesell Ache was born the son of a Pennsylvania farmer in 1886. As a young man he was a painter in Reading, Pennsylvania. Ache made his way to California in 1905, becoming a draftsman in the office of well-known Los Angeles architects Parkinson & Bergstrom. In 1921, he was certified as an architect and appears to have established his own practice. In the early years of his practice, Ache received commissions for Spanish Colonial Revival buildings such as the Miramar
1 Practitioners that are included in the City’s List of Architects and/or Builders are indicated by an asterisk (*). 281
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Hotel in Santa Monica and the Brentwood Country Club. By the 1930s, he had developed a unique niche: designing packing houses and labor camps for agricultural clients—specifically in the citrus industry. Ache designed dozens of facilities in Oxnard, Upland, Santa Paula, in the San Fernando Valley, and Santa Clara. These projects continued after World War II. According to the Los Angeles Times, he designed 60 such projects.2 He also designed projects in Arizona. Ache died at his home in Hollywood in 1957 at the age of 71.
Allen, William S., FAIA (1912-1992)*
Born: Neptune Township, NJ
Education: University of Pennsylvania, B.Arch (1935), M.Arch (1936) Firm(s): Designer, Masten & Hurd, Architects (1937-1942); Partner, Anshen & Allen, Architects (1940-1992)
Biographical info: William Stephen Allen was born in 1912 and studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania where he received multiple honors and awards. He founded the firm Anshen & Allen in 1940 with partner Robert Anshen, whom he met at university. Both men received a travelling fellowship and elected to open their practice in San Francisco. Anshen & Allen is best known for their award-winning tract home designs for the progressive developer Joseph Eichler. While Eichler employed other architects as part of the program, Anshen & Allen’s post-and- beam
modern homes were a staple for Eichler’s Northern and Southern California developments. Anshen & Allen specialized in tract home design and won numerous awards from the American Institute of Architects and publications such as House and Home, Progressive Architecture and Homes for Better Living. The firm continued to design tract homes until 1970 when it was transformed into an international planning and design firm. Other notable projects include Chapel of the Holy Cross (1956) in Sedona, Arizona, and the Dinosaur National Monument (1957) in Utah. Allen was elevated to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects in 1959. He was civically active in San Francisco, holding positions on a number of public commissions for the city. He also served as President of the AIA, Northern California Chapter and Chairman of the AIA National Public Relations Committee. He died in 1992 at the age of 80.
Andrews, LeRoy, AIA (1921-2009)
Born: Hughesville, PA
Education: Williamsport Technical Institute (2000 hour course), 1940; Temple University,(1940-1941);Drexel Institute of Technology (1941-1942); Earned A. A. degree from Ventura College (1956)
Firm(s): Andrews Drafting Service 1952-1964; LeRoy Andrews Architects, Inc., 1964- c.2009.
Biographical info: LeRoy Miles Andrews developed an early interest in music. After graduating high school, he played jazz and swing with big bands around Pennsylvania and New York. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Afterward, he moved to
2 Obituary: William W. Ache, Los Angeles Times, March 15, 1957, B26. 282
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Atlanta where he worked for Bell Aircraft Co. He then moved to California where he obtained a job with Northrup Aircraft Co, working on the original flying wing.
Settling finally in Ventura, he obtained an architecture license in 1964 and set up his own practice. Andrews is best known for his design of the 1977 fire station on E.
Main Street that used solar energy as the primary heat source. He also designed the Moorpark Community Center and the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local No. 114 in Buellton, California.
Andrews was also a pioneering advocate for vocational education in Ventura’s public schools. He was a member of the Ventura Chamber of Commerce and served on the Ventura County Economic Development Association. He organized a Dixieland band in Ventura and played publicly throughout his life. He died in 2009.
Anshen, Robert S., FAIA (1910-1964)*
Born: Revere, MA
Education: University of Pennsylvania, B.Arch (1935), M.Arch (1936) Firm(s): Anshen & Allen (1940-1964)
Biographical info: Robert Samuel Anshen was born in 1910 and studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania where he received multiple honors and awards. He founded the firm Anshen & Allen in 1940 with partner William S. Allen, whom he had met at university. Both men received a travelling fellowship and elected to open their practice in San Francisco. Anshen & Allen is best known for their award-winning tract home designs for the progressive developer Joseph Eichler. While Eichler employed other architects as part of the program, Anshen & Allen’s post-and- beam
modern homes were a staple for Eichler’s Northern and Southern California developments. Anshen & Allen specialized in tract home design and won numerous awards from the American Institute of Architects and publications such as House and Home, Progressive Architecture and Homes for Better Living. The firm continued to design tract homes until 1970 when it was transformed into an international planning and design firm. Other notable projects include Chapel of the Holy Cross (1956) in Sedona, Arizona, and the Dinosaur National Monument (1957) in Utah. Anshen taught design at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1950s. He was elevated to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects in 1962. He died two years later in 1964.
Ashley, Frederic M., AIA (1870-1960)*
Born: Rochester, NY
Education: Attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (c. 1896) Firm(s): Staff, Supervising Architect, Washington, D.C.; Partner, Austin & Ashley (1915- 1935)
Biographical info: Frederic Morse Ashley was born in Rochester and was a special student at present- day Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He came to California in 1905 for his wife’s health. He worked initially for Parkinson & Bergstrom as a draftsman. By 1911, he was working as a draftsman at the L.A. Investment Co. By 1913, he was a 283
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draftsman at the firm of Haenke & Dodd. In 1915, he joined in partnership with John C. W. Austin to form Austin & Ashley. During that partnership, he was involved with the design of the Griffith Observatory (1935-36), the Shrine Auditorium (1926), and numerous schools. He retired from practice in 1942 and died in 1960 at his home in Highland Park.
Austin, John C., FAIA (1870-1963)*
Born: Bodicote, England
Education: Private school instruction and individual tutoring; no formal degree in architecture Firm(s): Apprentice, William S. Barwick, Architect (c. late 1880s); Draftsman, Benjamin Linfoot, Architect (1891-1892); Draftsman, William S. Barwick, (1892); Draftsman Mooser & Devlin (1892-1895); Partner, Austin & Skilling, Architects (c. 1896- 1899); Austin & Brown (c. 1906); Principal, John C.W. Austin, Architect (1902- 1909, 1920-1929); Austin & Pennell (c. 1910-1914); Member, Allied Architects Association (1921-1944); Partner, Austin & Ashley (1915-1935); Partner, Austin, Field & Fry (c. 1948-1958)
Biographical info: John Corneby Wilson Austin was born in Bodicote, Oxfordshire in England in 1870. He came to the U.S. in 1888 and settled in Philadelphia. After a brief return to England, he moved to San Francisco, relocating to Los Angeles in 1894. He became a naturalized citizen in 1900. Austin was a prolific architect with a variety of partners and as a solo practitioner. In addition to residential work, his portfolio includes dozens of civic, commercial, and institutional buildings. While the majority of his work is found in Los Angeles, he designed buildings in Santa Barbara, Pasadena, Anaheim and other cities up and down the California coast. His partnership with Frederic M. Ashley, was the penultimate of his collaborations, dating approximately from 1929 through 1935. Over the years, Austin designed buildings in a wide variety of popular architectural styles. Among his most visible works are the Shrine Auditorium (1926), contributions to Los Angeles City Hall (1925, with John C. Parkinson and Albert C. Martin), Griffith Observatory (1935- 36). His work was widely published in Architectural Record, Architectural Digest, American Architect and Architect and Engineer. Austin was president of the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1912. He was elected President of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce in January 1930. Austin also served as the President of the State Board of Architectural Examiners, a member of
the National Labor Board responsible for labor disputes in Southern California, President of the Southern California Historical Society, and President of the Jonathan Club. He was also a 32nd degree Mason. Austin was elevated to Fellow in the American Institute of Architects in 1913. He died in 1963 at the age of 93.
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Barber, Thomas P. (1862-1932)*
Born: Colchester, England
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): Thomas P. Barber, Architect
Biographical info: English-born Thomas P. Barber came to the U.S. in boyhood, his parents settling first in Illinois, then in Colorado Springs, Colorado. There, Barber received his education and opened an architectural office. After a few years he was joined in practice by his younger brother, William, and together they designed several public buildings across the state. Barber left Colorado for Los Angeles in the late 1920s . In
L.A. he made a name for himself in ecclesiastical architecture, designing the iconic Hollywood Methodist Church, as well as the First Methodist Churches of Pasadena, Ventura and Santa Barbara. He also designed several structures in the Pacific Palisades. Periodically, Barber partnered with other architects, such as Paul Kingsbury, on specific projects. Barber died in Glendale, California in 1932 at the age of 70.
Becket, Welton, FAIA (1902-1969)*
Born: Seattle, WA
Education: University of Washington, B.Arch. (1927); École des Beaux Arts, Fontainbleu, France (1928)
Firm(s): Chief designer for C. Waldo Powers (1929-1932); Partner, Plummer, Wurdeman & Becket, (1933-1938); Partner, Wurdeman & Becket (1930-1933, 1938-1949); Principal, Welton Becket Associates (1949-1988)
Biographical info: Welton Becket, FAIA, was born in Seattle, Washington, and studied architecture at the University of Washington. He completed a year of graduate study at the École des Beaux Arts in Fontainebleau, France, and arrived in Los Angeles in 1931. In 1933, he formed a partnership with his former classmate, Walter Wurdeman, and established Los Angeles architect Charles F. Plummer. The firm specialized in small
commercial buildings and residences. In 1935, the partners won a design competition for the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles; the distinctive Streamline Moderne landmark was constructed north of the Miracle Mile district for the 1935 National Housing Exposition. After Plummer’s death in 1939, the firm incorporated as Wurdeman & Becket. Their design for Bullock’s Pasadena, completed in 1947, established the prototype for the postwar suburban department store. When Wurdeman died unexpectedly in 1949 Becket bought out his partner’s heirs and assumed sole leadership of the firm, renaming it Welton Becket & Associates. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the firm grew to be one of the largest in the world with more than 400 employees and offices in San Francisco, New York, Houston, and Chicago. Becket’s retail projects included some two dozen other Bullock’s stores—including locations in Palm Springs, Westwood (Los Angeles), Sherman Oaks (Los Angeles), Lakewood, La Habra, and Northridge (Los Angeles); Buffum’s Department Store in Santa Ana; Seibu of Los Angeles; and malls such as Fashion Island in Newport Beach. Other notable works include the iconic Capitol Records tower in Hollywood, the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles, the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, and the Beverly 285
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Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. Becket is credited with transforming the cityscape of postwar Los Angeles with his many commercial and institutional designs. He was one of the most influential architects in the development of Los Angeles, and founded a practice that became one of the nation’s largest architectural firms. He died in 1969 at the age of 66.
Bell, William R. (c. 1889-1972)*
Born: Canada
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): (Unknown)
Biographical info: Canadian-born William Robert Bell was a carpenter turned builder who came to the United States in 1914. He became a naturalized citizen in 1917. Little is known about his projects or affiliations. Based on census records, Bell was a builder- contractor in the Los Angeles area for 40 years. Ventura context documentation suggests that he may have been affiliated with architect Clarence L. Jay.
Bowen, Oliver G. (1887-1958)
Born: (Unknown)
Education: University of Michigan (1911)
Firm(s): Bowen, Rule & Bowen
Biographical info: Oliver G. Bowen was born in 1887 and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1911. In 1912, he opened his office as a consulting structural engineer. In 1926, the firm shifted to general contracting. However, the extensive damage caused by the 1933 Long Beach earthquake demonstrated the need for improved structural engineering techniques, and Bowen focused on the study of lateral forces. In the 1940s, Bowen was commissioned to design an additional three stories for the Sears Roebuck & Co. mail order center (c. 1947). For this project, Bowen designed a system of 65 roller bearing assemblies on which the three additional stories floated, permitting a range of six inches of movement. In the early 1950s, Bowen took on two partners—Rhodes Rule and his son, Gerald Bowen—to form Bowen, Rule & Bowen. The Los Angeles-based partnership was primarily a structural engineering firm that also produced architectural plans. During the 1950s, the firm was known for its parking structures and school buildings throughout Southern California. In 1952, they opened a Palm Springs-area branch office in Palm Desert. Bowen died in 1958 at the age of 71.
Bradbeer, J.H., AIA (1842-1929)
Born: Cobourg, Ontario, Canada
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): Partner, Brown & Bradbeer (c.1890-c. 1889); Partner, Bradbeer & Ferris (1893- 1898); Partner Bliesner & Bradbeer (c. 1898); Principal J. H. Bradbeer (1901-1904); Partner, Bradbeer & Young (c. 1905)
Biographical info: Canadian-born James Horace Bradbeer migrated to the United States in 1871. He came to Los Angeles in 1888 via Ohio, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1876. He appears to have learned of the opportunity that lay in Los Angeles from 286
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his brother who was selling insurance in the city. Bradbeer quickly established an office, but took a partner to form Brown & Bradbeer in 1889. In their first year of practice together, they designed more than 20 residences and schools, making it one of the leading firms in the city.3 In 1890, he resumed solo practice, specializing in churches, schools and public buildings. By 1892, Bradbeer was well-established in his own individual practice with a thriving residential clientele. His designs were predominantly in the Victorian and Queen Anne styles. In 1893, Bradbeer joined forces with Walter Ferris and they had 53 contracts by August of that year. By 1901, Bradbeer was a director in the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He was also designing a number of schools in cities throughout Southern California, including Anaheim, Covina, Whittier and Long Beach. He also designed schools in Los Feliz, Farmdale and other parts of Los Angeles. All were Neo-
classical in style. Around this time, Bradbeer appears to have been associated with C. C. Rittenhouse, while also continuing his residential practice. In 1905, Bradbeer and his wife relocated to San Francisco due to his failing health. Census records suggest that he continued to practice architecture in 1910 and likely found much work in the city after the 1906 earthquake. He ultimately retired in San Francisco and died in 1929.
Burket, Harold E., AIA (1891-1972)*
Born: Pierce, NE
Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.Arch (1916) Firm(s): Draftsman, Gutleben Brothers (c. 1917); Designer, Bakewell & Brown, Bliss & Faville; Designer, George Kelham; Harold E. Burket, Architect (c. 1922) Biographical info: Harold Escher Burket4 was a prolific Ventura-based architect who spent over 40 years designing primarily commercial and institutional projects throughout Ventura County. Burket was born on November 11, 1891 in Pierce, Nebraska. He came to California with his parents at the age of two. They settled in Paso Robles, but by the mid-teens he was studying at the University of California, Berkeley. Although the architect’s obituary places Burket in Ventura County while in the Berkeley glee club around 1915,
5 his first known commission in the area was the Spanish Colonial Revival-style Pleasant Valley Baptist Church (1929) in Camarillo.6 It may have been at this time that he met and married the daughter of Adolfo Camarillo, son of Juan Camarillo. In March 1928, Harold and his wife moved to Ventura where he established his firm.
7 In 1930, Burket’s work was included in an
AIA/Santa Barbara Chapter exhibit in memory of the late George Washington Smith.8 Simultaneously, Burket’s design for a small house won an award in
3 “Buildings,” Los Angeles Times, January 1, 1890, 10.
4 Some sources misspell Burket’s name as “Burkett.”
5 Harold Burket, Ventura Star Free Press, September 29, 1970, 1. 6 Gebhard and Winter, A Guide to Architecture in Los Angeles and Southern California (Salt Lake City, UT: Peregrine Smith, Inc., 1982), 495.
7 “Return to County,” Oxnard Daily Courier, February 13, 1928, 3. 8 “Architects Exhibit Conducted,” Los Angeles Times, July 13, 1930, D10. 287
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competition conducted by the Long Beach Architectural Club.9 In 1932, Burket became the President of the Santa Barbara Chapter of the AIA. Burket’s designs often reflected the changing architectural tastes of the period, from the Spanish Colonial Revival-style Community Presbyterian Church and Zig Zag Moderne-style Firestone Tire Store in the 1920s, to the P.W.A. Moderne-style Ventura Post Office and the Streamline Moderne Great Eastern Department Store of the 1930s and 1940s. Burket had a particular interest in school design—specifically the importance of light and air to a healthy learning environment—as evidenced in his many schools in Ventura County. His innovative design for Will Rogers Elementary School was featured in the Los Angeles Times, which noted the use of “solar electric eye robots” to control vertical louvered window panels and provide “measured daylight” for school rooms. Burket is perhaps best known for his larger institutional commissions such as an addition to the Ventura County Courthouse (c. 1955-56) and the E. P. Foster Public Library (1959). One of Burket’s signature design details in his Mid-Century Modern style buildings is his use of large simple, geometric wooden grid details on windows and as screens. Burket adapted this architectural language for his design of Our Lady of the Assumption Church.
Burket died in 1972.
Causey, Jack E., AIA (1929-2019)*
Born: Los Angeles, CA
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (1953) Firm(s): Draftsman, Burge & Roach, Architects; Chief Draftsman, Gerald H. Bense, Architect; Associate, Jay Dewey Harnish, AIA; Partner, Harnish, Morgan & Causey Biographical info: Jack Edward Causey was born in Los Angeles in 1929. In 1960 he established the firm of Harnish, Morgan & Causey with Jay Dewey Harnish and Melford C.
Morgan. Causey led the firm’s prolific work in public school design for cities throughout Southern California, including Valencia Elementary School in Upland (1966), Ontario High School (1967), and North Park High School in San Bernardino (1969). Causey was also lead designer for the Lockheed Air Services building in Ontario (1968) and the Ontario City Library (1969). Causey died in 2019 at the age of 90.
Clements, Stiles O., AIA (1883-1966)*
Born: Centerville, MD
Education: Drexel Institute of Technology, B.Arch (1902); Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Special Student in Architecture (1908); Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris (one year)
Firm(s): Designer, Morgan, Walls & Morgan (1917-1924); Partner, Morgan, Walls & Clements (1924-1937); Partner, Stiles Clements & Associates (1937-1955); Stiles & Robert Clements (1955-1965)
Biographical info: Stiles Oliver Clements was born in Maryland and moved to Los Angeles in 1911 at the age of 28. He became a designer with Morgan, Walls & Morgan eventually
9 “Design Achieves Dignity,” Los Angeles Times, December 7, 1930, D4. 288
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rising to the level of partner. In 1937, he established his own solo practice.
Clements is best known as the designer of more than 40 major buildings on Wilshire Boulevard. He was also the designer of the Richfield Oil Building in downtown Los Angeles. He worked in a variety of architectural styles over the years, from Beaux Arts to Spanish Colonial Revival to Art Deco. His work was well-published throughout his career—appearing in Architectural Record, American Architect, Architect & Engineer, Architectural Digest, California Arts and Architecture and many others. His work is noted frequently in Gebhard and Winter’s Los Angeles: An Architectural Guide. Clements also served on the Regional Planning Commission for the County of Los Angeles. He died in 1966 at the age of 83.
