In a rare occurrence this year’s Windsor Square Hancock Park Historical Society‘s annual homes tour features three adjacent homes on Rimpau Blvd designed by two of Southern California’s most well known architects, Roland E. Coate and Gordon B. Kaufmann.
Coate and Kaufman were partners in the firm Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate. Their projects included Hale Solar Laboratory [California Institute of Technology (Caltech)] in Pasadena 1923-24, 1952; Saint Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral № 2 1924-25 in Los Angeles, Camp Arthur Letts, Boy Scouts of America 1924 in Los Angeles and All Saints’ Episcopal Church № 2 1923 in Pasadena. After they dissolved the firm due to a lack of institutional commissions, they continued to collaborate with each other in their highly successful solo practices.
We won’t spoil the tour by giving away details, but suffice to say Society docents are armed with lots of interesting notes about the history of each of these special homes and the homeowners who have stewarded them over the last century.
Author, realtor and historical society executive committee member, Bret Parsons, an expert on these two architects, will be on hand to answer questions and sign each of his wonderful books on Coate and Kaufmann. The books are two in his series “Master Architects of Southern California” and are comprised of historic images from the pages of “The Architectural Digest,” the forerunner of today’s magazine “Architectural Digest.” Started in 1920 by James Cooke Brasfield, an importer and advertising executive from Tennessee, the magazine, at the time, was a large folio format filled with professional photographs provided by architects and accompanied by captions noting the owner, architect, contractor and others who worked on the project as well as an occasional floor plan. There was little or no editorial content in the magazine in those early issues, but there were lots of advertisements. Now those issues have become an extraordinary architectural archive treasure trove.
Coate and Kaufmann have a number of homes in the neighborhood but the three on Rimpau are coincidentally and conveniently adjacent making this year’s tour particularly easy for viewing all three homes. The tour will feature refreshments with food and bubbly Prosecco, as well as a silent auction in the garden of one of the homes. Society President Richard Battaglia told the Buzz volunteers are busy wrapping and assembling unique auction items donated from the society’s wide network of supporters.
Proceeds from the tour are used to support nonprofits and beautification efforts in the community. The entire tour is coordinated by volunteers and more volunteers are always appreciated.
Windsor Square Hancock Park Historical Society‘s annual homes tour Saturday, November 5th from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Click here for more information and tickets.
