EXPLORING RESIDENCES OF ICONIC AMERICAN AUTHORS, PLAYWRIGHTS AND POETS©

 

I recently ran across a wonderful article in an online travel magazine which showcased former residences of a number of famous American authors.  This inspired me to explore the topic further myself during this Holiday Season by creating a list of my own, which also inevitably resulted in my including a couple of authors' residences mentioned in the above-referenced article -- as we bid a "not-so-fond adieu" to 2020.

Some of these residences have been turned into museums, designated as local historical landmarks, placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and are open to visitors.

Herein below is my "short list" --  by no means all-inclusive -- of a few of my own favourite 19th and 20th Century American authors, playwrights and poets, starting with Nobel Prize winner, Pulitzer Prize recipient and champion of the "common man", John Steinbeck.

JOHN STEINBECK (1902-1968)

            Steinbeck, whose book The Grapes of Wrath published in 1939, along with the stark, unforgiving photographs of Dorothea Lange, brought to America's attention, and to the attention of then-US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the dire plight of displaced farmers from the American Midwest during the Great Depression which was exacerbated by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and which drove many of them to the West Coast, particularly California, seeking a new life.

            John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California in 1902.  His birthplace and boyhood home still stands.  It is a Queen Anne style Victorian house built in 1897 that the Steinbeck family purchased in 1900 and where they raised their children.  It was subsequently purchased in 1973 by The Valley Guild, eight enthusiastic women who shared a common interest in gourmet cooking and who wanted to showcase Salinas Valley produce.  The Valley Guild renovated and restored the house after purchasing it,  and opened the Steinbeck house to the public as a restaurant on February 27, 1974 —the 72nd anniversary of John Steinbeck’s birth. The residence is located two blocks west of the National Steinbeck Center at 132 Central Avenue in Salinas. which is a "museum of his books".  

John Steinbeck Birth Home in Salinas, California
© Snobby Tours^®, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

            It was not in his boyhood home, however, but in his final residence in Sag Harbor, New York, that Steinbeck lived from 1955 until his death in 1968.  While living there, he wrote several of his best- known novels in a small structure located on the property known as his "writing house",  including East of Eden, Zapata, The Winter of Our Discontent, and, of course, Travels with Charley. 

Steinbeck Home in Sag Harbor
Photo Credit: NY Times, circa 2010

            

Steinbeck's "Writing House" in Sag Harbor
Wikimedia Commons
Photo Credit: ©MTmoney, circa 2013

            It was from and back to his home in Sag Harbor that Steinbeck's 11-month, 10,000-mile journey across the USA with his standard poodle Charley took place in 1960 -- providing the inspiration for his book, Travels with Charley, published in 1962. 

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS (1911-1983)

            Tennessee Williams, born Thomas Lanier Williams in Columbus, Mississippi in 1911, was a prolific 20th Century writer, primarily of stage plays primarily set in the US South, such as "The Glass Menagerie", " The Rose Tattoo", "A Streetcar Named Desire", and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" -- the latter two for which he earned Pulitzer prizes -- and all of which were made into films.  He also wrote two novels, a novella, numerous short stories and his autobiography. 

             From the late 1940s into the 1950s, as Williams' writings were receiving increased public recognition and accolades, he leased the first floor of a multi-story townhouse on East 58th Street in New York City's Manhattan district from Buffie Johnson, a well-known 20th Century painter.  While living there, Williams won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for his play "A Streetcar Named Desire", received a Tony Award in 1950 for his play "The Rose Tattoo", and completed his play "Summer and Smoke". 

Tennessee Williams residence/Buffie Johnson House
Photo Credit:  NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, ©2017

            Williams shared this residence with his long-term partner Frank Merlo who hired an interior decorator to turn their residence into a style to which Williams referred as "Victorian chic". 

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT (1832-1888)

            One of the most beloved books for many young girls is Little Women, written by Louisa May Alcott.  In 1857, Alcott's father, Amos Bronson Alcott, paid $945. for 12 acres of land in Concord, Massachusetts with a existing manor house that had been on the property since the 1660s.   

            The grounds surrounding the house contained an orchard of 40 apple trees which greatly appealed to Amos Alcott -- so much so that he named his home "Orchard House."   After having moved more than twenty times during the previous thirty years, the Alcotts had finally found a place where they could set down roots.  The family resided at Orchard House for the next 20 years, until 1877. 

Alcott Family Home known as "Orchard House"
Photo Source:  Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House
Photo provenance unknown.

            The manor house is most noted for being the place where, in 1868, Louisa May Alcott wrote, and set, her beloved classic, Little Women -- sitting at a half-moon shaped "shelf desk" that her father built especially for her.  During the American Civil War, however, it was also a "stop" on the Underground Railroad for slaves escaping from Southern pro-slavery states.  

            There have been no major structural changes in Orchard House since the Alcott family lived there;  and almost all of the furniture and personal items regularly on display belonged to them, which makes a walk through the house like stepping back in time.  In Louisa May Alcott's bedroom is the sewing kit which she had with her while she was a nurse taking care of injured soldiers following the famous Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862.