Cleveland, Ron, AIA (1911-1987)
Born: McCleary, WA
Education: University of Washington (1929-33); Art Center (1933-37) Firm(s): Industrial Designer, Kem Weber (1937-1938); Designer, Gordon Kaufman (1938- 1941); Chief Architectural Designer, Basic Magnesium, Inc. (1941-1944); West Coast Regional Director, Raymond Loewy & Associates (1944-1948); Principal, Barondon Corporation (1948-1957); Partner, Leach, Cleveland & Associates (1957); Partner, Mazzetti, Leach, Cleveland & Associates (c. 1964-c. 1970); Partner, Leach, Cleveland & Associates (c. 1970- c. 1985)
Biographical info: Ronald M. Cleveland was born in McCleary, Washington and educated at the University of Washington. He spent his early years alternating between industrial and architectural design. By 1948, Cleveland was a designer at Los Angeles-based Barondon Corporation, known for its industrial design. Barondon’s work appears to have taken an architectural turn in the mid-1950s at the hands of architect/designer Sterling Leach, whom he had first met while in the offices of Raymond Lowey. Barondon designed the Pomona Valley Shopping Center (1954) and the Ontario Plaza (c. 1957). In 1957, the firm became Leach, Cleveland & Associates and focused on shopping center design and large retail stores within shopping mall complexes. Clients were impressed by the firm’s ability to merge architecture and merchandising. The firm would go on to design hundreds of projects by the early 1980s, primarily in the Mid-Century Modern style. By 1961, the firm was working with Santa Barbara-
based Louis A. Mazzetti on projects north
of Los Angeles including shopping centers in Lompoc, Fresno Fashion Square, and Buenaventura Plaza in Ventura. Cleveland retired in 1985 and died in 1987.
Dahlstrom, Merrell B., AIA (b. 1923)
Born: San Bernardino, CA
Education: Unknown
Firm(s): Draftsman, William P. Mellin, Architect (c. 1949); Biographical info: Merrell Blaine Dahlstrom was born into a large Mormon family that had relocated from Utah to San Bernardino. Prior to World War II, Dahlstrom worked for the United States Government War Department. In 1942, he enlisted in the Army.
Little is known about his college educational experience. Dahlstrom’s known work is primarily civic and institutional. In 1965, Dahlstrom received the commission for 289
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the maximum-security prison unit at the Glen Helen Rand in Devore in 1965. The same year he was awarded a Sherriff Station in Ontario and the remodel of the Hall of Justice in San Bernardino. He also designed a Mormon church in Yucaipa. In 1969, he received the commission for a large office and manufacturing facility for the International Window Corporation in Monterey Park.
Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall (founded 1946)
Born: N/A
Education: N/A
Firm(s): N/A
Biographical info: Founded in 1946 by Phillip Daniel, Arthur Mann, S. Johnson and Irvan Mendenhall, DMJM changed the face of corporate architecture in the late 20th century. Originally specializing in military projects, its strengths were in engineering and structural design. The firm made a name for itself in 1964 with the design for the American Cement Building showcasing the versatility of concrete. During the late 1960s, under the direction of Cesar Pelli and Anthony Lumsden, DMJM pioneered the glass skin membrane design system which enabled new ways of “wrapping” buildings in glass and creating smooth curtain walls. The firm’s work was published nationally and internationally. Their built work includes the Federal Aviation Administration West Coast Headquarters, Ambassador College, Roxbury Plaza, the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, Century City Medical Plaza and One Park Plaza. In 1974, architecture critic Reyner Banham described the firm’s work as some of the best office architecture. By the 1990s, the firm employed more than 500 architects, engineers, software technicians, interior designers and draftsmen.
Now known as DMJM Harris, it was acquired in 1984 by AECOM.10
Dvoretzky, Eugene N., AIA (b. 1927)
Born: New York City, NY
Education: University of Southern California, B. Arch. (1953) Firm(s): Project Architect, Arthur B. Froelich; Job Captain, John Kewell; Principal, Nisan Matlin and Eugene Dvoretzky, Architects
Biographical info: Eugene Nathan Dvoretzky was born in New York City in 1927. Prior to World War II, Dvoretzky was living in Los Angeles and working for Lockheed Aircraft. He also served in the Army at the end of World War II. In 1959, Dvoretsky partnered with fellow USC graduate Nisan Yale Matlin to form Nisan Matlin and Eugene Dvoretzky, Architects. The firm had a significant list of Southern California projects including multi-family residential, government housing, office buildings, commercial and industrial buildings, shopping centers, hospitals, medical buildings, hotels and country clubs. The firm’s work won several local AIA awards and was published in House and Home and the Los Angeles Times. Matlin and Dvoretzky’s residential work reflected both their post-and-beam training from USC and Matlin’s time in the office of Jones & Emmons. In the 1970s, the firm designed a number of garden
10 Adapted from the Los Angeles Conservancy website, https://www.laconservancy.org/architects/dmjm (accessed March 17, 2021).
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condominiums and townhomes. The firm is also known for their design for the University of Judaism (present-day American Jewish University, c. 1980) and the Mountaingate Clubhouse (1979).
Eckbo, Garrett, FASLA (1910-2000)
Born: Cooperstown, NY
Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.S. Landscape Architecture (1935); Harvard Graduate School of Design, M. Landscape Architecture (1939) Firm(s): Partner, Eckbo, Royston & Williams (1945-1958); Partner, Eckbo, Dean & Williams (1958-1967); Partner, Eckbo, Dean, Austin & Williams (1967-1992) Biographical info: Garrett Eckbo was one of the central figures in the field of modern landscape design. Through several highly successful collaborations Eckbo became a leading practitioner of the “California style” of landscape architecture. His first firm, Eckbo, Royston & Williams, established an office in Pasadena in 1946. They designed landscapes for several of architects of the Arts + Architecture Case Study House program. In 1958, the firm became Eckbo, Dean & Williams, and in 1967, Eckbo, Dean, Austin & Williams (EDAW). Eckbo also spent several years as chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at U.C. Berkeley. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Eckbo designed landscapes for a number of private residences, collaborating with prominent architects such as Palmer & Krisel, Wexler & Harrison, E. Stewart Williams, and William F. Cody.
Emmons, Frederick E., Jr. (1907-1999)*
Born: Olean, NY
Education: Cornell University, B.Arch (1929)
Firm(s): Frederick E. Emmons (1946-1950); Jones & Emmons (1950-1969) Biographical info: Frederick E. Emmons, Jr. was born in Olean, New York. After graduating from Cornell University in 1929 with a degree in architecture, he joined the New York firm of McKim, Mead & White. He moved to Los Angeles in 1932, and would become friends with A. Quincy Jones through their mutual employment at Allied Engineers in San Pedro. Emmons spent four years in the Navy during World War II. In 1951, he partnered with Jones to establish the firm of Jones & Emmons; this prolific partnership continued until Emmons’ retirement in 1969. Jones & Emmons utilized new building technologies that decreased costs and production time. The firm favored structural innovations including lightweight post-and-beam construction with pre-assembled parts. Their work included large-scale commissions, including religious buildings, educational facilities, and civic spaces.
In addition, the firm designed office, restaurant, and factory buildings throughout California. The firm designed numerous buildings on the University of California campuses at San Diego, Santa Barbara, Irvine, and Riverside. Emmons died in Beverly Hills in 1999 at age 91.
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Erkes, Walter E., AIA (1884-1961)*
Born: Berlin, Germany
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): Designer, J. Krempel, Architect (1899-1911); Partner Krempel and Erkes, Architects (1911-1933)
Biographical info: Walter Emil Erkes was born in Germany. He arrived in the United States in 1893 and by 1900 he was studying architecture in Los Angeles. He was also working in the office of John Paul Kremple, Architect where he had been employed since 1899. He became a naturalized citizen in 1906. Erkes was elevated to partner in 1911. He and Kremple completed many projects, including the American Beet Sugar Company’s adobe housing in Oxnard in 1918. After Kremple’s death in 1933, Erkes established a solo practice. Like many architects, he was called to design new schools after the Long Beach earthquake. He died in 1961 at age 77.
Fickett, Edward H., FAIA (1916-1999)
Born: Los Angeles, CA
Education: University of Southern California, School of Architecture, B.Arch. (1937) Firm(s): Sumner Spaulding, FAIA (1935-1938); Kirby Ferguson Structural Engineer (1940- 1941); Stephen A. Stepanian, AIA (1941-1942); Heusel & Fickett (1945-1949); Edward H. Fickett, Architect (1949-1999)
Biographical info: Edward H. Fickett, FAIA, was an innovative Los Angeles architect who established a highly successful practice, primarily designing moderate-income houses for large- scale builder clients in postwar Southern California. He designed some 60,000 homes and many other buildings over the course of his career and participated in developing housing guidelines for the Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Administration, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. From the late 1940s through the 1960s, Fickett’s house designs evolved from Traditional Ranch to Contemporary Ranch, using simple forms that were clearly modern and designed for efficient and economical construction. In 1949, Fickett designed the 1,000-
residence Sherman Park tract in the San Fernando Valley, considered the first large-scale tract of contemporary design in the Los Angeles area. A typical Fickett design features traditional ranch-style exterior detailing, an open interior plan, and a “wall of glass” that looked out onto the rear patio. Fickett also designed many elaborate residences in Bel Air, Brentwood, and Malibu, as well as bank buildings, libraries, schools, commercial and industrial developments, and government buildings.
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Fisher, Darwin, AIA (1917-2006)
Born: Harper, KS
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (1941) Firm(s): Architect, William F. Cody, Architect (1948-1949); Designer, Roy C. Wilson, Architect (1951-1952); Associate Architect, Harold E. Burket, Architect (1953- 1954); Partner, Fisher & Wilde, architects (1955-c. 1978) Biographical info: Darwin Edward Fisher was born in Harper, Kansas. He earned a B.Arch from USC in 1941 and then went on to serve as an architect for the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor from 1941-1945. Fisher moved to Ventura in the early 1950s. After working at various local firms, he partnered with Roy G. Wilde to form their own firm in 1955.
Fisher & Wilde designed a number of commercial, educational and institutional projects throughout Ventura County. They are best known for the Ventura County Welfare Building (1957), Pacific Telephone Company Office Building (1958), Hueneme High School (1959), Texaco Office Building (1959), and St. John’s Hospital Nursing Home (1960). Fisher & Wilde was also widely recognized for their restoration work on present-day Ventura City Hall (originally the Ventura County Courthouse). In 1971, the firm received Southern California Gas Co.’s Balanced Power Award for the Bank of A. Levy. Fisher was also Director of the Ventura Arts and Crafts Association from 1955 to 1957. Fisher died in 2006.
Froehlich, Arthur, FAIA (1909-1985)
Born: Los Angeles, CA
Education: University of California, Berkeley (1928-30) Firm(s): Draftsman, Milton M. Friedman, Architect (1927-1930); Draftsman, Paul Jeffers, Engineer (1930, 1932, 1934); Draftsman, John Parkinson (1932-1933); Designer and Chief Draftsman, Marshall Wilkinson (1935-1937); Principal, Arthur Froehlich & Associates (1938-unknown)
Biographical info: Arthur Froehlich was born in Los Angeles in 1909. He attended the University of California, Berkeley but did not earn a degree—likely the result of the Depression.
When he returned to Los Angeles from Berkeley, he got a job as a draftsman and worked at several local firms during the early- and mid-1930s. In 1938, he started his own firm in Beverly Hills. Early in his career, Froehlich developed a specialty practice designing horse racing tracks and other athletic facilities. This line of work brought in commissions from many states across the country; Froehlich even designed a hippodrome in Panama. Froehlich was elevated to the level of Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects in 1966. He also served on the Architectural Committee of Advisors to City Council for the City of Beverly Hills.
Froehlich died in 1985.
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Gill, Irving J. (1870-1936)*
Born: Syracuse, NY
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): Apprentice, Ellis G. Hall, Syracuse, NY (c. 1886-1990); Draftsman, Joseph Lyman Silsbee, Architect, Chicago, IL (1890-1891); Draftsman, Adler & Sullivan, Architects, Chicago (1891-1893); Principal, Irving J. Gill, Architect (1893-1894, 1895-1896, 1907, 1908-1922, 1924-1936); Partner, Falkenham & Gill (1894-1895); Partner, Hebbard & Gill (1896-1907); Partner Gill & Mead (1907-1908); Partner, Gill & Gill (1913-1920)
Biographical info: Irving John Gill was born in Syracuse, New York. After an early training in eastern schools, Gill went to Chicago to study with Louis Sullivan. Gill came to California in 1893 for his health and elected to make his home in San Diego. He started his independent practice there in about 1895. Over the course of his career, Gill alternated between independent practice and short-lived partnerships. Gill’s legacy is as a proto-modernist. His simplified forms and lack of ornament ushered in a California modern design aesthetic that would flourish in the mid-20 th century.
Known mostly for his residential work, he did several civic and institutional projects—most notably his work in La Jolla and Torrance, California. Gill died in 1936. Some two decades later, renowned architectural historian Esther McCoy fostered a new appreciation for Gill’s work, first in her 1956 article in Arts + Architecture, and later in her seminal book Five California Architects, published in 1960.
Greene, Charles Sumner, AIA (1868-1957)*
Born: Brighton, OH
Education: Manual Training School of Washington University, St. Louis (1887-1888); Certificate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1891) Firm(s): Apprentice, Andrews, Jaques & Rantoul; Draftsman, R. Clipston Sturgis; Draftsman, Winslow & Wetherell; Partner, Greene & Greene (1894-1922) Biographical info: Charles Sumner Greene was born in Brighton, Ohio in 1868. After studying architecture, he moved to Boston where he apprenticed and worked for several firms. In 1894, Charles and his brother Henry moved to Pasadena, where their parents had relocated one year prior. While traveling by train from Boston, the brothers stopped at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago where they were
introduced to Japanese architecture. The Greene brothers are primarily known for their residential commissions, and especially their Arts and Crafts style “ultimate bungalows.” The most well-known example of this work is the Gamble House in Pasadena (1908), which features finely-crafted fixtures, furniture and hardware and incorporates aspects of Japanese art and design. The Greene brothers received little acclaim during their lifetimes. However, in the 1950s their work was rediscovered and they received citations from the American Institute of Architects in 1952. In 1960, they were among the modern architects included in Esther McCoy’s seminal book, Five California Architects. Charles Greene died in 1957.
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Greene, Henry Mather, AIA (1870-1954)*
Born: Brighton, OH
Education: Manual Training School of Washington University, St. Louis (1887-1888); Certificate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1891) Firm(s): Apprentice, Chamberlin & Austin; Draftsman, Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge; Partner, Greene & Greene (1894-1922)
Biographical info: Henry Mather Greene was born in Brighton, Ohio in 1870. After studying architecture, he moved to Boston where he apprenticed and worked for several firms. In 1894, he and his brother Charles moved to Pasadena, California where their parents had relocated one year prior. While traveling by train from Boston, the brothers stopped at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago where they were introduced to Japanese architecture. The Greene brothers are primarily known for their residential commissions, and especially their Arts and Crafts style “ultimate bungalows.” The most well-known example of this work is the Gamble House in Pasadena (1908), which features finely-crafted fixtures, furniture and hardware and incorporates aspects of Japanese art and design. The Greene brothers received little acclaim during their lifetimes. However, in the 1950s their work was rediscovered and they received citations from the American Institute of Architects in 1952. In 1960, they were among the modern architects included in Esther McCoy’s seminal book, Five California Architects. Henry Greene died in 1954.
Harnish, Jay Dewey, FAIA (1898-1991)
Born: Lancaster, PA
Education: University of California, Berkeley, M.Arch (1924) Firm(s): Principal, Jay Dewey Harnish (1941-1959); Principal, Harnish, Morgan & Causey (1960-c. 1970)
Biographical info: Jay Dewey Harnish was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1898 as the son of a builder. By 1900, Harnish and his family were living in Ontario, California, and by 1917, Harnish was working as a draftsman for the San Bernardino County Surveyor’s Office. He served in World War I then returned to his position with the Surveyor’s Office. In the early 1920s, he studied architecture at the University of California, Berkeley earning his B.Arch in 1924. After working as a draftsman in various architects’ offices, he opened his own firm in Ontario in 1941. He designed government housing during World War II. His practice expanded to include some 25 hospitals and 75 schools in the ensuing years. In 1960, he partnered with Melford C. Morgan, and Jack E. Causey to form Harnish, Morgan & Causey. That firm was known for its hospital designs throughout Southern California. In 1960, Gov. Edmund G. Brown named him to the state Board of Architectural Examiners. Harnish was elevated to the level of Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects in 1969. Harnish retired from practice in 1978 and the firm changed its name to HMC Architects. Harnish died in 1991.
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Hastings, Theodore, AIA (1876-unknown)*
Born: Philadelphia, PA
Education: Harvard University; Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris Firm(s): Partner, Brockie & Hastings; Partner, Soule, Murphy & Hastings, Architects (c. 1921-1926)
Biographical info: Theodore Mitchell Hastings was born in Philadelphia in 1876. He studied at both Harvard University and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. In 1921, Hastings partnered with Winsor Soule and John Frederic Murphy to establish the firm of Soule, Hastings & Murphy; the firm dissolved in 1926 when Hastings retired. The firm is best known for its residential work in the greater Santa Barbara area.
Projects were published nationally in trade magazines such as Architecture, House Beautiful, House and Garden and Architectural Digest.
Head, Chalfant (1900-1970)*
Born: Kenosha, WI
Education: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Firm(s): Chalfant Head & Associates (c. 1940-1969)
Biographical info: Randolph Chalfant Head was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1900. The Ojai-based architect came to California in 1928. In the mid-1930s, he made his way to Ventura County where he was employed as a draftsman.11 Head and his wife Edith McCall Head, a home-design writer for the Los Angeles Times, appear to have maintained dual residences in Ojai and Los Angeles. Head established his own firm in the early 1940s. By the 1950s his Mid-Century Modern-style designs were being published in Architectural Record, House Beautiful, and the Los Angeles Times Home Magazine.
Although his residential work achieved the most press coverage, Head also designed several civic and institutional commissions around Ventura County.
Projects included Temple Beth Torah in Ventura (1963),
and the Ojai Valley School
in Ojai. Head was also tapped to design the Ventura County Forum for the Arts; however this project was never built. In 1969, Chalfant Head & Associates merged with Muller & Tveit. Head died the following year at the age of 69.
