UCR/California Museum of Photography: The Keystone-Mast Collection

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Visit our Tour Destination: Southern California page to see the entire tour of the area’s Save America’s Treasures sites. 

This stereoscopic image of Russian peasants in a village in the
late 19th century is from the Keystone-Mast Collection.  When viewed
through a stereoscope, the image appears to be three-dimensional.
Photo courtesy of UCR/California Museum of Photography.

UCR/California Museum of Photography

3824 Main Street

Riverside, CA

Website:  UCR/CMP

The Treasure:  The Keystone-Mast Collection at the UCR/California Museum of Photography is the world’s largest and most significant stereoscopic imagery collection. It consists of 250,000 stereoscopic glass-plate and film negatives and 100,000 vintage prints that depict global culture from 1870 through the mid-1960s.

Accessibility:  The UCR/California Museum of Photography is internationally recognized for its magnificent photography collections. Visit the museum for its great changing exhibits of contemporary and historic photography, and for an introduction to the vast holdings of their permanent collection. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5.

Items in the Keystone-Mast Collection, including the glass negatives, may be viewed on-site by appointment. For the layperson with a more casual interest in the fascinating world of historic stereoscopic photography, the best access to the Keystone-Mast Collection is via the internet. Go to Guide to Keystone-Mast Collection,1870-1963, a part of the Online Archive of California, and click on “Online items available.” At this site, you can browse nearly 40,000 digitized historic images from the Keystone-Mast Collection. Click on the images to appreciate the incredible detail.

New earthquake-safe storage for the
Keystone-Mast Collection.
Photo courtesy of UCR/California Museum
of Photography.

Background:  Celebrity endorsements have always been effective in selling new technology. When the press reported Queen Victoria’s fascination with the stereoscopic images at the Great (Crystal Palace) Exhibition of 1851, demand for stereoscopes and stereoscopic images skyrocketed. For the following seven decades, stereoscopic images maintained a great popularity with the public.

A stereoscopic image places two nearly identical flat photographic images side-by-side. When the double-image is viewed through a stereoscope, the viewer sees a combined picture that has the illusion of three-dimensional depth.

Many photographers and publishers ventured into the stereoscopic photography business. Disasters like earthquakes, train wrecks, and floods proved to be particularly popular subjects. In 1892, B. L. Singley made stereoscopic images of the flooding of French Creek near his hometown of Meadville, Pennsylvania. Singley’s set of thirty stereoscopic views of the flood launched the Keystone View Company which quickly grew to dominate the market. Over the years, Keystone not only published thousands of images, but also bought the collections of some of the stereoscope companies that pre-dated them. The result was the single greatest collection of stereoscopic images in the world.

Interest in stereoscopic images waned in the mid-20th century. The Keystone View Company was purchased by Mast Development Company in 1963, but the change in ownership failed to stem the company’s lengthy period of decline. In 1978, the Keystone-Mast Collection was donated to the UCR/California Museum of Photography.

The Keystone-Mast Collection is global in scope. While the 40,000 images currently accessible on the Online Archive of California cover special topics (presidents, Native Americans, etc.) and scenes from the Americas, the Middle East, and India, the full range of Keystone-Mast’s 100,000 stereoscopic images is even larger, encompassing an encyclopedic wealth of photographs from every continent.

Notes from the Editor:  Here’s one stereoscopic image from the collection:

Stereoscopic image of Theodore Roosevelt's Presidential inauguration.
Photo courtesy of UCR/California Museum of Photography.

Leigh Gleason, Curator of Collections at UCR/California Museum of Photography, relates the following story about this picture: “This particular image shows Teddy Roosevelt’s presidential inauguration in 1905. The negative’s scan was requested in very high-res from Ken Burns’ production company. At the time, they told me rather vaguely that they were looking for someone in the crowd. A while after I sent it to them, I received a phone call from one of his staff informing me that from our scan they were able to identify a very young Franklin D. Roosevelt in the audience! They told me they had been unable to identify him in images before, even though they knew he had been in attendance. This shows how much detail our negatives have—and if future presidents can be recognized when they’re no bigger than the head of a pin, who knows what untold treasures might be discovered in the other 250,000 glass negatives!”

