This my angels, is Cary Grant’s Palm Springs estate in the early 1930s before it was Cary Grant’s (I can’t remember the story entirely, but I think it was built originally for a lady fitness enthusiast, don’t quote me on that one) — the style is referred to as Spanish Andalusian:
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http://www.palmspringslife.com/Palm-Springs-Life/November-2010/Movie-Colony-Makeover/
I wonder how they came to call that style ‘Spanish Andalusian’… No Andalusian would ever recognize that sort of architecture as being local. Farmhouses (known as Cortijos) here are in the shape of a square U bolt, the square is then completed by a single wall with a large door/gate which encloses the central patio. The only similarity I can see is the rendering style.
The closest to that style in Spain would be Basque architecture, in fact we see that type of construction a lot on the South West coast of France around Biarritz too.
I was wondering about that… Especially the steeply raked roof – considering where Andalusia is. Thank you for explaining it so beautifully. i suspect it sounded nice to a journalist’s ear in the 1920s, and there you have it 😉
Here’s what a high end Andalusian farmhouse looks like: http://www.zariguella.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/PICT0246.jpg
and a low end one: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JgGjdbflwYE/TmSgb3NRdSI/AAAAAAAAAbo/cYN-M2mfDxQ/s1600/cortijo+01-2.JPG
Whoa! Why do I live in LA? Thank you, V
I, too, was wondering about the designation. Even so—what a place! Though I like real Andalusian architecture as well—thanks for the photos, pinkagendist.
Architectural stylings aside, the place and its surroundings are fabulous!
Have a wonderful weekend!
You too, Marie! My kitchen is torn down to the redwood lathe and studs… Love it!!!
I love looking at these old photographs. Areas and places hardly recognizable today.
Underneath the bad signage and in between the mini-malls a great deal of it still exits… Cary Grant’s house is still there in the Movie Colony, the development is denser than back in the day, but it’s still beautiful.
Nice to hear it hasn’t been plowed over.
I need to seek this one out next time I am in P.S. I do remember seeing it featured in some old interior design magazine.
Some cultural avenger, a defender of taste, should emerge from the heathaze and blow all the bad signage and every steenking mini mall away! Ahem.
I used to walk around when I was younger imagining I was exactly that… How did you know? The things that really steamed me were awful remodels of beautiful old homes.
Just intuition, I guess, or I’m psychic! (That’s “psychic” not “psyCHO!)
Intuitive to the max 😉 !
[…] Way before Leonardo DC, Cary Grant made his winter home in Palm Springs – the Movie Colony […]
[…] into the larger singular gable form. The second, Cary Grant’s Spanish Colonial Palm Springs residence of 1930, a shallow stuccoed gable punctured by deep-set windows and shaded by deep eaves and wood […]
Nicholas, thank you. Architecture is fascinating, so happy that you are blogging!