Hogsett, Albert (1899-1980)*
Born: Las Vegas, NM
Education: California Institute of Technology
Firm(s): (Unknown)
Biographical info: Albert Eaton Hogsett was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico in 1899. He lived in Ventura during his elementary and high school days, and served in the Army during World War I. In the early 1920s, Hogsett was employed as a draftsman in the Los Angeles office of architect M. M. Marston. By 1924, Hogsett established his own architectural practice and was living in Hollywood. He is credited with designing multiple schools around Ventura County, including the Avenue School, as well as several homes in the Hobson Heights area of Ventura, and at least one apartment house. In 1928, Hogsett was a draftsman at the F.B.O. Film Corporation. During
11 A biography written by Stephen Schafer indicates that Head worked in the offices of Roy Wilson and Harold Burket. 296
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the Great Depression, he continued to find work in art direction in the film industry, with his first credited crew position on Bright Eyes (1934). Hogsett worked as an art director with 20th Century Fox for 40 years, also working in television production in the late 1950s. Following his career in the film and television industries, Hogsett operated the Indian Rock Springs Drinking Water Co. in Escondido for 22 years.
Hummel, Fred, FAIA (1927-2018)
Born: Sheridan, WY
Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.Arch (1951) Firm(s): Draftsman, Erling Olauson (1951-1952); Job Captain, Gordon Stafford (1952- 1954); Designer, Albert Dreyfuss (1954-1955); Designer, Herbert Goodpastor (1955-1956); Architect/Field Supervisor, Kenneth Hess (1956-1957); Architect, Fisher & Wilde (1957-1958); Sr. Partner, Hummel, Rasmussen & Love (1957-1968); State Architect for State of California (1968-1973);
Biographical info: Fred Ernest Hummel came to Ventura County as a young boy, graduating from Nordhoff High School in 1945. Hummel, a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War, is known to have designed a variety of architectural projects, residential and institutional, throughout Northern and Southern California.
In addition to his architectural work, Hummel served on the Ventura City Planning Commission, the Ventura Parks Commission, was a member of the Channel Islands Harbor Plan Review Board, and the Ventura City Redevelopment Committee.
He appears to have moved from Ventura to Sacramento in 1970 to assume the role of State Architect. In that capacity he established innovative programs in housing for the disadvantaged, handicapped accessibility, and seismic design. Hummel was elevated to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects in 1972 for his contribution to the advancement of the profession. Hummel also received numerous awards for his service and architectural designs.
Hunt, Sumner P., FAIA (1865-1938)*
Born: Brooklyn, NY
Education: Apprenticeship in Cutler’s office; No formal degree Firm(s): Draftsman, Clarence B. Cutler, Troy NY (pre-1889); Caulkin & Haas, Los Angeles (c.1889); Partner, Hunt, Eisen & Eager (1895-1899); Hunt & Eager (c. 1899-1908); Hunt, Eager & Burns (1908-1910); Hunt & Burns (1908-1930) Biographical info: Sumner P. Hunt was born and educated in Brooklyn, NY. Hunt arrived in Los Angeles in 1889. After spending a few years at Caulkin & Haas, he opened a practice in 1895 with Theodore Eisen and A.W. Eager. Following Eisen’s retirement, Hunt continued the partnership with Eager. The firm of Hunt & Eager is best known for the Raymond Hotel in Pasadena. In 1908, Silas R. Burns joined the firm, which became Hunt, Eager & Burns. In 1910, Eager left the partnership, and the firm became known as Hunt & Burns. For the next two decades, Hunt & 297
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Burns operated as one of the leading architectural firms in Los Angeles. During these boom years they designed the Southwest Museum (1914), Los Angeles Country Club (1923), the Automobile Club of Southern California headquarters (1923), and the Ebell Club of Los Angeles (1927). Hunt was also the chief architect of the Academic Hall at Scripps College in Claremont, California. They also designed a number of prominent residences in Los Angeles. After Burns retired in 1930, Hunt carried on with an independent practice. He was president of the American Institute of Architects, and served on the original Los Angeles Planning Commission. He was a director of the Landmarks Club of Los Angeles. In 1932, Hunt was elevated to the level of Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects. Hunt died in 1938.
Jay, Clarence L. (1888-1983)*
Born: Los Angeles, CA
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): Draftsman, Alfred F. Rosenheim (1910)
Biographical info: Clarence Lee Jay was born in Los Angeles in 1888. In 1910, he was a draftsman in the practice of Alfred F. Rosenheim. By 1917, he was also teaching drafting and architecture at Los Angeles’ Polytechnic High School. In the 1920s and 1930s, Jay established a solo architectural practice of his own in Pasadena. He designed several public and semi-public buildings, theaters, apartment houses and residences in the fashionable styles of the day including Spanish Colonial Revival, Moorish Revival, and Italian Renaissance Revival. His design for the Las Encinas Sanitarium in Pasadena was published in American Architect magazine in 1929. By the 1930s, Jay developed a niche practice designing mausoleums. A 1930 exhibit of his work featured mausoleum projects in Long Beach, Pasadena, Salt Lake City, Red Bluff and Woodland, California. By 1941, Jay was employed at the Mountain View Mausoleum Association in Altadena, a post he held until at least 1962. Jay died in 1983.
Jones, Archibald Quincy, Jr., FAIA (1913-1979)*
Born: Kansas City, MO
Education: University of Washington, B.Arch. (1936)
Firm(s): A. Quincy Jones (1945-1950); A. Quincy Jones & Frederick E. Emmons (1951- 1969); A. Quincy Jones & Associates (1970-1979)
Biographical info: Los Angeles architect A. Quincy Jones, FAIA is noted for his innovative tract house designs for moderate-income families. He became interested in architecture in high school, and went on to study at the University of Washington. After graduating in 1936, Jones moved to Los Angeles to begin his professional career.
He worked for a number of eminent Los Angeles architects in his early career, including Douglas Honnold and Paul R. Williams. Jones received his certificate to practice architecture in 1942. That same year, he joined the Navy, serving in the Pacific until 1945. After World War II, he returned to Los Angeles amidst the post- war development boom. Jones taught architecture at the University of Southern California from 1951 to 1967, and would return to USC to serve as the Dean of the 298
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School of Fine Arts in 1975. Jones partnered with Frederick E. Emmons to found Jones & Emmons in 1951; the partnership continued until Emmons’ retirement in 1969. Jones & Emmons utilized new building technologies that decreased costs and production time. The firm favored structural innovations including lightweight post-and-beam construction with pre-assembled parts. The work of Jones & Emmons included large-scale commissions, including religious buildings, educational facilities, and civic spaces. In addition, the firm designed office, restaurant, and factory buildings throughout California. The firm designed numerous buildings on the University of California campuses at San Diego, Santa Barbara, Irvine, and Riverside. In 1964, Jones collaborated with building magnate Joseph Eichler on the Balboa Highland development in the Granada Hills neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley. Jones and Emmons are estimated to have designed some 5,000 houses for Eichler. Recipients of numerous awards, the pair were named AIA Firm of the Year in 1969. Jones died in Los Angeles in 1979.
Joseph, Bernard J., AIA12 (1875-1971)*
Born: CA
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): (Unknown)
Biographical info: Bernard Julius Joseph was born in California in 1875. Joseph was an architect with a thriving practice in San Francisco in the early 1910s. From 1906 to 1908, he partnered with G. Albert Lansberg. Joseph is best known for his designs for the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco and the Fox Strand Theater in Vallejo. He also designed the original Emporium building in San Francisco. Bernard did projects in other cities in California—including the creation of the Modesto Arch (c. 1911).
Kehoe, Richard H., AIA (1936-2000)
Born: New York, NY
Education: University of Southern California, M.Arch (c. 1961) Firm(s): Partner, Leach & Kehoe (1966-1969); Partner Leach, Kehoe, Ticer & Associates (1969-1976); Partner, Leach & Kehoe Architecture and Planning (1976-unknown) Biographical info: Richard Henry Kehoe relocated with his family to Southern California in 1953 where they established Kehoe Plastering. From the beginning, Kehoe was interested in planning. His USC graduate thesis project was a plan for the Port Hueneme Harbor. Kehoe is best remembered for his designs for the Oxnard Presbyterian Church and Oxnard Transportation Center. He also designed a multitude of financial institutions, medical and office buildings, restaurants and other commercial buildings. Kehoe was also a developer and formed the Pacific Urban Development Corporation to build and sell senior housing projects around Ventura County. Kehoe was an active member of the AIA, chairman of the Ojai Architectural Review Board, and a board member for similar groups for the City of Oxnard and Ventura County. He died in Ojai in 2000 at the age of 64.
12 Awaiting AIA Membership file from AIA library for more information. 299
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Kistner, Theodore C., AIA (1874-1973)
Born: Carlinville, IL
Education: University of Illinois, B.S. Architecture, 1897 Firm(s): T.C. Kistner (1911-1933) in San Diego; Partner, Kistner & Curtis (1933-1941) in San Diego and Los Angeles; Partner, Kistner, Curtis & Wright (1941-1952); Partner Kistner, Wright & Wright (1953-1965)
Biographical info: Theodore Charles Kistner was born to German immigrant parents in 1874. After graduating from the architecture program at the University of Illinois in 1897, he found work as an architect in Granite City, Illinois. In 1911, he moved to San Diego and started his own architectural practice. He expanded in 1923, establishing an office in Los Angeles. In 1933 he welcomed Robert R. Curtis as partner, and in 1941 promoted structural engineer William T. Wright to partner to form Kistner, Curtis & Wright. Kistner’s work in school design commenced immediately with the design of Washington High School in San Diego (1912), and he became the official architect of the San Diego School Board. It was the first of many multi-story Beaux Arts and Period Revival-style schools he designed during the first decades of the 20 th century. Kistner’s firm was buoyed by the decision to re-think school design after the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, and the P.W.A. infrastructure building program of the Great Depression. Kistner’s projects were featured in an exhibit of California school design in May of 1932. Kistner, Curtis & Wright (and later Kistner, Wright & Wright) continued to specialize in schools, colleges and other public buildings throughout California. The firm was responsible for hundreds of school projects and consulted with school districts in New Orleans, Tucson and Colorado. Their designs were published nationally and internationally in magazines such as Architectural Record, Arts & Architecture, Architectural Forum, Western Architect and Engineer, Architectural Concrete, Baumeister, and Arquitectura, Mexico. The firm was at the forefront of modern school planning and design, advocating for postwar schools and projects in the Mid-Century Modern style.
Kistner is also credited with designing several military bases, including El Toro, El Centro, Goleta and the Mojave Marine Air Corps Station. Kistner retired from practice in 1965. He died in 1973 at the age of 99.
Knight, Donald T. (1910-2002)
Born: Decatur, IL
Education: Unknown
Firm(s): Draftsman, Harold Burkett, Architect (c. 1940) Biographical info: Donald Thomas Knight was born in Decatur, Illinois. He came to California as a young man and graduated from Channel Islands High School in Oxnard. In the 1930s, Knight and his wife lived and worked in Long Beach, California. In the early 1940s, he was working as a draftsman for Ventura-based architect, Harold E.
Burket. He appears to have left Ventura while serving as a chief warrant officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve and SeaBees. Knight and his wife returned to Ventura in 1946. By 1949, he was working as a draftsman.13 He also appears to have functioned
13 Ventura City Directory, 1949, 172.
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as a building inspector in the city of Ventura in 1948. In the early 1950s, it appears that Knight started his own drafting business. In the mid-1950s he designed an apartment complex on Foothill Road, the Midway Pharmacy (1956), and a unique, hexagonal apartment building on Foothill Road (1959).14 In the early 1960s, he was inspector of school construction for Ventura elementary schools and the Hueneme School District. In 1962, he received his architectural license and opened an office in Ventura and in Santa Paula. Knight moved to Coos Bay, Oregon where he passed away in 2002 at the age of 92.
Koenig, Pierre F., AIA (1925-2004)*
Born: San Francisco, CA
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (1952) Firm(s): (None)
Biographical info: Pierre Francis Koenig, born the son of a salesman in San Francisco, relocated with his family to Southern California in 1939. Koenig served four years in the U.S. military during World War II. He later enrolled in the School of Architecture at USC, earning his degree in 1952. Koenig is best known for his Mid-Century Modern residential designs, including those for the Arts + Architecture Case Study House program. Koenig was also noted for his use of steel frames in his modern homes. His residential projects were published nationally and internationally in trade magazines such as Architectural Review, Architectural Record, Arts + Architecture, Progressive Architecture, House and Home, Zodiac, Domus, Architecture d’aujourd’hui, Bauen und Whonen, Architectura, Mexico and many others. Koenig’s house designs received more than 20 awards from the AIA and various publications. Koenig was also a Professor of Architecture at USC from 1964 until his death in 2004. Koenig’s work is strongly associated with the images captured by architectural photographer Julius Shulman, who helped popularize the Mid-Century Modern style and lifestyle through his iconic imagery of Koenig’s Case Study House projects.
Krempel, John Paul, AIA (1861-1933)*
Born: Germany
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): Draftsman, Capitain & Burton, Architects (c. 1888-1890); Partner, Capitain & Krempel, Architects (c. 1896); Principal, John P. Krempel, Architect (1894-1911); Partner, Krempel & Erkes (1911-1933)
Biographical info: One of the earliest German-American architects in Los Angeles, John Paul Krempel was born in 1861 and spent his youth in Bad Kreuznach, Germany. He was trained in architecture in Berlin. He came to the U.S. in 1887 and soon settled in Los Angeles. He became a naturalized citizen in 1894. Krempel secured work as a draftsman with Frank J. Capitain, one of the city’s earliest architects, before rising to the position of partner. In 1894 he established his own office, later going into partnership with Walter Erkes in 1911 to form Krempel & Erkes. Krempel’s body of work is varied, from commercial and industrial projects to residential projects,
14 “Hexagonal Apartment,” Ventura County Star Free Press, October 6, 1959, 6. 301
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primarily during the 1910s. He also designed several building outside of Los Angeles, including a hotel, Masonic Building and other structures in Oxnard.
Krempel was appointed to the California State Board of Architectural Examiners, Southern Branch in 1909, and served as its president in 1914 and 1915.
Krisel, William, AIA (1924-2017)*
Born: Shanghai, China
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (1949) Firm(s): Victor Gruen (1946-1949); Palmer & Krisel, AIA Architects (1950-1966); William Krisel, AIA (1966-)
Biographical info: William Krisel was born in Shanghai, China, where his father worked for the U.S.
State Department. In 1937, the family returned to California. Krisel graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1941 at the age of 16. He then enrolled in USC’s School of Architecture, but his studies were interrupted by World War II. During the war Krisel worked in Army Intelligence, serving as the Chinese-language interpreter for General Stillwell and earning the Bronze Star for Valorous Service.
After the war, Krisel returned to his studies, making use of the GI Bill. He graduated in 1949, and went to work in the offices of Paul Laszlo and Victor Gruen. He obtained his architect’s license in 1950 and went into partnership with Dan Saxon Palmer to form Palmer & Krisel, AIA Architects. Palmer & Krisel designed custom homes and commercial projects prior to investing their time in Los Angeles area tract housing. As early as 1952, Palmer & Krisel’s system of modular post-and-beam construction proved popular and effective. After years of success in Los Angeles, Palm Springs and Borrego Springs, the firm designed the Loma Palisades Apartments and a number of residential tracts throughout San Diego. Krisel also studied landscape architecture under Garrett Eckbo, becoming a licensed landscape architect in 1954. In 1961, Krisel also designed the 24-story Kahn Building, where the firm would locate their San Diego office. Palmer and Krisel dissolved their partnership in 1966, and Krisel renamed the firm William Krisel, AIA. Krisel’s experience in design and construction includes nearly every kind of structure, including high- and low-rise office and apartment buildings, shopping centers, industrial buildings, factories, schools, hospitals, religious buildings, hotels, motels and restaurants. Krisel claims credit for over 40,000 housing units as he pioneered the use of innovative, modern designs for affordable tract houses and apartment buildings. Krisel’s work has garnered numerous awards for design excellence, including AIA Lifetime Achievement and “Tribal Elder” Awards, as well as the Palm Springs Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as recognition from the ASLA, NAHB, City of Beverly Hills, and West Los Angeles.
Krisel died in 2017.
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Kulweic, W. John, AIA (b. 1936)
Born: Chicago, IL
Education: Illinois Institute of Technology, B.Arch (1959) Firm(s): W. John Kulweic (1970-1971); Principal, Anderson-Keulweic Architects (1972- unknown); Kulweic Group/Architects (Present)
Biographical info: Santa Paula-based architect Webster John Kulweic worked for the railroad in Illinois as a young man. He majored in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology and minored in city planning. Kulweic served in the U.S. Air Force from 1960-1962 and eventually opened his own architectural office in 1970. He partnered with Dave Anderson in 1972 and the firm enjoyed a wide and varied practice including residential, commercial, industrial and educational projects.
Medical and religious projects were also part of the portfolio. He is a past President of the AIA Ventura Chapter.
For the last several years, Kulweic has been serving as an expert witness in architectural matters and specializes in forensic architecture.
Leach, Howard E., AIA (b. 1934)
Born: Sacramento, CA
Education: University of California Berkeley, B.Arch (1955), M.Arch (1957) Firm(s): Draftsman, Clowdsley & Whipple in Stockton (c. 1957); Partner, Schwartz & Leach (1962-66); Partner Leach & Kehoe (1966-1969); Partner, Leach, Kehoe, Ticer & Associates (1969-1976)
Biographical info: Howard Ervin Leach earned a master’s degree in architecture from U.C. Berkeley in 1957 and served in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineering Corps from 1958 to 1961, while stationed at Port Hueneme. At the end of his service, he returned to Stockton, California to work for the firm of Clowdsley & Whipple, whose design for the new Governor’s Mansion was among the top ten entries. However, much of his work at the firm was in
school and college planning. In 1962, Leach formed a
partnership with Carl Schwarz in Oxnard. As a result, Leach designed many projects in and around Oxnard, including public housing developments, religious buildings, as well as governmental and institutional buildings for the airport and harbor. His built work suggests an avant-garde approach to planning and modern design and his longevity in the profession has produced a wide and varied body of work. Leach was also active with the Ventura County Chapter of the AIA and various civic organizations and committees. In 1990, Leach formed Leach Mounce Architects with H. Wendell Mounce of Glendale, California.