Other Recommended Sites:  In Southern California, the San Diego History Center has an archive containing approximately two million photographs, including many stereographic images. UCR/California Museum of Photography Curator of Collections Leigh Gleason says she was very impressed when she took her interns on a field trip to the museum. “We all thought that the program they run there is incredible—not only do they make great viewbooks to enable more access to items in their collection but they also do a lot of great oral history-based research work in the community to both find out more about their items, and also enliven community interest in their holdings. It’s brilliant!”

On the other side of the continent, the New York Public Library has an impressive collection of stereoscopic images, and they recently developed a new twist to increase their accessibility. Their Stereogranimator transforms images from their collection into sharable 3D web formats. It’s a lot of fun creating 3D images from the 40,000 stereographic images in their collection.  Go ahead and give it a try!

Stereoscopic glass plates, film negatives, and vintage
prints in state-of-the-art storage at UCR/California
Museum of Photography.  Photo courtesy of
UCR/California Museum of Photography.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Monday’s destination:  Next stop: Arkansas!

© 2012 Lee Price

Autry National Center

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Visit our Tour Destination: Southern California page to see the entire tour of the area’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

Exhibition of Native American baskets at the Autry National Center featuring
baskets from the collections of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian.
Photo courtesy of Autry National Center.

Autry National Center

The Autry in Griffith Park

4700 Western Heritage Way

Los Angeles, CA

Southwest Museum of the
American Indian, temporarily
closed while the collections
are conserved.
Photo courtesy of
Autry National Center.

Southwest Museum of the 

American Indian (temporarily closed)

The Braun Research Library (by appt. only)

234 Museum Drive

Los Angeles, CA

Website:  Autry

The Treasure:  The collections of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian (now a part of the Autry National Center) contain approximately 238,000 ethnographic and archaeological artifacts that exemplify the history and cultures of North America’s indigenous peoples.

Accessibility:  The Autry National Center in Griffith Park is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 to 4 and Saturday and Sunday from 11 to 5. The Braun Research Library on the Arroyo Campus is open to researchers by appointment only. The Southwest Museum of the American Indian is currently closed to the public due to ongoing conservation of the collections. Many of the conserved items have been digitized and the images are accessible at the Autry’s Collections Online.

Conserved headdress (Central Plains from mid-20th century)
from the Autry National Center.
Photo courtesy of Autry National Center

Background:  The Southwest Museum of the American Indian began amassing its enormous collections over 100 years ago. Their varied artifacts cover the cultures of peoples from areas such as the American Southwest, the Great Plains, the Colorado Plateau, the Great Basin, California, the Columbia River, and the Pacific Northwest Coast. Most scholars rank it second only to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in the size, scope, and importance of its Native American collections.

The vast collections include feathered headdresses, articles of clothing, moccasins, beaded bags, cradle boards, dolls, gourds, rattles, drums, bows and arrows, tomahawks, armament accessories, furs, hides, and various ceremonial items. Their basket collection—constituting more than 13,400 Native American baskets—is the largest in the world. Their Navajo and Pueblo textile collections are similarly impressive. Exhibitions at the Autry National Center frequently highlight key pieces from these collections.

The Southwest Museum of the American Indian merged into the Autry in March 2003. Since that time, the Autry has committed major resources to conserving and appropriately storing the Southwest Museum collections in order to ensure their long-term preservation. The temporary closure of the Southwest Museum was necessary in order to carry out the work of preservation.

Creating a support for a moccasin.
Photo courtesy of Autry National Center.

Conserved Hupa dance wand in the shape of a double fan,
made of carved wood.
Photo courtesy of Autry National Center.

Notes from the Editor:  It’s hard to single out just one item from 238,000, but here goes…  

David Burton, Director of the Autry Institute and Managing Director of “Native Voices at the Autry,” shared these images of an Inuit snow knife from Alaska. The Autry has several similar snow knives—sharpened bones that have been carved and engraved with detailed pictures of Inuit life and culture. But this particular snow knife is especially memorable because its engravings show mythical beasts that are graphically devouring people. The museum’s notes suggest that the depicted birds may be legendary tingmiakpuks (giant eagles) carrying off caribou.

