The Back Story

The historical photos in this blog (unless credited elsewhere) come from "Homes and Gardens of the Pacific Coast Volume II: Los Angeles."  Published by the Beaux Arts Society of  Beaux Arts Village, Washington, it was the brainchild of Frank Calvert and Alfred T. Renfro. In 1908 they wished to create an artists' village across Lake Washington from Seattle, and this "vanity" book of 1913 was a way to create funds for their endeavor. While their dream ultimately failed, the village of Beaux Arts did survive, and still exists today.

Bookplate

My copy of the book was found in July, 2008 resting inside a small independent bookshop, located in Berkeley, California. I am aware of only one other copy, which is located in the Los Angeles City Library, reference section.

I believe this copy may have been owned originally by Dr. John Haynes, for it contains one of his personal book plates. His residence on Figueroa in the West Adams district (demolished) is one of the images in the book.

Also an interim owner of the book, circa 1948, took the time to annotate many pages with his/her impressions of the houses at that time. The notes were penciled in lightly. All notes were made on the protective pages (as you see at left below).

An Inside View of the Book

The headline banner for the blog is a postcard view of the Arthur Letts Residence, one of the houses featured in the book. The house itself was demolished in the late 1920's after Arthur's death.

Photos of the houses were scanned at 300 dpi, then cropped and reduced to 1100 pixels horizontally before uploading. Some Photoshop "cleaning" was necessary on many pages as a corner of the original book was scorched at some point. Today its fragile leather cover is slowly disintegrating. You would be too after 100+ years...

A recent photo of the book cover

If you'd like to send a note to Bradford, he can be reached here.