Louisa May Alcott's Bedchamber with built-in writing shelf
Photo Source:  Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House
Photo credit:  Trey Powers

            Little Women is based upon Alcott's own family and personal experiences during the harsh years of the American Civil War in the 1860s.  The book's timeless humanity is one of the reasons it has endured in popularity well into modern times, continuing to enchant and engage each new generation of readers. 

LANGSTON HUGHES (1901-1967)

            African-American poet and writer Langston Hughes is considered one of the foremost figures of the Harlem Renaissance.  Hughes lived and worked on the top floor of a "rowhouse" on East 127th Street from 1947 to 1967, the last 20 years of his life. The building, built in 1869, was owned by Emerson and Ethel Harper, a couple Hughes had met in the 1930s whom he considered his adopted uncle and aunt.

Harlem Rowhouse occupied by Langston Hughes
Photo credit:  Christopher D. Brazee
NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, 2016.

 

            Hughes' lifelong fascination with Harlem is evident in much of his writing, which often features the neighborhood and the people he encountered there.  He referred to Harlem as "the greatest Negro city in the world".    He, in turn, would come to be referred to as the “Poet Laureate of Harlem".

            Already an accomplished writer before moving into this rowhouse, Hughes continued to write many important works while living there that explored Black life and culture.  Some of these works include poetry collections such as Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) and The Panther and the Lash (1967); the Jesse B. Semple book series based on the "everyday person" in Harlem; Hughes' second autobiography I Wonder as I Wander (1956); and children’s books such as The First Book of Jazz (1954) and The First Book of Africa (1960).

Interior of Hughes' Harlem Apartment, circa 2017
Photo provenance and credit unknown.

            In recognition of Hughes’ significance to New York City and American history, this Harlem building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1981, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, and the block of East 127th Street on which he lived has been named “Langston Hughes Place” in his honor.

                       

================================================

Herein below are some other iconic and famous American writers of the 19th and 20th Centuries whose residences were mentioned in the article that I previously referenced:

EMILY DICKINSON (1830-1886)

            Emily Dickinson penned nearly all of her 1,800 poems in her modest room on the second floor of the Dickinson family home in Amherst, Massachusetts, known as "The Homestead", where she was born in 1830 and spent her entire life.  

Dickinson Family Home "The Homestead"
Photo source: Wikipedia Commons
Photo provenance and credit unknown.

            Now part of the Emily Dickinson Museum, which also includes the frozen-in-time next-door residence of the poet’s brother Austin and his family, The Homestead has been carefully restored to look as it did when Dickinson herself resided there -- from the pale yellow exterior to the floral wallpaper in her bedroom. 

            The room in which Dickinson did her writing contains one of the poet’s plain white dresses which has a pocket for holding a pencil and scraps of paper.  A replica of her tiny square writing desk faces a window overlooking Main Street. 

Emily Dickinson's bedroom/writing room
Photo credit: Emily Dickinson Museum

            Dickinson's most prolific creative years were between 1855-1865.  Amazingly, none of Dickinson's 1,800 poems penned during her lifetime were published until after her death in 1886.

            After publication near the end of the 19th Century, however, and commencing in the 20th Century, her poetry has since been included in the curricula of courses in American literature and poetry for students from Middle School through College, her poetry is frequently used as text by well-known musical composers, schools and educational journals have been established in her name, and she has come to be considered an enduring and formidable figure in American culture.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD (1896-1940) 

AND ZELDA FITZGERALD (1900-1948)

            F. Scott Fitzgerald first met the teenaged Zelda Sayer at a country club dance in 1918 hosted by members of Montgomery, Alabama "society" during World War I, while Fitzgerald was stationed at Camp Sheridan, the nearby army training base. After they married in 1920, the Fitzgeralds lived in New York City and Paris, where they became the "IT" couple, epitomizing the flamboyant and frivolously carefree "Jazz Age" of the 1920s.

            By 1930, however, Zelda's psychological issues had become increasingly apparent, and she was diagnosed as being schizophrenic. The first of what would become frequent periodic sanatorium stays over her lifetime initially began that year in Paris, followed thereafter by a sanatorium stay in Geneva, Switzerland.

            In 1931, the Fitzgeralds returned to Zelda's hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, briefly living in a house where both writers were highly productive.

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Residence in Montgomery, AL
Currently the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum
Photo credit: The Fitzgerald Museum

            The Fitzgeralds lived in this house from 1931 until 1932, each of them writing portions of their respective novels, Save Me The Waltz (1932) by Zelda, and Tender Is The Night (1934) by Scott -- the latter which foreshadowed the decade -- the 1930s -- which would be the most destructive and disappointing for the couple, both personally and professionally.

Interior, Fitzgerald House and Museum
Photo credit: F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum

            Built in 1909, the house in Montgomery is the only former residence of the Fitzgeralds still extant, and currently is the location of the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum -- the only museum in the world dedicated to the lives and legacies of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

(Supplemental sources: Blog Article by Paige Grande in Literary Traveler, April 1. 2005; Blog Article by Sarah Sargent, NY LGBT Historic Sites Project, circa 2017; Blog Article, author unknown, in NY LGBT Historic Sites Project, circa 2017; Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House; Blog Article by Zac Thompson in Frommer's, circa 2020; The Emily Dickinson Museum; The F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum.)