Conserved Inuit snow knife made of engraved bone (early 20th century)
from the Autry National Center.
Photo courtesy of Autry National Center.  

And here’s a detail of the grisly scene:

Detail of the Inuit snow knife.
Photo courtesy of Autry National Center.

One yearns to hear the tale that must have inspired this work!

Snow knives, or pana, are generally utilitarian tools, very common in Inuit culture. According to a paper written by Mark Kalluak (1942-2012), an Inuit leader and educator, snow knives were frequently used for building igloos, hunting, or trapping. He writes, “Anyone could be in danger of perishing to death by weather exposure in the tundra without a snow knife.”

Chances are that a knife as beautifully decorated as this was made for more special occasions, perhaps ceremonial or storytelling. It’s a remarkable piece of art.

Now multiply that by 238,000 and you have some idea of the significance and scope of this Save America’s Treasures collection!

Other Recommended Sites:  With the creation of the Autry National Center in 2003, three museums were gathered together to create a major intercultural history center. We’ve briefly looked at the amazing collections of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, but haven’t touched upon the complementary collections of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage and the Women of the West Museum. In uniting the three museums, the Autry National Center chose to focus on a central theme of the convergence of peoples and cultures in the American West.

The Autry has carved out four distinct programmatic initiatives to tell the complex story of the American West. “Western Resources” provides insights into the relationship between people and the Western environment, “Justice and Conflict” examines how the histories and myths of conflict have shaped the American West and the American nation, “The Imagined West” illuminates the effect the romanticized West has had on national culture and contemporary perspectives, and “Voices of Native America” shares the histories, cultures, and perspectives of indigenous peoples in Native voice, often drawing upon the artifacts of the Southwest Museum’s collections.

The Autry National Center is a big place with lots going on. There’s likely to be theater, music, family activities, and other special events. Check their calendar in advance and block out enough time to fully enjoy all they have to offer.

Artifacts from the Southwest Museum of the
American Indian collections currently stored
in de-installed Southwest exhibit galleries.
Photo courtesy of Autry National Center. 

Tour America's History Itinerary

Monday’s destination:  UCR/California Museum of Photography

© 2012 Lee Price

San Diego Museum of Man

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Visit our Tour Destination: Southern California page to see the entire tour of the area’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

The San Diego Museum of Man.
Photo courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Man

San Diego Museum of Man:  The Textile Collection
1350 El Prado, Balboa Park

San Diego, CA

Website:  San Diego Museum of Man

The Treasure:  The San Diego Museum of Man’s remarkable collections of Native American textiles.

Accessibility:  The San Diego Museum of Man is open daily from 10 to 4:30. There is always plenty to see at the museum, but don’t go there expecting to see the Native American textile collections—they are currently in storage. To see digital images of the some of the conserved textiles, visit the museum’s Flickr site.

Navajo Blanket from the textile collections
of the San Diego Museum of Man.
Photo courtesy of the San Diego
Museum of Man.

Background:  The San Diego Museum of Man has vast collections of artifacts and photographic images, with a primary focus on Native Americans of California, the Southwest, Mexico, and western South America. The distinctive and handsome museum building dates back to 1915, when it was built for the Panama-California Exposition and showcased an exhibit, “The Story of Man Through the Ages.” Nearly a century later, the museum continues to explore human bio-cultural development and they do this through collecting, preserving, researching, and interpreting anthropological material. Textiles are one example of that anthropological material. The clothes, blankets, rugs, and even fabric toys of a culture can tell us much about the lives of a people.

Native Americans began working with woven fabrics early, developing thousands of different approaches to the art and craft of weaving. The variety of Native American textiles at the Museum of Man is astounding, and their colors and patterns can be dazzling. Key collections include: Southwest textile collections with Navajo weavings as well as handwoven dresses from the Hopi, Zuni, and Isleta people; 980 Guatemalan textiles from 110 villages representing 13 linguistic groups; 1,300 Oaxacan costume pieces collected from over 150 Oaxacan villages; and a Mexican textile collection with pieces representing the Maya of Chiapas and Yucatan, Nahua and Otomi, Hichol, Tarascan, Mayo, Yaqui, Tarahumara, and Tepehuan.

