#214-219 - Whole Bunch o’ Bungalow Courts, pt. 3 (Pasadena)

Bungalow Courts - Bryan Court — Bryan Court

Pasadena is teeming with classic examples of the bungalow court, a style of multi-family housing with small dwellings arranged around a central courtyard or walkway. They were great for residents, who got the community of an apartment building with the privacy of a single-family home; they were also a boon for developers, who could squeeze more cash out of a bungalow court on a residential lot than they could with a single-family home.

Bungalow courts were hugely popular between 1910 and 1930, especially in Pasadena. Of the 100-odd courts dating to the early 20th century that are still standing in Pasadena, 30 of them are on the National Register. Six of those are clustered on a stretch of South Marengo Avenue, between Del Mar Boulevard and Glenarm Street. This was a desirable part of Pasadena to live in during the early 1900s, with its canopy of pepper trees shading the street, and a preponderance of fine, single-family craftsman bungalows by notable architects.

Western Publishing & Novelty Co: Marengo Avenue, 1915 (Pasadena Public Library)

After 1930, restrictive parking ordinances made bungalow courts less economical to build. Though they might be making a comeback! In March 2024, the LA City Planning department released its Citywide Housing Incentive Program ordinance (or “CHIP”), which includes incentives for developers of “low scale/low rise” housing along “certain major street corridors.” It’s an exciting story, unfolding at just the right time, as LA’s in desperate need of affordable housing right now.

So let’s check out some great original examples of this building type that we could be seeing more of soon. I bring you part three of my tour of Pasadena’s NRHP-listed bungalow courts: the historic courts of South Marengo Avenue.

#214: Bryan Court 📍427 S. Marengo Avenue

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 16, 1986

This is easily one of the most outwardly charming of Pasadena’s historic bungalow courts. The varied rooflines and porches offer an English cottage spin on traditional craftsman bungalow design, amidst a formal garden setting. Whoever is keeping up the grounds at Bryan Court deserves a medal – that grass is always freshly mowed, it’s almost symmetrical but not so even as to be boring, and that undulating low hedge around the central light standard is perfectly coiffed. The fact that the court is sunken below street level creates an air of seclusion, and the different shapes and orientations of the seven units make it feel more like a small village than an environment designed by a single person.

Bryan Court was built in 1916 by D.M. Renton, a contractor and architect that any Pasadena or Catalina enthusiast should recognize as the Wrigleys’ resident construction supervisor. Renton designed the William Wrigley Summer Cottage in Avalon, and oversaw construction of both the Wrigley Mansion in Pasadena and the Catalina Casino.

This is a unique court in that the residential units were renovated for business use in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It’s the same transition that was made by some of the single-family bungalows on South Marengo, after the City of Pasadena worked with Pasadena Heritage to form a special business overlay zone in 1983. The zone change meant that older residential buildings could now be used for office space, provided that certain aspects of the building were preserved. We still see the impact of this change today, in the many law firms, wealth advisors and CPAs housed in the former homes that line Marengo.

ABOVE: Bryan Court in 1986. All photos courtesy of Pasadena Heritage.

In the small bungalows of Bryan Court, today you’ll find an esthetician’s office, a couple holistic medicine/acupuncture practitioners and several psychotherapists. It’s a regular oasis of wellness up in here, and it’s still protected by an easement held by Pasadena Heritage since the 1980s.

See inside pics on Zillow of unit 4 and unit 10.

#215: Cottage Court 📍642-654 S. Marengo Avenue

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 11, 1983

The single paragraph about Cottage Court in its National Register nomination form calls these seven units from 1923 “a series of miniature classical temples facing each other across a narrow pathway.” I’m guessing the author was referring to the thin Doric columns holding up the covered porches, because there’s nothing else spiritually evocative about these identical, beige-stuccoed units.

The walkway down the center of Cottage Court is a narrow one, lined in concrete (stained red just in front of each porch) with light standards planted in the open areas between each pair of bungalows. In earlier years, the entrance was set off by a short iron gate and a white picket fence out front. Now there’s a much taller iron gate in front of makeshift white walls obscuring the view from the street. When combined with the stucco side walls that parallel S. Marengo, it all combines for a pretty foreboding facade.