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© 2020 Snobby Tours^®, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

RONDA: SPAIN'S ANCIENT CITY IN THE ANDALUCIA REGION REFLECTING A RICH HISTORY OF MULTICULTURAL LIFE AND ART©

Divided from the rest of the country by the natural boundary of the Sierra Morena, Spain's southernmost region of Andalucia is larger in area than the Netherlands, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada and the arid landscape of Almeria in the east.

Aerial view of the hill city of Ronda
and the 18th Century Puente Nuevo
separating the Moorish-era Old Quarter from
the Renaissance/Christian-era New Quarter.
Spain's oldest bullfighting ring also can be seen in this photo.
Photo credit:  Paradores ©2014
Licensed by Wikimedia Foundation

Prior to the inception of the Spanish Inquisition in the late 15th Century under the rule of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, Christians, Jews and Moors (primarily Muslim) lived in harmony -- sharing commerce and blending their cultures into the daily life, art, architecture and regional cuisine in several Andalucian cities -- one of which is the ancient city of Ronda in the province of Malaga.

Although the city of Ronda dates back to the 6th Century BCE, initial  settlement -- first by the Celts who called the town "Arunda", then by the Phoenicians, and later by the Romans in what now is the southern part of Spain -- was much earlier.  All around the area can be found artifacts from the Neolithic Age which commenced around 9,500 BCE. 

Roman Bridge in Ronda
Photo credit:  Elliot Brown ©2014
Licensed to Wikimedia Commons

By the 3rd Century BCE, Ronda was a Roman fortress sitting atop tall cliffs, perfectly situated to defend itself from invaders from Carthage.  By the middle of the 1st Century BCE, during the rule of the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, Ronda had received designation as a "city".

Following the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th Century CE, Ronda was under the rule of the Germanic Visigoths who were later overthrown by Berbers (historically of both Jewish and Arabian ethnic origin) in the early 8th Century CE -- thereupon beginning the most significant and culturally-prolific Jewish and Islamic/Moorish presence in Ronda and elsewhere in the Andalucia Region over most of the next 700 years -- often referred to as the Spain's Moorish Era, which has left an indelible legacy.  

Puerta de la Exijara 
Arched Gate Entrance into Ronda's Jewish Quarter
Photo credit: Art.com 

It was also during this period of time, between the 11th and 13th Centuries CE, that Ronda reached the pinnacle of its multicultural architectural heritage, much of which either incorporated, or was built on top of, then still-extant Roman structures and ruins.

The natural boundary of the Sierra Morena which separated Andalucian cities from the rest of the country created a geographical barrier during the centuries of the Spanish Inquisition (late 15th-Century into mid-19th Century both within and outside of Spain).   The property and possessions of both Muslims and Jews were confiscated, and the Spanish ordered them, upon threat of torture and death, either to leave the country, i.e., be expelled, or to convert to Catholicism.  

        South of the Sierra Morena became a refuge where Jews, Muslims, and political dissidents from various parts of Spain who did not leave the country or convert to Catholicism could flee into the mountainous region of Andalucia into and around the Andalucian cities of Ronda, along with Seville, Cordoba, Toledo and Granada, where they could live hidden and relatively safe from capture, torture and execution by the enforcers of the Inquisition, depending upon whether or not they converted to Catholicism.   

        Their isolation in the mountains of the region affected their culture as well.  Over the many decades of hiding from the Inquisition's enforcers, the sadness of this isolation began to be reflected in the music and dance of the people.  Two art forms also emerged:  The plaintive strains of Spanish music known as the Lament, and the fierce, passionate dance known as Flamenco.  Both art forms have survived into the 21st Century. 

Ronda is filled with numerous churches and cathedrals, some of which date back to the years immediately following 1485 CE when the armies of Ferdinand and Isabella defeated the Moors in what is known as the Reconquest.  

Minaret of San Sebastian
in Ronda.
Photo Source: RondaToday.com

Most of the mosques in Ronda which existed at the time were either destroyed or Christian churches were built over their foundations. The Church of Santa Maria la Mayor, for example, was originally a 14th Century mosque which was converted into a Church after the Reconquest.

           One surviving visible remnant of a mosque in Ronda dating from prior to the conquering of the Moors is the Minaret of San Sebastian.  The lower one-third is Moorish;  the upper two-thirds are Christian.  

None of Ronda's synagogues survived destruction nor the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

Ronda's history commencing from the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition in the late 15th Century and continuing into modern times has been turbulent and complicated -- inextricably tied to politics, religion and concurrent events in Europe -- as well as steeped in tradition.