SPECIAL:  Instead of the usual “Notes from the Editor” section, Tour America’s Treasures welcomes guest blogger Molly Gleeson, the San Diego-based archaeological and ethnographic conservator who led the textile conservation project.

Navajo Rug, 1900s from the textile
collections of the San Diego Museum
of Man.  Photo courtesy of the
San Diego Museum of Man.

Notes from Molly Gleeson, Archaeological and Ethnographic Conservator:  The Museum of Man is one of the most recognizable and prominent buildings in San Diego—it’s actually become somewhat of a symbol for the city. Much less recognized, however, are this museum’s incredible collections, which include archaeological, ethnographic, physical anthropology, and photographic materials. A large percentage of the collection is stored underground and is not on display.

One of the perks of being a conservator is having access to museum collections like these and being able to examine objects up-close. During my time working on this Save America’s Treasures project, I, along with several other collections staff members, interns and volunteers, had the opportunity to spend a lot of “intimate” time with the textile collection, which ranges from massive woven Navajo rugs to tiny knitted handbags from Peru. This one is made from a recycled child’s mitten:

Handbag, Historical Peru, post 1871.
Photo courtesy of the San Diego
Museum of Man.

Textile cleaning in process.
Photo courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Man.

Our work with the textiles included documentation of each item using standardized condition report forms that we created specifically for the project, minor surface cleaning using HEPA-filtered vacuums, and re-housing by replacing old, acidic storage materials with new archival materials, including acid-free corrugated board and tissue paper. Beyond knowing that this work was ensuring the long-term preservation of these objects, one of the most rewarding parts of this project was working with our devoted interns and volunteers and having a dialogue each day about these textiles—where they were from, who made them, how they were made and used, and how we could learn some of these things through close examination of each object. We all felt very privileged to be working with such an important collection.

For now, the textiles are packed away and awaiting a new storage space, but we are fortunate that all of these objects were photographed as part of this project. Many of them are on view on the museum’s Flickr site.

Hopi Ceremonial Robe from the textile collections
of the San Diego Museum of Man.
Photo courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Man.

Western Apache Skirt, 1956, from the textile
collections of the San Diego Museum of Man.
Photo courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Man.

Other Recommended Sites:  The San Diego Museum of Man is one of 17 (!) museums in Balboa Park, a huge urban cultural park that has been encouraging the art of relaxation and tourism since 1835. Explore the Balboa Park website to learn about all the museums, attractions, gardens, theaters, play areas, and trails. And the acclaimed San Diego Zoo is there, too. After all… if you’re visiting San Diego for the first time, you can’t miss their world famous zoo!

Navajo Rug, date unknown, from the textile collections of
the San Diego Museum of Man.
Photo courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Man.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Thursday’s destination:  The Autry National Center

© 2012 Lee Price

LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes

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Visit our Tour Destination: Southern California page to see the entire tour of the area’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

Vickrey-Brunswig building on the left and the Plaza House on the right,
now the home of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes.
Photo courtesy of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes.

The Plaza House and Vickrey-Brunswig Building
501 North Main Street

Los Angeles, CA

Website:  LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes

The Treasure:  The historic Vickrey-Brunswig building and the Plaza House have been folded into LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, a multi-disciplinary cultural center that celebrates the Mexican-American culture of Southern California.

Accessibility:  LA Plaza is open Wednesday through Monday from noon to 7.

Background:  The construction of the Plaza House in 1883 and the Vickrey-Brunswig building in 1888 took place right near the beginning of the first major industrial expansion of the city of Los Angeles. Change really began with the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1876. The Central Pacific Railroad crossed the Rockies, reaching the west coast in San Francisco, but the line wasn’t fully complete until it stretched southward down to its final freight destination—Los Angeles. Two years after the Plaza House was built, Los Angeles received another railroad boost when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway connected with the city. Growth was swift. From the early 1870s to 1900, the city's population swelled from around 5,000 to over 100,000.

