Ever Wonder Who Designed Your House?

How do I find out who designed my house?

Start with the year. The Los Angeles County Assessor is the first place to check. Its record often gives a year built, though that year can be approximate, and for some houses it is missing. Then look for your street in a city survey or a historic district nomination; those name an architect for some of the houses they document, though many entries give only the year and style. After that come the city's building permits, where they survive, and the building notices printed when houses were permitted or contracted.

This record pulls together surveys, nominations and landmark reports, the building notices of 1917 to 1930, and a partial check of the county's records, and it shows a house only when one of them names its architect. A year page, a neighborhood page or a city page lists every such house it covers, with its year, its architect, the builder and the first family where the documents name them, and the documents behind it; and the register lists every house under each architect the record credits with it. Every house dated 1979 or earlier whose architect the record names is on a page: a house from a year with fewer than 100 of them is on its decade page, and a house with no year on record has a page of its own.

What does the plaque on my house mean?

Usually that the house is a designated landmark or sits in a landmark or historic district, though some plaques come from historical societies rather than the city. A plaque is a marker, not a rule by itself. What you can change on the outside depends on the designation and the city. Pasadena's process is on the certificate of appropriateness page.

Is my house historic if it isn't in a district?

It can be. Some cities have surveyed citywide, not only their districts, and a house outside any district can be rated individually eligible. What that rating means for you depends on the city and on how the house is listed, and each city sets its own rules for houses on its inventory or found eligible in a survey. Before you plan work, ask the city's planning office where your house stands, and I can tell you what this record says about it.

Was my house designed by an architect?

Often the record cannot say, because the documents name a builder and no architect, and a house like that is not on these pages. In 1927, the year with the most houses on this record, 91 of the houses here come from that year's building notices, each with its architect named; a notice without an architect means only that it did not print one. Some architects worked in partnership with a builder, and some drew and built: the Schutt brothers designed fourteen of the sixteen houses on Marguerita Lane and sometimes built them too. Plan companies also sold drawings for builders and owners to build from.

The house itself gives clues. When the same floor plan repeats down your block, one designer may have drawn several at once, and if your neighborhood has a page here it may name him.

Who was the first family in my house?

For 541 of the houses here, the record names the first family beside the architect. For many, the name comes from the notice printed when the house was permitted, so it is the owner who had it built, sometimes a builder building to sell. For others it is the earliest owner a document lists, which can be some years after the house was finished, and the record says so.

When is my house's birthday?

For most houses here, the year comes from a survey, a nomination or a building notice; for a few it is the county's year. For the houses taken from the building notices, the record holds the date of the notice.

Does it help a sale to know who designed my house?

It helps when it is true and stated carefully. Buyers of older houses ask what is original and who made it, and a documented architect answers that better than an adjective. The record also separates the original maker from later work, like the new fronts Bennett & Haskell put on Old Pasadena buildings in 1929, so a listing does not credit an architect with what he did not do.

I built and remodeled homes for twenty years, and I read a house's record before I write a word about it. If you're thinking about selling, Arroyo Casa will start with an in-home market analysis.