One of Ronda's and Spain's oldest traditions is the bullfight.  The history of Spanish bullfighting primarily has Moorish origins and initially was done on horseback, even after it became increasingly popular in the latter 16th Century.  At that time, it was also considered solely a sport for aristocratic noblemen and resembled the sport of jousting popular in Medieval times, but instead pitted a man against an animal. Bullfighting enthusiasts in modern times, however, often prefer to call bullfighting an "art form", rather than a "sport", due the controversy surrounding its violent killing of bulls. The oldest bullfighting ring in Spain, La Plaza de Toros, is located in Ronda. 

La Plaza de Toros in Ronda, Exterior, circa 1895
Spain's oldest bullfighting ring
Photo provenance unknown.

Construction on La Plaza de Toros began in 1779 and completed in 1785.

It was architecturally unique at the time,being constructed entirely in stone, instead of being combined with brick, and because its 5,000 seats were covered.

   

The first inaugural bullfighting event in the ring in 1784 was marred by the collapse of some of the seats, with repairs requiring an additional year to complete.  Following repairs, its second inaugural bullfighting event was held in 1785 with two legendary matadors, one of whom was Pedro Romero.  This event is still considered today to have been one of the greatest bullfights in Ronda's history.  Pedro Romero is also considered the creator of the current style Spanish bullfighting.   

La Plaza de Toros, Exterior circa 2010
Photo credit:  Itto Ogami ©2010
Licensed to Creative Commons

Two bullfighting family dynasties, emerged, the Romeros 

starting in the late 1700s 

with Pedro Romero, and 

 the Ordonezes starting in the early 1900s 

with Cayetano Ordonez. 

Today, statues of two members 

of the Ordonez family, one 

of Cayetano Ordonez, the other of his son, Antonio, stand at the entrance of La Plaza de Toros..  

Antonio Ordonez created Feria Goyesca, a bullfight and annual Festival held in Ronda around the first of September each year in honour of Pedro Romero.  The Ordonez family participates in this event each year -- including the bullfights -- dressed in costumes reminiscent of characters depicted in the paintings of Spanish romantic painter Francisco de la Goya.

Pageantry of Ronda's Annual Feria Goyesca
Photo credit  ©t-Schelle Chaplow
Photo source:  Andalucia.com

            Feria Goyesca was inspired by the relationship among three famous people with connections to Ronda -- bullfighter Pedro Romero (1754-1839), painter Francisco de la Goya (1746-1828), and bullfighter Antonio Ordonez (1932-1998).  

            Numerous bullfights are scheduled -- some performed by matadors on horseback recreating the way that the sport originally was conducted in the 16th Century.  The concurrent Festival, created in 1954, pays homage to Pedro Romero whose legendary exploits in the bullring had been romanticized in various paintings by de la Goya, Romero's contemporary.

Bullfighting painting
by Francisco de la Goya 
(1746-1828)

            Also in the 1950s, it was Ronda's passion for bullfighting that made the city increasingly appealing to "the rich and famous", as well as attractive to tourists from all over the world.   Writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) and filmmaker Orson Welles (1915-1985), both were passionate bullfighting aficionados, who not only regularly attended bullfights in Ronda, but also became close friends with Antonio Ordonez. 

Ernest Hemingway and Antonio Ordonez
at a bullfight in 1959.
Photographer possibly Francisco Cano.
Photo published by vVashere.com

           Hemingway first came to Spain as a journalist in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War which lasted until 1939.  He had became enthralled with Spain and bullfighting years earlier, reflected in his fictional book The Sun Also Rises (1926), and in his non-fiction book Death in the Afternoon (1932) which praises the traditions and ceremonial aspects of Spanish bullfighting. 

Orson Welles and Antonio Ordonez
at a bullfight, circa 1960s.
Photographer:  Francisco Cano
Photo published by vVashere.com

           Orson Welles had a life-long love affair with Spain, commencing from age 17 when he first visited  Seville in the Andalucia Region, until it became his final resting place in an urn filled with his ashes placed inside a  stone well in Ronda on land owned by Antonio Ordonez.  During those early years in Spain, Welles participated in amateur bullfights. From the late 1950s into the early 1960s, Welles combined his love of bullfighting and filmmaking by creating documentary films which  recorded for international broadcasting media the performances of Antonio Ordonez and other Spanish bullfighters.

Stone Well containing ashes of Orson Welles
located in Ronda.
Photo Source: AlaveradelosBanos.com

Today, Ronda has around 40,000 residents, and attracts visitors from all over the world who enjoy the lovingly-preserved architecture along the narrow streets of the Moorish-era Old Quarter, visit the many churches and cathedrals in the Renaissance/Christian-era New Quarter, dine on tapas in outdoor cafes, admire the private art collections in its museums, and walk in the footsteps of famous philosophers, artists, writers, bullfighters and film celebrities who have lived there and who are part of its history and culture.

Ronda street looking toward
Church of Santa Maria la Mayor,
Photo credit:  Unknown

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(Research Sources:  The Telegraph, Travel, 12/27/2019;  Andalucia.com; El Mundo: Cultura 06/30/2011; Speaking of Spain.com; AlaveradelosBanos.com; Rondatoday.com;  Photo credits have been provided where provenance could be determined.)