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Leach, Sterling (1914-1998)
Born: Los Angeles, CA
Education: Los Angeles Polytechnic High School
Firm(s): Manager of Retail Store Planning, Raymond Loewy & Associates (1944-48); Principal, Barondon Corporation (1948-57); Partner, Leach, Cleveland & Associates (1957); Partner, Mazzetti, Leach, Cleveland & Associates (c. 1964-c. 1970); Partner, Leach, Cleveland & Associates (c. 1970- c. 1985) Biographical info: Stirling Bailey Leach was an industrial designer turned architect. Early on he was a set dresser at Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studio, and then rose to the position of manager of retail store planning in the office of Raymond Lowey & Associates.
Leach met Ron Cleveland at Raymond Lowey’s office and they went on to work as industrial designers for Barondon Corporation. Barondon’s work appears to have taken an architectural turn in the mid-1950s with Stirling Leach leading the way.
Barondon designed the Pomona Valley Shopping Center (1954) and the Ontario Plaza (c. 1957). In 1957, the firm became Leach, Cleveland & Associates and focused on shopping center design and large retail stores within shopping mall complexes. Clients were impressed by the firm’s ability to merge architecture and merchandising. The firm would go on to design hundreds of projects by the early 1980s, primarily in the Mid-Century Modern style. Leach was also an instructor at the Art Center College of Design and at Los Angeles City College. He died in 1998.
Lindsay, John C., AIA (1918-1977)
Born: Chicago, IL
Education: University of Minnesota; University of Southern California Firm(s): Sr. Draftsman, Captain Thomas; Draftsman/Structural Engineer, Army Engineers, Structural Engineering Division (1941-1942); Senior Set Designer, Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studio (1943-1945); John C. Lindsay & Associates, Architects and Engineers (1945-unknown)
Biographical info: John C. Lindsay was born in Chicago. After spending two years at the University of Minnesota, Lindsay attended USC in 1940 and 1941. Although he was in the architectural honor society, it appears he did not finish his degree. In 1945, Lindsay established a firm in Los Angeles. Lindsay’s projects were numerous and varied, including residential (both single- and multi-family), commercial, civic, institutional and industrial. Modern-style medical buildings were a significant aspect of his work.
His residential work was largely in the Mid-Century Modern style, but he also designed in period revival styles when clients required it. His custom homes were featured in the Los Angeles Times Home Magazine. One of Lindsay’s key areas of practice was the design of tract homes for local developers. These included developments in Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Granada Hills, San Die go, Laguna Beach
and Ventura. Lindsay was also active in public service and education. He served on the L.A. County Commission on Housing for the Aged, and was a lecturer at both UCLA and UC San Luis Obispo during the mid-1950s. Lindsay died in 1977.
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Lockard, E. Keith, AIA (1892-1968)*
Born: San Ynez, CA
Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.Arch (1916) Firm(s): Draftsman, Harold F. Sauter, Architect (1917); Draftsman, Soule & Murphy (1917- 1920); Draftsman, George Washington Smith, (1921-1922); Principal, Keith E.
Lockard, Architect (c. 1922-1937); Partner, Lockard and Cheeseman (1938-1942); Architect, Blanchard & Maher (1942-1948); Partner, Lockard, Casazza, Parson & Associates (1959- c. 1968)
Biographical info: Earl Keith Lockard was born in Santa Ynez in 1892, the son of a preacher. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, earning his Bachelor of Architecture in 1916. After graduation, he was employed by Lougheed Brothers Aircraft Company (later Lockheed) in Santa Barbara. In the 1920s, Lockard’s projects were mainly residential, with a few commercial buildings in and around the Santa Barbara area. He moved to San Francisco in 1942 to join the firm of Blanchard & Maher, Architects. Three years later he moved to Reno, Nevada to open a branch office for the firm there. By 1948, Lockard was named the successor of Blanchard & Maher and he brought Ralph Casazza into the partnership. The firm was chiefly interested in architecture and engineering commissions for defense projects. Lockard died in Reno in 1968 at the age of 76.
Love, John E., AIA (1932-2009)
Born: Dallas, TX
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (1963) Firm(s): Partner, Rasmussen & Love (c. 1967-unknown)
Biographical info: John Edward Love was born in Dallas in 1932. Love served in the U.S. Marines from 1949 to 1955 as part of the Korean War. During this period, Love spent time at Point Mugu Naval Air Station. He earned a B.Arch from USC in 1963. In the late 1960s Love became a partner in Rasmussen & Love. He ultimately left the partnership and went to work for Bechtel Corporation where he worked on projects in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. In addition to his work as an architect, Love was active in education and civic affairs. He was an instructor at Pierce Junior College from 1961 to 1963. He was also a board member of the Ventura Women’s Center, a board member of the Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce, and a planning commissioner in Simi Valley from 1969 to 1972. He retired to Grass Valley, California and then to Sun City West, Arizona. He died in 2008.
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Luckman, Charles (1909-1998)
Born: Kansas City, MO
Education: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, B.S. Architecture (1931) Firm(s): Chicago Master Steam Fitters, Association (1926-1927); Robert L. Pioso (1928- 1929; 1930-1931); Lind & Luckman (1936-1943); Lever Brothers Company (1943- 1950); Pereira & Luckman (1950-1958); Charles Luckman Associates (1958-1998) Biographical info: Charles Luckman was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1909. He studied architecture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, graduating in 1931.
During the Depression, he worked in the advertising department of the Colgate- Palmolive-Peet company and later advanced to sales manager of the Pepsodent Company. In 1937, he was featured on the cover of Time magazine. In 1946, Luckman became president of Lever Brothers and was instrumental in commissioning the company’s new headquarters, the landmark Lever House, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. An entrepreneur at heart, Luckman merged his passion for architecture with his sense of business, and acquired ambitious commissions throughout the United States. From 1950 to 1958, Charles Luckman, FAIA, worked in partnership with William Pereira, specializing in large- scale projects such as office buildings, airports, hotels and Air Force bases, primarily in California. Charles Luckman died in Los Angeles in 1998 at the age of
89.15 Mahoney, J.J. (1850-1922)*
Born: (Unknown)
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): (Unknown)
Biographical info: J.J. Mahoney was a prominent builder in Ventura in the 1870s. Little is known about Mahoney.16 He is credited with building additions to a hospital in Los Angeles in 1897. Most of his work, however, appears to have been in Ventura, including a Victorian-style parish house next to the Mission, and the Italian Renaissance-style Schiappapietra Residence. He is also believed to be the designer of the 1897 Emmanuel Franz Residence, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Marston, Sylvanus B., FAIA (1883-1946)*
Born: Oakland, CA
Education: Pomona College; Cornell University (1907)
Firm(s): Principal, Sylvanus B. Marston, Architect (1912); Partner, Marston & Van Pelt, Architects (1913-unknown); Partner, Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury, Architects (unknown); Partner, Marston & Maybury, Architects (1927-c. 1942) Biographical info: A well-known Pasadena architect, Sylvanus Boardman Marston was born the son of an architect in San Francisco. He came to Pasadena as a boy. After graduating from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, he returned to Los Angeles where he
15 Serraino, Modernism Rediscovered.
16 This is not the Boston-based architect John Joseph Mahoney, AIA. 306
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was a draftsman in several offices. In 1913, he formed a partnership with Garret Van Pelt that lasted more than a decade. The partnership morphed several times over the years but remained a wide and varied practice comprising public and business buildings in and around Pasadena, along with a number of schools and college buildings throughout Southern California. Much of Marston’s work was rendered in the popular period revival styles of the day. His projects were widely published in magazines such as Architect and Engineer, Architectural Record, Journal of the American Institute of Architects, Southwest Builder and Contractor, and Architectural Digest.
His legacy was examined extensively in the monograph, Sylvanus Marston: Pasadena’s Quintessential Architect. Marston was also civically engaged, serving as Chairman of the City Planning Association for Pasadena, and as president of the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects from 1940 to 1942. In 1942, Marston was elected to Fellowship status by the American Institute of Architects. He died in 1946 at the age of 63.
Martin, Albert C., AIA (1879-1960)*
Born: LaSalle, IL
Education: University of Illinois, B.S. Architecture & Engineering (1902) Firm(s): Leonard Construction Company (1904); A.F. Rosenheim, Architects (1905-1907); Principal, Albert C. Martin (1909-1945); Principal, A.C. Martin & Associates (1945- 1960)
Biographical info: Albert C. Martin was born in LaSalle, Illinois in 1879. He completed his formal education in architecture and engineering at the University of Illinois in 1902. In January of 1904, he moved to Los Angeles to work as a superintendent of construction for Carl Leonardt & Company, a major building contractor on the West Coast. A year later he joined the staff of Alfred Rosenheim, FAIA , working as
an engineer. During Martin’s association with Rosenheim, the firm designed the Second Church of Christ Scientist (1905-10). In 1908, Martin established his own office. During the early part of his career he worked almost exclusively for the Catholic Church, designing churches, convents, parish halls, and parochial schools as far north as Fresno and as far east as Arizona throughout the 1920s. One of the high points in his career was Los Angeles City Hall (1928), which Martin designed along with two other prominent architects, John C. Austin and John Parkinson.
The firm had a close relationship with the May Company, and designed a number of buildings for the company including the iconic May Co. department store on Wilshire Boulevard in 1939, as well as important post-war examples at the Crenshaw Shopping Center in 1945 (demolished) and the Lakewood Shopping Center in 1952.17 Martin died in 1960.
17 Teresa Grimes “Master Architects of Commercial Architecture.” 307
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Marvin, Larry B.
Born: Unknown
Education: Unknown
Firm(s): K&M Home Plans (c. 1965); Tri-Angle Blue Print Service (c. 1966) Biographical info: Little is known about Larry B. Marvin. A resident of Santa Susana in Ventura County in the mid-1960s, he operated two businesses in Woodland Hills. The first, K&M Home Plans, was established in January of 1965 with Moya Kelsey (1925- 2002). The second business venture was Tri-Angle-Blue Print Service, established in June of 1966 with partner Lynn Marvin (presumably his wife). Marvin is known to be the designer of the Tonga Apartments in Ventura according to historic building permits. Notably, Marvin is listed as “designer” vs. architect, suggesting that he was not a licensed practitioner.
Maston, Carl L., FAIA (1915-1992)*
Born: Jacksonville, IL
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (1937) Firm(s): Worked in the offices of E. Gordon Kaufman; Allan Siple; V. Floyd Rible; and Rowland Crawford
Biographical info: Carl Maston was born Carl Mastopietro in Jacksonville, Illinois in 1915. He received his architecture degree from USC in 1937, after which he worked in serval notable architecture offices. In 1946, he opened his own firm as Carl Maston, Architect. He is best known for his innovative modern designs and use of structural concrete. Over the course of his career he completed over 100 projects, including single-family residential, multi-family residential, commercial and institutional.
Beginning with the Pandora Apartments in 1946, Maston experimented with garden-apartment design and forged close associations with landscape architects Garrett Eckbo and Emmet Wemple.18 Maston earned numerous awards for his apartment houses and single-family residences from both the AIA national organization and the Southern California Chapter. A Maston-designed home graced the cover of Los Angeles Home Magazine in December 1951, featuring an article by renowned architectural historian Esther McCoy. Dozens of other articles followed; Maston was published in Progressive Architecture, Architectural Forum, and House and Home, and achieved international acclaim through features in Bauen und Whonen and Le Architecture d’aujourd’hui. In 1968, Maston was elevated to Fellowship status by the American Institute of Architects for his achievements in design. He was also the recipient of the USC Distinguished Alumni Award in 1989 for achievements in architectural design, innovative leadership and public service. Semi-retired but still teaching at USC, Maston died in 1992 at the age of 77.
18 Although landscape elements at a Maston/Eckbo project photographed by Julius Shulman also appear at 9743 Pali Avenue, the project for Polkinghorn Construction does not appear in the project list of the Eckbo archives at University of California, Berkeley.
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Matlin, Nisan Yale, AIA (1924-2012)
Born: Los Angeles, CA
Education: University of Southern California, B. Arch. (1949) Firm(s): Draftsman, Kavy & Kavovit; Supervising Architect, Jones & Emmons; Principal, Nisan Matlin and Eugene Dvoretzky, Architects
Biographical info: Nisan Yale Matlin was born in Los Angeles, the only child of Sarah Kavovit and Charles Matlin. His studies at the University of Southern California School of Architecture were interrupted when he was drafted in World War II. After the war, he returned to USC and earned his B.Arch in 1949. While at USC, he likely met A.
Quincy Jones—for whom he worked for a number of years. In 1959, Matlin partnered with fellow USC graduate Eugene N. Dvoretsky to form Nisan Matlin and Eugene Dvoretzky, Architects. The firm had a significant list of Southern California projects including multi-family, government housing, office buildings, commercial and industrial buildings, shopping centers, hospitals, medical buildings, hotels and country clubs. The firm’s work won several local AIA awards and was published in House and Home and the Los Angeles Times. Matlin and Dvoretzky’s residential work reflected both their post-and-beam training from USC and Matlin’s time in the office of Jones & Emmons. In the 1970s, the firm designed a number of garden condominiums and townhomes. The firm is also known for their design for the University of Judaism (present-day American Jewish University, c. 1980) and the Mountaingate Clubhouse (1979). Matlin passed away at Avila Beach, California at the age of 87.
May, Cliff (1908-1989)*
Born: San Diego, CA
Education: San Diego State University (1929-1931)
Firm(s): (Unknown)
Biographical info: Licensed building designer Cliff May is considered the father of the California ranch house. Though not a trained architect, May designed some 18,000 tract houses and over 1,000 custom homes throughout the United States, primarily in Southern California. In the 1930s, he pioneered his California ranch house designs, which combined the western ranch house and the Spanish hacienda with elements of Modernism. May’s residential designs are characterized by their unique relationship to the outdoors. Large windows and sliding glass doors effectively erase the line between indoor and outdoor spaces. During the 1950s, May collaborated with colleague Chris Choate to design prefabricated tract ranch homes which they sold to builders across the U.S. Many of these prefab tracts, such as Rancho Estates in Long Beach, were extremely popular, while other tracts, particularity those outside of California, were less successful. The partnership between May and Choate ended in 1956. May died in 1989 at the age of 80 at his self-designed estate "Mandalay" in Sullivan Canyon, in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.
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Maybury, Edgar W., AIA (1889-1969)*
Born: Winona, MN
Education: University of Washington Seattle (1907-1910) Firm(s): Draftsman, Marston & Van Pelt (1917); Office Manager, Reginald D. Johnson and Gordon B. Kaufman/Phoenix office (1920); Partner, Marston Van Pelt & Maybury (c. 1930-1940)
Biographical info: Edgar Wood Maybury was born in Winona, Minnesota in 1889. In 1906 he was living in Seattle, and he moved to Pasadena around 1910. Maybury is known mostly for his civic and institutional commissions primarily in Pasadena, including the Post Office (1916), American Legion Hall (1923-24) and United Presbyterian Church.
He also designed a number of Pasadena residences, as well as the iconic Hotel Green. Maybury’s work and that of his various partnerships was published in Architectural Digest and Southwest Builder and Contractor.
Mazzetti, Louis A. (1915-2001)
Born: Los Angeles, CA
Education: Riverside College; Art Center School of Design Firm(s): Designer, Leach, Cleveland & Associates (1957); Partner, Mazzetti, Leach, Cleveland & Associates (c. 1964-c. 1970)
Biographical info: Louis Arthur Mazzetti was born in Los Angeles in 1915, the son of Italian immigrants. As a profession he chose the role of industrial designer and by the early 1940s was working for Berger Steel Corporation in Los Angeles. Mazzetti enrolled in classes at Art Center where he likely met part-time instructor Sterling Leach. After the war, he moved to Santa Barbara where he continued to ply his trade as an industrial designer. By 1961, Mazzetti was working at the firm of Leach, Cleveland & Associates, which focused on shopping center design and large retail stores within shopping mall complexes. Clients were impressed by the firm’s ability to merge architecture and merchandising. The firm would go on to design hundreds of projects by the early 1980s. It appears that for a brief period in the mid-1960s, Mazzetti’s name was added as partner and leader of the firm’s Santa Barbara office. By 1970, Mazzetti had taken on the role of Vice President. Mazzetti is mostly credited on projects north of Los Angeles, including shopping centers in Lompoc, Fresno Fashion Square, and Buenaventura Plaza in Ventura. After leaving the firm, Mazzetti appears to have continued to practice in the greater Santa Barbara area into the 1970s, concentrating primarily on markets, large retail shopping centers, and some residential projects. In the 1980s, Mazzetti’s wood sculptures were featured at a gallery in Los Olivos, California. He died in 2001.
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McGinley, James N., AIA (b. 1930)
Born: Maryville, TN
Education: B. Science, Architecture and Engineering, California State Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo (1956)
Firm(s): Fred Hummel, Architect (dates unknown); Principal, James McGinley (1966-1969); Associate, Rasmussen & Love/ Rasmussen & Associates (1969-2012).
Biographical info: James N. McGinley was born in Maryville, TN in 1930, The family moved to Moorpark, CA in 1935. After earning his degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, he relocated with his wife to Ventura in 1962. While in graduate school, he worked as a draftsman, butcher, and groundsman. After his arrival in Ventura, he worked for years for Fred Hummel and ultimately for Larry Rasmussen. James “Jim” McGinley worked on a variety of projects during his career including residential, commercial and industrial projects. His specialty was preparing construction drawings, writing specifications and estimating. McGinley retired from practice in 2012.
McKendry, C.R. (1901-1991)
Born: Wheatland, WY
Education: Unknown
Firm(s): Anderson-Wood Building Corporation (c. 1926); Charles R. McKendry, Architect (c. 1930)
Biographical info: Charles Ross McKendry first appeared in Ventura in the mid-1920s as the person in charge of the Anderson-Wood Building Corporation, a speculative builder who initially built and sold homes in Los Angeles, then moved north to Ventura to take advantage of the booming oil industry. The company built several homes in the Hobson Heights area. The company appears to have had financial trouble even prior to the Great Depression. By 1930, McKendry was working as an architect in Ventura out of an office on N. Oak Street. His best known work includes Baker’s Coronado Flats (1929) and the El Patio Hotel, along with artist and designer M.J.
Black. McKendry died in Calistoga in 1991 at the age of 91.
