Pasadena Showcase House of Design 2024: Step Inside the English Tudor Revival Manse
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John Sowden, an eccentric photographer and purveyor of the arts, commissioned his friend Lloyd Wright, a set designer for Paramount, to construct the Sowden House. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Lloyd Wright was the oldest son of world-renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. With Sowden’s colorful tastes, Wright was no doubt encouraged to plan the strangest LA home possible. One of Southern California’s finest examples of neo-Mayan architecture, the singular, striking residence resembles a temple but has also drawn comparisons to a cave or the gaping mouth of a great white shark.
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The Sowden House basement is where Dr. George Hodel is believed to have assaulted and murdered his victims, including Elizabeth Short of the Black Dahlia case. Frank Lloyd Wright was known for his complex designs, so a secret room really wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. Due to its reputation in the media, Sowden House Los Feliz has become quite a tourist spot for those who visit California. The house was also featured in the television series about the Black Dahlia murder, I Am The Night, starring Chris Pine. The home has been the subject of multiple dark and twisted claims over the years but seems to only add to the public’s growing interest in the property. Whether you’re drawn to its stunning style or its morbid backstory, this house is one you just can’t miss.
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At the time, he deemed the once mysterious and majestic LA home “a wreck” and invested 1.6-million dollars in its renovation. Much of the cost went to revitalizing the heavily eroded concrete blocks and converting a three-section kitchen into one much larger open space kitchen. In addition, Balbes overhauled the bathrooms and reinstalled a pool in the central courtyard along with a spa. 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. Balbes, who said the house was "a wreck" when he bought it, spent $1.6 million to restore the house, though some of his alterations drew criticism from preservationists as well as Lloyd Wright's son, Eric Lloyd Wright. In addition to restoring the 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.
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In fact, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a number of houses over the years which featured this Mayan theme, from which Lloyd Wright most likely drew inspiration. Another Mayan-style property known as the ‘Ennis House’ is located nearby, just to the northeast of Loz Feliz. This property was built by Lloyd Wright’s father, the world-renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright in the early 1920s. In 1926, the painter and photographer John Sowden hired his friend, the renowned architect Lloyd Wright, to design and build a 6,000-square-foot neo-Mayan property at 5121 Franklin Avenue in Los Feliz.
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This space was originally designed for open-air gatherings and musical or dramatic performances. Then in 2001, the property sold for $1.2 million to award-winning designer Xorin Balbes. Balbes, who claimed the house was a “wreck” when he purchased it, spent $1.6 million on renovations.
Lloyd Wright would use the Mayan-influence again when designing a short-lived wooden shell for the Hollywood Bowl. However, it was the last time any member of the Wright family would employ this unique design style. The Sowden House continues to contribute to the Wright’s lasting legacy of innovation with a place on the U.S.
Despite having the house built and designed for him in 1926, John Sowden only lived in the property for a few years before selling it to Ruth Rand Barnett in 1930. If the John Sowden House at 5121 Franklin Avenue in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, California, looks a little familiar, it’s probably because it was used as the home of Howard Hughes in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator. Also, if you’ve ever seen it before, it can be a little difficult to forget because of its unique design. As is often the case, the sordid new story only increased the house’s profile and market value.
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Wallpaper was added to the ceiling and the backs of the bookcases, and heavy wood blinds were replaced with soft draperies and Roman shades to make the space feel lighter. The firm used a mix of fabrics and wall coverings by Ralph Lauren Home from Designers Guild throughout the space. It is no secret that this mysterious house has served as the mood setter in several famous movies and TV shows. From playing Howard Hughes’ home in The Aviator (2004) to representing George Hodel’s house of terror in the TNT series, I Am the Night (2019), this Mayan-style building has played many scary roles due to its famous history. Besides serving as movie scenery, the residence is also a performance venue and backdrop for magazine and television shoots.
Black Dahlia House
But a second look reveals just how much of his evidence turns wispy and vanishes under close scrutiny. Perhaps you’re unfamiliar with Elizabeth Short, or Betty, as she was sometimes called. She’s better known by the infamous moniker, The Black Dahlia, a name she was never called in life, that has obscured the very real person she was. Yet his son, Steve Hodel, published a book about his theory in 2003 entitled Black Dahlia Avenger. In 2013, he returned to his childhood home with police canines who allegedly found trace human remains in the Sowden House basement. But with legends trumping confirmed truths, public consensus agrees that this is the site of the notorious murder.