 © 2020 Snobby Tours^®, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

FOCUS ON ECLECTIC LOS ANGELES ARCHITECTURE: PAUL R. WILLIAMS, ARCHITECT -- OVERCOMING THE OBSTACLES, INDUSTRY TRAILBLAZER, "ARCHITECT TO THE STARS"©

When I think of 20th Century architecture in Los Angeles, one name always "levitates out of the pack" -- architect Paul R. Williams, FAIA (1894-1980).

Not flamboyant like some of his contemporaries, such as Frank Lloyd Wright, and perhaps not as well known outside of Los Angeles -- although he also designed residential and commercial structures beyond Los Angeles and the United States -- Williams' success, due to his creative genius and talent, his perseverance in overcoming adversity, his elegant designs, and his professional generosity, resulted in numerous commissions, accolades, and prestigious awards both during and after his  highly prolific career that spanned more than 50 years, from the 1920s into the 1970s. 

Paul R. Williams, circa 1950s
Herald Examiner Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.

Paul R. Williams' architectural legacy can be seen all around Los Angeles.  Over the decades that I lived and worked in L.A., I came to admire Williams for his range of architectural styles, as well as for his "signature" touches, i.e., design elements which made much of his work immediately identifiable, such as his use of elliptical shapes, graceful staircases in residential foyers, soft indirect ceiling lighting, and the gently curving interior spaces which may have been inspired by my favourite architectural style, Streamline Moderne, very popular for structural interiors and exteriors commencing in the 1930s.

Aaron Lilien residence, Interior, circa 1946
Photograph by Maynard L. Parker
The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA

Residence in Los Angeles
designed by Paul R. Williams.
Photo provenance unknown.

Several books, numerous articles, and a few video documentaries have been published about Paul R. Williams and his architectural legacy, including two beautiful, very comprehensive coffee table books written by his granddaughter, Karen E. Hudson, who, as an adult, has lived in and preserved the Williams family home in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles and who not only remembers him personally, but who also has been the diligent and loving caretaker of his archives. 

For this reason, this Travelblog article will take a different approach, looking at just a few of his projects from the perspective of my personal affinity for design features evocative of Streamine Moderne which Williams often used throughout his career and which, for me, make his designs especially appealing aesthetically.   Instead of a chronology of his projects, the within article will, therefore, focus on projects of his in Los Angeles which have these similar  "signature design elements" -- several structures with which I myself am familiar due to decades of my living full time in Los Angeles.  Some of these structures are still extant, while others, regrettably, are only a memory kept alive through vintage photographs.       ____________________________________________________________

Two of Williams' most famous projects still exist, each highly visible and famous in its own right. 

        One of L.A.'s most visible, iconic mid-20th Century buildings is seen every day by thousands of people arriving and departing from the Los Angeles International Airport, the LAX Theme Building.  This unique structure, inspired by aeronautical designs, physical movement, and pop culture, was constructed from 1957-1961 at the beginning of the jet age and space exploration, and was a collaborative effort of the then-"Who's Who" of L.A. architects, including Weldon Becket, William Pereira, Charles Luckman, and Paul R. Williams who designed the interior of the Theme Building.  

        Dedicated in 1962, it is the last remaining "visible remnant" of a vision that the architectural team had of a more "relaxed" experience at LAX for departing and returning travelers than what LAX ultimately became as Los Angeles emerged in the post World War II years as a major metropolitan  international destination. At one time containing a restaurant, currently the LAX Theme Building is no longer open to the public.

LAX Theme Building, Exterior
Photo courtesy of LAX.

 

LAX Theme Building, Interior
Photo courtesy of PBSSoCal;
J. Paul Getty Trust/Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.

   

            The world-renown Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard, built in the Spanish Mission style of architecture, opened in 1912 is one of the first structures completed in what that same year became the incorporated City of Beverly Hills, California.  In 1941, the Hotel's proprietor Hernando Courtright hired Paul Williams for the first of many renovation and alteration projects of the Hotel throughout the 1940s, including that of the distinctive lobby with its Don Loper banana leaf waIlpaper and green/pink/white colour scheme, and of the Hotel's bungalows.  One of the Hotel's most recognizable features is the addition called the "Crescent Wing" designed by Paul Williams and built in 1949-1950, which included the famous Polo Lounge as well as the distinctive script signage of the Hotel at the end of the wing.  Hotel lore claims that the reclusive aviator/film producer Howard Hughes maintained an ongoing 30-year reservation for four of the bungalows designed by Williams.

Beverly Hills Hotel Crescent Wing and Exterior Signage
designed by Paul R. Williams.
Photograph by Julius Shulman, circa 1950.
Julius Shulman Photographic Archive,
Research Library, The Getty Research Institute

Beverly Hills Hotel Fountain Coffee Shop circa 1950s.
designed by Paul R. Williams. 
Don Loper banana leaf wallpaper in background.
Photo provenance unknown.

Suite in Beverly Hills Hotel named for Paul Williams
designed for long term guest residents.
Photo source: American Institute of Architects.