Kysor & Morgan was one of the first architectural firms in Los Angeles. Octavius Morgan designed the Plaza House in a Victorian Italianate style. Stores, markets, saloons, and restaurants lined the ground floor, with the upper floor reserved for private residences.

Five years later, Los Angeles buildings were already growing in size, reflecting the population growth. The Vickrey building (later the Vickrey-Brunswig) was a five-story structure built for the Eastside Bank. Over the years, both the Plaza House and the Vickrey-Brunswig building saw a wide variety of tenants and passed through good times and bad.

Thanks in part to the Save America’s Treasures funding, these two historic buildings were recently restored to serve as a new center for Mexican-American culture in the heart of Los Angeles. Just opened in 2011, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes offers interactive exhibits and exciting programs all revolving around the historic influence of Mexican and Mexican-American culture in this region.

Calle Principal: Main Street, Los Angeles, 1920s, at
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes.
Photo courtesy of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes.

Notes from the Editor:  LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes is brand new, still less than a year old as of this blog entry—just a blip of time compared to the ages of the two historic buildings! The idea sure seems solid. Create a new mission for these grand old buildings and harness them to a celebration of the city’s grand Mexican-American heritage.

Two exhibits focus on the historical details. LA Starts Here! uses artifacts and interactive experiences to explore the city’s history from the early days of the Spanish Empire to the current sprawling metropolis. The other exhibit, Calle Principal, lets you tour through a recreation of a 1920s-era Main Street serving a vibrant immigrant community.

Other Recommended Sites:  LA Plaza is just a five minute walk from Union Station, one of the great American rail stations. You may even recognize it as a movie location used in Bugsy, The Way We Were, and Blade Runner. Directly across from LA Plaza is El Pueblo Historical Monument which includes the Pico House, a historic fire station, Olvera Street, and the Sepulveda House.

The Vickrey-Brunswig building and the Plaza House, now the home of
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes.
Photo courtesy of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Friday’s destination:  San Diego Museum of Man

© 2012 Lee Price

Campo de Cahuenga

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Visit our Tour Destination: Southern California page to see the entire tour of the area’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

The Campo de Cahuenga museum, a replica of the site's original adobe ranch house.
Photo courtesy of Campo de Cahuenga Historical Memorial Association.

Campo de Cahuenga

3919 Lankershim Boulevard

Studio City/North Hollywood, CA

Website:  Campo de Cahuenga

The Treasure:  Known as the “Birthplace of California,” Campo de Cahuenga was the site where an 1847 treaty was signed between Californians and the United States, paving the way for California’s looming statehood.

Accessibility:  Currently, Campo de Cahuenga is only open to the public on the first Saturday of each month from noon to 4. Check their website for details... and check for special events, too.

A special event at Campo de Cahuenga:  Recreating
the original treaty signing.  Photo courtesy of
Campo de Cahuenga Historical Memorial Association.

Background:  On January 13, 1847, Lt. John C. Fremont (representing the United States) and General Andres Pico (representing Californians) signed the Treaty of Cahuenga, agreeing to peace between their people even as the Mexican-American War continued on. While California would not be officially ceded to the United States until the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the working deal had already been cut at Campo de Cahuenga.

In the decades following the treaty, the historical significance of the site was forgotten. By 1900, the large adobe that originally stood at the treaty site had crumbled away and the land had been cultivated with cherry, peach, apricot, walnut, and plum trees. During the first decades of the 20th century, interest in recovering the legendary site began to mount. The state officially recognized the site in 1922 and in the following year, the City of Los Angeles purchased the land to create the Fremont-Pico Memorial Park and Museum.

Since then, intermittent archaeological excavations have added considerably to our knowledge of the history of Campo de Cahuenga. The original foundations have largely been determined and early 19th century floor tiles have been identified, shedding new light on the early days of California.

Notes from the Editor:  I love sites like this that show archaeology in action. While I appreciate that you can see a historic re-creation of the original ranch house adobe at Campo de Cahuenga, the real thrill for me is to stroll around the sites of recent professional archaeological excavations. It’s history in the raw!

