Garvanza’s Lost Pagoda
by Pasadena Adjacent
Pagoda Styled Craftsman – select to enlarge; note “for sale” sign
When I moved into Garvanza during the previous real-estate bust, I had heard rumors of the Pagoda home. I assumed it was the red and green roofed Ave 64 abode. The one I gaze down upon from my “Lewis Tract” hillside home. Turns out that that Pagoda, although the design of a Japanese architect, is a different Pagoda altogether. This “other” was more elaborate and enchanting then my mistake. And I came to discoverer it via the photography of Helen Luken Gaunt (they named a mountain after her father) .
From the 1911 caption in the Los Angeles Times
“This picturesque outdoor home has all the graceful lines of the real Japanese mountainside house. It is Japanese even to the bamboo shades that enclose the porches.”
The three story craftsman was rare and unusual in it’s time; a design by the Artistic Bungalow Building Company of Los Angeles year (?) Originally the Pagoda’s address was 6200 Hotel street. It was located south of York blvd, off of Figuroa. They would eventually replace the hotels with apartments. Although the street became Arroyodale – the street number remained the same. Later, while retaining the 6200 address, it’s location would became an extension of Marmion way.
The Pagoda house today? Sadly, somewhere between here and lost; as witnessed in the google satellite shot.. Hidden from view behind Garvanza’s Abbey San Encino. The Browne family retains ownership of the better known Abbey AND the dilapidated Pagoda (god help both).
Editors Response: Come on Jackson, get your crunchy ass over here and take care of the family legacy.
The small communities that made up Highland Park such as Annandale, Sycamore Grove and York Valley would eventually lose their identities. Garvanza held on to hers by a thin thread. The good news is that we can now celebrate the return of these lost identities. To start, may I suggest a visit to the friendly skies above York Valley.
If you should have a desire to visit hillside Pagodas, there are plenty of mid-century ranch home adaptations in the Garvanza Adjacent neighborhood of “Arroyo View Estates” It’s been said that this neighborhood was originally built to house the Dodger baseball players when they moved into they’re new “Elysian” park. They nixed the idea in favor of Orange County. Verification upcoming.
Update: Thanks to my helpful commentor Tina GM, the lost Pagoda is merely the “hidden pagoda” Accessible by trespass or google map.
BTW: Local Historian Virginia Neely owns a print of the Pagoda (my very first discovery of it).
“Arroyo View Estates”
http://wikimapia.org/4152614/Arroyo-View-Estates
I’d love to be on the top floor, looking out. About, hmm, a mile or so from your estate, to the west, there’s the remnant of one of my favorite foundations and a couple of steps. Must have been quite a place.
Our Editor Responds: Ditto. Overlooking the arroyo. One of the loveliest valleys. Your question… somewhere up Mount Angelus? s/w corner of fig and york
I enjoyed your take on this part of HP history, PA. Notice how small the sign is relative to the Pagoda craftsman? The owners may not have wanted to part with it.
I spent a couple of hrs today with the caring owners of a more traditional craftsman in Altadena. 100+ yrs old & hope/pray for another 100. Many have been altered or trashed down through the years. But a Pagoda “craftsman”? Guess it never had a chance.
Our Editor Responds: I think the craftsman’s that are still about have come to be appreciated and cared for. Partly because it take money to buy one. The HP trust has been working hard to stop some of the more ill advised repairs on our bungalows (such as stuccoing exteriors and cheap-o home despot replacement windows).
It’s like detective work, finding the traces. Sometimes I wish they were all still here. I know that’s not practical.
Our Editor Responds: I vote for the look of yesteryear and the dentistry of today. I’m impractical.
The design is worthy of appreciation, but be careful what you call a valley anywhere near the Arroyo Seco. That is the same mistake real estate developers make when they sell land in the riverbeds in Southern California. They forget every so often a RIVER SHOWS UP. Surprise!
Which is why in 1915, the Los Angeles Depertment of Public Works was created because homeowners and developers invested in the riverbanks and screamed for protection.
How differently would thigs have turned out if the best of government fuction would have been utilized, and space was allowed to accomodate the river and respect it, instead of panic driven engineering, trying to dominate, control, and pave a natural torrent?
Our Editor Responds: Take note of the homes in the distance >>>>> swoosh >>>>> Occupy Hahamongna!
“tryin to tame a torrent” that’s what I should have said. Thank you, PA.
Our Editor Responds: my pleasure
Even the chimmney cap is pogoda-style. Wonder what the asking price was back when. The roof looks like it could take off and fly away. For some reason it reminds me of old newsreels footage of flying contraptions attempting to get off the ground. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoPJ-VxqjGI
Our Editor Responds: Now I know what I’m going as for Halloween. btw: I watched the full “folly” filled tape and not a palm in site. An observation.