Paul Williams' early years growing up in Los Angeles were neither auspicious nor indicative of what was to come in his future. His parents, Chester Stanley Williams, Sr. and Lila A. Wright Williams were from Memphis, Tennessee, where his father worked at the famous Peabody Hotel, and where his brother was born before the family moved to Los Angeles in 1893.  

Orphaned at the age of four after his parents died of tuberculosis, and separated from his brother, Williams grew up in foster care, fortunately in a family which encouraged his interests, although his school teachers were less than enthusiastic about his career prospects as a Black man in the early 1900s.  While he was attending Polytechnic High School,  one such teacher tried to dissuade him from pursuing an architecture career because, as she told him, white clients would be loathe to hire him and the work he might receive from the black community would not be lucrative enough for him to support himself. 

Nevertheless, during the 1910s Williams was in the right place at the right time to have aspirations as an architect.  Los Angeles was transitioning from a quiet Spanish and Mexican settlement into a bustling town dotted with grand Victorian-style homes on Bunker Hill, and then into a city rapidly expanding due in no small part to the distribution of the "Midwestern Edition" of the Los Angeles Times designed and circulated to families in America's heartland to entice them leave their harsh, frozen winters for the year round sunny, mild climate and orange groves of Los Angeles.  

It was at this time that Williams apprenticed for a landscape architect/planner and for two residential designers in Los Angeles, while he pursued the national curriculum of the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects and studied architectural engineering at the University of Southern California.  Upon recommendations from his mentors, he was appointed to the very first Los Angeles City Planning Commission in 1920, at the age of 26.

Portrait circa 1920s
Security Pacific Collection,
Los Angeles Public Library

In 1921, Williams joined the architectural firm of John C. Austin, who encouraged his goals of joining the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and of establishing his own firm.

Paul R. Williams & Associates opened in 1922.  The following year, in 1923, he became the first documented Black member of the AIA.  

In 1953, Williams became the first architect to win NAACP's  Springarn Medal for outstanding achievement by an African-American, the highest honor bestowed by the NAACP.   

In 1957, he became the first Black architect to be elected to the prestigious College of Fellows of the AIA (FAIA).  

In 2017, 37 years after his death, Williams was posthumously awarded the prestigious AIA Gold Medal, the AIA's highest honour -- the first Black architect to receive this award.  According to the AIA, the AIA Gold Medal is the distinction bestowed upon “an individual whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture".  

Williams was equally versatile in creating residential, commercial and religious structures in the popular architectural styles of the day in Los Angeles -- the classical styles of French Regency, Georgian, Spanish (Mission) Revival, Colonial Revival, Federal, English Tudor, Neo-Classical, and in his later years post World War II, Mid-Century Modern.  From the very beginning, Williams adapted the various classical styles of architecture to the mild Southern California climate which allowed for indoor-outdoor living year round, and which has come to be known as "the L.A. lifestyle".

Racism, however, was particularly prevalent during Williams' early career.  Because he was Black, many of his Caucasian clients did not want to sit next to him, even in his own architectural firm, so he taught himself to write and draw his designs upside-down, from across the table, appearing right-side-up to clients sitting opposite of him.  Additionally, he often received commissions to build residences in areas within Los Angeles where he and his family were not allowed to live due to housing restrictions prohibiting Blacks, and to build restaurants and shops in which he and his family were not welcome.  

The Great Depression of the 1930s had a less negative economic impact on Los Angeles than in other parts of the country due to the rapidly-developing aerospace and oil industries, and the particularly prosperous film industry.  Hollywood moguls and movie stars, such as Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz, Frank Sinatra, Tyrone Power, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Barbara Stanwyk, Johnny Weissmuller and Anthony Quinn, as well as executives from other industries, wanting to showcase their success and to entertain lavishly, sought out Williams for his exquisite yet livable designs.  

Estate in Holmby Hills adjacent to Beverly Hills, Exterior,
once owned by David Niven, Audrey Hepburn, Eva Gabor, and Mia Farrow,
designed by Paul Williams in 1938
Photo courtesy of CurbedLA. Photo by Adrian Anz.

Estate in Holmby Hills adjacent to Beverly Hills, Interior,
once owned by David Niven, Audrey Hepburn, Eva Gabor, and Mia Farrow,
designed by Paul Williams in 1938
Photo courtesy of CurbedLA. Photo by Adrian Anz.

Williams became a major "go to" architect for high-end residences, hotels, restaurants, retail stores, houses of worship, courthouses, and businesses from that time forward, until his retirement in 1973.  Although he collaborated occasionally during his career with other Los Angeles-based architectural colleagues, often designing the interiors of the projects not the actual physical structure, he worked primarily as the sole designer, particularly on his residential commissions. 

Two of Los Angeles' most famous restaurants which opened in the 1930s, and which served the public for over 50 years, were designed by Williams, Perino's and Chasen's.  