This notion of portal is evocative of our time and the basis for PASSAGES at the Sowden House. Constructed in 1926, the front of the building somewhat resembles the open mouth of a shark and for that reason, it is often referred to as the “Jaws House”. The 5,600 square foot house in Los Angeles featured seven bedrooms and four baths before several renovations that resulted in a spacious open kitchen, updated bathrooms and a spa with a pool in the central courtyard. A unique pattern of concrete blocks makes the distinct property stand out above the rest. Copper gates, an elaborate staircase, and an immaculate living room space are even more reason to be in awe of this house. The Sowden House underwent a major renovation when designer Xorin Balbes purchased the property for 1.2-million dollars in 2001.
Throughout the 5,600-square-foot space, walls of windows wrap around an interior courtyard with a swimming pool and spa surrounded by art installations. Infamous for its distinctive architecture and sordid history, L.A.'s 'Sowden House' (the actual home of 'Black Dahlia' murder suspect Dr. George Hodel) was used as a setting for the new TNT series 'I Am The Night' that debuts on January 28. Infamous for its distinctive design, the 1926-built Sowden House is rectangular in shape, with four connected wings looking in on an enclosed central courtyard.
Designer Rachel Scheff used the home’s spectacular ceiling, woodwork, and stained glass as the inspirations for her fanciful, flora- and fauna-filled foyer. “It was one of my favorite rooms in the house because it was the one that had the most history preserved, and I wanted to really celebrate that,” she told AD PRO. For her Foyer of Enchantment, Scheff installed a custom mural by Hattas Art Studios, a John Richard chandelier dripping with glass leaves, a silk wall covering by Aux Abris, and organic furniture created with Amorph Studio. “I wanted you to feel like you were transported to another time and place,” Scheff says. But even one of the world’s most infamous unsolved murders isn’t enough to scare people away from a home this majestic.
Infamous for its distinctive architecture and sordid history, it’s only fitting that some of the filming takes place at Hodel’s actual 1945 home of Sowden House. Inspired by a true story, the TNT six-part series depicts the tale of the teenager Fauna Hodel (India Eisley) who travels to mid-’60s Los Angeles in search of her past after discovering she was given away at birth. Her investigation, with the help of fallen newspaper reporter Jay Singletary (Chris Pine), leads her to the sinister Hollywood gynecologist George Hodel (Jefferson Mays), who was the subject of the unsolved murder of the Black Dahlia (Elizabeth Short) in 1947. Lloyd Wright built the unique house for his personal friend John Sowden, a painter and photographer who wanted a showplace where he could entertain his friends in the Hollywood film community. The Mayan Revival-style fortress is one of the most unique homes in all of Los Angeles and has a long, storied history that might even hold the key to the notoriously unsolved “Black Dahlia” murder case. The Sowden House with its distinctive entry and patterned concrete block facade was designed by noted architect Lloyd Wright.
The Sowden House in Los Angeles’s Los Feliz neighborhood is one of the city’s most iconic residences. Built for painter and photographer John Sowden in 1926, the 6,000 square-foot house was designed by Lloyd Wright (son of Frank Lloyd Wright) in a Mayan Revival Style, inspired by the monumentality of pre-Columbian architecture. Wright used concrete textile blocks that give the house a dramatic appearance and its nickname “the Jaws House,” for the way the blocks frame the entrance like a shark’s open mouth. The house also has a possible link to one of the more salacious episodes in LA history, being the one-time home of a prime suspect in the unsolved Black Dahlia murder of 1947. Through myth, transfer of ownership, renovation and redesigns, and association with the infamous Black Dahlia murder of 1947, the Sowden House is a portal not lacking in artistic and humanistic ground.
Sometimes the mind seizes on an story that feels like the truth, that’s easy and blunt. Despite the Hollywood debauchery linked to the LA home, there’s a single resident who has drawn more attention to the Sowden House than any other. And the accusations pitted against this resident from his very own son paint the Sowden House as the site of one of the city’s most grisly and notorious murders. Historical preservationists likewise expressed disappointment at news of the changes.
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