Images of the archaeological work at Campo de Cahuenga.
Photographs courtesy of Campo de Cahuenga
Historical Memorial Association.

Other Recommended Sites:  What’s your historical interest?  There are all types of historical societies and small museums scattered through nearly every neighborhood of Los Angeles.  For a quick and easy rundown of many intriguing sites, here’s an impressive list of Historical Societies, Museums & Archives in Los Angeles County, courtesy of Los Angeles Almanac.

A plaque marking the site of the original adobe.
Photo courtesy of Campo de Cahuenga
Historical Memorial Association.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Wednesday’s destination:  San Diego Museum of Man
Friday’s destination:  Plaza House and Vickrey-Brunswig Complex

© 2012 Lee Price

The Pasadena Playhouse

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Visit our Tour Destination: Southern California page to see the entire tour of the area’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

Historic photo of the interior of The Pasadena Playhouse.
Photo courtesy of The Pasadena Playhouse.

The Pasadena Playhouse

39 South El Molino Avenue

Pasadena, CA

Website:  The Pasadena Playhouse

The Treasure:  During the first half of the 20th century, The Pasadena Playhouse was the center of live theater in southern California, offering a training ground for Hollywood actors and an alternative entertainment for the Pasadena community. Completed in 1925, The Pasadena Playhouse is a Spanish Colonial Revival building representative of the work of Los Angeles architect Elmer Grey.

Accessibility:  Check their website and schedule a play into your Tour America’s Treasures itinerary! In addition, you can request a tour of the historic theater to get the backstage story.

Gilmor Brown, founder of
the Pasadena Playhouse.
Photo courtesy of
The Pasadena Playhouse.

Background:  The history of The Pasadena Playhouse is inextricably tied to the tireless achievements of its ambitious founder, Gilmor Brown. Born in North Dakota sometime around 1880, Brown studied theatrical arts in Chicago, toured with several companies as an actor, and then recruited friends and family into his own repertory company. Known as the Savory Players, they settled in Pasadena in 1917.

Down the road from Pasadena, Hollywood’s film industry was still in its infancy but growing fast. There was a hunger for a live theater scene and  Brown’s troupe was swiftly embraced as an important community asset. Brown established the Community Playhouse Association of Pasadena, presenting performances wherever he could, most frequently in the Savoy Theater, a renovated burlesque house. By 1924, his troupe was established enough to be able to raise local support to build The Pasadena Playhouse.

Gilmor Brown was a restless innovator during the 1920s. His main large playhouse was technically sophisticated on a par with the best in the east and could accommodate up to five staging areas. He experimented with theater-in-the-round techniques with his special Fairoaks Playbox theatre. And he managed a College of Theatre Arts within The Playhouse, training theater actors and polishing the talents of would-be film stars. Impressed by this busy theater community, playwright George Bernard Shaw dubbed Pasadena “the Athens of the West.” Shortly after The Pasadena Playhouse achieved the notable distinction of being the first American theater to present the full Shakespearean canon, the California legislature recognized the importance of its work by declaring it the official State Theatre in 1937.

The 686-seat theater nurtured the careers of many up-and-coming stars over the years. Some of the notable names include: Dana Andrews, Raymond Burr, Robert Preston, Ruth Buzzi, Jamie Farr, Charles Bronson, Gene Hackman, Victor Jory, Victor Mature, Lloyd Nolan, Tyrone Power, George Reeves, Randolph Scott, Sally Struthers, Harry Dean Stanton, Gloria Stuart, Robert Taylor, Gig Young, Robert Young, Dustin Hoffman, and Gene Hackman.

Historic photo of actors relaxing on The Pasadena Playhouse patio.
Photo courtesy of The Pasadena Playhouse.

Historic photo of stagehands painting the fire curtain at The Pasadena Playhouse.
Photo courtesy of The Pasadena Playhouse.

