1962 Glencoe Way
Los Angeles, CA 90068
3 Beds | 1 Bath | 2,884 Sq. Ft. | $1,474 Price / Sq. Ft. | 6,802 Sq. Ft. Lot | Built in 1925
One of all the all time great houses of Los Angeles, The iconic Samuel & Harriet Freeman House designed by the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1923 throughout 1925 with additions and furniture by Rudolf Schindler and minor improvements over the years by architects John Lautner, Gregory Ain, and Robert Clark has hit the market in the Hollywood Heights for $4,250,000. I previously wrote about this home, along with Frank Lloyd Wright’s 7 other Los Angeles area masterpieces here.
Essentially at the very top of Hollywood Heights (not too far from where I recently sold Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love’s former home), Freeman House enjoys 270-degree views of Hollywood and the Los Angeles basin. The Freeman House was originally designed as a salon space and has entertained a host of artists, writers, celebrities, musicians, politicians, philanthropists, and philosophers over the years. The Freemans became enthralled with Wright’s work after staying as guests at Wright’s Hollyhock House in Los Feliz, which the architect designed in 1922. Hollyhock House, as you might know, is located in the Barnsdall Art Park, one of my favorite summer hangouts pre-pandemic. I believe Hollyhock House will soon be open for tours again soon.
Spread across nearly 3,000 square feet, the home features two bedrooms, one bath, a focal hearth, and a partially open kitchen, as well as various terraces and roof decks perfect for enjoying the spectacular views.
According to historical records, the Freemans approached Wright with a $10,000 commission (although the project would ultimately cost $23,000) to create a residence that could accommodate large and small gatherings for their vast rolodex of friends.
The home is constructed of over 12,000 cast concrete blocks. Wright designed the walls to be textured on both the interior and exterior. The concrete knit blocks provide structure and organic decoration. As with all of Frank Lloyd Wright’s creations, the home truly exemplifies the concept of “architecture as art.”
Wright took full advantage of the steep Hollywood Hills site and created a textile block home that appears from street view to be one level, but actually extends two additional levels down the slope.
According to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the home expresses “the design rationale of Wright’s textile-block construction system, incorporating the openness and central hearth of Wright’s earlier Prairie houses with the extensive ornament of the textile blocks.”
Over the course of 60 years of ownership, the Freemans used the space as a cultural salon which stemmed from Harriet’s love of the arts. In the mid-1980s, she donated the 1925 structure to the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture. And it is USC who are the current owners and are selling the historic home now.
Though its structure was fundamentally sound at the time, the home was rendered uninhabitable after damage by the 1994 Northridge earthquake. While a three-phase rehabilitation plan was devised and work began in 2000, the project stalled after the first phase due to lack of funding, and the home is still in need of restoration today. Yes, it will be quite a task for Freeman House’s next owners, but with historic cultural monument tax credits added, the property’s price tag might be worth it to preserve (and essentially save) one of Wright’s four textile block home’s in the Los Angeles area. One of the other textile block homes, as you probably guessed, is the iconic Ennis House across the canyon in Los Feliz. That home was recently listed for $18 million.
The listing presents quite an opportunity to live in and restore such an iconic home and be a part of Los Angeles architectural history.
As architectural historian Kathryn Smith notes, “this is one of Wright’s 20 most important houses…it is the missing link between two World Heritage sites: Taliesin and Fallingwater.”
And I don’t know about you, but I would love to live in my own Fallingwater.
In 1969, the house was recorded as part of the Historic American Building Survey program. The measured drawings can now be found on the Library of Congress website.
I would love to give you a private tour of 2743 Hollyridge Drive in Beachwood Canyon. Call me today at (937) 243-2349 or email me at tatiana.tensen@sothebyshomes.com to schedule a visit.
1962 Glencoe Way, in Hollywood, California, is currently listed for $4,250,000 by Mike Deasy of Deasy Penner Podley. To learn more about the history of the Samuel & Harriet Freeman House, please visit the official home website.
Project Credits:
The photographs are from March and September 1972, with permission from Harriet Freeman and courtesy of Dan Soderberg.