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John Sowden House | |
John Sowden House, 2008 | |
Location | 5121 Franklin Avenue, Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California |
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Coordinates | 34°6′20″N118°18′4″W / 34.10556°N 118.30111°W |
Built | 1926 |
Architect | Lloyd Wright |
Architectural style | Mayan revival |
NRHP reference No. | 71000151 [1] |
LAHCM No. | 762 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | July 14, 1971 |
Designated LAHCM | August 13, 2003 |
John Sowden House, also known as the "Jaws House" or the "Franklin House", is a residence built in 1926 in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, California by Lloyd Wright. The house is noted for its use of ornamented textile blocks and for its striking facade, resembling (depending on the viewer's points of cultural reference) either a Mayan temple or the gaping open mouth of a great white shark.
The original owner, John Sowden, was a painter and photographer who hired his friend, Lloyd Wright (eldest son of Frank Lloyd Wright), to build his home on Franklin Ave in Los Feliz. The house is built using concrete textile blocks and Mayan themes, with decorative block-work along some of the interior walls. Upon approaching the "cave-like" [2] front entrance, one passes through sculpted copper gates and then up "a narrow, tomb-like staircase" into the house. [3] The building design follows a rectangular plan, with the rooms all opening into a 22' x 68' central courtyard by way of a narrow corridor. [2] The courtyard originally contained a 32' long pool and fountain, which was removed sometime before 1940 [2] and two textile-block water organs which were destroyed by an earthquake in the 1930s, probably the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. [4]
The building style of Sowden House is similar to Los Angeles area residences designed earlier in the 1920s by Frank Lloyd Wright, which include the Ennis House just to the northeast in the hills above Los Feliz Boulevard, the Hollyhock House in East Hollywood, the Storer House and Samuel Freeman House in the Hollywood Hills, and Millard House in Pasadena.
Contemporary reception of these Mayan revival residences was generally not positive, as critics derided the use of concrete blocks, the cheapest available material, in the construction of upscale homes. [5] Opinions have since changed, and the houses built by the Wrights with textile blocks are now some of the most famous residential landmarks in the area, added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and praised for their striking and innovative style. [3]
Sowden House has been recognized as one of Lloyd Wright's most important works. When Lloyd Wright died in 1978, the Los Angeles Times wrote that Sowden House should be "hailed as the apogee of his residential work." [6] The sharp ridges and lines of the facade have been said to resemble the gaping open mouth of a great white shark, resulting in the home's being known in Los Angeles as the "Jaws House." [3] It has also been described as having a "cultic, brooding" appearance. [7] The Los Angeles Times has additionally described it as a "quasi-Mayan-style mansion, an otherworldly apparition that looms over Franklin Avenue in Los Feliz," and "challenges the street." [8]
This was the last residence built by the Wrights in this style, though the Mayan style roof line was also used by Lloyd Wright when he built the first "shell" for the Hollywood Bowl, constructed out of wood, which only lasted one year before being torn down. [3]
Sowden wanted a house that would be a showplace where he could entertain his friends in the Hollywood film community, [9] but only lived in the house for a few years, perhaps due to the negative criticism of its architectural style at the time. The house was sold in 1930 to Ruth Rand Barnett, and again in 1936, 1944 and 1945. [2]
From 1945 through 1950, the house was owned by Dr. George Hodel, [2] a Los Angeles physician who was a prime suspect in the infamous Black Dahlia murder, although he was not publicly named as such at the time. The doctor's own son, Steve Hodel, himself a retired City of Los Angeles homicide detective, argued in his 2003 book, Black Dahlia Avenger, that the Black Dahlia victim, Elizabeth Short, was actually tortured, murdered and dissected by his father in the basement of the Sowden House, in January 1947. [10] Hodel also claims that his father may have committed further murders in the house and buried victims in the basement or yard, before fleeing the country in 1950. [10] Despite claims that cadaver dogs have indicated the presence of human remains on the property, no excavations have been made as of October 2015. [11]
Sowden House appeared in two separate scenes in director Curtis Hansen's classic film, L.A. Confidential (1997). The classic noir film was made just two years before the former owner, Dr. George Hill Hodel, died in his 39th-floor penthouse suite in San Francisco, California. The first interior scene shows Hollywood sex workers dancing with their "johns" in the living room. The second scene shows a late-night meeting of LAPD Sgt. Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) and Captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) discussing their investigation in a dramatic scene filmed in the Sowden House kitchen.
Sowden House was used as a shooting location depicting the home of Ava Gardner in Martin Scorsese's film The Aviator . [12]
It was also one of the sites used in season 6 of America's Next Top Model . [13]
It was featured as a haunted location in a 2013 episode of Ghost Hunters . [14]
Sowden House was used as a setting for the video for the song "I Dare You" by The XX. [15]
The house was featured in the TV series I Am the Night , a mini-series about Dr. Hodel's estranged granddaughter Fauna Hodel.
