This item was all over local TV news: The Residence A Guesthouse at Barnsdall Park is about to get a $3.2 million restoration. Here's one story, in case you missed the news.
This is Barnsdall Park's Hollyhock House, at left. It was just restored and reopened last year. Looks beautiful, doesn't it? The first time I saw it, in the 90s, there was significant earthquake and water damage, and stains streaked the facade from leaking water.
The address for the entire Barnsdall Arts complex is 4800 Hollywood Blvd.
When Frank Lloyd Wright designed and built Hollyhock House around 1920, he also created two guesthouses, Residences A & B. Aline Barnsdall, who hired Wright, actually lived in Residence B for years, and it was torn down to create space for an apartment building after she died, almost 70 years ago. Residence A is still around.
The picture at right shows Residence A in 1965, when the city declared it a cultural landmark.
You can read all about Aline Barnsdall,, about her family and her independence, and a little about Wright himself at the Barnsdall website. Turns out that Wright's neglect of the Hollyhock House project (he was in Japan building the Imperial Hotel) was a big factor in bringing both Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra to Los Angeles--Aline Barnsdall figured she needed new architects!
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