Collegiate gothic in Los Feliz

When I was a kid, I loved the '60s television show Mr. Novak, starring James Franciscus as a young, sensitive high school English teacher.

A year ago, while exploring Los Feliz, I came across the building (at 3939 Tracy St.) that served as the exterior establishing shots for the series: John Marshall High School.

John Marshall High School, 1931

The collegiate gothic structure was closed from 1975 till 1981 for retrofitting, following the earthquake of 1971.

Establishing shot from Mr. Novak, 1963

The original ornate tympanum over the front doors, as well as the doors themselves, have been replaced by a more modern security entrance, but otherwise the building looks remarkably similar.

A very young Walter Koenig, later Chekov in the original Star Trek series, played a Russian immigrant youth in this episode of Mr. Novak. Still gripping after all these years.

Pyramid scheme

Would you buy a house from this outfit?

Sphinx Realty Co., early 1920s

The sensational discovery of the tomb of "King Tut" (Tutankhamen) in 1922 sent the world into an egyptological frenzy. This savvy operation at 537 N. Fairfax [corrected, per Los Angeles Public Library records] cashed in on the craze.

A quick Google search turns up modern-day Sphinx Realty companies in Atlanta, Chicago, and Worcester, MA.

Tuscan in Sierra Madre

Under the Tuscan sun, or so it seems. But this isn't the outskirts of Florence. It's Sierra Madre.

Villa del Sol d'Oro, Wallace Neff, 1924

In 1924, after an inspiring trip to Italy, prominent tuberculosis physician Dr. Jarvis Barlow commissioned Wallace Neff to design a two-thirds replica of Villa i Collazzi, southwest of Florence, for himself and his wife. The original is sometimes attributed to none other than Michelangelo. (Unfortunately, Diane Kanner's otherwise excellent book on Neff mistakenly pictures a very different-looking villa on Lake Como as the model.)

Villa i Collazzi outside Florence [via Flickr user aldoaldoz]

Neff evidently felt comfortable editing the supposed Michelangelo masterwork, scaling down the overall size while emphasizing the windows, doors, loggias and courtyard. The mottled color was achieved by mixing pigment into the wet stucco.

The Barlow house is now part of the campus of Alverno High School, a private Catholic girls school. (Thanks to Alverno for the links to the photos.)


The school grounds are open on weekends and the building's exterior can be studied at length in situ—just watch out for frequent wedding parties. It's cheaper than a flight to Italy and as close as you're likely to get to a Wallace Neff without being nabbed by security guards.

Crime of the Week

Evidently, these residents of the Hollywood Hills are unaware that all trash containers "must be placed at the curb by 6:00 a.m. on the day of collection, and removed no later than 8:00 p.m. on the day of collection," according to L.A. Bureau of Sanitation regulations.

Blocking the sidewalk 24/7.

These trash and recycling container are left on the sidewalk 24/7 by residents too inconsiderate—or just too lazy—to bring them back onto their premises after collection.

If you have this problem in your neighborhood, the Bureau of Sanitation will send an inspector out if you call this number: 1-800-773-CITY (1-800-773-2489) and provide the address.

Splendid and spiritual in West Adams

I took a short drive down to West Adams and rediscovered the magnificent MacGowan mansion at 3726 West Adams Blvd. This is the kind of endlessly fascinating house that I have dreams about—full of nooks, crannies, alcoves, hidden staircases leading to secret rooms, and perhaps a madwoman in the attic.

3726 West Adams Blvd.

The house, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #479, was designed in an Apline Craftsman style in 1912 by architects Hudson and Munsell for Dr. Grandville MacGowan. A vigilant Los Angeles city health official, MacGowan had proposed in 1889 a law that would make the sale of opium illegal without a prescription, noting that "the servant girls are getting to use it."

The MacGowan house was purchased in 2002 by the organization of baby-faced spiritual guru and relentlessly best-selling author John-Roger, fka Roger Delano Hinkins: the spiritual conversion he experienced in 1963—thanks to a kidney stone—evidently caused Hinkins to drop his original name for the catchier and more marketable hyphenated moniker.

The house now serves as an adjunct facility for the spiritualist's Movement of Inner Spiritual Awareness, which has its headquarters two blocks east in a much more formal 1910 Beaux Arts mansion, also by Hudson and Munsell (Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #478).

3500 West Adams Blvd.

This splendid edifice, which wouldn't look in the least out of place in St. Jean-Cap Ferrat, was originally the home of 19th-century Central Valley grape mogul Secundo Guasti. In Hollywood's heyday of the late 1930s it was owned by choreographer Busby Berkeley. Just imagine the parties . . . .

Le Corbu lite

"It is only the modern that ever becomes old-fashioned."
—Oscar Wilde

Just plain silly.