Ollie: I couldn’t tell whether the architect was being serious or ironic. It looked like someplace Hansel and Gretel would have stopped at if they were intentionally looking for the witch…
Lois’ “Fairy Tale” house is not based on any specific home, either in the past or present. I came up with it, however, because Los Angeles has had (and still has) a number of such whimsical residences, so much so that they have a unique design name: “Storybook Architecture.”.
Such houses were popular in the 1920s. And, as in the case of Lois’ home, they were often built by studio set designers. Starting with Wikipedia, there are many websites that document the style and provide information about still standing examples. The famous one in Culver City is at 3828 Dunn Avenue, a funny, short little street wedged between Washington and Venice Boulevards right near Sony Studio, which was, for decades, the fabled home of MGM.
This post by blogger Brad Nixon — The Hobbit House in Culver City — provides an excellent history of the multi-unit building, which is officially called Garden Court. (Some good photos.).
The LA Conservancy calls the historically significant building the Lawrence and Martha Joseph Residence and Apartments after its creator/builder Lawrence Joseph. While its bones might date back to the 1920s, it’s a relative new structure: Joseph started the fanciful remodel in the 1940s and finished it in 1970.
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