Storer House (Los Angeles) facts for kids
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Storer House
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Storer House, 2008
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 Location in the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Location in California
Location in the United States
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| Location | 8161 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles |
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| Built | 1923 |
| Architect | Frank Lloyd Wright |
| Architectural style | Modern Movement |
| NRHP reference No. | 71000152 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | September 28, 1971 |
The Storer House is a famous house in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. It was designed by the well-known architect Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1923. This house is special because it is one of four "textile-block houses" that Wright built in the Los Angeles area. These homes use a unique style called Mayan Revival, which looks like ancient Maya buildings.
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What Makes Storer House Special?
The Storer House was built in 1923 for a doctor named John Storer. Frank Lloyd Wright wanted the house to blend in with the hillside. He tried to make it look like it was a natural part of the land.
Inside the Storer House
The house has a large living room upstairs with a very tall ceiling. This room has columns that look like they belong in an ancient Maya building. It also has many tall, narrow windows that let in lots of sunlight. This living room faces the street.
Outside the living room, there are two outdoor areas called terraces. One terrace offers a view of Hollywood. The other terrace looks out over the hillside. The house has a unique shape, like the letter "T". It has big open spaces, and each of these spaces has its own fireplace. The dining room and kitchen are on the main floor. The house is about 2,967 square feet (275.6 m2) in size. It has three bedrooms, a den, three bathrooms, and even a special area for staff.
Interestingly, the house was built without a main front door. You enter through a door at the back. When it was first built, the Storer House was on a steep hillside that didn't have many trees. It was said to look like an ancient Roman house from Pompeii. Frank Lloyd Wright's son, Lloyd Wright, helped build the house and designed the plants around it. He made it look like an old ruin hidden in a jungle.
Recognizing its Importance
The Storer House is considered a very important building. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. It was also named a Historic-Cultural Landmark in Los Angeles in 1972. This means it is protected because of its history and design.
You can even see a tribute to the Storer House at Disney's California Adventure Park. There, a restroom and seating area are designed to look like Wright's textile-block style.
Frank Lloyd Wright's Textile-Block Houses
The Storer House is an example of Wright's early Modernist architecture style. It is one of four "textile-block houses" he built in Southern California. The other three are the Millard House, the Samuel Freeman House, and the Ennis House. These houses got their name because their concrete walls look like richly textured fabric.
Wright called this building method the "Textile Block System." He wanted to find a cheap and easy way for people to build their own homes. He imagined people stacking concrete blocks and holding them together with steel rods. Wright believed this method would connect the inside and outside of a home. He thought it would be a modern way to build homes that felt like a natural part of the land.
Wright was also interested in ancient Maya buildings found in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. He used ideas from Maya architecture in the Storer House. Workers used special tools to press detailed Maya-inspired patterns into the concrete blocks. The Storer House is special because it uses four different block patterns, more than any of Wright's other textile-block houses.
However, Wright's textile-block houses did not become as popular as he hoped. Many people wondered why a rich person would want to live in a house made of concrete blocks.
Bringing the Storer House Back to Life
By 1980, the Storer House was in bad shape. In 1984, a movie producer named Joel Silver bought the house. He has produced famous movies like Lethal Weapon and The Matrix.
Joel Silver started a big project to fix up the house in 1984. Wright's own grandson, Eric Lloyd Wright, helped with the restoration. One of the hardest parts was figuring out how to make new concrete blocks that matched the old ones. They ended up using soil from the backyard mixed with cement. This helped the new blocks fit Wright's idea of "organic architecture," where the building feels connected to nature.
Besides fixing the house, Joel Silver also brought back the original landscaping. He even added a swimming pool that Frank Lloyd Wright had planned but never built. The restoration project won awards for its excellent work. In 2005, The New York Times newspaper said the Storer House was "widely considered the best-preserved Wright building in Los Angeles."
Joel Silver sold the house in 2002. It was sold again in 2015 for about $6.8 million. Even though it's a famous house, it took time to find the right buyer. The house has great privacy from its neighbors because of all the trees and plants around it.
Images for kids
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Storer House, 2008
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Frank Lloyd Wright
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View from street, 2008