Meyer, Kurt, FAIA (1922-2014)
Born: Zurich, Switzerland
Education: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (1948) Firm(s): Partner, Cox, Hagman & Meyer (1955-1957); Principal, Hagman & Meyer (1957- 1963); Principal, Kurt Meyer & Associates (1959-1988); Principal, Meyer & Allen (1988-1992)
Biographical info: Swiss-born Kurt Werner Meyer emigrated to the United States in 1948 and came to Los Angeles in 1949. After working with several partners, Meyer formed the Los Angeles-based Kurt Meyer & Associates in 1959. The firm is known for its exceptional work in the concrete-driven Brutalist Style. The firm’s best known projects are commercial, educational, civic and institutional buildings such as the Liberty Savings and Loan (1966) and Lytton Savings in Pomona. The firm enjoyed a long partnership with Lytton Savings and Loan and designed several of its branches throughout California. The firm’s work was published nationally and internationally and heavily awarded by the AIA and the Precast Concrete Institute. Meyer was 311
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elevated to Fellowship by the American Institute of Architects in 1973 for design and advancement of concrete construction. Meyer also was active in education, lecturing across the country and as Chairman of the Board for the Southern California Institute of Architects (SCI-Arc). He served on several boards and civic organizations in Southern California., including the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency. Meyer retired in 1993 and passed away in 2014.
Mitchell, J.W. (c. 1867-1934)
Born: Scotland
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): (Unknown)
Biographical info: John W. Mitchell was a builder/contractor in the Ventura area during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Born in Scotland, he came to the U.S. in 1869 and became a naturalized citizen in 1890. By 1920 he was working in San Francisco. He came to Ventura sometime during the 1920s. Mitchell is associated with a number of commercial and institutional projects, including the Alexakis Hotel (1926), New Mission Hotel (1926), Hoover Hotel (1927), Masonic Temple (1927), Hueneme Grammar School (c. 1927), Mill School (1927), and Piru Grammar School (1928).
In 1926, Mitchell is listed as President of the Ventura Builders’ Exchange. He died in 1934.
Morgan, Melford C., AIA (1921-2008)
Born: Woodward, IA
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch. (1951) Firm(s): Partner, Harnish, Morgan & Causey (1960-c. 1970) Biographical info: Melford Channing Morgan was born in Woodward, Iowa in 1921. He served in the Army Air Force from 1941 to 1945. After the war, he came to California where he studied architecture at USC. In 1952, Morgan began working for Ontario-based architect Jay Dewey Harnish. In 1960, Morgan partnered with Harnish and Jack E.
Causey to form Harnish, Morgan & Causey. The firm was known for its hospital designs throughout Southern California.
Morgan, Octavius, FAIA (1850-1922)*
Born: Canterbury, England
Education: Sydney Cooper Art School
Firm(s): Draftsman, F.A. Gilhaus (c. 1869); Draftsman, E.P. Kysor; Partner, Kysor & Morgan; Partner, Morgan & Walls
Biographical info: English-born Octavius Morgan came to America in 1870. After a brief time in Denver, Colorado he established residence in Los Angeles in 1873. After working with pioneer Los Angeles architect E.P. Kysor, he became a partner in the firm. In 1889, Morgan joined J.A. Walls to form Morgan & Walls. Morgan & Walls became one of the leading architectural firms in Los Angeles and was responsible for many of the most important commissions in the city, and specifically in downtown.
Projects included the city’s first high school, Child’s Opera House, Nadeau Hotel (1881-1882), Hollenbeck Building, Bank of Italy (1920-22), W.P. Story Office 312
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Building (1900), and many more. The firm’s work was widely published in magazines such as Architectural Record, Builder and Contractor, Architect and Engineer, and Architectural Digest. Morgan was one of the founders of the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and served as its first president for several years. He was elevated to Fellowship in the AIA in 1909. He died in 1922.
Muller, Herman C., AIA (1907-1997)
Born: Frederick, KS
Education: (Unknown)19
Firm(s): (Unknown)
Biographical info: Herman Carl Muller was born in Frederick, Kansas in 1907. Little is known about his early history or education. By 1929, Muller was employed as a draftsman in San Francisco. By 1935, he was employed in an architecture office in Los Angeles. By 1944, Muller had relocated to Ventura County and was working as an engineer in the city of Ventura. In 1959, he partnered with Robert Tveit, AIA to established Muller & Tveit. The firm is best known for institutional medical work including the remodeling of the Ventura County General Hospital (1966 and 1969), and Ventura County Community Mental Health Center (1969). They also designed several post- and-beam Mid-Century Modern custom residences in the early 1960s, which were featured in the local newspaper for their exceptional designs. Muller died in 1997, after which Tveit took over the practice.
Murphy, John F., FAIA (1887-1957)
Born: Winterset, IA
Education: Grinnell College (1906-1908); Columbia University, B.Arch (1912) Firm(s): Draftsman, Winsor Soule, Architect (1917-1921); Partner, Soule, Murphy & Hastings, Architects (c. 1921-c. 1932); Partner, Soule & Murphy, Architects (1932- 1953)
Biographical info: John Frederic Murphy was born in Iowa in 1887 and attended Grinnell College for two years. In 1912, he earned his degree in architecture from Columbia University.
After graduation, he worked at Poudgood, Bird & Tawsons of Des Moines. In 1914 he moved to Santa Barbara and established a drafting practice. The firm of Soule, Hastings & Murphy was founded in 1921 and dissolved in 1926 when Hastings retired. The firm is best known for its residential work in the greater Santa Barbara area. Firm projects were published nationally in trade magazines such as Architecture, House Beautiful, House and Garden and Architectural Digest. Soule and Murphy continued to practice together; the Presbyterian Synod of the Pacific (1952) in San Francisco was one of their largest commissions. After his partnership with Soule dissolved in 1953, Murphy turned his attention to the financial industry, serving as the Chairman of the Board of the Santa Barbara Building and Loan Association in 1955. Murphy was elevated to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects in 1957. He died in Santa Barbara later that year.
19 Awaiting AIA Membership file from AIA library for more information. 313
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Neff, E. Wallace, FAIA (1895-1982)*
Born: La Mirada, CA
Education: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1916-1918) Firm(s): Wallace Neff, Architect (1921-1975)
Biographical info: California architect Wallace Neff is considered part of the California School of architects and is recognized for his skillful adaptation of the Mediterranean idiom to the local landscape. Neff developed an interest in architecture at an early age. He was raised in Altadena, but moved to Europe in 1904, where he lived until the start of World War I. After moving back to the United States, Neff studied architecture under Ralph Adams Cram at MIT. He later returned to California and apprenticed himself to Santa Barbara architect George Washington Smith. In 1922, Neff moved to Pasadena, where he maintained a home and office throughout his career. Neff is largely known for his elegant estates built throughout the Los Angeles area in the 1920s. Most notably, Neff designed “Pickfair,” the Beverly Hills home of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. Also concerned with housing for ordinary Americans, Neff pioneered the inexpensive, mass-produced Airform or “bubble” house design. The first of these experimental structures was constructed in Pasadena for Neff’s brother
Andrew, and has been called “Pasadena’s most unusual
building.” Wallace Neff retired in 1975, and died in 1982.
Neutra, Richard, FAIA (1892-1970)*
Born: Vienna, Austria
Education: Technische Hochschule, Vienna (1917); University of Zurich Firm(s): Principal, Richard J. Neutra (1926-1949); Partner, Neutra & Alexander (1949-1958); Partner, Neutra & Neutra (1955-1970)
Biographical info: Richard Neutra was born in Vienna, Austria in 1892. He graduated from the Technische Hochschule in Vienna in 1917. After World War I, Neutra moved to Switzerland and then to Germany, before joining the office of Erich Mendelsohn in Berlin in 1921. In 1923, Neutra immigrated to the United States along with fellow Austrian architect Rudolph Schindler, drawn to Chicago by their shared interest in the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Together, Schindler and Neutra are credited with bringing European Modernism to America. Neutra worked with Wright and followed him to Los Angeles in the early 1920s. After collaborating with Schindler for several years, Neutra established his own practice in 1926. The Lovell “Health” House (1927-29), widely recognized as one of the most important houses of the 20 th century, came very early in his career. It is praised for its use of concrete and for being the first completely steel-framed residence in the United States. Over the following decades, Neutra refined his style and material palette. His earlier houses were general conceived as a series of interlocking minimal boxes. In later works these boxes dissolved into a series of planes and lines dynamically sliding past one another in three-dimensional collages, as in the Sorrells House (1956-57). Neutra was also responsible for several large public commissions, either individually or in partnership with other architects. These included the Corona, the Channel Heights Community in San Pedro (1941-42), the Corona School in Bell (1935), Eagle Rock Park Clubhouse (1953), and the Los Angeles County Hall of Records (1962, with 314
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Robert Alexander, Honnold & Rex, and Herman Light). Between 1949 and 1958, he worked in partnership with Robert Alexander. Other notable projects include the VDL Research House in Silverlake (1933), the Kaufmann House in Palm Springs (1946), and the Perkins House in Pasadena (1955). Over a half-century, Neutra established himself as one of the most significant architects of the 20th century. Neutra died in 1970.
Palmer, Dan Saxon, AIA (1920-2007)*
Born: Budapest, Hungary
Education: New York University, B.Arch (1942)
Firm(s): Morris Lapidus; Victor Gruen; Palmer & Krisel (1950-1964) Biographical info: Dan Saxon Palmer was born in Budapest, Hungary, and moved to New York with his family at the age of two. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in architecture from New York University in 1942, Palmer served in the Army Corps of Engineers, working as a mapmaker, draftsman and photographer in England and France. He then worked for architects Morris Lapidus in New York and Victor Gruen in Los Angeles. In 1950, Palmer formed a Los Angeles-based partnership with William Krisel, who had also worked at Gruen’s office. Palmer & Krisel designed contemporary houses with post-and-beam construction, open floor plans, lots of glass, and clean lines inside and out. In the early 1950s, they won a commission for their first major housing tract, Corbin Palms, in the western San Fernando Valley.
By 1955, Palmer was overseeing work in Orange and Ventura counties, Krisel in San Diego and Riverside counties. By the end of the 1950s, developers like George Alexander, Harlan Lee, and others had built more than 20,000 Palmer & Krisel- designed houses in Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Florida.
Palmer and Krisel collaborated on projects in the Los Angeles area until dissolving their partnership in 1964. Palmer continued designing tract homes as well as commercial developments, including the City National Bank building (1968) on Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles. He died in Santa Monica in 2007 at age
86.20 Pereira, William, FAIA (1909-1985)
Born: Chicago, IL
Education: University of Illinois, School of Architecture, B.S. Architecture (1930) Firm(s): Mayo & Mayo (1929); Holabird & Root (1930-1931); Principal, William L. Pereira (1931-1950); Pereira & Luckman (1950-1958); Principal, William L. Pereira & Associates (1959-1985)
Biographical info: William Leonard Pereira was born in Chicago in 1909, and received his architecture degree from the University of Illinois in 1930. Pereira is primarily known for his corporate, industrial, and institutional architecture, as well his large-scale master plans. Pereira established his private practice in 1931, launching a prolific career that would span five decades. In the 1950s, Pereira established a partnership with
20 Claire Noland, “Dan Saxon Palmer, 86; architect of 1950s’ Modernist tract homes,” Los Angeles Times, http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/29/local/me-palmer29 (accessed December 2020). 315
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Charles Luckman. Their work was frequently published in professional journals, particularly in John Entenza’s influential Arts & Architecture magazine. In 1958, Luckman left the practice, leaving Pereira the sole principal for the firm. Working in the Corporate Modern, New Formalist, and Brutalist styles, projects designed by the firm of William L. Pereira & Associates include the USC Master Plan (1960); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1964); the Central Library building at UC San Diego (1965); the UC Irvine Master Plan (1965); the Transamerica Tower in San Francisco (1973); and the Los Angeles International Airport Master Plan (1967- 1984). Pereira was a professor at USC from 1949 to 1957. He continued working until his death in 1985 at the age of 76.
Petersen, Fred (1889-1955)
Born: Louisville, NE
Education: Unknown
Firm(s): Unknown
Biographical info: Fred Carl Petersen was born to Danish parents in Nebraska in 1889. He came to Ventura in the late 1920s via Iowa, where he was a carpenter/home builder. By 1927, Petersen was described as “the builder” for the Pierpont Bay Tract.21 In 1929, he was part of a small Ventura coalition, the Artistic Homes Bureau of California, an organization of Ventura building trades interested in better homes and home building for the city. He also advertised his services as an architectural designer “offering plans, color sketches, assistance with finance and construction supervision.”
22 Petersen is best known for his design and construction of the Odd Fellows Building in Oxnard (1929-30), the Buena Vista Apartments (1929), and the Cabrillo Hotel in Ventura. In 1931, Petersen was the subject of scandal when he was arrested as the alleged “ape man” who attacked women in Hollywood; the charges were later dropped.
23 Fred Petersen passed away in September 1955. Because of his U.S. Army service in World War I, he is buried in Los Angeles National Cemetery.
Pierpont, Austen (1891-1975)*
Born: Los Angeles, CA
Education: Stanford University; New School of Social Research, New York Firm(s): (Unknown)
Biographical info: Austen Pierpont was born in 1891. That same year his family moved to Ojai, where they built a family home, as well as a small hotel and cottages adjacent to the Thacher School. After graduating from Thacher, Pierpont attended Stanford University and the New School. However, his
plans for an architecture degree from
Cornell University were never realized. Pierpont returned to Ojai in 1921. He launched his architectural career by designing and building his own period revival house. He soon earned several other residential commissions for which he received awards. In the postwar period, Pierpont adopted “a warmer, more accessible form
21 “Display Ad,” Ventura County Star, April 30,1927, 3. 22 “Display Ad,” Ventura County Star Free Press, October 24, 1929, 7. 23 “Venturan Held As Suspect In Hollywood Case,” Ventura County Star Free Press, October 26, 1931, 1. 316
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of Modernism” more associated with the Ranch House style.24 Pierpont died in 1975.
Priest, Alfred F., AIA (1887-1931)25*
Born: Pierce, NE
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): Draftsman, C. E. Shattuck (c. 1904-c. 1910); Principal, Alfred F, Priest, Architect (c. 1925)
Biographical info: Alfred Franklin Priest was born in Pierce, Nebraska in 1887. By 1904, he was living in Los Angeles and working as a draftsman. In the mid-1920s, he opened his own practice. Priest designed a number of residences, public schools and clubhouses.
During his time in the Los Angeles area, he lived in Glendale, and many of his built works are in that city, including the Tuesday Afternoon Club (1922), Charles L.
Richter Residence (1912-13), and Pacific Electric Railway Company Depot #2 (1923-24). His Security Trust and Savings Bank (1928) in San Pedro was published in Architect and Engineer. Priest died in 1931 at age 44.
Rasmussen, Larry, AIA (b. 1935)
Born: Ventura, CA
Education: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, B.S. in Architecture (1961)
Firm(s): Apprentice, Roy. C. Wilson, Architect (c. 1953); Apprentice, Kenneth Hess, Architect (c. 1957-1959); Partner, Hummel & Rasmussen (1961-1966); Partner, Hummel, Rasmussen & Love (1967-1970); Partner, Rasmussen & Love, Inc., (1971-1976); Partner, Rasmussen, Love & Ellinwood (1977- 1979); Principal, Rasmussen & Ellinwood (1980- 1988); Principal, Rasmussen & Associates (founded 1989)
Biographical info: Larry Neil Rasmussen was born in Ventura in 1935. He graduated from Ventura High School and apprenticed in the offices of local architects Roy C. Wilson and Kenneth Hess. He then continued his education at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, earning his degree in 1961. Fred Hummel, whom he knew from Hess’ office, encouraged him to return to Ventura and partner with him. The firm evolved over the years with the arrival and departure of new partners. During his 30 years of practice, Rasmussen has managed and designed projects of all types across Ventura County. He has provided land use planning, master planning and design services to governmental, institutional and residential clients throughout Southern California.
He is also known for his early work on the Government Center for Ventura County. Other works include the Glendale Civic Center, North American Aviation Science Center in Thousand Oaks, and St. John’s Seminary College in Camarillo.
Rasmussen was Chairman of the “Our Downtown Tomorrow” advocacy group for better planning in 1968.
24 San Buenaventura Research Associates, Historic Context Statement for the City of Ojai,” May 2009, 25. 25 Withey’s Biographical Dictionary of American Architects erroneously lists his birth year as 1889. 317
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Raymond, R. S. (1893-1970)
Born: Brooklyn, NY
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): Principal, Robert Sutherland Raymond, Architect Biographical info: Robert Sutherland Raymond was born in Brooklyn in 1893, the son of a builder.
He came to California through his Naval service during World War I, when he was stationed for a time in San Diego. As early as 1921, Raymond designed an Italian Renaissance Revival-style home in the Mission Hills area of San Diego. By 1930, he had made his home in Santa Paula where he opened his own practice and was quickly tapped for a variety of projects. He is best known for Santa Paula City Hall (1934), Santa Paula Community Center (1960-61), and Glen City Grammar School (1951-52). He also designed the Ebell Club House in Fillmore (1931), and Masonic Lodge in Santa Paula (1930), the latter rendered in an elegant Moorish Revival style.
Raymond continued his work in the postwar period, designing schools, churches and institutional buildings in Santa Paula and other communities in Southern California. He died in Santa Paula in 1970 at the age of 77.
Requa, Richard S., AIA (1827-1941)*
Born: Rock Island, IL
Education: Studied electrical engineering at Norfolk College Firm(s): Draftsman, Irving J. Gill, Architect (1907-1912); Partner, Mead & Requa, Architects (1912-1920); Partner, Requa & Jackson, Architects (1920-1941) Biographical info: Richard Smith Requa was born in Rock Island, Illinois, but his family moved to San Diego when he was a child. At the age of eighteen he went to work at the local office of Hebbard & Gill. When Hebbard withdrew from the partnership, Requa retained his association with Irving Gill. Requa then partnered with William S.
Mead to establish the firm of Mead & Requa, which was hired to designed downtown Ojai. Requa is best known for his work in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. In 1923, his partnership with Mead was dissolved and he began a collaboration
with Herbert L. Jackson. During these years, Requa enjoyed a number of substantial institutional and residential commissions in San Diego and Los Angeles. His work was widely published in Western Architect, Building Age, Architectural Record, and Architect and Engineer. Requa was also the director of Architecture and Landscaping for the California Pacific International Exposition in San Diego (1935-36). He held memberships in the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the San Diego Arts Guild, and the Archeological Institute of America.
Rudolph, Sanford C. (1892-1984)*
Born: East Aurora, NY
Education: Polytechnic College of Engineering
Firm(s): Stanford Rudolph, Architectural Designer (c. 1926-c. 1936) Biographical info: Sanford Christopher Rudolph was born in East Aurora, New York in 1892, but his family moved to Ventura County around 1910. Living in Santa Paula, Rudolph worked as a carpenter in his father’s residential construction business. He served in 318
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France during World War I. Around 1926, Rudolph opened an architectural design office on Main Street in Ventura. In the 1920s, he received a number of modest commissions remodeling and designing additions for commercial buildings on Main Street, as well as the Crandall Hotel and the County Hospital. As commissions were likely harder to come by during the Depression, Rudolph returned to teaching. He briefly moved to Santa Barbara where he taught mechanical drawing in the public schools. He also taught at St. Catherine’s Academy in Ventura County. In 1936, he started teaching advanced carpentry and mechanical drawing at Ventura Junior College. In 1943, Rudolph spent a year teaching at UCLA. He continued teaching at Ventura Junior College until his retirement in 1957. Rudolph died in Ventura in 1984.
