Gregory Ain's Boyhood and Early Residences and Workplaces

Gregory Ain at the Beckman House, 357 North Citrus Avenue. Likely Julius Shulman Job No. 094, 1939. Courtesy Gregory Ain Collection, UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections.

While researching a recent article on Irving Gill's Chapin House I was serendipitously led to Lincoln High School where distinguished alum Gregory Ain decided to become an architect while attending in the early 1920s. This prompted the below fascinating Google Earth and archival tour of selected Ain boyhood and early residences and workplaces as his architectural career began to mature into the 1930s.

Ain Residence ca. 1911-1914, 3047 Lafranco Ave., Boyle Heights. From Google Earth.

The above and below photos of the Ain family's still extant residence after moving to the immigrant community of Boyle Heights in 1911 bespeak of Ain's humble proletarian beginnings. Boyle Heights was at the time, and for the next few decades, a mixed, vibrant community of Socialist-leaning Eastern European Jewish immigrants. This environment attracted radical educator and social worker Pauline Schindler where she would land her first teaching job at the Walt Whitman School, "The First Proletarian Day School of the West," in early 1921. Two of Pauline's students at Whitman were Edward Weston's sons Chandler and Brett who were one and three years younger than Gregory respectively. (For much more on Boyle Heights history and the Schindlers' early years in Los Angeles see my "The Schindlers and the Westons and the Walt Whitman School").

Ain Residence ca. 1911-1915, 3047 Lafranco Ave., Boyle Heights. From Google Earth.

Western Comrade, September 1914, front cover.

Western Comrade, September 1914, back cover.

Fascinated and attracted by later Schindler client Job Harriman's socialist and Utopian ideals espoused in the Llano Del Rio's monthly organ Western Comrade, Baer Ain decided to move the family to Llano in 1916. It was here that eight-year old Gregory was exposed to the "learning by doing" philosophy taught in the colony's Montessori and Industrial Schools (see below for example). The colony had the second Montessori School in California. The Principal, Prudence Stokes Brown, attended classes with Dr. Maria Montessori during her four month stay in Los Angeles in 1915. ("Colony Celebrates Anniversery," Western Comrade, May 1915, p. 19 and "Noted Educator at USC," Los Angeles Times, May 21, 1915, p. II-3).

Western Comrade, June 1915, pp. 6-7.

Western Comrade, November 1915, pp. 16-17.

Western Comrade, June-July 1916, p. 22.

Travis, Mildred, "Our Industrial School," Western Comrade, January 1917, pp. 19-20

Travis, Mildred, "Our Industrial School," Western Comrade, January 1917, pp. 19-20

Williams, L. K., "Llano Colonists are Undaunted by Storm," Western Comrade, December 1915, p. 20.

Drafting classes were taught in the colony's Industrial School as were house-building skills which could clearly have been early architectural inspiration for the future proletarian architect. The above photo of Llano boys building their adobe "Clubhouse" clearly presage Ain's 1939 adobe house for close Schindler-Scheyer mutual friends Marjorie Eaton (see below).

Marjorie Eaton Residence, Palo Alto, 1939. Gregory Ain, architect. Photos courtesy of Marjorie's niece Susan Kirk.

Marjorie Eaton Residence, Palo Alto, 1939. Gregory Ain, architect. From the UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Gregory Ain Papers.

"In Llano Del Rio Colony, I say we are experimenting not only with the little children from two and a half years of age to six, but we are extending the spirit and purpose of "Scientific Pedagogy" through the grades. Under a most efficient physical culture and play ground director the children are sweeping and dusting the school rooms, keeping the school yards in order, clearing ground of brush and stone for a garden, turning the soil with their own labor, planting the seed, caring for the horses that are accorded to their use, making bricks and planning and building a club house; they receive the money that is usually paid to a janitor, and with this money they purchase play ground apparatus and other necessary equipment. They are constructing their own swimming pool and are learning to swim and run and play ball as well as to work and study." (Brown, Prudence Stokes, "The Children's House," Western Comrade, March 1916, p. 28).

Lincoln High School, Lincoln Park, ca. 1915. LA Public Library Photo Collection.

