I'm always interested in what architects build for themselves and also, as the Engstrums have come up recently, what that family of contractors built for themselves too. I'm focusing on one house in particular.
First, some family history (this is gleaned from several sources on the net. I hope it's at least generally accurate). Frantz Otto ("Frank" or "F.O.") Engstrum was born in Stockholm in 1848, the son of a builder. He engaged in the stone cutting business there, but restless, he emigrated to America. After a short time in New York, he moved to Houston in the early 1870s, marrying Elizabeth Weatherly, originally from Alabama. The couple's three children were born in Houston: Frederick Edgar ("Fred" or "F.E."), Paul and Blanche. Although Frank's construction business was doing well, the Engstrums moved on to San Diego County in 1886 and then fetched up in Los Angeles in 1892 where Frank organized F.O. Engstrum and Co, Contractors at E 5th between Seaton and Colyston (now deep in the Arts District). They lived at 2690 Ellendale Place in West Adams.
After graduating from LAHS and the State Normal School and joining his father's firm, F.E. was married in 1901 to Californian Lydia Maulhardt, soon buying a home at 2704 Ellendale Place. Blanche married Memphian Hugh W Bryson in 1904. (Paul, in contrast to his siblings, seems to have spent his life being the subject of more than his share of
scandalous headlines). The year of his marriage, Bryson bought one third of F.O. Engstrum and Co, becoming Manager, with Frank and Fred retaining the titles of President and Vice President. Bryson, it was said, was particularly skilled at marshaling and deploying the firm's large workforce at the various, and often far-flung, job sites.
By 1908 the Los Angeles Herald was lauding the firm as "the largest contractors west of Chicago". They were fabulously successful, becoming millionaires many times over. The firm ferociously defended the patent on their concrete gravity delivery system, which brought in millions on its own. As well as their famous apartment buildings, The Engstrum, the Rex Arms, The Bryson and The Rampart (they retained title to these, leasing them to managers), they built much in the Historic Core (both business blocks and hotels), many civic buildings (including
notoriously opulent Engine Company No. 23), manufacturing plants and huge projects such as the City Market Buildings and the great Exhibition Hall at Exposition Park. There were also projects in San Francisco and San Diego, Nevada and Arizona. The firm was centered at their vast works at E 5th and Seaton. There were between 900 and 2,000 skilled workers on the payroll at any one time. The three men joined all the right clubs and, together with their wives, were lights of Los Angeles society.
la herald 20 dec 1915
Vacation time was spent at big "cottages" they built in East Newport Beach, but Fred wanted something closer in. By 1913 he and Lydia had three sons, Edgar, Thomas and Fred Jr, then 11, 10 and 9. After considering a seaside bluff site in Santa Monica, he picked 16 hilltop acres on Hollywood's Canyon Drive, in, what is now, The Oaks neighborhood of Los Feliz. CB DeMille built his estate in nearby Laughlin Park the same year. The Engstrum home didn't get a street number until 1938 when it was readdressed as 5771 Valley Oak Drive:
google maps
The home, "Artemesia", was designed by Frank A Brown, an in-house architect with Consolidated Home Builders. He was a vocal admirer of Greene and Greene. Although the Craftsman house is excellent in many ways, it does not get a lot of respect from critics because the interior is English Arts and Crafts, so it's a bit of a mash-up. At over 13K square feet, it is 5K square feet larger than 1908's Gamble House. Alexandre Aurèle Vermeulen laid out the grounds, mostly as forest. It was built as, and remains, the largest Craftsman house in America. The home has two master suites (the second one was for the elder Engstrums, who by then kept a house in town at 601 S Kenmore). The younger Engstrums kept a suite of rooms at the Engstrum Apartments for overnights in town.
la herald, 14 sept, 1914
One hundred and four this year, Artemesia is in close to original condition (it's never been remodeled) after restoration and updating with all new systems by the home's current owner who's been in residence 30 years. Over time, the grounds have been reduced to a bit less than two acres from the original sixteen.
It's for sale.
1.
2.
3. The front terraces:
4. The view past one of Artemesia's iconic lanterns:
5. One of five Murphy beds made up on the sleeping porch:
6. A gable and lantern:
7. The front door:
8. The front hall:
9.
10. The sitting room:
11. Note the Murray Harris
pipe organ on the right. There are hundreds of chimes and pipes stashed throughout the house's three levels:
12. One of six Batchelder fireplaces:
13. A corner of the breakfast room:
14. One of the Master bathrooms with its sky-lit "Grecian plunge":
15.
It would appear that the Engstrums intended Artemesia to be their long-term home, eventually filled with grandchildren.
But something happened in 1917, which I'm not quite clear about. Fred sold Artemesia, just three years after the family moved in, moving to 626 Ardmore, and disbanded F. O. Engstrum and Co, selling its assets at "rock bottom prices":
la herald, 20 jan 1917
The elder Engstrums both died in 1920, Hugh Bryson in 1922 and then Fred in 1923. He was just 49.
Artemesia sold for $12 million in 2018.
https://www.carswellandassociates.co...71-valley-oak/
(Photos 2,3 & 9 from
Zillow, image 4 from
laist and the rest from
Artemesia. Other pix at
LA Curbed.
FW also recommends the pix in
The Architect, Oct 1915 and
Los Angeles Magazine)
Trulia has other photos too.