Rule, Rhodes Elmore, AIA (1900-1961)
Born: St. Louis, MO
Education: University of Chicago (2 years); Washington University (2 years); University of Southern California, B.A. Science and Math (1937)
Firm(s): Engineer, Thomas King (1923-19270; Engineer, Rule & Rule (1927-1933); Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Los Angeles (1933-1942); Principal, Bowen & Rowe & Rhodes E. Rule (1942-1944); Principal, Rule & Bowen (1944-1956)
Biographical info: Rhodes Elmore Rule was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1900. He worked primarily as an engineer in San Diego for the first decades of his life, although he performed both architectural and engineering work. He officially obtained his architecture license in 1957. He received no formal training in architecture, however, he learned on the job at Bowen, Rule and Bowen. His architectural work is believed to have primarily been in the area of school construction. He is credited with designing the dormitories at Chapman College in 1959. Rule was a trustee of Chapman College, a chairman of the board of managers of the Hollywood YMCA, a Vice President of the International Convention of Christian Churches, and a member of the Kiwanis.
Rule died at the age of 60 years old.
Russell, C.H., AIA (1874-1942)*
Born: Indiana
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): Partner, March & Russell, Architects (1902-1909); Partner, Russell & Slingluff, Architects (1913-unknown); Partner Russell & Alpaugh, Architects (c. 1922- c. 1924)
Biographical info: Clarence Henry Russell was born in Indiana in 1874. By 1910, he was a practicing architect in San Francisco. However, in the early 1910s he came to Los Angeles and in 1902 he partnered with Norman Foote Marsh to establish the firm of Marsh & Russell, Architects. March & Russell are best known for designing Venice of America—an amusement and tourist community oriented on a system of canals— for Abbot Kinney in 1905-06. Russell is credited with designing Venice’s distinctive 319
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arcade buildings on Winward Avenue, as well as the Venice Pier.26 Russell enjoyed a varied practice, including residences, churches, recreation pavilions, libraries, schools, civic and commercial buildings. His work also reflected a wide range of architectural styles, including Mission Revival, Italian Renaissance Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, and Beaux Arts. Russell’s projects were widely covered in the trade press, including Architect and Engineer, Builder and Contractor, and Southwest Builder and Contractor. In 1913, Russell partnered with Fiedler Slingluff, Jr. and they opened offices in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. In the 1920s, Russell formed a partnership with Norman W. Alpaugh, and together they designed many ornate multi-story apartment houses and residential hotels along Wilshire Boulevard. Russell died in 1942 at age 68.
Sauter, Roland F., AIA (1886-1951)*
Born: Baltimore, MD
Education: (Unknown)27
Firm(s): (Unknown)
Biographical info: Roland Frederic Sauter was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1886. By 1910, Sauter was working as an artist at an engraving company. In 1912, he was a draftsman at an unnamed Baltimore firm. By 1915, Sauter had relocated to Santa Barbara and set up his own architectural practice. During World War I Sauter worked as a draftsman for the Navy in San Diego. After the war he returned to Santa Barbara where he appears to have met with immediate success with commissions for residences. He also designed First Presbyterian Church, a public garage, and a detention home, all in Santa Barbara in 1919. All of these projects were published in the architectural trade magazines, including Architectural Record, Building Age, Architect’s Journal, and American Architect. During the 1920s, Sauter continued to receive local Santa Barbara commissions. In 1923, Sauter collaborated with E.
Keith Lockard, an architect in his office, to design Santa Barbara City Hall.
Virtually all of Sauter’s work was rendered in the Spanish Colonial Revival style which is so dominant in S
anta Barbara. During World War II, Sauter was associated with the Federal Works Agency in Berkeley, California. Sauter died in Santa Barbara in 1951.
Schwarz, Carl, AIA (1904-1990)
Born: Dabki, Poland
Education: University of Vienna, Austria; University of Minnesota Firm(s): Sr. Draftsman at Frederick Kennedy Jr.; Kistner, Curtis & Wright and Albert Gardner; Alison & Rible.
Biographical info: Carl Schwarz was born in Dabki, Poland as Karol Szwarz. He came to the U.S. in 1924 at the age of 20. By 1942, he was living in Los Angeles and working for the Union Oil Company. In 1953, he formed Carl Schwarz, Architect in Oxnard and began securing commissions. His design for the Asahi Market in Oxnard and press
26 “Sea Water Flows in Venice Canals,” Los Angeles Herald, July 1, 1905, 2. 27 Awaiting AIA Membership file from AIA library for more information. 320
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coverage of his residential designs in the Los Angeles Times reveal a distinctly modernist aesthetic. His 1963 design for the John Candianides Residence was lauded by both the Los Angeles Times and the local newspapers. Schwarz’ legacy is also notable for a number of Mid-Century Modern-style churches in Ventura County, including Pleasant Valley Baptist Church (1954) in Camarillo, St. Paul’s Baptist Church (1959) in Oxnard, and First Lutheran Church (1959) in Camarillo.
In 1962, he formed Schwarz & Leach with Howard E. Leach, AIA. He retired from practice in 1966. He died in 1990 at age 86.
Shapiro, Abraham, AIA (1926-2016)
Born: Tel Aviv, Israel
Education: Hebrew Institute of Technology (1949); M.Arch, Columbia University (1953) Firm(s): Draftsman, Kenneth Lind; Principal, Abraham Shapiro Associates (1958-69); Partner, Krisel/Shapiro & Associates (1969-1979)
Biographical info: Abraham “Abe” Shapiro was born in Israel. He completed his early education there and was a Lieutenant in the Israeli Army from 1948-1950. After his service, he came to the United States, where he studied architecture at Colombia University. He formed his own firm in 1958 and quickly became known for his office and medical buildings. In 1969, he partnered with architect William Krisel to form Krisel/Shapiro & Associates. The duo designed a number of high-rise apartment buildings for Southern California developers including Santa Monica’s Ocean Towers (1971), Park Plaza Apartments (c. 1976) and Coronado Shores (c. 1969) in San Diego. Krisel sold his portion of the practice to Shapiro in 1979. Abraham Shapiro passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 90 years old.
Sheets, Millard Owen (1907-1989)
Born: Pomona, CA
Education: Chouinard Art Institute
Firm(s): (None)
Biographical info: Millard Sheets was a native California artist who grew up in the Pomona Valley east of Los Angeles. While still a teenager, his watercolors were accepted for exhibition in the annual California Water Color Society shows and, by nineteen he was elected into the Society. He attended the Chouinard Art Institute, and was hired to teach watercolor painting there before he graduated. By the early 1930s, Sheets was exhibiting works in Paris, New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Houston, St. Louis, San Antonio, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and many other cities throughout the United States. At home in Los Angeles, he was recognized as a leading figure in the California Style watercolor movement. During World War II, Sheets worked as an artist-correspondent for Life magazine and the U.S. Army Air Forces in India and Burma. Many of his works from this period document scenes of famine, war, and death that he witnessed. This experience also affected his postwar art for a number of years. After the 1950s, his style changed again, this time featuring brighter colors and often depicting subjects from his travels around the world. Sheets taught at the Chouinard Art Institute, Otis Art Institute, and Scripps College, among other institutions, and was director of the art exhibition at 321
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the Los Angeles County Fair for many years. During the Great Depression, he worked with Edward Bruce to hire artists for the Public Works of Art Project, and in 1946 served as a president of the California Water Color Society. In later years, he worked as an architect, illustrator, muralist, and printmaker, and judged art exhibitions. Beginning in 1952, Sheets designed the buildings and mosaics for dozens of branch offices of Home Savings of America throughout California, and coordinated contributions from other artists. Outside of California he was commissioned for artwork at the Detroit Public Library, the Mayo Clinic, the dome of the National Shrine in Washington, D.C., the University of Notre Dame Library, the Hilton Hotel in Honolulu, and Mercantile National Bank in Dallas. In 1953, Sheets was appointed Director of Otis Art Institute (later Otis College of Art and Design). Under his leadership, the school’
s academic programs were restructured to
offer both BFA and MFA degrees. He also created a ceramics department, and built a ceramics building and gallery, library, and studio wing. By the time Sheets left Otis in 1960, the look and direction of the college had changed dramatically.
Sheets died in 1989.
Smith, George Washington, AIA (1879-1930)*
Born: East Liberty, PA
Education: Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia; attended Harvard University Firm(s): George Washington Smith, Architect
Biographical info: George Washington Smith was born in East Liberty, Pennsylvania in 1879. He took art and painting classes at the Academy of Fine Art, then attended a course in architecture at Harvard. After World War I, he came to Montecito, California and opened an office. He quickly became the architect of choice for many wealthy patrons in Santa Barbara and became well-known for his Spanish Colonial Revival homes. His work was distinctive from others practicing in period revival styles, largely attributable to the influence of his worldwide travels. He was critical in bringing Andalusian detailing to the Spanish Colonial Revival style in California.
His work was published nationally and internationally in the architectural trade magazines, including California Arts and Architecture, Architectural Record, Architect and Engineer, Western Architects, Architect, House Beautiful, House and Garden and Architectural
Digest. His work also appeared in major architectural exhibits of the time. Although he received much acclaim and many awards for his home designs, Smith also designed the Lobero Theater, the Daily News Building and the Little Town Club in Santa Barbara. Following the Santa Barbara earthquake, Smith served on the architectural advisory committee that helped remake the city in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. Smith died at his home in 1930.
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Smith, L.A. (1869-1958)*
Born: Hayesville, Ohio
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): Howard E. Jones, Architect; Lily-Fletcher Company Building Contractors; Smith & Pennell Architects; Owner, L.A. Smith, Architect
Biographical info: Lewis Arthur Smith was born in Ohio, but came to Los Angeles around the turn of the 20th century, where he would become one of the city’s leading theater architects during the 1920s. He designed more than 40 theaters for the Bard’s and Fox West Coast chains. In addition to multiple theaters in Los Angeles, Smith designed Spanish Colonial Revival theaters in Riverside, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, Redlands, and San Bernardino. His work includes the Wilshire Theater (1921), Bard’s Hollywood Theatre (1923), and the Tower Theater (1925-27) in downtown Los Angeles. Smith’s contributions to the movie palace phenomenon is well documented in David Nestor’s book American Picture Palaces: The Architecture of Fantasy. In between his theater projects, Smith also designed a large number of apartment buildings. In his later years, he served in a consulting capacity. Smith died in 1958.
Soule, Winsor, FAIA (1883-1954)*
Born: Frankfort, NY
Education: Harvard Graduate School of Design; Massachusetts Institute of Technology Firm(s): Draftsman, Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson, Architects (1907-08); Associate Architect, Bryn Mawr College (1908-1909); Draftsman, Allen & Collens (1909-11); Partner, Ray & Soule, Architects (1912-17); Partner, Soule, Murphy & Hastings (c. 1921-22); Partner, Soule, Murphy, Architects (1932-53); Partner, Soule & Mosher (1954- unknown)
Biographical info: Winsor Soule was born in Frankfort, New York in 1883. He earned degrees in architecture from both Harvard and MIT. Upon graduation he worked as a draftsman for two Boston firms. He then moved to California and settled in Santa Barbara in 1911. There he formed a partnership, Ray & Soule, Architects. Soule, Hastings & Murphy was founded as a firm in 1921 and dissolved in 1926 when Hastings retired. The firm is best known for its residential work in the greater Santa Barbara area. Firm projects were published nationally in trade magazines such as Architecture, House Beautiful, House and Garden and Architectural Digest. Soule was elevated to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects in 1940. He died in Idaho in 1954.
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Spaulding, Sumner, FAIA (1892-1952)
Born: Ionia, MI
Education: University of Michigan (1911-1913); Massachusetts Institute of Technology, B.Arch (1916)
Firm(s): Draftsman, Myron Hunt, Architect (c. 1921); Principal Sumner Maurice Spaulding, Architect (1923); Partner, Webber, Staunton & Spaulding, Architects (1924-1928); Partner, Spaulding, Rex & Deswarte, Architects and Engineers (1940-1953) Biographical info: Sumner Maurice Spaulding was born in 1892 to a farming family in Ionia, Michigan. After graduating with a degree in architecture from MIT, and then serving in World War I, he lived briefly in Detroit. He came to California around 1921 and settled in Los Angeles. After establishing his own practice, he partnered with Walter Webber and William F. Staunton to form Webber, Staunton & Spaulding in 1924. The firm had a varied practice with a mix of commercial, residential and institutional work. Spaulding was published mostly for his residential work in period revival styles. His residences can be found in the pages of Architectural Record, California Arts and Architecture, and the Los Angeles Times. Among his best-known house designs is the Harold Lloyd Residence (1928-29). Spaulding was the recipient of numerous awards from the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He was elevated to Fellowship by the AIA in 1939. He died in 1952 at the age of 60.
Stacy-Judd, Robert, AIA (1884-1975)*
Born: London, England
Education: Regent Street Polytechnical Institute, Acton College, London; Southend Technical Institute, Essex; South Kensington Science and Art Institute, London, Diploma (1905)
Firm(s): Apprentice, James Thompson, Sussex (c. 1900); Principal, Robert B. Stacy-Judd, AIA (1922-c. 1955)
Biographical info: Robert Benjamin Stacy-Judd was born in London, England. After training in London and elsewhere around the United Kingdom, he worked as an architect for the Great Northern Railroad in Britain. He came to the U.S. around 1912, living in several different cities in the U.S. and Canada. In 1922, he settled in Los Angeles and opened up his own office. After encountering the pre-Colombian architecture of Mexico and Central America in 1923, Stacy-Judd became an ardent architect- explorer. He is best known for incorporating Mayan motifs into his designs.
Examples of this include the Aztec Hotel (1925-26) in Monrovia and the Krotona Institute of Theosophy (1924). He authored Atlantis, Mother of Empires and Kabah about his Yucatan expeditions. Architectural historian David Gebhard credits Stacy-Judd with the invention of “Mayan Revival.” He also designed Tudor Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival-style homes in Los Angeles. Stacy-Judd’s work was published in Western Architect, Architect and Engineer, and Arts and Decoration. Stacy- Judd died in 1975 at the age of 90.
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Staunton, William F., AIA (1893-1977)*
Born: Tombstone, AZ
Education: Cornell University, B.Arch (1916)
Firm(s): Draftsman, Arthur Kelley; Designer, Myron Hunt & H.C. Chambers; Chief Architect, Federal Housing Authority (Los Angeles); Partner, Webber, Staunton & Spaulding, Architects (1923-28); Principal, William Field Staunton, Jr. Architect (1928-1961)
Biographical info: William Field Staunton, Jr. was born in Tombstone, Arizona to a wealthy family who appeared regularly in the society pages of the Los Angeles Times. Spaulding attended Cornell University and received his architecture degree in 1916. When he returned to Los Angeles, he worked as a draftsman in the office of Myron Hunt. In 1923 he partnered with Walter Webber and Sumner Spaulding to form Webber, Staunton & Spaulding, Architects. They practiced together for five years. Although the division of labor within the firm is unclear, Staunton is credited with working closely with Spaulding on the Malaga Cove Plaza (1922-24) in Palos Verdes and several residences. Staunton died in 1977.
Steepleton, T. B. (1838-1893)*
Born: Illinois
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): (Unknown)
Biographical info: Thomas Benton Steepleton was a pioneer of Ventura County. He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. In 1875, he was living in Ojai and working as a schoolteacher and farmer. Little is known about his architectural education or training. He is credited with building the first Ventura County Courthouse in 1872, along with W.D. Hobson. In 1890, the local newspaper reported that Steepleton erected a 14-room house in Colonia that was billed as being “among the county’s finest.”
28 Steepleton is best known for designing and/or building the Italianate-style John Mitchell Residence, located in the Mitchell Block in downtown Ventura.
Steepleton died in 1893 and was given a burial by the Pioneer Society founded by Dr. C.L. Bard.
Stephens, W.H. (1893-1946)*
Born: Bridstow, England
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): Draftsman, Angelus Architectural Service Co. (c. 1925); Architect, Union Engineering Co. of Los Angeles (c. 1926-1928)
Biographical info: William Herald (Harold) Stephens was born in Bridstow, England and served with the British engineering corps in the Far East during World War I. He also spent time in Vancouver, Canada. He came to the U.S. in 1919. By 1925, he had settled in Los Angeles and was working as a draftsman for an architectural services company.
Following that, he did architectural work for the Union Engineering Company, a large Los Angeles contracting firm. It was in this capacity that Stephens designed
28 “Do You Recall These Days?” Ventura County Star Free Press, September 27, 1945, 3. 325
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the Foshnaugh Hotel (1925) in Ventura. While offering design services, Union Engineering Company also worked with major architectural firms to execute projects from apartments to infrastructure to factories. Stephens became a naturalized citizen in 1939. By the early 1940s, he worked for Taylor & Taylor, Engineers. He died in Los Angeles in 1946 at the age of 51.
Stephenson, Andrew H., AIA (1924-2011)
Born: Santa Barbara, CA
Education: San Jose State College (3 years); University of California, Berkeley (2 years) Firm(s): Draftsman, Paul Williams, Architect; Draftsman, Albert Criz; Draftsman, Harold B.
Zook, Architect; Draftsman, Harold E. Burket; Draftsman, Fisher & Wilde; Office Manager, E.V. Milkes.
Biographical info: Ventura-based Andrew H. “Steve” Stephenson was born in Santa Barbara and raised in Atascadero. He served in the U.S. Navy. Early in his career he worked in the offices of Ventura-b
ased Harold E. Burket and Fisher & Wilde. He was awarded his architectural license in 1961. Stephenson is best known for his design of the clubhouse at the San Buenaventura Golf Course/Ventura Municipal Golf Course (c. 1963), his resident architect consulting role with the renovation of the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, and for his advisory contributions on the design of the Niblick Bridge in Paso Robles. Stephenson passed away in 2011 at the age of 87.
Stroh, John F., AIA (1909-1999)
Born: Bryn Athyn, PA
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (1934) Firm(s): Douglas Honnold and George Vernon Russell (c. 1930-1941); Burton A. Schutt (c. 1941), Wilson, Stroh & Wilson (1960-c. 1971)
Biographical info: Born in Pennsylvania in 1909, by 1920 John Frankish Stroh was living with his family in Ontario, California. Stroh graduated from USC in 1934. After graduation, Stroh lived in Los Angeles where he worked for several well-known small firms.