Wood shop and upholstery class, Lincolnian Yearbook, Lincoln High School, 1926.

The Ain's moved back to Boyle Heights when Llano sadly did not fulfill Baer's Utopian dreams. Gregory then began attending Lincoln High School in nearby Lincoln Heights (see above) where he took drafting classes and began designing and building furniture in woodshop class presaging his experimentation with bent plywood in the Eames Office during World War II. (For more on Ain's time in the Eames Office see my "Herbert and Mercedes Matter: The California Years").

Ain certainly must have felt at home in the school's wood shop after his early Llano Industrial School exposure. His father thought designing furniture was frivolous and challenged him to build something useful like a garage. At the tender age of 15 Ain designed and built a garage behind the family home at 244 Townsend Ave. (Gregory Ain: The Modern Home as Social Commentary by Anthony Denzer, Rizzoli, 2008, p. 25). This then begs the question whether the below garage behind the still existing, seemingly well-maintained bungalow might have been Ain's first official project.

Baer Ain Residence ca. 1918-1930s, 244 Townsend Ave., Boyle Heights. From Google Earth.

Site of Baer Ain Tire Store, 810 N. Mission Blvd. from the 1926 L.A. City Directory. Image from Google Earth.

University of California Southern Branch, Vermont Ave., ca. 1922. Allison and Allison, architects. From Wikipedia.

The year after Ain finished his garage he matriculated at University of California Southern Branch (see above) to begin his architectural studies and soon thereafter encountered Schindler who was lecturing on "Space Architecture." (Denzer, p. 26). Here Ain may have crossed paths with Schindler-Weston intimate Annita Delano who was teaching art and industrial design and Bertha Wardell who was a fellow dance instructor friend of Pauline Schindler's sister Dorothy Gibling. Shortly thereafter Ain visited the Schindlers' Kings Road House and was soon swept up into their social circle of friends including future clients Galka Scheyer, the Lovells, Marjorie Eaton and Brett Weston as well as Harwell Hamilton Harris, Richard Neutra, Edward Weston and countless others. Once Pauline Schindler learned of Ain's pedigree as a resident of 1924 Schindler client Job Harriman's Llano Del Rio she was a close friend and promoter of Ain and his work for the rest of her life. (For much on Ain's apprenticeship with Neutra and friendship with Delano, Harwell Harris and others see "Foundations of Los Angeles Modernism."  For much on Pauline Schindler's promotion of Ain's work see my "Pauline Gibling Schindler: Vagabond Agent for Modernism." For much more on Ain's time in the Eames Office and Brett Weston during World War II see my "Herbert and Mercedes Matter: The California Years.").

"Girls Aim at Architectural Fame," Los Angeles Times, March 27, 1932, p. IV-3.

Ain enrolled in architecture at USC in 1926 but soon became bored with the Beaux Arts curriculum and left the following year. (Denzer, p. 28). This was about the time of his first visit to Schindler's Kings Road House which reinforced his commitment to a career in architecture. Ain was listed in the 1929 City Directory as living at 2406 Palm Grove Ave. and working as a draftsman for architect Raphael A. Nicolais whose office was then located at 686 S. Vermont Ave. Ain was only in the Nicolais office briefly but likely met Nicolais' daughter Muriel (see above) who would soon serve her apprenticeship under her father's tutelage in his new office in the Art Deco Clem Wilson Building at 5225 Wilshire Blvd. which was under construction at the same time as the Lovell Health House and Bullock's Wilshire.

Clem Wilson Building, 5225 Wilshire Blvd., 1930, Arthur E. Harvey, architect. From LA Public Library Photo Collection.

"Theater Skyscraper Announced," Los Angeles Times, December 23, 1928, p. V-1.

Ain next worked as a draftsman for Seattle architect B. Marcus Priteca whose Los Angeles office was located at 411 W. Seventh St. Priteca's firm specialized in movie houses with the most significant project on the boards during Ain's tenure being the 2800-seat Pantages Theater. The completion of the Pantages plans coincided with the groundbreaking for Neutra's Lovell Health House (see below). It was while still working for Priteca that Ain would meet Richard Neutra. He religiously attended Neutra's lectures at Franz Ferenz's Academy of Modern Art in the Fine Arts Building. It was also in Neutra's "A Practical Course in Modern Building Art" where Ain would meet and befriend a like-minded architectural neophyte Harwell Hamilton Harris, UCLA art and industrial design teachers Annita Delano and Barbara Morgan and her photographer husband Willard (see below).

