Another facet of Greene & Greene’s architectural genius, right across the street from the Blacker House in Pasadena

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 12, 1985

Across the street from the Blacker House (see post #44) is another stunning home by architect bros Charles and Henry Greene. Completed in 1913, it was the last major home they designed as a duo, and at $150,000, it was their biggest commission. The client was Cordelia Culbertson, one of the three unmarried sisters who lived there for just four years; in 1917 the home was bought by the recently widowed philanthropist Mrs. Dudley P. Allen (later Mrs. Francis Fleury Prentiss), who would go on to hire the Greenes for more than 20 jobs over the next two decades, including a bunch of pieces for the Culbertson house.

If you’re like me and mostly know the Greenes for the peak craftsman homes they designed (Gamble, Blacker & Thorsen houses), you might be surprised that this one is theirs, too. Absent are the scaffold-like exteriors and earth tones of their “ultimate bungalows,” clad in handsome wood. The profile of the Culbertson is much lower, the outside is covered in gunite (sprayed concrete) and there’s a pronounced Asian influence, with its rustic green-tiled roof reminiscent of a Chinese pagoda. 

That’s just the facade, though, the part that we plebs get to see (if we happen to be wandering around the high-roller Oak Knoll neighborhood). The pictures I’ve seen from realty listings (check ‘em out here) suggest that G&G’s craftsman aesthetics were in full bloom, but in more modest ways; they created brighter, airer spaces that welcomed all types of different furnishings, as opposed to the more prescriptive, integrated relationship between space and furniture of the Blacker House. It all wraps in a U shape around an Italianate garden out back, with a fountain and pergolas and plenty of space for outdoor entertaining. 

This is a less immediately thrilling home to look at than the other Greene & Greene down the block. But it’s great to see them adapt their ideals to new forms. And the fact that two important houses by two of LA’s proudest architectural exports are on the same block (with a third, the Spinks House, right around the corner)? That’s an afternoon, right there.

Recommended Reading

+Cordelia Culbertson House @ NRHP website

+Read about the first two owners of the Culbertson home (Gamblehouse.org)

+Photos of the Culbertson house as it looked ca. 1915 (Columbia University Library)

+Video tour of the Culbertson House (Holly Purcell)