After World War II, he relocated to Ventura County. By the mid-1950s, Stroh was living in Santa Paula and working with architect Roy C. Wilson. In 1960, the firm became Wilson, Stroh & Wilson. Stroh is known to have worked on the commissions for the Blanche Reynolds, Lincoln and Pierpont Schools in Ventura.
Stroh died in Santa Paula in 1999 at the age of 90.
Tveit, Robert L. (1922-2007)
Born: Beaver Dam, WI
Education: University of Michigan, B.Arch (1951)
Firm(s): Draftsman, George Schneider, Architect, Wisconsin; Draftsman, George Brigham, Wisconsin; Draftsman, Maynard Meyer, Wisconsin; Draftsman, George Narovec, Wisconsin; Draftsman, Kenneth Hess, Ventura; Draftsman, Harold Burket Biographical info: Robert “Bob” Lawrence Tveit was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin in 1922. He planned to attend the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee upon graduation from high school in 1940. However, his education was disrupted by World War II and his service in the U.S. Navy from 1941 to 1946. Tveit took advantage of the GI Bill 326
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to pay for his studies at the University of Michigan. He also worked as a draftsman for a variety of architects in Ann Arbor, Michigan, presumably while at the University. In 1954, Tveit relocated to Ventura. In 1959, he partnered with Herman C. Muller to establish the firm of Muller & Tveit. Tveit is best known for his institutional medical work, including the remodeling of the Ventura County General Hospital (1966 & 1969) and Ventura County Community Mental Health Center (1969). He also designed several post-and-beam Mid-Century Modern custom residences in the early 1960s which were featured in the local newspaper for their exceptional designs. Upon Muller’s passing in 1997, Tveit took over the practice. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Tveit was an instructor at Ventura Junior College. Tveit retired in 2004, and died in 2007.
Van Pelt, Garrett, Jr., FAIA (1879-1972)*
Born: Milwaukee, WI
Education: Chicago Art Institute, School of Architecture Firm(s): Partner, Marston & Van Pelt (1914-1923); Partner, Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury (1923-1927); Partner, Van Pelt & Lind (1928-1941); Partner, Van Pelt (1941-1970) Biographical info: Garrett Van Pelt Jr. was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1879. He began his architectural career in a highly-successful partnership with Pasadena architects Sylvanus Marston and Edgar Maybury. The firm of Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury is considered to have had more influence in Pasadena during the 1920s than any other, designing many of the city’s Mediterranean-style commercial and civic structures, including the American Legion Building and several branches of the Pasadena Public Library. In 1928, Van Pelt entered into a partnership with George Lind. The firm of Van Pelt & Lind designed many buildings throughout the Los Angeles area, and was instrumental in the development of Arcadia. Van Pelt was known for his versatility, designing residential, civic, and ecclesiastical buildings in a variety of architectural styles. He became a member of the American Institute of Architects in 1943, was inducted into the College of Fellows of the AIA in 1964.
He retired in 1970 in Santa Barbara, and died in 1972 at age 93.
Videriksen, Ebbe, AIA (b. 1926)
Born: Vejie, Denmark
Education: Horsen’s Technical College (1950-1952)
Firm(s): Principal, Ebbe Videriksen (1965-1967); Principal, Cross & Videriksen & Associates; Principal, Ebbe Videriksen & Associates (1968-2008); Principal, Videriksen & Company (founded 2008)
Biographical info: San Fernando Valley-based Ebbe Videriksen specialized in architecture, planning, and development for large tract home and apartment developments. Videriksen immigrated to the United States in 1958. He is best known for his designs for the Stanberry Studios (1965), Tahiti Marina Apartments in Marina del Rey (1969), Sierra Manors Condominiums in Mammoth (1969) and Marina Point Apartments in Marina Del Rey
(1969). In the realm of commercial architecture, he designed several banks and financial services buildings. In 1995, Videriksen was made a knight of the Order of Dannebrog by the Queen of Denmark. Since 2008, he has operated Nicole 327
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& Ebbe, LLC, a development company based in Santa Rosa, and Videriksen & Company, an architecture and design firm in Camarillo.
Walker, Rodney (1910-1986)*
Born: Salt Lake City, UT
Education: Attended Pasadena City College (engineering 1928-1929); attended UCLA (architecture 1932-1933)
Firm(s): Rodney Walker, Builder
Biographical info: Rodney A. Walker was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1910. After studying engineering and architecture in Pasadena and Los Angeles, by 1938 he was working in the office of R.M. Schindler as a designer-contractor. During World War II, he worked as a draftsman in the engineering department of Douglas Aircraft Company. Walker was one of the elite few architects selected by Arts + Architecture publisher John Entenza to participate in the Case Study House program. His best- known works are Case Study House #16 (1947) and Case Study House #18 (1947- 48). In addition to Arts & Architecture, Walker’s work was featured in many national magazines including a 38-page spread for his own home in a 1952 issue of House Beautiful. Walker relocated to Ojai in 1956 where he built several homes before retiring from architectural practice in 1971. Walker died in 1986.
Walls, John A. (1860-1922)29*
Born: Buffalo, NY
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): Architect, Henry Hobart Richardson; Architect, Kysor, Morgan & Walls (1887- 1890); Partner, Morgan & Walls (1890-1910); Partner, Morgan, Walls & Morgan (1910- c. 1920); Partner, Morgan, Walls & Clements, Architects Biographical info: John Andrew Walls was born in Buffalo in 1860 and arrived in Los Angeles sometime prior to 1887. After working briefly in the office of Ezra Kysor, he was elevated to partner in the firm of Kysor, Morgan & Walls. Following Kysor’s departure in 1890, the firm was renamed Morgan & Walls. Morgan & Walls would become one of the leading architectural practices in Los Angeles, responsible for many of the most important commissions in the city, and specifically in downtown.
Their work included the first high school, Child’s Opera House, Nadeau Hotel (1881-82), Hollenbeck Building, Bank of Italy (1920-22), W.P. Story Office Building (1900), and many more. The firm’s work was widely published in magazines such as Architectural Record, Builder and Contractor, Architect and Engineer, and Architectural Digest. Although Walls died in the early 1920s, his name remained part of the firm when it was joined by Stiles O. Clements to form Morgan, Walls & Clements.
29 Various sources give conflicting birth and death dates; the dates cited here appear on Walls’ headstone. 328
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Ware Malcomb Architects, Inc. (founded 1972)
Born: N/A
Education: N/A
Firm(s): N/A
Biographical info: The firm was founded as Ware & Malcomb Architects, Inc. in 1972 by Bill Ware and Bill Malcomb. It focused on commercial office, industrial, corporate office, and tenant improvement projects through the 1980s. Based in Irvine, California, the firm opened branch offices in Ontario and Woodland Hills during the 1980s. Their best known works include an international corporate headquarters on Barranca Road in Irvine (1977) and Cypress Point Office Buildings in Irvine (1988). The firm specialized in corporate business park architecture, often using reflective glass exteriors. In 1990, the firm won a Rancho Cucamonga Design Excellence Award for its Rochester Center in that city. Lawrence R. Armstrong became CEO of the firm in 1992 and they expanded the firm to seven offices. The firm eventually became known as Ware Malcomb. In 2017, it celebrated its 45 th anniversary with 22
offices located across North America.
William Earl Malcomb, AIA (b. 1938) was born in Kokomo, Indiana. He earned his A.A. from Orange Coast College in 1959 and his B.Arch from the University of Arizona in 1966. Prior to starting his own firm, he was a Principal at Sutter & Malcomb beginning in 1969. Little is known about William “Bill” Ware (b. 1936).
Webber, Walter, AIA (1864-1943)*
Born: Massachusetts30
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): Principal, Walter I. Webber, Architect (c. 1913); Partner, Webber, Staunton & Spaulding, Architects (1923-1928)
Biographical info: Walter I. Webber was born in Massachusetts in 1864. By the early 1910s, Webber was practicing architecture in Los Angeles. His early years in business appear to have consisted primarily of large residential commissions for wealthy clients, including a large Italian Renaissance Revival home in San Diego and a Tudor Revival home in Pasadena. His first known non-residential project was for the Rockwell Sanitarium in present-day Glendale. Webber’s wealthy clientele is once again in evidence when he is awarded the commission for a large hotel on the shores of Lake Tahoe for Anita M. Baldwin, daughter of E.J. “Lucky” Baldwin.
Five years later, Ms. Baldwin awarded Webber the commission for a children’s hospital. Webber died in 1943.
Wilde, Roy G., AIA (1919-1999)
Born: San Francisco, CA
Education: University of Southern California, B.Arch (date unknown) Firm(s): Designer, Harold E. Burket (1951-1955); Partner, Fisher & Wilde (1955-c. 1977) Biographical info: Roy Gregory Wilde was born to a house-builder father in San Francisco in 1919. By 1930, the family had relocated to Los Angeles where residential construction was
30 Awaiting AIA Membership file from AIA library for more information. 329
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booming. By 1940, Wilde was employed as a draftsman. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army. By 1953, Wilde had moved to Ventura where he was working as a designer for Harold E. Burket. In 1955, Wilde formed a partnership with Darwin Fisher, whom he likely met during their time together in Burket’s office. The firm of Fisher & Wilde designed a number of commercial, educational and institutional projects throughout Ventura County. They are best known for the Ventura County Welfare Building (1957), Pacific Telephone Company Office Building (1958), Hueneme High School (1959), Texaco Office Building (1959) and St. John’s Hospital Nursing Home (1960). Fisher & Wilde was also widely recognized for their restoration work on present-day Ventura City Hall (originally the Ventura County Courthouse). In 1971, the firm received Southern California Gas Co.’s Balanced Power Award for the Bank of A. Levy. Wilde died in 1999 at the age of 80.
Williams, Paul R., FAIA (1894-1989)*
Born: Los Angeles, CA
Education: Los Angeles School of Art and Design; Beaux-Arts Institute of Design; University of Southern California (1916-1919)
Firm(s): Reginald Johnson (1914-1917); Arthur Kelly (1917-1921); John C. Austin (1921- 1924); Paul R. Williams, Architect & Consultant (1925-1974) Biographical info: Paul Revere Williams was born in Los Angeles in 1894. He studied at the Los Angeles School of Art and Design, the Los Angeles branch of the New York Beaux Arts Institute of Design, and USC where he studied architectural engineering for three years. However, Williams began working in architecture before getting his formal education. From 1914 to 1917, Williams worked for noted Pasadena architect Reginald Johnson, and from 1917 to 1921 he worked for Hollywood architect Arthur Kelly. In 1915, he registered as a building designer, and began executing designs for speculative developers. Williams received his architecture license in 1921, becoming the only licensed African American architect west of the Mississippi. Williams became known for his modern interpretations of popular period revival styles. Though he continued to design custom residences for wealthy clients, in the middle years of his career Williams turned his attention to more modest housing, publishing two books on “the Small House” in the mid-1940s.
Williams was also very civically involved.
He served on national commissions under
Presidents Coolidge, Roosevelt, and Eisenhower; campaigned with presidential candidate Nelson Rockefeller in the 1960s; served on statewide commissions for California Governors Earl Warren and Goodwin Knight; and was president of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Commission for eleven years. Williams was an influential member of the African American community in Los Angeles. He designed the First A.M.E. Church, the headquarters for Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Co., and the 28th Street YMCA in South Los Angeles. In 1957, Williams became the first African American member of the AIA’s College of Fellows. He retired in 1974, and died in 1980 at the age of 85.
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Wilson, George E., AIA (1924-2011)
Born: Oxnard, CA
Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.Arch (1949) Firm(s): Wilson, Stroh & Wilson (1960-c. 1977) in Santa Paula Biographical info: George Edwin Wilson was the son of Santa Paula-based architect Roy C. Wilson.
The younger Wilson worked for his father in the 1950s and was elevated to the role of partner in the firm of Wilson, Stroh & Wilson in 1960. The firm was well known throughout Ventura County for its contemporary homes and public buildings, such as the Mount Cross Lutheran Church (1968) in Camarillo. Wilson moved to Sonora in the early 1990s. He died in 2011.
Wilson, Roy C., AIA (1887-1975)*
Born: Freemont, KS
Education: Attended University of California, Berkeley c. 1905 Firm(s): Draftsman, Edwin C. Thorne; Roy C. Wilson, Architect (c. 1915-c. 1970) Biographical info: Roy C. Wilson was born in Freemont, Kansas in 1887 but came to California as an infant. At the age of twelve he left school and started working as a draftsman at the Los Angeles-based firm of Edwin C. Thorne, AIA. He migrated to Northern California where he took architecture classes at the University of California, Berkeley. When the earthquake struck San Francisco in 1906, he left the Bay Area and moved back to Los Angeles where he married Thorne’s daughter; they moved to Santa Paula in 1914. Around 1915, Wilson established the first architectural practice in Ventura County. He received three commissions for the Limoneira Company and a residence for the company’s president, C.C. Teague. Other notable projects include the Ramelli Residence, St. Sabastian’s Church, Hueneme Elementary School, and Ojai’s Foster Bowl. Wilson was a prolific architect whose projects included residential, commercial, industrial and institutional projects in the city of Ventura and throughout the county. He practiced well into the 1960s, bringing his son into the firm as Wilson, Stroh & Wilson in 1960. Wilson designed many of the county’s schools. Although not widely published, he was awarded a number of significant commissions for public buildings, including the annex to the Ventura County Courthouse (present-day Ventura City Hall). Wilson’s work was featured in a 1966 exhibit “100 Years of Architecture” in Ventura held at the Ventura Savings and Loan building. A Santa Paula mural depicts Roy C. Wilson as an important early architect/artist of the region. Wilson died in 1975.
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Winner, H.H. (1874-1962)*
Born: Illinois
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): H.H. Winner Company
Biographical info: Herman Henry Winner was born in Illinois in 1874. It is unknown if he had any formal training in architecture. He appears to have made his way to the West Coast around the turn of the 20th century. By 1908, he had established his own architectural practice in San Francisco. Winner would go on to develop a specialty practice in bank design, designing dozens of bank buildings throughout California in the 1910s and 1920s. Winner’s bank design philosophy emphasized “dignity and solidity” with an emphasis on the classical Beaux Arts or Italian Renaissance Revival styles.
31 Depending upon budget, Winner’s designs frequently used concrete, marble, and bronze. Examples include Union National Bank (1917) in Fresno, Merchants National Bank (1921) in Sacramento, Modesto Bank (1921) in Modesto, Pacific Southwest Bank (1923) in Oxnard, Sonoma County National and Petaluma Savings Bank (1926) in Petaluma. During the Depression, when bank architecture waned, Winner’s firm designed other stately commissions such as the Veterans Memorial Building (1939) in Salinas. The firm also designed the Richfield Oil Building in downtown Oakland. His Bank of Los Banos is listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture. In 1926, Winner built the First National Bank of Ventura, better known as the Erle Stanley Gardener building. He continued to design banks during the 1940s and early 1950s, mostly in Northern California. Winner died in 1962 at age 88.
Winslow, Carleton M., FAIA (1876-1946)
Born: Damariscotta, ME
Education: Art Institute of Chicago; Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris Firm(s): Draftsman, Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson (pre-1914); Designer, Bertram G.
Goodhue (c. 1914); Associate, Goodhue & Winslow, Architects (c. 1920); Principal, Carleton Monroe Winslow, Architect (1925-c. 1941)
Biographical info: Carleton Monroe Winslow was born in Damariscotta, Maine in 1876. He studied architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. When he returned to the U.S., he went to work for Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson in New York. When Bertram Goodhue was appointed architect of the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Diego in 1911, Winslow moved to Southern California as the firm’s representative.
In 1917, Winslow moved to Los Angeles and
was largely responsible for the firm’s work on the Los Angeles Central Library (1922-26). Winslow is best remembered for his contributions to ecclesiastical architecture, including First Baptist Church #2 (1925) in Pasadena, Wilshire Boulevard Congregational Church (1922-25), and Vermont Square Methodist Church #2 (1925-26). His work was published nationally in trade magazines such as Architect and Engineer, Architectural Digest, California Arts and Architecture, and Southwest Builder and Contractor. Winslow was elevated to the level of Fellowship by
31 H.H. Winner, “And Design of New Bank The Best Money Can Buy,” Sacramento Bee, November 26, 1921, 32. 332
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the American Institute of Architects in 1939. He was also greatly interested in civic matters and served as President of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Commission.
Winslow died in Los Angeles in 1946.
Wong, Gin D., FAIA (1922-2017)*
Born: Canton, China
Education: Millikin University (1943); University of Southern California, B.Arch. (1950) Firm(s): Designer, Pereira & Luckman; Partner, William Pereira & Associates; Gin Wong Associates (c. 1973-unknown)
Biographical info: Gin D. Wong was born in Canton, China in 1922. He attended Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, and received his architecture degree from USC in 1950. Upon graduation, Wong was hired by Pereira & Luckman and worked there until the dissolution of the firm in 1958. At that time, he continued with Pereira at the new firm, William Pereira & Associates. In 1974, Wong formed his own firm, Gin Wong Associates. While at Pereira’s office, Wong had major roles in the design of the Occidental Center, Crocker Bank, Mutual Benefit Life, and the tower addition to the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, and won ten AIA Awards for his designs.
32 Wong eventually rose from designer to Vice President of Planning and Design to Partner and President. Upon becoming Partner in 1959, the Los Angeles Times described Wong as “one of the country’s outstanding designers and planners.”
33 In 1966, just two years after the design of Ventura Savings and Loan, Wong was elevated to the level of Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects. Gin D. Wong Associates continued in the tradition of Pereira’s firm by specializing in hotels, corporate headquarters, office buildings, and educational facilities. His most revered works from later years include the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) headquarters (1988-89), Crystal Cathedral, Crean Tower and Mary Hood Chapel (1990) in Garden Grove. The Los Angeles Conservancy describes Wong as “one of a unique group of Chinese-American architects who helped define the postwar architecture of Los Angeles. Against seemingly insurmountable odds, including racial covenants in mid- century Los Angeles, Wong
persevered to forge a distinguished career.”34 Wong died in 2017.