        Originally opened in 1932 on Wilshire Boulevard, Perino's Restaurant immediately became a favourite of Hollywood's elite.  In 1950, at the request of owner Alexander Perino, the restaurant moved to its second location further west in the mid-Wilshire Boulevard area, but still close to the prestigious Hancock Park gated residential area and to the Ambassador Hotel, also designed by Williams.  Both the exterior and the interior of the second location of Perino's showcased some of Williams' "signature design elements"/special touches.  For decades, Perino's was known as a place for "making movie deals" and was often used as a movie and TV location, until the restaurant's closure in 1986.

Perino's Restaurant, Exterior, circa l950s
designed by Paul R. Williams
Photo provenance unknown..

Perino's Restaurant Interior, circa 1950s
designed by Paul R. Williams.
Photo provenance unknown.

        When Dave Chasen first opened his restaurant Chasen's in Los Angeles in 1936 facing Beverly Boulevard on the northeast corner of Beverly Boulevard and Doheny Drive, literally across the "dividing line" on Doheny between Beverly Hills and what now is West Hollywood, both within Los Angeles, and just a few blocks south of the commercial west end of "the Strip" on Sunset Boulevard, he hired the same architect who had designed his home in the hills above The Strip, Paul R. Williams.  

        The restaurant originally started at as a "chili and rib joint", and for its entire existence, stayed true to its roots, even though it catered to an upscale clientele and their families.  By 1960, Chasen's was world famous and for decades, regularly hosted an equally famous "After Party" following the annual Academy Awards ("Oscars") ceremony.  Paul R. Williams designed a series of renovations and expansions commencing in the 1960s which added the curved stuffed leather booths, wood paneling and plush fabrics which gave the entire restaurant a "clubby" feel and created the "comfortable elegance" that Dave and Maude Chasen wanted.

        Chasen's chili itself became world famous as well.  When Elizabeth Taylor was on location in Rome, Italy filming the movie "Cleopatra" (1963), she ordered Chasen's chili delivered to the movie set by special air courier, and continued to do so thereafter while on location for other films.  The restaurant permanently closed in 1995.  (AUTHOR'S NOTE:  I lived three blocks from Chasen's,  just off Beverly Boulevard,  for about six years.  Being a long-time chili fan from Texas, I walked to Chasen's many a balmy Los Angeles evening with friends, specifically to have that world famous chili.) 

Chasen's Exterior, circa 1960s
designed by Paul R. Williams.
Security Pacific Collection, Los Angeles Public Library

Chasen's Interior, circa 1960s
designed by Paul R. Williams.
Security Pacific Collection, Los Angeles Public Library

One of my favourite women's apparel stores in Los Angeles, especially since it was just a few blocks of my residence and within walking distance, was Saks Fifth Avenue Beverly Hills -- still operating -- located on the famous Wilshire Boulevard.  There was something special about the store -- the way the interiors "flowed" between departments, the use of various soft colours in each room to create a mood which reflected the specific merchandise, the elegant fixtures, and, of course, the gracefully curving design elements and distinctive indirect ceiling lighting.

No wonder I loved shopping there.  The interiors of Saks, designed in the formal Regency style while also drawing from the elegant curves of the Streamline Moderne style popularized in the 1930s, had been created by architect Paul R. Williams.  

The original Saks Fifth Avenue Beverly Hills, solely with women's apparel,  opened in 1938.  It was immediately wildly successful, requiring both exterior and interior expansion as early as 1940 and again in 1948, for both of which Williams was commissioned.  New departments with semi-enclosed interiors, lamps and soft, indirect lighting giving the "feel" of being in an expensive mansion were added, as well as Perino's on-site Terrace Restaurant on the roof of the building -- yet another example of Williams' adapting a classical style of architecture to the "L. A. indoor/outdoor lifestyle". 

SFA Beverly Hills still exists and at the same location on Wilshire Boulevard, although Perino's Terrace Restaurant is long gone, albeit fondly remembered by the more vintage "ladies who lunch".

Saks Fifth Avenue, Exterior, circa 1951
after 1948 renovation/expansion
by Paul R. Williams.
Photo courtesy of L.A. Conservancy
from Marc Wanamaker/Bison Archives.

 

SFA Beverly Hills Cosmetics Department
located near entrance at
rear of ground floor level, circa 1940.
Photograph by Maynard L. Parker
The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA

SFA Beverly Hills Shoe Salon
in Regency architectural style, circa 1940.
Photo from Herald Examiner Collection, Los Angeles Public Library
.

SFA Beverly Hills, Interior, circa 1940
designed by Paul R. Williams.
Photo by Maynard L. Parker
The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA

Perino's Terrace Restaurant, Interior
at SFA Beverly Hills, circa 1940
designed by Paul R. Williams.
Photo by Maynard L. Parker
The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA

In 1939, Paul R. Williams was awarded the AIA Award of Merit by the Southern California Chapter for his design of the Music Corporation of America (MCA) headquarters in Beverly Hills, California, which was completed in 1938.  He had received the commission from Jules Stein, who was an ophthamologist-turned-booking-agent who initially represented musical artists performing in the Chicago speakeasies of the 1920s, and later film talent in Hollywood, and who was often referred to as the "agent to the stars".  Stein therefore wanted the "architect to the stars", Paul R. Williams, to design the West Coast Headquarters of Stein's agency MCA in a "traditional" architectural style which would give "establishment cache" to Stein's business, and which would reflect Stein's own success as well as that of the talent he represented. 