Notes from the Editor:  In the late 1920s, Randolph Scott was bumming around in Hollywood, getting occasional bit parts in movies. Cecil B. DeMille told him to get some acting experience at The Pasadena Playhouse. Scott followed his advice, learned his craft, and went on to became a major cowboy star, concluding his career with Sam Peckinpah’s magnificent Ride the High Country in 1962.

After graduating from high school, Robert Preston studied acting at The Pasadena Playhouse in the late 1930s. Preston was a mid-level Hollywood actor for many years, but his career really took off on the Broadway stage when he landed the role of a lifetime, “Professor” Harold Hill in The Music Man. 

A 20-year-old Raymond Burr arrived at The Pasadena Playhouse in 1937 and learned his trade there. For many years, he worked as a dependable supporting actor in Hollywood movies before hitting iconic stardom as TV’s Perry Mason.

Dustin Hoffman dropped out of Santa Monica College in 1957 to join The Pasadena Playhouse. There he met Gene Hackman. Both had major careers ahead of them.

For each of them and many more, The Pasadena Playhouse was where it all began.

Other Recommended Sites:  The Pasadena Playhouse was in the forefront when television first rocked the entertainment industry. The Playhouse built and operated one of Southern California’s first TV stations, KTTV. For more television and movie history, Burbank and Universal City are just a few miles further west on Ventura Freeway. In the Burbank area, you can visit NBC Studios, Sony Pictures Studio, Warner Brothers Studio, and Universal Studios. Watch for stars. They work here.

Historic photo of the 1924 groundbreaking for The Pasadena Playhouse.
Photo courtesy of The Pasadena Playhouse.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Monday’s destination:  Campo de Cahuenga
Wednesday’s destination:  San Diego Museum of Man

© 2012 Lee Price

Aline Barnsdall Art Park

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Visit our Tour Destination: Southern California page to see the entire tour of the area’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

Hollyhock House at Aline Barnsdall Art Park.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Aline Barnsdall Art Park

4800 Hollywood Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA

Website:  Barnsdall Art Park Foundation

The Treasure:  Located in Barnsdall Art Park, Hollyhock House was Frank Lloyd Wright’s first effort to marry his approach to architecture with the Southern California environment.

Accessibility:  Aline Barnsdall Art Park is open daily from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tours of Hollyhock House are offered Wednesday through Sunday. Check their website for tour times.

Background:  A visionary genius of American architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) labored to create buildings that complemented their environment. In the early 1900s, he developed his famous “Prairie Style” that reflected the landscape of the Chicago suburbs and the midwest. But Los Angeles is very different from Chicago…

Wright was approached by Aline Barnsdall, an unconventional and artistically-inclined oil heiress, to build a house in Los Angeles that could form the centerpiece of an art colony and theater complex. Wright’s challenge was to find a style that would satisfy his exacting aesthetic standards while fitting in with the Los Angeles environment and culture. Completed in 1921, Hollyhock House used flowing water, gardens, a central courtyard, roof terraces, and leaded art glass windows to achieve Wright’s vision. Additionally, it incorporated a visual hollyhock theme in tribute to Aline Barnsdall’s favorite flower.

Barnsdall gave the house to the city of Los Angeles in 1927 under the stipulation that the home could be used by the California Art Club under a 15-year lease. Over the years, other organizations leased the house, altering it to meet their needs. Conscientious efforts to restore the house began in 1974. Barnsdall’s dream of an art complex has gradually been realized, with the 11-acre Aline Barnsdall Art Park now accommodating the Barnsdall Art Center, the Barnsdall Junior Art Center, the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, and the 299-seat Barnsdall Gallery Theatre.

The Hollywood sign in Griffith Park.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Other Recommended Sites:  The Barnsdall Art Park is located between Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard, which should clue you in to the fact that you’re pretty close to the historic heart of Hollywood. You can see the famous HOLLYWOOD sign on Mount Lee in nearby Griffith Park (where you can also find Griffith Observatory). Historic sites along Hollywood Boulevard include Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Egyptian Theatre, and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Wednesday’s destination:  Pasadena Playhouse
Monday’s destination:  Campo de Cahuenga

© 2012 Lee Price

The Gamble House

View The Gamble House in a larger map

Visit our Tour Destination: Southern California page to see the entire tour of the area’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

North exterior of the Gamble House after the completion of the 2004
conservation project.
Photo © Alex Vertikoff, courtesy of The Gamble House.

