Added to the National Register of Historic Places April 16, 1974

We know Charles and Henry Greene as the perfecters of the west coast bungalow. Their best known houses are 3D love letters to redwood and iron and river rock, perfect unions of materials and craftsmanship that can still send a building lover into fantods, 110 years after they were constructed. 

But If you know Greene & Greene mostly from their Back to the Future era (e.g. Gamble House and the Blacker House – see Etan Does LA visit #44), you might be surprised by their home for Howard Longley in South Pasadena. 

The Longley House is the earliest surviving work by Greene & Greene in California. It was built in 1897, just a few years after they moved from Boston to be with mom and pop in Pasadena, and 10 years before they realized their “ultimate bungalows.” By 1907 they were visionaries. Back in the 1890s, the Greenes were just pretty good. 

The clients were Howard and Etta Longley. Howard was the brother-in-law of the Greenes’ aunt Alice, but their family relationship didn’t prevent the Longleys from rejecting the Greene brothers’ first design for a combination mission/Georgian revival home. They rejected the next design, too. You can trace the development of the house by clicking through the floor plans and elevation drawings at the virtual Greene & Greene archives, hosted by Columbia’s Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library. 

Eventually, the Longleys accepted an eclectic stylistic mashup of a house. In the main mass of the facade, there’s plenty of the shingle-rich colonial style that they would have encountered in their years of study and work around Boston. But then the entrance portico is covered by a canopy that curves downwards at a dramatic clip, like a traditional Japanese pagoda. And of course the canopy is held up by columns that wouldn’t have been out of place in ancient Greece. 

You may be inclined to foretell their craftsman future from the prominent use of shingles and art glass, or to augur their obsession with Japanese-inspired design by the pagoda slope of the canopy. Perhaps. But it’s all bits and pieces here, and there are signature G&G elements – the wide eaves, exposed rafters, use of river rock, oversized windows – that weren’t present here. The Greenes were clearly on their path, but they hadn’t yet found the integrating factors, the things that made them, them. There’s much more of the classic Greene & Greene vibe at their Lucretia Garfield House (Etan Does LA visit #93), which was built literally next door to the Longley in 1904.

A couple final historical notes. In 1899, Henry Greene met his future wife Emiline August Dart at the Longley house. I love the idea of a gal falling for a guy inside the house he built!

The Longley also has some interesting preservation history. Starting in the 1960s, this house and hundreds more were purchased by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), with the goal of extending the 710 freeway along a “Meridian Route.” The plan would have required the destruction or removal of hundreds of homes in parts of South Pasadena, Pasadena and Alhambra. In July of 1974, an attorney representing LA’s Department of Transportation wrote to Dr. William J. Murtagh, Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places:

“Since the Long Beach Freeway is a Federal Aid project for which the State of California Department of Transportation must obtain the approval of the US Secretary of Transportation before federal funds may be secured, it is possible that the placement of the Howard Longley House on the National Register may prevent the US Secretary of Transportation from lawfully approving said proposed freeway.

We kindly request that you remove the Howard Longley House from the National Register of Historic Places and further that in the future you withhold any action or any nomination involving property in South Pasadena in the path of the Meridian Route of the proposed Long Beach Freeway until you confirm with this office that the submission of the nomination does not violate the court order.”

Benjamin B. Salvaty, Attorney, State of California Department of Transportation Legal Division

Murtagh’s response basically amounts to “fuck off:” 

“Under section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, before an agency of the Federal government may fund, license, or execute a project which may have an effect on a National Register property, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation must be given an opportunity to comment on the proposal. If the state Historic Preservation Office is not aware of a property, any Federal agency, in this case the Department of Transportation, still has the responsibility under Federal law to identify all of the cultural resources in the area of a proposed project. Therefore, the Federal Department of Transportation must comply with the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 in regard to the Longley House.

We appreciate your interest in historic preservation.”

William J. Murtagh, Keeper of the National Register

The Howard Longley House is still standing, its current occupant has been running a monthly drum circle out of it for more than 20 years, and the plans to connect the 710 and 210 freeways were recently scuttled after 60+ years of community opposition. So it’s pretty clear who won that round. 

Sources & Recommended Reading

+Howard Longley House’s NRHP nomination form

+Howard Longley House plans (Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University)

+Howard and Etta Longley House (GambleHouse.org)

+Drum Circle Gives Heartbeat to Community (South Pasadena Review, 2021)

+Pasadena to reclaim land meant for the 710 extension (CBS Los Angeles, 2022)

+710 Freeway expansion dropped after decades of planning, marking a milestone for L.A. (LA Times, 2022)