The house, with seven bedrooms, four baths, and 5,600 square feet (520 m2), was listed on the market at $1,575,000 in 2001. [9] It was purchased that year by Xorin Balbes for $1.2 million. Balbes, who said the house was "a wreck" when he bought it, spent $1.6 million in restorations, though some of his alterations drew criticism from preservationists as well as Lloyd Wright's son, Eric Lloyd Wright. In addition to restoring the deteriorating stonework, Balbes converted the three-room kitchen area into a large open kitchen, added new upscale bathrooms, and installed a pool and spa in the central court. [3] Independent filmmaker Bashar Shbib was hired to design and realize the landscaping in and around the house. [16] On viewing the renovations, Eric Lloyd Wright praised the new kitchen and landscaping, but criticized Balbes' decision to install a pool and spa in the middle of the courtyard. All of the house's rooms open onto the long central courtyard, which was originally a lawn that was used for seating during performances at the home. Eric Wright felt it was a "mistake" to break up the courtyard space with a pool and spa. [3] Dana Hutt, an architectural historian who has written on the works of Lloyd Wright, was also critical of Balbes' alterations. She objected to the pool, to the refinement of the entry staircase, and to the addition of Asian elements that were "completely wrong" for Wright's Mesoamerican design. [3]
The house has been sold several times since the renovation. On September 10, 2016, it was listed for sale at $4,795,000. [17] News came out on January 26, 2018, that it had been sold to Dan Goldfarb. [18]
It was announced [19] on June 21, 2022 that the house had been sold for $6.16 million to Nate Daneshgar, of the Grand Central Market [20] in Los Angeles. [21]
Los Feliz is a hillside neighborhood in the greater Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, abutting Hollywood and encompassing part of the Santa Monica Mountains. The neighborhood is named after the Feliz family of Californios who had owned the area since 1795, when José Vicente Féliz was granted Rancho Los Feliz.
Elizabeth Short, known as the Black Dahlia, was an American woman found murdered in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on January 15, 1947. Her case became highly publicized owing to the gruesome nature of the crime, which included the mutilation of her corpse, which was bisected at the waist.
Frank Lloyd Wright Jr., commonly known as Lloyd Wright, was an American architect, active primarily in Los Angeles and Southern California. He was a landscape architect for various Los Angeles projects (1922–1924), provided the shells for the Hollywood Bowl (1926–1928), and produced the Swedenborg Memorial Chapel at Rancho Palos Verdes, California (1946–1971). His name is frequently confused with that of his more famous father, Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Avery Coonley House, also known as the Coonley House or Coonley Estate was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Constructed 1908–12, this is a residential estate of several buildings built on the banks of the Des Plaines River in Riverside, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. It is itself a National Historic Landmark and is included in another National Historic Landmark, the Riverside Historic District.
John Edward Lautner was an American architect. Following an apprenticeship in the mid-1930s with the Taliesin Fellowship led by Frank Lloyd Wright, Lautner opened his own practice in 1938, where he worked for the remainder of his career. Lautner practiced primarily in California, and the majority of his works were residential. Lautner is perhaps best remembered for his contribution to the development of the Googie style, as well as for several Atomic Age houses he designed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which include the Leonard Malin House, Paul Sheats House, and Russ Garcia House.
The Ennis House is a residential dwelling in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States, south of Griffith Park. The home was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923 and was built in 1924.
The Aline Barnsdall Hollyhock House in the East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright originally as a residence for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall. The building is now the centerpiece of the city's Barnsdall Art Park. In July 2019, along with seven other buildings designed by Wright in the 20th century, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is the first time modern American architecture has been recognized on the World Heritage List. The Hollyhock House is noted for developing an influential architectural aesthetic, which combined indoor and outdoor living spaces.
Franklin Hills is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. It is home to one Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.
Maya Revival is a modern architectural style popular in the Americas during the 1920s and 1930s that drew inspiration from the architecture and iconography of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures.
The George Sturges House is a single-family house, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and built for George D. Sturges in the Brentwood Heights neighborhood of Brentwood, Los Angeles, California. Designed and built in 1939, the one-story residence is fairly small compared to 21st century standards, 1,200 square feet (110 m2), but features a 21-foot panoramic deck. The home is made out of concrete, steel, brick and redwood. Wright hired Taliesin fellow John Lautner to oversee its construction.
The Gerald B. and Beverley Tonkens House, also known as the Tonkens House, is a single story private residence designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1954. The house was commissioned by Gerald B. Tonkens and his first wife Rosalie. It is located in Amberley Village, a village in Hamilton County, Ohio.
Many Black Dahlia suspects, or persons of interest, have been proposed as the unidentified killer of Elizabeth Short, nicknamed the "Black Dahlia", who was murdered in 1947. Many conspiracy theories have been advanced, but none have been found to be completely persuasive by experts, and some are not taken seriously at all.
Robert and Rae Levin House, also Robert Levin House and Robert Levin Residence, is a single-family home in Kalamazoo, Michigan and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Storer House is a Frank Lloyd Wright house in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles built in 1923. The structure is noteworthy as one of the four Mayan Revival style textile-block houses built by Wright in the Los Angeles area from 1922 to 1924.
The Samuel Freeman House is a Frank Lloyd Wright house in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California built in 1923. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The house is also listed as California Historical Landmark #1011 and as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #247.
Millard House, also known as La Miniatura, is a textile block house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1923 in Pasadena, California. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
First Baptist Church of Ventura is a historic church at 101 S. Laurel Street in Ventura, California. It was built in 1926 and renovated extensively into the Mayan Revival style in 1932. Declared a landmark by the City of Ventura In 1975, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Since 1952, it has been home to the Ventura Center for Spiritual Living.
Fred Sexton was an American artist and creator of the Maltese Falcon statuette prop for the 1941 Warner Bros. film production, The Maltese Falcon.
George Hill Hodel Jr. was an American physician and suspect in the murder of Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia. He was never formally charged with the crime. He was also accused of raping his daughter, Tamar Hodel, but was acquitted of that crime. He lived overseas several times, primarily between 1950 and 1990 in the Philippines.
Samuel-Novarro House, also known as the Samuel-Novarro Residence, is a historic Mayan Revival single-family dwelling designed by Lloyd Wright in 1928. It is located at 5609 Valley Oak Dr. in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. It is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #130.