'Miramar' was built in the late 1920s as a joint project between Miramar Estates developers Arthur Weber and George Ley and the Los Angeles Times. The Villa, then known as the "Los Angeles Times Demonstration Home," served two purposes. Primarily, it was to be a model of the "latest developments in domestic technology and home planning ideas." In addition, the Demonstration Home would show skeptical Angelenos the benefits of living far from the city center.
Los Angeles Times Demonstration House 1928
usc digital archive
The progress of the Demonstration Home was chronicled with weekly articles in the Times. The newspaper urged interested readers to view the house for themselves to see firsthand current techniques in home building. According to the Times, thousands of people toured the Villa during its construction and in the month following its completion.
The design of the Demonstration Home was based on a castle in Sevilla, Spain. The carved and painted wooden doors and ceilings were designed with Moorish motifs by Thorwald Probst, inspired by the Cathedral of Teruel in Spain. The Demonstration Home was a showcase for the latest technological inventions-the kitchen boasted a gas range, electric refrigerator and dishwasher, and the spacious three car garage was opened by an electric garage door.
villaaurora
rich schmitt/staff photographer/Palisidian-Post
The architecture of Villa Aurora, built in Paseo Miramar in 1928, was loosely based on Roman, Moorish and Middle Eastern elements fused in a style called Mudéjar.
Door to the Villa Aurora on Paseo Miramar, Pacific Palisades, Calif., built in 1928.
photo from santa monica public library collection
Stained glass window detail in Villa Aurora, Paseo Miramar, Pacific Palisades, Calif., built in 1928
photo from santa monica public library collection
Window detail with ironwork, Villa Aurora, Paseo Miramar, Pacific Palisades, Calif., built 1928.
photo from santa monica public library collection
In the 1930s and 1940s, as the horrors of Nazi Germany engulfed the European continent, Los Angeles became a sanctuary for some of Europe's most celebrated artists and intellectuals. Playwright Bertolt Brecht, author Thomas Mann, and composer Arnold Schoenberg all made Southern California their home in the years surrounding World War II and—drawn by the region's favorable climate and the economic opportunities afforded by the Hollywood film industry—scores of other German-speaking exiles joined them.
One of the most prominent exiles to make Southern California home was the German-Jewish author Lion Feuchtwanger, who gave his name to the International Feuchtwanger Society.
Feuchtwanger was an internationally renowned historical novelist whose outspoken criticism of Hitler and National Socialism made him an enemy of the state when the Nazis assumed power in Germany in 1933. Driven into exile in France, Feuchtwanger was imprisoned by French authorities at the outbreak of World War II—an episode that Feuchtwanger recorded in his memoir, The Devil in France, recently revised and republished by the USC Libraries.
In 1940, Feuchtwanger escaped from an internment camp in Vichy France with the help of his wife and several sympathetic Americans, who then smuggled the couple out of Europe. Deciding upon Southern California as a new home, the Feuchtwangers heard of a sprawling 6,000 square-foot house in Pacific Palisades that had fallen into disrepair. Built in 1928 as the Los Angeles Times Demonstration Home, the house was meant to demonstrate not only the latest innovations in household design, but also the attraction of living far from the city's urban core.
Ironically, it was that very isolation that had undercut the house's value - it and others in the neighborhood were seen as too distant from basic amenities such as schools and medical care. The Feuchtwangers bought the estate for only $9,000, renovated the property and promptly filled the house with books.
Smitten by the climate and the ocean, Lion and wife Marta purchased the villa despite its having been thoroughly neglected while in bank foreclosure. Windows were broken, there was a foot of dirt on the floors, and the garden had turned to weeds. Gradually the Feuchtwangers cleaned up the house, purchased second-hand furniture, and with proceeds from Lion’s book sales purchased more lots for privacy. They built paths down the hillside and bridges over the ravines; Marta planted trees and designed flowerbeds with roses and seasonal varieties. Lion’s generous income from movie rights permitted them both to indulge their hobbies—Marta to buy trees and Lion to assemble a new library.
Soon the Feuchtwanger home became a Mecca for friends and compatriots, including fellow émigrés Bertolt Brecht, Thomas Mann and Salka Viertel.
Charles Chaplin was a frequent guest, and Charles Laughton gave Shakespearean readings in the garden. The Feuchtwangers and Manns also took turns hosting large dinner parties at which the men read from their latest manuscripts.
Despite the 8 p.m. curfew imposed on them by the wartime U.S. government, which designated the Germans “enemy aliens,” many of the writers accepted the restrictions and used the long evenings productively, working on their manuscripts.
After the war, the House Un-American Activities Committee charged many of the émigrés with “premature antifascism”—being opposed to fascism before the U.S. entered World War II.
Feuchtwanger was called before the committee and action on his citizenship papers was repeatedly delayed. He appeared before the committee a week before he died (in 1958), missing his final, ironic vindication. Marta was told the day before his death that her citizenship request had been granted and that, had he lived, Lion would have become an American citizen as well.
marta-and-lion_brunnen
Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger. Courtesy of the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, USC Libraries.
villa_aurora
Courtesy of the Pacific Palisades Historical Society Collection, Santa Monica Public Library.
Villa Aurora, as they called the house, soon became a hub of cultural fellowship among the émigré community. The Feuchtwangers were generous hosts and frequently welcomed their fellow exiles, along with American artists and intellectuals, for readings from upcoming works, discussions about art and culture, and to share the latest news from Germany. Feuchtwanger lived in Los Angeles until his death in 1958.
Villa Aurora pipe organ alcove circa 1928
Guests at the Villa were invited to play the pipe organ on the northeast side of the Villa Aurora's living room. Among the noted musicians who played the Villa's organ were Hans Eisler, Ernst Toch and Bruno Walter. Photo courtesy of the Villa Aurora
four notable German exiles stroll through the palisades
A group of German exiles stroll through Pacific Palisades in 1937. From left to right: composer Otto Klemperer, anti-Nazi activist Prince Hubertus von Löwenstein, composer Arnold Schoenberg, and composer Ernst Toch. Courtesy of the Pacific Palisades Historical Society Collection, Santa Monica Public Library.
Brecht and Feuchtwanger at Villa Aurora
kcet
Marta continued to live in the house, pledging it to USC upon her death to establish the Feuchtwanger Institute for the Study of Exile Literature. She also donated Lion’s library (now exceeding 36,000 volumes), their house and the gardens to the university.
His bequeath opened the new and most important chapter in the story of Villa Aurora.
Challenges ensued, most critically the financial support of the Villa. USC’s subtle threat to sell the house to assure the upkeep of the library energized political support in Germany and birthed the idea of the Villa Aurora as an artists’ residence, and the formation of Friends of Villa Aurora, to assure the villa’s financial future.
The Friends, a private nonprofit organization in Berlin, began a major restoration of the house between 1992 and 1994, which involved shoring up the foundation, stabilizing the hillside and replacing all the pipes and electrical circuits.
A major assist in reducing overhead arrived with the designation of the Villa as a Historical Landmark in California, which resulted in a reduction in real estate taxes.
villa aurora today
feuchtwangers_marta
Marta Feuchtwanger in the Villa Aurora courtyard. villa-aurora.org
Villa Aurora is located at 520 Paseo Miramar Pacific Palisades, CA
Paseo2
520 Paseo Miramar, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Ca, google maps
Paseo3
520 Paseo Miramar, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Ca, google satellite maps
text culled from photo sources. The concept of premature antifascism is courtesy the U.S. government.
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ooh la la.....now we're talking.
[/IMG][/IMG] If my grandpa and grandma were there, it was a happening place!
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