Storybook Los Angeles

I don’t know if it’s unique to Los Angeles, my hometown, but LA is the home of the dream factory, that is, motion pictures, and I don’t think Angelinos ever get tired of dreaming about what could be.

So after World War I, and as films became the number one kind of entertainment in the 1920s, architects created these dream homes and buildings. They are sprinkled about LA county like magic beans, and many are still with us.

The most famous has to be what is known as the Witch’s House (above). Please don’t knock on their door. Not because you might be offered a sweetie by a curious old lady, but because it is a privately owned residence. Really called the Spadena House, it was originally built in Culver city in 1921, but was moved to its present location in Beverly Hills in 1926. It is the embodiment of the Storybook House look; uneven walls, spiring roofs, impossible shingle designs — some that look like thatching — vintage glass windows, sometimes with stained glass in them with enchanting window boxes and shutters, plaster with artfully bits of brickwork revealed beneath, flagged stone paths, cottage gardens… yes, it was a veritable English cottage on steroids designed to look like it stepped out of a Disney cartoon. (Interior below)

Except that it actually inspired animators when they designed Snow White’s cottage or Pinocchio’s village. In fact, some of Walt Disney’s animators lived in some of these kinds of homes in the area called Los Feliz in LA.

There are other favorites located in Culver City by the studios. And simpler versions taking some of the style of the storybook, with half-timbering and arched front doors. Or like this “Hobbit House”. Built in 1946, former Walt Disney Studios artist Lawrence Joseph began working on it for decades to get to this:

My favorite spot to lunch is still there, though it was toned-down from it’s very storybook original look on the outside. But it has a Scottish country manor about it on the inside. The Tam O’Shanter has been an LA hangout for film people, including Walt Disney himself since 1922. Originally called “Montgomery’s Country Inn”, the name was changed to The Tam O’Shanter Inn in 1925 (though it’s only ever been a restaurant). Yeah, of course I would be attracted to it. And they have great prime rib. I’ve had a couple of book events there. The first photo below was when it was first built in 1922. The second reflects many decades of changes. And the inside that attracted Disney, has remained somewhat the same.

Next time you are driving in and around the neighborhoods in the Los Angeles environs – Pasadena, the Fairfax District, Los Feliz, Beverly Hills, Culver City – keep a sharp eye out for these little beauties. And if a kindly old lady tries to attract you with cookies and sweets, throw caution to the wind if she offers you a tour. It’s magical.