The one-story Samuel Merrill House in Pasadena is one of the coziest homes by Greene & Greene, undisputed masters of craftsman architecture. The client was a rancher-turned-law-clerk-turned-conservationist who knew John Muir from his days in Indianapolis.

This house is a minor marvel from the craftsman starchitects Charles & Henry Greene. It was commissioned in 1906 by Asian art importer John C. Bentz, one of the developers of the fashionable Prospect Park Tract in Pasadena. The house was the very first built on the tract, and it set a sky high quality standard for the neighborhood. It's also a great example of how Greene & Greene could work with more modest budgets and still showcase their architectural mastery.

Across the street from the Blacker House 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.

Henry and Charles Greene's Blacker House is a residential work of art wrought with wood, brick and iron – and their prelude to the Gamble House. https://youtu.be/LjPKVCCM5K4 Added to[…]