[...] Pasadena City Council, do not continue to stay in the short sighted thinking of the original real estate developers of the 1900s. They sold lush green valley property in what was really a dry riverbed called the [...]
Our Editor Responds: ^ ^ follow this link. Occupy Hahamongna!
Pagoda Craftsman? It’s taken me a couple of days to get my head around that one. It’s beautifully made, though. Too bad they didn’t see fit to keep it.
Our Editor Responds: Asian influences prevailed in the work of masters Green and Green. But I guess there’s a tipping point in the taste of the time that said “too asian” The trail went dead as to it’s demise.
Helas, the only constant is change.
Our Editor Responds: Shiva’s a bitch
I’ve hiked Mt. Luken. It’s lovely.
When I was house-hunting, I checked out Garvanza. I got the sense it was far away, but now that I look at a map I can see it’s quite close to South Pas and downtown. Guess it’s a hidden gem?
I love this name: Artistic Bungalow Building Company of Los Angeles
Too bad the pagoda’s gone.
Occupy Hahamongna! I wanna do it! Where’s the link?
Our Editor Responds: Garvanza is one of Los Angeles’ earliest suburbs. Pasadena/ South Pasadena/ Arroyo / Eaglerock / Glendale / DTLA adjacent
click “pomohahadena” and your there.
I think this one is for SoCal only . . . . At any rate, I have nothing to add. And that’s rare.
Our Editor Responds: Really? not even a line of poetry? shucks!
Nice article. I live in Garvanza and my husband, Charles along with Rosa Rivas, the HPHT (Highland Park Heritage Trust) and CM Jose Huizar, CD14, finally accomplished the expansion of the Highland Park – Garvanza Historic District. A long time coming indeed.
The “Arroyo View Estates” is a unique neighborhood for sure. But on the border of the neighborhood there was a development that they named “Garvanza Villas” that has become a nightmare for us in Garvanza. It sits directly across from the charming Arroyo View Estates enclave on the same street but these are McMansions. Most of the homes are incomplete and they have essentially abandoned the project to date. Many many legal challenges inside this project for sure. This was before the HPOZ was established for Garvanza in October of 2010.
Anyway, Garvanza has an eclectic mix of architecture including a Craftsman-Log Cabin, Queen Anne, Italianate Folks-Style Cottage (Monroe Cottage) The Suffragette House on Avenue 66, bungalows, Victorian Vernaculars, Italianate, Shingle style Craftsman, Tudor, Spanish Colonial, Mission, Spanish Mission, Foursquare Church, Judson Studios (Amazing craftsman of glass), Courtyard cottages in both Craftsman style and Mission and a hardware store that has been the same type of business in Garvanza for over 100 years.
Our Editor Responds: This is great. Thank you for putting so much time into your comment. I’ve pulled out the corrections from your comments and updated the post to include them.
It was that hardware store that kept the name Garvanza on the tongue. I recall the patriarch “Chuck” of the Williams family talking about “Garvanza” I wished I’d listened better. And yes about the McMansions. Those things fell apart in the previous real estate bust and again – same story. To bad it wasn’t before they terraced the hill and plopped the clunkers on the ridge line. (The bane of my view)
You must have looked at our phone book, where I found out that we live in York Valley. Thanks for the link! I don’t know about changing my sub title though. Who ever heard of York Valley until now?
That is some flyaway house! Flying was my first thought when I looked at it.
Our Editor Responds: You actually told me so. We have a friend who lives in an run down victorian in an area of Lincoln Heights called “Happy Valley” I love the renewed appreciation of old Arroyo culture.
I also wanted to mention the LA River in which the Army Corps of Engineers built a concrete channel to control the river. I’ve seen pictures from Virginia Neeley (long time resident and historian of Highland Park) of the severe flooding that was caused by the river. It once was free flowing with several tributaries that joined it and it frequently flooded forming alluvial flood plains along its banks. I would love to see the bottom of the channel opened up (like an earthen bottom) similar to the Glendale Narrows section, to allow natural elements to grow like trees, native plants and create a more natural setting.
The Arroyo Seco stream is what goes through Garvanza/Highland Park and ends at the confluence with the Los Angeles River near Elysian Park north of Dodger Stadium and downtown Los Angeles. We are finishing our Stormwater Best Management Practices Project or BMP. The project will capture water run off from the local neighborhood and divert it from the Arroyo Seco into two large chambers that are now installed underneath the park. One chamber will allow for water to slowly percolate into the soil feeding our groundwater source and the other will be used to store water for irrigating the park. The filtration system will capture and clean one million gallons of water!