See inside pics of a couple units on Redfin and Zillow.

#216: Court at 744-756 1/2 S. Marengo Avenue

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 11, 1983

Oh hell yes. This is where you take your bungalow-court-skeptical friends who think they all look the same. There’s some great art deco in Old Town Pasadena and Playhouse Village, but here we have a highly unusual example of art deco applied to residential architecture in Pasadena. It was built by the gloriously-named D.J. Ringle in 1931, right at the end of the bungalow court’s halcyon years.

It’s the small details that make a big difference here: fluted parapets, as if these units are wearing stylish crowns; the black and gold tile decoration in the shape of a vase, on the streetside walls; the diamond-shaped grass cutouts in the central driveway. The current dusty pink and mint paint job works, too, like you’ve stepped into some cotton candy fantasyland.

An archway connects the upper floors of the two-story structures, ushering you into the parking area at the back. And that’s another unique aspect of this court: the driveway is right in the middle, where an auto-free courtyard or walkway usually sits in other bungalow courts. That right there tells you that this is a later addition to the bungalow court canon. The earliest courts were built before motor vehicles dominated the roadways, so either they relegated the driveway to the side, with a couple tiny garages in the back, or avoided the parking question altogether. By the time this court was livable in 1931, there were well over 750,000 motor vehicles registered in LA County, more than 13 times the number in 1915. So you get the auto lane with a prominent spot right at the center of this bungalow court, sharing space with pedestrians. Safe? Perhaps no. But that merging of man and machine must have felt like the future in 1931!

See inside pics of 744 ½ S. Marengo and 750 S. Marengo on Zillow.

#217: Don Carlos Court 📍374-386 S. Marengo Avenue

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 11, 1983

The name “Don Carlos Court” conjures images of a magnanimous Spanish rancher who welcomes you into his luxurious hacienda after a long journey, fills you with food and drink and lets you stay the night, tended to by his seven beautiful daughters.

This gorgeous puff pastry of a bungalow court is the embodiment of that Spanish colonial idyll that sent homeowners swooning for off-white stucco and red-tiled roofs in the 1920s. The tiered fountain at the center; the handsome light fixtures; the perfectly curated landscaping, which sets off bright greens and yellows and magentas against the creamy white outside walls. Everything is calibrated for maximal romance, and it’s such a perfect evocation of that Spanish colonial fairytale that I wouldn’t be surprised if Don Carlos’s daughters were living there themselves, one daughter per unit.

Me and the NRHP plaque for Don Carlos Court

Architect/contractor Clarence Hudson Burrell built Don Carlos Court in 1927, for an owner named Chas E. Jones. Initially there were six single-story units and a large two-story unit at the back, though the back unit was embiggened in the ‘90s. There have been small updates over the years, expanded bathrooms and interior renovations and the like. And the central fountain isn’t original – a photo from the NRHP nomination form shows a different one, in use as a planter/birdbath combo.

One interesting former Don Carlos Court resident was Clem Inskeep, “the unofficial photographer” of the Tournament of Roses’ royal court. He was known for exclusively shooting in black and white on a decades-old camera. Kinda makes sense that a guy who made an income using old tech to take beautiful still pictures of a court would want to live in such a stunning, anachronistic bungalow court.

Don Carlos Court was converted into condos. See some gorgeous photos from the two-story back unit at 380 S. Marengo. Those balconies! Those stair risers!

#218: Marengo Gardens 📍982, 986, 990 S. Marengo Avenue & 221-241 Ohio Street

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 11, 1983

Marengo Gardens has a whole lot going for it. Built in 1913, it’s one of the oldest bungalow courts in Pasadena. Its nine units present a smorgasbord of craftsman-ship, each one its own unique snowflake with a different combination of siding style (shingle or clapboard), color, brickwork, roofline and porch shape. Plus, their entrances face two streets, with three looking out to South Marengo Avenue and the others emptying out to Ohio Street.