The Gamble House
4 Westmoreland Place

Pasadena, CA

Website:  The Gamble House

The Treasure: Designed in 1908 by Greene & Greene, the Gamble House is one of the finest achievements of the turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts Movement in the United States.

Accessibility: From Thursday through Sunday, one-hour docent-guided tours are regularly available. Check their website for details.

The Living Room of The Gamble House with each piece of
furniture designed to occupy a specific location.
Photograph © Mark Fiennes, courtesy of The Gamble House.

Background:  Near the outset of their architectural careers, brothers Charles Sumner Greene (1868-1957) and Henry Mather Greene (1870-1954) happened to stop by the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 while they were crossing the country. There they saw the Japanese pavilion Ho-o-den, and its characteristically Japanese use of space left a deep impression on them. Nearly a decade later, Charles took a four-month honeymoon in Europe, where he fell under the spell of the English Arts and Crafts Movement and its celebration of the traditional craftsmanship of the pre-industrial world. The brothers’ new architectural firm Greene & Greene embraced both the principles of Japanese design and the craftsmanship of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

The three-story Gamble House—built as a winter residence for Proctor & Gamble heir David Berry Gamble and his wife Mary Huggins Gamble—is an architectural feast of handmade and custom-crafted features, including wood carvings, leaded and stained glass windows, and custom-designed light fixtures and furniture. A wide variety of wood is used: teak, maple, oak, mahogany, fir, and cedar. But the overall impression is holistic, with the interior rooms and exterior landscapes tied together by subtle use of space, natural light, semi-enclosed porches, free-form terraces, and regularly occurring artistic motifs.

Hand railing of main staircase.
Photo © Mark Fiennes, courtesy of
The Gamble House.

The Japanese influence may be most explicitly exhibited in the triple front door and transom, decorated in leaded art glass depicting the “Tree of Life,” a Japanese Black Pine. While the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement is literally visible everywhere, one of the most striking examples of the craftsmanship can be found in the exposed interlocking joinery of the main staircase. In keeping with Arts and Crafts philosophy, there is no attempt to disguise the basic structure; instead, there is a delight in utilitarian form.

Unfortunately, pursuing perfection can be an expensive proposition. For ten years, Greene & Greene managed to accomplish astounding work on acceptable budgets and timetables. But their business declined in the 1910s as the high cost of craftsmanship and the lengthy turn-around demanded by their approach cost them potential clients. Coming near the end of their prolific years, the Gamble House can be viewed as a summation of their mature vision.

Today the Gamble House is owned by the City of Pasadena and operated by the University of Southern California. Thanks to their ambitious commitment to preservation, the Gamble House still enchants.

"Tree of Life" design on the leaded art glass triple front door and transom.
Photograph © Tim Street-Porter, courtesy of The Gamble House.

Notes from the Editor:  Here’s a treat from the Greene & Greene Virtual Archives, a project of the University of Southern California. This Virtual Archives link takes you to images of 341 architectural drawings and historic photographs depicting the development of the architectural plans for the Gamble House and a record of its early years.

Other Recommended Sites:  Pasadena is home to many Craftsman bungalows and the immediate neighborhood around the Gamble House is rich in other private Greene & Greene houses. The Gamble House occasionally offers special neighborhood tours that spotlight their Greene & Greene neighbors. Other tour opportunities are offered by Pasadena Heritage, a local organization dedicated to preserving the historic structures of Pasadena. Check the Gamble House and the Pasadena Heritage websites for news of upcoming special tours and events.

For further exploration of the Greene & Greene legacy, The Huntington Library in San Marino maintains a permanent Greene & Greene exhibition containing fine examples of their decorative arts and architectural details.

Detail of the front elevation at The Gamble House.
Photo © Alex Vertikoff , courtesy of The Gamble House.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Monday’s destination:  Aline Barnsdall Art Park
Wednesday’s destination:  The Pasadena Playhouse

© 2012 Lee Price