C19th wooden buildings and more in Los Angeles

[Eric The Viking]

https://heritagesquare.org/about/tour

We were taken to this recently. If you like American building design, it's well worth a visit, although frustratingly they do not permit pictures inside the buildings, nor allow ordinary visitors to go upstairs. There are guided tours every 90 mins or so, by volunteers.

The houses (and one church and a small railway halt) have been rescued and moved to the site. The most imposing one is the Perry Mansion, complete with what seems to be Carrera marble overmantles (in C19th California!). The most interesting is probably an octagonal design, which has square and rectangular rooms, with walk-in cupboards, a pantry and even a bathroom in the triangular spaces between.

Obviously, all of them are wooden, on a brickwork base, with brick chimney stacks where necessary.
Pocket (sliding) doors seem to have been very popular as room dividers, and there was evidently a high standard of both interior and exterior decoration. Interesting (over?) use of Linocrusta in one building, too.

It's close to central LA but still quite off the beaten track, and there is a gravel parking lot. It was wonderfully quiet when we were there, but I doubt it is like that all the time, and I bet they get school trips.

If you ever visit LA, it's worth putting on the list for a slack afternoon. Only one snag: the local freeway exit/entrance was built decades ago and is pretty vile to navigate. Otherwise brill.

E.

 

[MikeG.]

I've looked at that collection previously. Tickles me, really. They're all just dressed up wooden boxes, and some pretty small boxes are dressed up as grand. I can't help but think of mutton and lamb. I admire the skills, but not the designs.

 

[Eric The Viking]

I've looked at that collection previously. Tickles me, really. They're all just dressed up wooden boxes, and some pretty small boxes are dressed up as grand. I can't help but think of mutton and lamb. I admire the skills, but not the designs.

I do understand. I think a lot are pastiche and/or variations from stuff in books brought across the Atlantic. I have one book, a reprint from around the 1920s of American house decoration, and it is just what you suggest.

The Perry mansion in particular does show a lot of craftsmanship though, for example in the entasis of the columns, setting out of the stairs, etc. Some of it seems to be plasterwork though, rather than wood turning.