From left to right, Franz K. Ferenz, Barbara Morgan (kneeling), David Giffen, Ragenhilde Liljedahl (Mrs. Giffen), unknown, unknown, Annita Delano, Richard Neutra, unknown, Harwell Hamilton Harris and Gregory Ain. (E. Merril Owens is one of the three unidentified students). Photo by fellow class-member Willard D. Morgan, early 1929. (See Gregory Ain: The Modern Home as Social Commentary by Anthony Denzer, note 39, p. 234).

Ain married the nineteen-year old Russian-born Agnes Budin on May 11, 1929 shortly after the above photo was taken of Richard Neutra's class field trip at the Lovell Health House. Agnes was a fellow student at Ferenz's Academy of Modern Art and also a member of the "Lovers of Shakespeare Society." She often performed with the group such as a reading of the fifth act of "Coriolanus" at the Los Angeles Public Library in 1927. ("Shakespeare Meeting," Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1927, p. I-11). Ain was also apparently a lifelong kindred lover of Shakespeare evidenced by an anecdote shared by Theodore Lindauer, restorer of Ain's Edward House, with Ain's biographer Tony Denzer after his retirement. "Once we spent the entire evening reading Shakespeare to one another." (Denzer, p. 222).

719 N. Madison Ave., Los Angeles. From Google Earth.

Shortly before moving into Neutra's radically new VDL Research House the Ains were living at 719 3/4 N. Madison Ave. (see above). Richard Neutra was then living and had set up his studio at 1348 Douglas St. (see below) after returning from his year long world tour. Ain worked for Neutra here, likely on the VDL plans, throughout 1931-32 before moving into Neutra's new home at 2348 Silverlake Blvd. in Echo Park (see two below) where he lived and worked before deciding to go it alone in 1935. 

1348 Douglas St., Echo Park. Neutra home from 1931-32.

VDL Research House, 2348 Silverlake Blvd., 1932, Richard Neutra, architect. From Wikepedia.

During 1935-36 Ain worked in a somewhat collaborative arrangement with Harwell Hamilton Harris in his award winning Fellowship Park House in Silverlake. (Denzer, p. 50).  It was here that he designed his first solo project, a second floor addition to his mentor Neutra's 1934 Galka Scheyer House in the Hollywood Hills and his Edwards House. Both erstwhile Neutra classmates were simultaneously gaining their architectural sea legs in an extremely fertile design studio indeed. (See much more at my "Harwell Hamilton Harris and Fellowship Park".).

Fellowship Park House, 2311 Fellowship Park Way, 1935, Harwell Hamilton Harris, architect. Fred R. Dapprich photo.

1121 W. Kensington Rd., Echo Park. From Google Earth.

The 1938 City Directory lists Ain residing at 1121 3/4 W. Kensington Ave. in Echo Park which exhibits some Irving Gill-like elements (see above). By then estranged from Agnes he was about to marry Josephine Cohen on August 12, 1938. 

Shulman duplex, 542-546 N. Cummings St., Boyle Heights. From Google Earth.

Two years younger than Ain, his later photographer of choice, Julius Shulman, also spent his boyhood in Boyle Heights after his family moved there from Brooklyn in 1920. Julius was one year younger and one year older than Chandler and Brett Weston respectively. He was into technology at an early age, well before his renowned passion for photography took root. As a sixteen-year old he built his ham radio station in his bedroom in a still-existing 1905 Mission-Revival duplex located at 546 N. Cummings St. in the Reesmont Tract in Boyle Heights (see above and below). Their shared neighborhood roots and Neutra apprenticeships likely provided a lasting bond for one of the most iconic architect-photographer teams in Southern California. It is fascinating to me that in the fateful year of 1921 Boyle Heights was the mutual focal point for the lives of Ain, Shulman, the Schindlers and the Westons after which they would all remain lifelong friends.  (For much more on Boyle Heights history and the Schindlers' early years in Los Angeles see my "The Schindlers and the Westons and the Walt Whitman School").

