One of Wright’s four textile-block homes in LA, restored to its original glory

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 28, 1971

Head all the way west on Hollywood Blvd. until it curves into Laurel Canyon; after a hairpin turn you’re heading up into the hills, and as you round the first corner, there it is: the concrete temple that is Frank Lloyd Wright’s Storer House, one of the four “textile block” homes he completed in 1923-24.

Wright’s son, Lloyd Wright, did the landscaping and was going for the effect of a “Pompeiian villa,” an ancient ruin shrouded by an overgrown jungle. Certainly running into the Storer feels like you’ve discovered the headquarters of some otherworldly civilization. But whereas Wright’s Ennis House (see post #22) sits astride a Los Feliz hill, like it was carved right out of the rock, Storer is both more modest and less rooted in its context. 

Still, it’s a freakin’ cool-looking home, even if we only ever get to see the facade! Wright’s famous aversion to grand entrances makes it even more imposing from the street; instead of a single front entrance, Wright places glass doors at the bottom of five narrow columns of windows, giving the effect of a five-eyed alien peering at you.

Unique among the textile block homes, Storer has four different patterns embedded into the blocks. One of them even served as the inspiration for the logo of film production company Silver Pictures, helmed by Joel Silver, who owned the Storer House for 17 years. 

We also have Joel Silver to thank for fronting the money to restore (re-Storer?) the house, in an effort led by Wright’s grandson Eric Lloyd Wright and Martin Eli Weil, past president of the LA Conservancy; it’s now regarded as one of the best-preserved Wrights in LA. So…thanks guys.

PS: I’m kicking myself that it took me 15 years working at the same office to realize that the most famous American architect of all time designed a house five minutes away.

Recommended Reading

+Storer House @ NRHP website

+Interior shots of Storer House @ Crosby Doe website

+View an original architectural drawing of the Storer House (Library of Congress)