The Schutt Brothers.
Denman and Burton Schutt, Marguerita Lane and beyond, 1927 to 1930.
In 1927 Dr. Alexander Schutt planned Marguerita Lane, a private dead-end street off South Marengo Avenue in Pasadena, as a private street of artist studios, an artists' colony. His sons, Denman and Burton Schutt, designed fourteen of its sixteen houses, Denman alone or the two as the Schutt Brothers, and sometimes built them too. The street was developed from 1927 to 1930 and listed on the National Register in 2009. This record credits the brothers on 14 houses.
Who were the Schutt Brothers?
Denman and Burton Schutt, sons of Dr. Alexander Schutt, both born in Racine, Wisconsin, and schooled in Bismarck, North Dakota, and Pasadena. Denman opened his architecture office in 1927, later changed his surname to Scott, and died in 1948. Burton, born in 1906, opened his own office in 1930 after working briefly in Hawaii, designed numerous houses and commercial buildings, mostly in Bel-Air and Beverly Hills, is best known for the Bel-Air Hotel of 1945, and died in 1954.
What is Marguerita Lane?
A 1.65-acre private street of sixteen small Spanish Colonial Revival houses, 900 to 1,500 square feet each, with red clay tile roofs, built from 1927 to 1930. Denman Schutt or the Schutt Brothers designed fourteen of them, sometimes also as the contractor. The first owners included Alexander and Burton Schutt themselves, and William A. Coombs, who is named as first owner of six of the houses.
Did the Schutt Brothers work anywhere else?
Yes. The 1927 building records list them as builders in San Marino and elsewhere in Pasadena, on houses for which the notices name no architect, so those houses are not on these pages.
Who can tell me about my house on Marguerita Lane?
I can. I'm Greg Anderson of Arroyo Casa. On a street of sixteen houses, the details the record holds matter: who designed the house, who first owned it, and how close it still is to the plan of 1927. Send me the address and I'll tell you what the record says.
Every building credited to the Schutt Brothers.
Buildings the record credits to Schutt Bros., Denman Schutt, in the order they were built. Commercial buildings and courts are included here because they are part of the maker's work; the neighborhood, city and year pages list houses only.
How this record is built.
This record is compiled by the Arroyo Casa Archive of Records from public documents: city and county historic resources surveys and inventories, National Register nominations, landmark designation reports and council records, planning documents and preservation groups' publications, plus the building notices of 1917 to 1930, printed as houses were permitted, contracted or announced. Where a house was matched to the Los Angeles County Assessor's record at the same address in the same city, the page says whether the county confirms it standing. A house is shown only when one of those documents names its architect, and the builder and the first family are shown beside the architect where a document names them. Each house carries the kind of document behind it, and a credit the document itself calls likely, probable, possible or attributed is marked attributed. The methodology and every source document are on one page.
Find who designed your house.
Every house has a birth year. Start with the owner's guide: how to find who designed and built your house, who lived in it first, and what this record already holds.
ArroyoCasa.com · (310) 402-8430 · greg@arroyocasa.com
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