Elmer Grey

Elmer Grey, FAIA (April 29, 1872 – November 14, 1963) was an American architect and artist based in Pasadena, California. Grey designed many noted landmarks in Southern California, including the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Huntington Art Gallery, the Pasadena Playhouse, and Wattles Mansion. He is credited with being one of the pioneers in the development of the new American architecture in the early 20th century, with a focus on harmony with nature and eliminating features not belonging to the local climate and conditions. Grey was also a noted artist whose paintings are in the permanent collection of the Chicago Art Institute.

Architectural career

Career in the Midwest

Grey was born in Chicago and educated in the Milwaukee public schools. He did not attend college and worked for the Milwaukee architectural firm Ferry & Clas from 1887 to 1899. In 1890, the 18-year-old Grey won first prize in a competition for the design of a water tower and pumping station sponsored by a New York architectural publication. Grey abandoned his Milwaukee practice and traveled to Florida, Philadelphia, and then to Las Vegas, seeking to regain his health. He took up work on a ranch, hoping the hard work would build his strength. He eventually moved to California, spending time swimming, rowing, playing tennis, and fishing on Catalina Island. When he read of a job working on a Hollywood citrus ranch for $25 a month plus board, he took the position. While a French influence was requested by Mrs. Huntington, Hunt & Grey also added elements of a new California architecture by including a red-tile roof, unornamented plaster walls, and sage green window trim.

Association with the Arts and Crafts movement

In 1906, Hunt & Grey designed a home for Dr. Guy Cochran near Downtown Los Angeles that Gustav Stickley's The Craftsman magazine dubbed the "very best" of their work, with enormous windows "looking out upon the terrace and garden, giv[ing] such a sense of relationship between the two that there is almost no feeling of being enclosed within walls." The Craftsman referred to Hunt & Grey as "pioneers in the development of the new American architecture", which was "but a series of individual plans adapted to the climatic conditions and to the needs of daily living" and in harmony "with the natural environment and contour of the landscape." Grey also emphasized simplicity, once writing that "the greatest fault that can be found with the architecture of Southern California is that which may be found with all American architecture to a greater or lesser extent, namely, a lack of simplicity."

Though often associated with the Craftsman movement, Grey's structures reflect a wide variety of styles, including Beaux Arts, Mission Revival, and English Tudor. One Grey biographer wrote: "While Grey shared a number of beliefs with Stickley and the Arts and Crafts movement, his catholic, traditionalist taste and disposition would not allow him to become an exponent of any one movement. The woodsy, informal image of the Arts and Crafts house was simply one of many that he might employ. ike Charles and Henry Greene, he transformed the low-art Arts and Crafts dwelling into a sophisticated high-art object."

The church Grey designed for the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Los Angeles was later used by Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple immediately prior to the 1978 Jonestown tragedy.

Artist and author Grey was also an artist who painted in both oils and watercolors. He painted Southern California landscapes, and his watercolors are on permanent exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute.

For several years in the 1920s, Grey's nervous condition again forced him to cease working as an architect, though he returned to his practice in 1929. During the 1930s, he also tried to obtain work as a set designer in Hollywood. Grey later returned to Pasadena in his retirement; he died in November 1963 at age 91 in the Pasadena mansion he had built for himself. Thomas H. Foote House, East Colorado Street, Pasadena, CA (1905) (with Myron Hunt) J.W. Gillespie House, Montecito, CA (with Myron Hunt) Livingston Jenks House, 1000 Vallejo, Russian Hill, San Francisco, CA (1905) Ingraham Hotel, Ingraham and Orange Streets, Los Angeles, CA (1906–08) (with Myron Hunt) Dr. Guy H. Cochran House, Loma Drive, Los Angeles (1906) (with Myron Hunt)

