Lloyd Wright’s 1926 Derby House in Glendale is a Mayan-inspired temple of concrete and light, and proof that the son of the world’s most famous architect was a master designer and landscaper in his own…wright.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 14, 1978

March 31 is architect Lloyd Wright’s birthday. Why not celebrate by buying his exquisite 1926 Derby House in the hills above Glendale for a cool $3.3 million? It’s for sale RIGHT NOW! If the pictures on Redfin are to be believed, the house comes with a 1940 Buick Century parked in the driveway, and they’ll even throw in four models decked out in vintage garb to open the car door for you and remind you what a great decision you made, buying one of the coolest houses in Los Angeles.

Lloyd Wright was a great architect, a terrific landscaper and an ace construction supervisor. And while his resume isn’t lacking for landmark buildings (e.g. visit #21 the Sowden House in Los Feliz and the unforgettable Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes), I wager he would be even better remembered were his father not Frank Lloyd Wright, arguably the most famous architect in modern history. 

In the years leading up to the 1926 completion of the Derby House, the younger Wright oversaw a number of projects for his dad, including the Hollyhock (in conjunction with Rudolf Schindler), the Ennis House (see visit #22) and the Storer House (see visit #37). A lot of Lloyd Wright’s work exhibits the influence of his father. But the Derby House offers clear evidence that he was very much his own architect.

While the Mayan-inspired “textile blocks” that clad the Derby’s front entrance will be familiar to fans of FLW’s Ennis, Storer, Freeman and Millard homes, the two Wrights employed the blocks to different ends. FLW used them structurally, stacking them in piles throughout these houses to create dense, tomblike fortresses out of concrete. In the Derby House the blocks are largely ornamental, sheathing the wood-frame house like chain mail on stucco skin, and screening the home from the sun while still admitting plenty of light.

For the record, the elder Wright was actually following his son’s lead during his short textile block period – Lloyd Wright first conceived of the textile-block constructions in his 1923 house for Henry Bollman. And based on the waves of costly restoration that the Ennis and Storer houses have undergone (the Freeman house is in need of some love too), it would seem that Lloyd’s blocks held up better over time.

There’s an airiness to the inside of the Derby House, most evident in the two-story living room, almost churchly in its scale. Light flows in from the floor-to-ceiling glass, broken up by doors on the bottom and a row of clerestory windows covered in more patterned blocks; the blocks transform the light into shifting patterns as it streams in at different angles throughout the day. There’s a totally boss walk-in fireplace (uuuh, that sounds dangerous) attached to a two-story chimney. Best of all, Wright designed an indoor balcony that runs diagonally across the living room, so you can re-enact the famous balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet (or Cyrano de Bergerac, your choice!) in the comfort of your own home. 

If ever you tire of lounging about inside, there’s a plant lover’s paradise in the backyard. Wright was a master landscaper who worked for the famous Olmsted & Olmsted landscaping firm in the 1910s. In addition to the oak and eucalyptus enclosing the Derby’s yard, this LA Times story from 1993 cites (mostly) native flora – lilac, cactus, California holly, myrtle and agave. 

Mr. and Mrs. Derby separated during the house’s completion; for years, it was just Mrs. Derby and the kids living there. Think about what it must have been like to grow up in a house like that! I bet they flat-out rejected playdates anywhere else. Make sure to think of the children if you’re considering plunking down three mil to buy this nearly-century-old Mayan rocketship of a home.

Recommended Reading

+Derby House’s NRHP nomination form

+Derby House listing on Redfin

+Hats Off to Derby House (LA Times, 1993)