Fairytale houses dot the Southern California landscape, including neighborhoods of Burbank, Hancock Park, Los Feliz to name just a few. But where did this delightful architecture inspired by medieval Europe come from?
For “Storybook Style: Whimsy in L.A.” Douglas Keister, a photographer-writer who has authored 25 books on architecture from Victorian homes to bungalows, cemetery art to courtyards and cottages. will share images of these half-timbered and turreted, pinnacled and portcullised houses that combine theatrical flair with fine craftsmanship – and large doses of humor.
These old world charmers began in Los Angeles in the early 1920s and were almost forgotten by the late 1930s. Keister will discuss how WWI and Hollywood set makers were responsible for these quaint European-styled dwellings that, according to Keister, “made everyone smile.”
Storybook Style: Whimsy in L.A | Neighborhood Church, Pasadena | March 25 | tickets