1907 Paine House, Pasadena, CA (1907) (with Myron Hunt) L.H. Nares House, Beverly Hills, CA (1907) (with Myron Hunt) Wattles Mansion, 1824 N. Curson Ave., Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA (1907) Valley Hunt Clubhouse, South Orange Grove and Palmetto Avenues, Pasadena, CA (1907) (with Myron Hunt) Walter Ransome Leeds House, Berkeley Square, Los Angeles, CA (1907) (with Myron Hunt) Chester Montgomery House, Berkeley Square, Los Angeles, CA (1907) (with Myron Hunt) Polytechnic Elementary School, Pasadena, CA (1907) (with Myron Hunt) and addition (1912–1913)

1908-1910 William R. Nash House, N. Orange Grove Blvd. near San Rafael Bridge, Pasadena, CA (1908) (with Myron Hunt) A.S. Gaylord House, San Rafael Heights, Pasadena, CA (1908) (with Myron Hunt) Throop Polytechnic Institute, Campus Plan, Pasadena, CA (1908) (with Myron Hunt) Dr. J.A. Scherer House (Pres. of Throop Polytechnic), Pasadena, CA (1908) (with Myron Hunt) Men's Dormitory and other buildings at Claremont College, Pomona, CA (1908) (with Myron Hunt) Henry Huntington House, later converted into the Huntington Library and Art Museum, San Marino, CA (1908) (with Myron Hunt) Throop Hall, Pasadena, CA (1909) (with Myron Hunt) Throop Polytechnic Institute, Pasadena Hall, Pasadena, CA (1908–10) Edward D. Libbey House, Ojai, California (1909) (with Myron Hunt) Gartz Court, Pasadena, CA, (1910) (with Myron Hunt) on the NRHP in Pasadena E.M. Neustadt Mansion, West Adams St. and Western Ave., West Adams, Los Angeles (1910) (with Myron Hunt) Dormitories at Occidental College, Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, CA, and Throop Polytechnic (1910) (with Myron Hunt) J.N. Burnes House, El Molino and Pinehurst, Oak Knoll, Pasadena, CA (1910) (with Myron Hunt)

1911-1920 Addison Lysle House, Garfield Ave. and El Monte Rd., Alhambra, CA (1911) Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA (1911) Hawkins House, Reno, NV (1911) Julius Seyler Bungalow, South Pasadena, California (1911–1912) First Church of Christ Scientist, Long Beach, CA (1913) Robert C. Gillis House, Santa Monica, CA (1913) First Congregational Church of Riverside, CA, 1913, (with Myron Hunt) on the NRHP in Riverside County E.M. Neustadt House, Altadena, CA (1913) Dr. Clifford Webster Barnes House, 999 S. San Rafael Ave., Pasadena, CA (1913) Elmer Grey House, 1372 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena, CA (1912) W. Sias House, Oak Knoll, Pasadena, CA (1912–13) John Luckenbach House, Hillhurst Park, Hollywood, CA (1914) First Church of Christ Scientist, 661 Bryant Street, Palo Alto, CA (1916) Rew-Sharp House, Coronado, CA (1918) Stafford W. Bixby House, Hillhurst Park, Hollywood, CA (1919)

1921 on Harvey Mudd House, Benedict Canyon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA (1922) Pico Heights Branch Library, Connecticut and Oxford Streets, Los Angeles, CA (1923) Pasadena Playhouse, Pasadena, CA (1924) Bowen House, 336 Hudson Ave., Hancock Park, Los Angeles CA (1925) Colony Club, Santa Monica, CA (1925) R.H. Cromwell House, Bel Air, Los Angeles CA (1925) A.N. Kemp House, Canyon Vista Park, overlooking Santa Monica Canyon and Brentwood Country Club (1925) Bel-Air Bay Club, 16801 Pacific Coast Highway Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, CA (1927) Charles J. Wild House, Fremont Place, Los Angeles, CA (1930) Lincoln Shrine, Redlands, CA (1932) Charles J. Wild House, Altadena, CA (c. 1932) Mrs. J.M. Goss Studio, Pasadena, Ca (c. 1932)

Selected published works "'A New Movement in American Architecture': Is It a Healthful One?" (1900) The planning of Christian Science church edifices (1916)