Our Editor Responds: Bring back the river bottom!!!! Alas, It’s so pleasant now that they’ve added the bike path to the Arroyo. If they would only open up the fencing that blocks the stairways leading out of the Arroyo.
Outstanding post. Love hearing about the history about my 1st neighborhood in the new country. Thank you for finding this treasure (even if it is only history). So cool to have the addition of historical details from Mrs. Gulotta-Miller.
Our Editor Responds: Still keeping an eye out for the “old” and lost grade school.
The Pagoda house is still in Garvanza. I wanted to put that in my previous comments. The Browne family retains ownership of it today. They own both San Encino Abbey and the Pagoda House. Clyde Browne was Jackson Browne’s Grandfather. I have a photo of a peek-a-boo view of it from the back. Anyway….that should be corrected. The other Japanese style home on Avenue 64 was built by a Japanese architect and is also located in Garvanza. Check out our newly installed Historic signs in the neighborhood!
Our Editor Responds: (horror of horrors. I’ve been and I linked. They painted it white and all the blue tarps on that lovely roof). btw: Do you have the name of the Japanese architect and the year that home was built? did the architect get interned? That might be an interesting story. I’m a bit of a japophile.
I love this blog. I am never disappointed when I visit.
I do have info regarding the Japanese residence on Avenue 64. Our historian, Charles Fisher has looked up the deed and will get the info to me shortly. Please feel free to purchase the book on “Garvanza” written by Mr. Fisher and published by Arcadia publishing. I will send you some photos from Mr. Fisher’s book. Also, check out Garvanza Improvement Assoc on Facebook. And you can purchase books via PayPal from the Highland Park Heritage Trust (HPHT) at http://www.hpht.org. I will send some photos to yor email. You also mentioned the Elementary school……did you mean Garvanza Elementary? That is in the book as well. The school is still in the neighborhood and is one of the best rated Elementry schools in the State.
I don’t have the info at hand but I can get it for you. Check out the Arcadia Publishing book by Charles Fisher entitled Garvanza. He also wrote one on Highland Park. You can purchase them at the Highland Park Heritage Trust website by PayPal at http://www.hpht.org
Our Editor Responds: I bought the book when Borders was closing. Also joined the http://www.hpht.com
I thought in was a little unclear about the Pagoda house, plus the poor print gave the impression of “here yesterday, gone today”. I assumed it was lost to apartment development. I’m so glad you straightened things out and look forward to getting info on the Ave 64 pagoda house.
Cool! Last time I read the article, the pagoda house was just a photo of a building that no longer existed and I felt sad, I looked at the page today and saw that it is back! Cool! now let’s kick this Browne family in the ass and get them to sell or restore.
Our Editor Responds: I’m glad you returned. Since the reproduction in Mr. Fisher “Garvanza” didn’t give further explanation beyond a poor quality print of the Pagoda home, I assumed it was gone. Thanks to Tina for ending the confusion.
I saw the above photo of the Pagoda house in the Helen Luken Gaut exhibition (which also had a photo of the house opposite mine – what a surprise that was), then I went to see the house itself. I drove down the road that goes past the back of it (Marmion Way), from where there’s a view – enough to show how run-down it is. It would take a lot of work to fix it, but as I am trying to find someone to take the giant bamboo stalks from my garden, perhaps I should donate it to the Brownes?
This has been a fascinating post, including all the extra information about my adjacent neighborhood. I’d love a tour one day.
Our Editor Responds: I was wondering when you were going to drop in. BTW I want some of that bamboo but I’ll need to wait till the grounds a bit saturated
Someone explained to me recently that the Browne Family has willed the property to Occidental College.
Thank you so much for this wonderful post and to all the informed commentary.
Our Editor Responds: It would be great if that included the Pagoda as well.
The architects of the Pagoda were the Artistic Bungalow Building Company circa 1911. It is a full style craftsman building with the full massings of a Japanese pagoda. My dream is to have it fully restored one day with an authentic Japanese Tea Room on the first floor that would be open both publically and for private occasions. The 2nd story would be an authentic bookstore/Multi-Cultural room that houses Japanese-American History and other Multi-cultural histories of peoples in Garvanza/Highland Park/Northeast Los Angeles. The 3rd story would be an observation room/meditation room that would interact with the surrounding communities and schools for furthering the education of the Arroyo Seco and the history of the area.
Our Editor Responds: I like your dream Tina. Do you know if it’s been deeded to Occidental College?
That is an excellent dream, Tina. You have my enthusiasm for its fruition!
It’s not a pagoda, but there is a traditional Japanese Pole House just north of Garvanza on Kaweah. http://bovineone.livejournal.com/18136.html. These are still available in kit form – Haiku Houses in TN.