The Ohio Street entrance leads you to a most unusual courtyard. Instead of a single walkway with all the units clustered around it, this walkway diverges in multiple directions. They take you into secluded pockets of communal space and living space, some divided up by hedges and tropical landscaping. It’s a jungle in there! While each of these units has its own character, there’s enough commonality that it’s clearly the work of the same (unnamed) architect. My favorite detail is the semi-circular portico that leads to the front door on three of the units around the courtyard. It adds a playful ancient Grecian dimension to an otherwise all-craftsman environment.

The three units on S. Marengo Avenue offer just as much personality. 990 is a clear standout, with its unusual brick/cobblestone combo walls at the entrance – and another circular portico. It’s just beckoning you to wile away the hours in a rocking chair while looking out at all the action on the corner of Ohio and S. Marengo.

One last thing that makes Marengo Gardens special: much like Gartz Court, Palmetto Court and Colonial Court, the nine units here are individually owned. They’re condos! 225 Ohio Street sold in December of 2023 for $645k – quite a price for an 840-square-foot slab of Pasadena history.

#219: Sara-Thel Court 📍618-630 S. Marengo Avenue

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 11, 1983

My visit to Sara-Thel Court in late fall of 2023 yielded one of the more memorable images of my entire Pasadena bungalow court journey: a single lamppost, lit yellow, surrounded by fallen yellow leaves as if the light itself were a tree shedding its flora. There’s another lamppost further down on the walkway, but that one was unlit when I visited. Whether it was due to faulty electrical work or just the bungalow gods showing off their gift for aesthetic drama, I may never know.

Those two light standards are the centerpieces of a pretty simple, straightforward court, erected in 1921, off a design by architect James Humphreys. The eight units here (six single units and a duplex at the back) have some light craftsman touches in the exposed rafters and overhanging eaves on the porches, but are otherwise pretty plain on the outside. Each of the single-story units is a mirror image of its neighbor across the walkway. Interior shots from realtor sites reveal some original charm, like hardwood floors, fireplaces and built-in breakfast nooks (see one of the single units and one of the duplexes on Zillow).

The scant bits of info I dug up on Sara-Thel’s history give some small insight into how bungalow courts evolve over time. Looking at the single unit at 626 S. Marengo as an example – we have a 1938 permit issued to expand and move a garage, closer to the north property line; that same year there’s a classified ad in the Los Angeles Times classified section, advertising the unit as an unfurnished, eight-room space. There are electrical upgrades, new water heaters installed and a window replacement in 2011. That same year we find a home occupation permit pulled for Gardner & Gardner Properties, a property management firm that’s still based out of Sara-Thel Court.

Thank you to my friends at Pasadena Heritage for their ongoing assistance with my research. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Andrew Salimian and Sue Mossman for their invaluable help with this post. Both of them recently left Pasadena Heritage, Andrew to take up the Director of Advocacy position at LA Conservancy, and Sue to enjoy a well-deserved retirement.

Sources & Recommended Reading

+ Anderton, Frances: Common Ground: Multifamily Housing in Los Angeles (Angel City Press, 2022)

+ Avery, Sue: “Hotel Vote Came as Rare Setback for Pasadena Heritage” (Los Angeles Times, May 24, 1987)

+ Bryan Court’s NRHP nomination form

+ “Bungalow Courts: LA’s Best Housing No One Builds Anymore” (Video – @metamodernism on YouTube, Mar 1, 2024)

+ “Bungalow Courts in Pasadena” (Pasadena Planning & Community Development Department)

+ City of Pasadena: Permit Center Online (cityofpasadena.net)

+ Classified Ads (Los Angeles Times, April 21, 1938 – via ProQuest)

+ Cottage Court’s NRHP nomination form

+ “Craftsman House Becomes Offices” (Los Angeles Times, December 11, 1983 – via ProQuest)

+ Don Carlos Court’s NRHP nomination form

+ Gish, Todd Douglas: “Bungalow Court Housing in Los Angeles, 1900-1930: Top-down Innovation? Or Bottom-up Reform?” (Southern California Quarterly, Vol. 91, No. 4, Winter 2009-2010)