Williams created a gorgeous building in Georgian Revival style, totally unique to other professional buildings in Beverly Hills, because in the 1930s, the public still equated Colonial styling with tradition, "gentlemanly old money" and "the idealized version of the Northeast Coast American home".  

The interior of MCA featured similar "signature design elements" which Williams also used in the Saks Fifth Avenue Beverly Hills store just a few blocks away, which like the MCA building, was completed and opened in 1938.  Design features within the MCA building included a curved staircase, sculpted moldings, chair rails, paneling, and antique-like furnishings -- some of which features Williams also used inside the Saks store. 

Additionally, like interior of Saks Fifth Avenue Beverly Hills, the interior of MCA blended the comforts of a well-appointed home with the professionalism of a commercial working environment. The spaces within both of these businesses reflected the elegance of Williams' style in minimizing the commercial aspect by creating the feel of home enhanced by lower ceilings and curved walls.  

In 1964, MCA sold the property to Litton Industries which preserved the original architectural integrity of the building.  Additional buildings completed in 1969 were added to the complex, also designed by the original architect, Paul R. Williams.

MCA/Litton Industries, Exterior, circa 2010
original design by Paul R. Williams.
Photo credit:  David Horan
The Paul Williams Project

MCA Headquarters theatre, 1939
designed by Paul R. Williams.
Photo credit:  Maynard L. Parker
The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA

MCA Headquarters staircase, 1939
designed by Paul R. Williams.
Photo credit:  Maynard L. Parker
The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA

The MCA/Litton Industries Building -- as those of us, including myself, being an entertainment industry attorney in Los Angeles for decades -- out of habit often prefer to call it, is still extant and still as gorgeous as ever.  Although it is currently occupied by another owner, the complex was added to the Beverly Hills Registry of Historic Properties by the City of Beverly Hills' Cultural Heritage Commission in June of 2020.

In 1960, Williams worked closely with the Founder's Church of Religious Science in Los Angeles to create a house of worship which reflected the vision of its founder, Dr. Ernest Holmes, of an all-embracing, all-inclusive church.  The result was an elliptical building in the shape of a drum with a distinctive dome, and containing a sanctuary with over 1,400 seats.  

The design of the building is considered to be Mid-Century Modern;  however, Williams'  use of rounded corners and graceful curving lines are evocative of signature design elements utilized by Williams throughout his career. The reinforced concrete building supports the steel-framed dome which is approximately 4-stories tall. The pierced concrete exterior wall surrounds the building, enclosing it within a lush green garden.  

Founder's Church, Exterior
designed by Paul R. Williams
Photo source:  Los Angeles Conservancy Archives

Founder's Church, Interior
designed by Paul R. Williams
Photo Source:  Founder's Church of Religious Science

On February 3, 2020, the Church was added to the National Registry of Historic Places -- exactly 60 years and one month to the day that the Church had been dedicated in 1960.  It is the most recent of several historical landmark designations that buildings designed by Paul R. Williams have received, both during and subsequent to his lifetime.

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POSTSCRIPT:  This Travelblog article barely scratches the surface of the totality of Paul R. Williams body of architectural work.  He designed approximately 3,000 residences within Los Angeles alone during his professional career of over 50 years, not to mention grand houses, commercial projects and office buildings, houses of worship, hotels, civic buildings, and public housing, inter alia, both within and outside of Los Angeles County.  His ability to visualize, design, and turn into reality, the vision of his clients while facing the harsh realities of racial discrimination with unfailing dignity, elegance and perseverance, has created a truly exceptional architectural and professional legacy. 

Several buildings still extant in Los Angeles designed by Paul R. Williams are included in our "Los Angeles Architecture -- An Eclectic Landscape"©  custom-designed heritage and cultural escorted group tour Itinerary.  For more information about this unique and comprehensive heritage and cultural group tour covering L.A.'s architectural history from "early settlement to the present", visit us at http://www.snobbytours.com/EclecticLAarchitecture.html 
Reservations close on February 15th during each year we offer this Tour. 

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(Primary Sources:  The Paul Revere Williams Project;  Paul R. Williams: A Legacy of Style by Karen E. Hudson (© 2000, Rizzoli Press); Los Angeles Conservancy;  American Institute of Architects; Pacific Coast Architects Database; PBS SoCal.)

AUTHOR'S NOTE REGARDING PHOTO CREDITS:  Though Paul R. Williams's archive of over 10,000 drawings was believed destroyed in the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the archive was actually elsewhere, cared for by his granddaughter Karen Elyse Hudson, who for decades has worked to preserve his legacy and who has published extensively on his architectural accomplishments. This archive has recently been  jointly acquired by the University of Southern California School of Architecture (Williams'  alma mater) and the Getty Research Institute.  Included in this Travelblog article are some of the nearly forgotten photographs from these archives.  Provenance and photo credits have been provided in this Travelblog article to the extent that I could find or verify reliable source information thereon. ~ EJ

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