32 “Wong Leaves Pereira to Start Firm,” Los Angeles Times, March 17, 1974, J5. 33 “New Partners of Planning Architectural Firm Named,” Los Angeles Times, January 18, 1959, F14. 34 Los Angeles Conservancy, https://www.laconservancy.org/architects/gin-wong (accessed December 2020). 333
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Wright, Henry L., FAIA (1904-1999)
Born: San Diego, CA
Education: University of California, Los Angeles (1927-1929); University of Southern California (1927-1929)
Firm(s): Office Boy, Draftsman, Chief Draftsman T.C. Kistner, Architect (1922-1940); Partner, Kistner, Wright & Wright, Architects and Engineers (c. 1952-c. 1965); Partner, Wright & Wright (c. 1966-mid 1970s)
Biographical info: Henry Lyman Wright was born in San Diego in 1904. He began his architectural training in high school. After studying architecture in college, he worked his way up from office boy to partner in the firm of Kistner, Curtis & Wright, where he worked in both the San Diego and Los Angeles offices. By 1962, the firm had become known as Kistner, Wright & Wright with the addition of Wright’s younger brother, William. The firm specialized in schools, colleges and other public buildings throughout California, and consulted with school districts in New Orleans, Tucson and Colorado. The firm was responsible for hundreds of projects, and its designs were published nationally and internationally in magazines such as Architectural Record, Arts & Architecture, Architectural Forum, Western Architect and Engineer, Architectural Concrete, Baumeister, and Arquitectura, Mexico. The firm was at the forefront of modern school planning and design, advocating for schools and projects in the Mid-Century Modern style. In 1953, Wright served as president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. In 1955, he was elevated to Fellowship in the AIA and served as chairman of the AIA committee on school buildings. In 1958, he was named to President Eisenhower’s White House Conference on Education. In 1962 and 1963, Wright rose to national prominence as President of the AIA. Upon Kistner’s retirement in 1965, the Wright brothers continued their practice into the mid-1970s. Henry Wright died in 1999.
Wright, William T. (1905-1979)
Born: San Diego, California
Education: (Unknown)
Firm(s): Structural Engineer/Partner, Kistner, Curtis & Wright; Structural Engineer/Partner, Kistner, Wright & Wright (c. 1952-c. 1965); Structural Engineer/Partner, Wright & Wright (c. 1966-mid 1970s)
Biographical info: William Theodore Wright was the younger brother of architect Henry L. Wright.
Although the source of his higher education is unknown, William Wright became a structural engineer. He was hired by architect T.C. Kistner to provide engineering services for school construction following the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. By 1940, Wright was living in Los Angeles, and became a full partner in Kistner, Curtis
& Wright in 1941. The firms of Kistner, Curtis & Wright, and later Kistner, Wright & Wright, specialized in schools, colleges and other public buildings throughout California, and consulted with school districts in New Orleans, Tucson and Colorado. The firm was responsible for hundreds of projects, and its designs were published nationally and internationally in magazines such as Architectural Record, Arts & Architecture, Architectural Forum, Western Architect and Engineer, Architectural 334
City of Ventura Historic Context Statement – Revised Draft for Internal Review
HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP
Concrete, Baumeister, and Arquitectura, Mexico. The firm was at the forefront of modern school planning and design, advocating for schools and projects in the Mid-Century Modern style. In 1953, Wright was named to the California State Board of Registration for Civil and Professional Engineers. In 1954, he served as president of the Structural Engineers Association of Southern California. Kistner retired from the firm in 1965, and Wright & Wright continued to practice until the mid-1970s. William Wright died in 1979.
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Appendix B – Designated Resources in the City of Ventura City of Ventura Historic Context Statement – Administrative Draft for Internal Review
HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP
Designated Individual Resources in the City of Ventura
RESOURCE NAME LOCATION
CITY OF VENTURA
LANDMARK/POINT OF
INTEREST
COUNTY OF VENTURA
LANDMARK
CALIFORNIA STATE
HISTORICAL
LANDMARK/POINT OF
INTEREST
CALIFORNIA REGISTER
OF HISTORICAL
RESOURCES
NATIONAL REGISTER OF
HISTORIC PLACES
Designation Date
(Landmark No.)
Designation Date
(Landmark No.)
Designation Date
(Landmark No.) List Date (Status Code) List Date (Reference No.) Olivas Adobe 4200 Olivas Park Drive 02/1974 (No. 1) 07/1979 (No. 115) 07/1979 (1S) 07/1979 (No. 79000570) Ortega Adobe 215 W. Main Street 02/1974 (No. 2) 05/1977 (No. N792) Father Serra Statue 501 Poli Street 02/1974 (No. 3)
City Hall and Ventura County Courthouse 501 Poli Street 02/1974 (No. 4) 12/1970 (No. 12) 05/1971 (No. 847) 05/1971 (1CL) 08/1971 (No. 71000211) Grant Park Cross (Site of Junípero Serra's
Cross) Ferro Drive 02/1974 (No. 5) 03/1933 (No. 113)
Mission Plaza Archaeological Site 100 Block of E. Main Street 02/1974 (No. 6) (No. 114) 04/1975 (No. 75000496) Conklin Residence 608 E. Thompson Boulevard 05/1974 (No. 7) Mission Norfolk Pines 211 E. Main Street 04/1974 (No. 8) Mound Pepper Tree (Not Extant) 5430 Telegraph Road 04/1974 (No. 9) Mission San Buenaventura 211 E. Main Street 04/1974 (No. 10) 07/1939 (No. 310) 04/1975 (No. 75000496) Plaza Park Morton Bay Fig Chestnut and Santa Clara Streets 04/1974 (No. 11) Mission Plaza Morton Bay Fig Tree 100 Block of E. Main Street 04/1974 (No. 12) Baker Residence 2107 Poli Street 09/1975 (No. 13)
Judge Ewing Residence 605 Poli Street 09/1975 (No. 14)
Ventura Guaranty Building and Loan 592 Main Street 10/1975 (No. 15) San Miguel Chapel Site Southwest corner of Thompson Boulevard and Palm Street 10/1975 (No. 16) 07/1978 (No. 78000826)
First Baptist Church 101 Laurel Street 12/1975 (No. 17) 07/2009 (1S) 07/2009 (No. 09000466) Shisholop Village South end of Figueroa Street 12/1975 (No. 18) Elizabeth Bard Memorial Hospital 121 N. Fir Street 03/1976 (No. 19) 11/1977 (1S) 11/1977 (No. 77000361) Ventura Wharf (Pier) Harbor Boulevard, east of California Street 03/1976 (No. 20) 04/1994 (2S2) Emmanuel Franz Residence 31 N. Oak Street 03/1976 (No. 21) 06/1982 (1S) 06/1982 (No. 82002282) Magnolia Tree 739 E. Santa Clara Street 03/1976 (No. 22) Great Pacific Iron Works 235 W. Santa Clara Street 10/1976 (No. 23) Ventura Theatre 26 S. Chestnut Street 10/1976 (No. 24) 12/1986 (1S) 12/1986 (No. 860003523) First Post Office Building 377 E. Main Street 10/1976 (No. 25) Hitching Post 88 N. Ann Street 10/1976 (No. 26)
Apostolic Church 902 E. Main Street 10/1976 (No. 27)
Southern Methodist Episcopal Church 896 E. Main Street 07/1977 (No. 28) Post Office Murals 675 E. Santa Clara Street 10/1977 (No. 29) 336
Appendix B – Designated Resources in the City of Ventura
City of Ventura Historic Context Statement – Administrative Draft for Internal Review
HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP
RESOURCE NAME LOCATION
CITY OF VENTURA
LANDMARK/POINT OF
INTEREST
COUNTY OF VENTURA
LANDMARK
CALIFORNIA STATE
HISTORICAL
LANDMARK/POINT OF
INTEREST
CALIFORNIA REGISTER
OF HISTORICAL
RESOURCES
NATIONAL REGISTER OF
HISTORIC PLACES
Designation Date
(Landmark No.)
Designation Date
(Landmark No.)
Designation Date
(Landmark No.) List Date (Status Code) List Date (Reference No.) Livery/County Garage 34 N. Palm Street 11/1977 (No. 30) Packard Garage 42 N. Chestnut Street 11/1977 (No. 31)
Peirano Store 204 E. Main Street 01/1978 (No. 32)
Peirano Residence (Parish Law Offices) 107 S. Figueroa Street 01/1978 (No. 33) Theodosia Burr Shepherd Gardens Southeast corner of Poli and Chestnut Streets 07/1978 (No. 34) Feraud General Merchandise Store (1903
Building) 2 W. Main Street 07/1978 (No. 35) 01/1986 (1S) 01/1986 (No. 86000109) First National Bank of Ventura 401 E. Main Street 08/1978 (No. 36) First National Bank 494 E. Main Street 10/1978 (No. 37) Bank of Italy 394 E. Main Street 12/1978 (No. 38)
Dr. T.E. Cunnane/Dr. C.F. Miller Residence 128 S. California Street 12/1978 (No. 39) El Nido Hotel 69 S. California Street 04/1979 (No. 40)
Robert Sudden Residence 825 Front Street 04/1979 (No. 41) Robert M. Sheridan Residence 1029 Poli Street 05/1979 (No. 42) Chaffey & McKeeby, Einstein & Bernheim Store Southeast corner of Main and Palm Streets 05/1979 (No. 43) Dudley Residence Southwest corner of Loma Vista and Ashwood Avenue 01/1980 (No. 44) 05/1977 (1S) 05/1977 (No. 77000362) Righetti Residence 125 W. Park Row Avenue 01/1980 (No. 45) Selwyn Shaw Residence 140 N. Ann Street 01/1980 (No. 46) Jacques Roos Residence 82 S. Ash Street 03/1980 (No. 47) Dacy Fazio Residence 557 E. Thompson Boulevard 04/1980 (No. 48) Terry Residence 4949 Foothill Road 07/1980 (No. 49)
Bert Shaw Residence 1141 Poli Street 09/1980 (No. 50)
Blackstock Residence 835 E. Main Street 09/1980 (No. 51) Sifford Residence 162 S. Ash Street 09/1980 (No. 52)
Nellie Clover Residence 857 E. Main Street 11/1980 (No. 53) Kimball Residence 7891 E. Telephone Road 07/1981 (No. 54) Dunning Residence 932 E. Main Street 09/1981 (No. 55)
Granger Residence 1206 E. Main Street 01/1982 (No. 56)
Morrison Residence 331 Poli Street 05/1982 (No. 57)
Mission Aqueduct East end of Vine Street 08/1982 (No. 58) 337
Appendix B – Designated Resources in the City of Ventura
City of Ventura Historic Context Statement – Administrative Draft for Internal Review
HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP
RESOURCE NAME LOCATION
CITY OF VENTURA
LANDMARK/POINT OF
INTEREST
COUNTY OF VENTURA
LANDMARK
CALIFORNIA STATE
HISTORICAL
LANDMARK/POINT OF
INTEREST
CALIFORNIA REGISTER
OF HISTORICAL
RESOURCES
NATIONAL REGISTER OF
HISTORIC PLACES
Designation Date
(Landmark No.)
Designation Date
(Landmark No.)
Designation Date
(Landmark No.) List Date (Status Code) List Date (Reference No.) Blackburn Residence 721 E. Main Street 01/1984 (No. 59) Alessandro Lagoon Junction of Vista del Mar Drive and Alessandro Drive 12/1982 (No. 60)
Elwell Residence 143 S. Figueroa Street 03/1985 (No. 61) Suyter Residence 1157 Poli Street 04/1985 (No. 62)
El Jardin Patio Building 451-461 E. Main Street 08/1985 (No. 63) Robert Brakey Residence 413 Poli Street 10/1985 (No. 64) Judge Ben T. Williams Residence 386 Franklin Lane 01/1987 (No. 65) Charles Corcoran Residence 831 Buena Vista Street 04/1986 (No. 66) Charles Cooper Residence 163 Cedar Street 10/1986 (No. 67) Josiah Keene Residence 41 Bell Way 09/1987 (No. 68) 07/1977 (No. 33) Hartman Residence 73 N. Palm Street 09/1987 (No. 69)
J.A. Day Residence 759 E. Poli Street 04/1988 (No. 70)
Ventura Insurance Building 692 E. Main Street 04/1988 (No. 71) Erburu Residence 2465 Hall Canyon Road 01/1989 (No. 72) McCoskey Love Residence 119 S. Figueroa Street 04/1989 (No. 73) Kate Duval Residence 953 E. Main Street 07/1989 (No. 74) J. Hoover Love Residence 970 E. Santa Clara Street 07/1989 (No. 75) Mabel Nellie Owen Residence 93 W. Simpson Street 01/1990 (No. 76) Dr. Cephus Bard House 52 W. Mission Avenue 04/1991 (No. 77) Carlo Hahn Residence 211 E. Santa Clara Street 07/1991 (No. 78) Hammonds/Reese Residence 637-639 Poli Street 09/1992 (No. 79) Pierpont Inn 550 Sanjon Road 02/1993 (No. 80)
A.D. Briggs Residence 856 E. Thompson Boulevard 05/1993 (No. 81) Tudor Residence 301 S. Dunning Street 10/1993 (No. 82)
Arcade Building 38-50 W. Main Street 03/1994 (No. 83)
Cassidy Dairy Ranch 3908 Loma Vista Road 05/1994 (No. 84) San Buenaventura Mission Lavanderia 204-208 E. Main Street 11/1994 (No. 85) Erle Stanley Gardner Office 21 S. California Street 02/1995 (No. 86) Casa de Anza 606-612 N. Ventura Avenue 03/1998 (No. 87) WWII Gun Emplacements Near Ventura River Mouth 09/1998 (No. 88) 338
Appendix B – Designated Resources in the City of Ventura
City of Ventura Historic Context Statement – Administrative Draft for Internal Review
HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP
RESOURCE NAME LOCATION
CITY OF VENTURA
LANDMARK/POINT OF
INTEREST
COUNTY OF VENTURA
LANDMARK
CALIFORNIA STATE
HISTORICAL
LANDMARK/POINT OF
INTEREST
CALIFORNIA REGISTER
OF HISTORICAL
RESOURCES
NATIONAL REGISTER OF
HISTORIC PLACES
Designation Date
(Landmark No.)
Designation Date
(Landmark No.)
Designation Date
(Landmark No.) List Date (Status Code) List Date (Reference No.) Norton Ranch Residence 71 N. Palm Street 10/1998 (No. 89) John C. Fremont Camp 100 Block of E. Main Street 01/1999 (No. 90) China Alley Historic Area 200 Block of E. Main Street (No. 91) Louis Rudolph Craftsman Bungalow 958 E. Santa Clara Street 03/2002 (No. 92) Petit Tudor 1725 Miramar Drive 10/2002 (No. 93)
Rancho Attilio Site South of Telephone Road, between Saticoy Avenue and Wells Road 03/2006 (No. 94)
Mayfair Theater Site 793 E. Santa Clara Street 03/2006 (No. 95) Coast Live Oak Tree Southwest corner of Thompson Boulevard and S.
Palm Street 03/2006 (No. 96)
Arnold Residence 92 N. Fir Street 03/2006 (No. 97)
Rudolph Residence 86 Encinal Place 10/2007 (No. 98)
Elks Ventura Lodge No. 1430 11 S. Ash Street 05/2008 (No. 99) 05/2008 (2S3) Avenue Water Treatment Facility 5895 N. Ventura Avenue 02/2008 (No. 100) 07/1995 (2S2) Harry S. Valentine Residence 993 E. Santa Clara Street 03/2008 (No. 101) McGuire Building/Pythian Castle 315-321 E. Main Street 09/2009 (No. 102) Strickland Residence 1660 Poli Street 09/2009 (No. 103) Hobart, Barr, Lucking Residence 230 S. Ash Street 07/2010 (No. 104) Gabbert Farmhouse 280 Parsons Avenue 09/2010 (No. 105)
Lucking Residence 244 S. Ash Street 08/2012 (No. 106)
Shaffer Residence 134 Christian Avenue 10/2013 (No. 107) Swift and Company Building 305 S. Kalorama Street 05/2014 (No. 108) The Frederick Neill & Ida Foster Baker
Residence 1039 Poli Street 05/2017 (No. 109)
The Mission Hotel 79-96 S. Oak Street 05/2017 (No. 110) The Hamilton Hotel 363-373 E. Main Street 05/2017 (No. 111) Santa Gertrudis Asistencia (Chapel) Monument N. Ventura Avenue 12/1970 (No. 11) San Buenaventura Mission Aqueduct Cañada Larga Road (south side), 1/4 block east of Highway 33 01/1976 (No. 28) (No. 114-1) 03/1975 (1S) 03/1975 (No. 75000497) Foster Park Lion Entrance Markers Casitas Vista Road at the east end of Foster Park Bridge 07/1977 (No. 34)
339
Appendix B – Designated Resources in the City of Ventura
City of Ventura Historic Context Statement – Administrative Draft for Internal Review
HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP
RESOURCE NAME LOCATION
CITY OF VENTURA
LANDMARK/POINT OF
INTEREST
COUNTY OF VENTURA
LANDMARK
CALIFORNIA STATE
HISTORICAL
LANDMARK/POINT OF
INTEREST
CALIFORNIA REGISTER
OF HISTORICAL
RESOURCES
NATIONAL REGISTER OF
HISTORIC PLACES
Designation Date
(Landmark No.)
Designation Date
(Landmark No.)
Designation Date
(Landmark No.) List Date (Status Code) List Date (Reference No.) Five Trees Hilltop above Ventura 01/1987 (No. 110)
Foster Park Bowl 438 Casitas Vista Road 11/1988 (No. 121) Thomas Gould Jr. Residence 402 Lynn Drive 12/2005 (1S) 12/2005 (No. 05001426) Southern Pacific Railroad Trestle over Santa
Clara River Santa Clara River 03/2000 (2S2)
Saticoy Southern Pacific Railroad Depot 11220 Azahar Street 07/2018 (1S) 07/2018 (No. 100002678) Royal Street Communications, LLC 2750 E. Main Street 11/2007 (2S2) Top Hat Hot Dog Stand 297 E. Main Street 07/2018 (2S) Masonic Temple/Citizen Savings 466 E. Santa Clara Street 02/2008 (2S2) SR-101 Freeway 6137 Inez Street 03/1990 (2S2)
SR-101 Freeway Widen 6187 Inez Street 03/1990 (2S2) Selby-Roberts Residence 2906 W. Avenal Avenue 09/2010 (2S2) Designated Historic Districts in the City of Ventura
DISTRICT NAME BOUNDARIES
Mission Historic District Santa Clara Street, Ventura Avenue, Poli Street, Palm Street Mitchell Block Historic District Plaza Park/Houses on Thompson Boulevard 608, 620, 632, 644, 658, 670, 682 and 692 (Received a Status Code of 2S in 05/1980) Selwyn Shaw Historic District Buena Vista Street, Ann Street, Hemlock Street, Poli Street Simpson Tract Historic District Sheridan Way, Ventura Avenue, W. Prospect Street, W. Simpson Street Ivy lawn Cemetery Historic District Valentine Road, Sperry Drive (South & East Property Lines)
340