Power Point Show by Andrew Turn on Speakers
Power. Point Show by Andrew ♫ Turn on Speakers
Storybook style architecture emerged in the Los Angeles area in the 1920 s as a unique offshoot of the Period Revival architecture popping up across the United States. The style is noted for its whimsy and individuality. Storybook style architecture spread to the San Francisco Bay Area and pockets of the rest of the country before tapering off due to the onset of the Great Depression. A cruise through Beverly Hills, California usually offers just what visitors would expect: sprawling modern and revival-style mansions, evoking the glitz and glamour of the City of Angels. But one turn leads to a startling and unforeseen sight – a home more suited to the English countryside or a fairy tale than the modern sleekness of LA.
The Witch's House in Beverly Hills, California is perhaps the ultimate example of Storybook style.
Pictured is another view of the Witch's House, which was built by Hollywood art director Harry Oliver in 1921. The 3, 500 square-foot home was originally built in Culver City and served as an office for Willat Studios before it was moved to Beverly Hills, where it became a home in 1926.
The Hlaffer-Courcier House, is probably the most authentic of the Storybook style houses in Los Angeles, where the style originated in the 1920 s.
Pictured is an interior view of the Hlaffer-Courcier House, which was built in 1923. Period Revival architecture was in vogue in the 1920 s due in part to millions of Americans seeing Europe for the first time during World War I.
Architect Jean L Egasse redesigned a farmhouse in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles in 1923. The result features multiple hallmarks of Storybook style such as the unusual sloping gate, behind which a path winds through a colorful garden up to the house.
Pictured is a living area in the Egasse-designed home. Egasse's highly personal use of colliding angles and unusual volumes is an aesthetic unto itself.
This home in Los Feliz Hills, Los Angeles was built by Charles M Hutchinson for Lucille Sherwood in 1926. Its aged half-timbered look was achieved by distressing the exposed surfaces of the wood.
The Sherwood house's bedroom features a vaulted four-sided ceiling decorated with a sylvan fresco.
This Long Beach, California Storybook style cottage gestures a 'seawave' roof. 'The level of skill exhibited in such roofing work is truly remarkable; shingles meant to emulate thatch were carefully wrapped over rolled eaves.
The Weatherwolde Castle in Tujunga, California was built by George J Fosdyke for Marcel X Dumas in 1928.
The home's original wrought iron staircase was taken down after the castle was slated to be demolished in 2005. The property narrowly avoided being razed and was declared Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument #841 in 2006.
This Storybook style home in Los Feliz, Los Angeles features multiple features of Storybook style including a turret and a seawave roof. The windows on the turret suggest a spiral staircase.
S. H. Woodruff developed a subdivision of Los Angeles called Hollywoodland in the 1920 s, and is pictured leaning into a plow at left. The subdivision had many Storybook style houses built among its hills and ravines. The Hollywoodland sign pictured in the background was shortened to Hollywood in 1949.
This Hollywoodland Storybook style home blends into its hilly, wooded landscape. It features a seawave roof and parts of its exterior feature half-timbering.
It was built in 1926 and was once owned by Humphrey Bogart.
This Hollywoodland cottage was owned by actress Gloria Swanson. It features a dovecote atop its turret.
Normandy Village near the University of California, Berkeley. It was built by William R Yelland in the 1920 s, and was commissioned by Colonel Jack W Thornburg, who wanted a building that evoked the Northern France he saw while fighting in World War I.
The Fritz Henshaw house in Piedmont, California has tinted stucco finish and patinated to suggest age, while the roof eaves and rake are rolled to suggest medieval thatch.
This Storybook style home took Richey and Karen Morgan 20 years to build beginning in the 1980 s in Olalla, Washington.
None of the home's two doors, which were individually handcrafted by Richey, are alike. Sotheby's advertises a $775, 000 price for the home, which is currently on the market.
Light fixtures in Storybook homes are typically designed to evoke Medieval times. This fixture uses mica shades and surfaces to evoke forged iron.
This Storybook-style home in Tujunga, California is the brainchild of Barry Wiggins, who redesigned a 1940 s tract house to suit his more whimsical tastes.
The mushroom houses, noted for their undulating roofs that look sort of like mushrooms, were built by Earl Young, a self-taught architect. Pictured is the Half House, which was built in 1947.
Hugh Comstock built this cottage in Carmel, California in 1924. The home was called Hansel. Comstock fell in love with Mayotta Browne, a rag dollmaker, and built her a small house in which she could display her wares. That home, fittingly, was named Gretel.
Chaplin Court, a four-unit compound built for workers at Charlie Chaplin Studios, was built in 1923. Chaplin himself and actors John Barrymore and Rudolph Valentino are believed to have lived at Chaplin Court.
W W Dixon built this home, called The Castle. The pair of peak-roofed bartizans are an especially theatrical nod to defensive architecture of the Middle Ages.
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