Julius Shulman self portrait, 1934. From his Vest Pocket Pictures.

Julius Shulman ham radio station in his bedroom at 546 N. Cummings St., Boyle Heights, 1926. Photo by Julius Shulman from his Vest Pocket Pictures.

Julius Shulman ham radio postcard, 1926. From my collection.

The rest, as they say, is "Architectural History." I'll likely be adding material to this piece from time to time so check back once in a while for updates.

The "Dirt-Proof" House for Adelaide M. Chapin, "Fire-Proof" House for Persis Bingham Cassiday, and West Adams Villas for Anna W. Mills, Irving Gill, Architect

(Click on images to enlarge.)

Irving Gill, ca. 1912.

I was out on a scouting trip with architect and Irving Gill historian John Reed yesterday and was thrilled to be able to show him a Gill he had never seen before, i.e., the Adelaide M. Chapin Residence at 1326 Lucile Ave. in Silver Lake. I was especially excited as Society of Architectural Historians Southern California Chapter founding member Reed is singularly responsible for educating David Gebhard, Robert Winter and Esther McCoy on the location of Gill's (and many other's) treasures in Southern California. (For much more on Reed's important contributions to the historiography of the architectural history of Southern California see my "Selected Publications of Esther McCoy: Patron Saint and Myth Maker for Southern California Architectural Historians." I plan on doing future feature articles on Reed and Gebhard so stay tuned.)

Chapin Residence, 1326 Lucile Ave., 1915, Irving Gill, architect. Photo by John Crosse, May 21, 2014.

I serendipitously discovered the Chapin Residence location while browsing through some 1914 back issues of Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer Magazine (see below). The 1915 Los Angeles City Directory conveniently listed Chapin's address as 1326 Lucile Ave. and her occupation as teacher. In his highly recommended Irving J. Gill, Architect, Bruce Kamerling had the house listed among Gill's "List of Known Projects" as built in 1914 for Miss Adelaide M. Chapin on Lucile St. near reservoir, Los Angeles. The house was also listed  in Thomas S. Hines's important Gill monograph under "The Unbuilt Projects of Irving Gill" with the location being "Lucile Ave. near reservoir." The project was not included at all in Marvin Rand's Gill monograph or Esther McCoy's chapter on Gill in her Five California Architects. I had never seen any other mention of the house until my striking find in SC&M.

"Building Contracts Recorded: Los Angeles," Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer, November 21, 1914, p. 31.

Lincoln High School, Lincoln Park. LA Public Library Photo Collection.

Adelaide Chapin graduated from the University of Chicago with bachelor degrees in education and philosophy in 1908 and was listed as a teacher in the 1911 and 1915 Los Angeles City Directories. She taught drawing and math at Lincoln High School in Los Angeles where she was transferred when the new high school campus was opened in 1914 (see above). She was living at 301 S. Boyle Ave. in the immigrant community of Boyle Heights when she commissioned Gill to build her new home in Silver Lake close to the exciting Edendale-Echo Park neighborhood where Mack Sennett's Keystone Studio (see below) and many others were then becoming established. Charlie Chaplin was starring in his first movies for Sennett when Chapin signed her contract with Gill (see below). 

An early view of Echo Park Lake ca. 1914. Courtesy of the USC Libraries - California Historical Society Collection.

Mack Sennett's Keystone Studio, 1700 block of Glendale Blvd. From LA Public Library Photo Collection.

Charlie Chaplin on the right in his film debut in Mack Sennett's 1914 "Making A Living."

The contract for the house at 1326 Lucile Ave. was let almost simultaneously with the Dodge House contract and likely served as convenient fill-in work for Gill's newly formed Concrete Building and Investment Company. It is entirely possible that R. M. Schindler and Frank Lloyd Wright were shown this residence during their 1915 visits to Southern California to view the Panama-California International Exposition in San Diego. Both visited Gill and Lloyd Wright while in Los Angeles and undoubtedly saw Gill's masterpiece, the Dodge House while it was under construction. (For much more on Schindler's and Wright's 1915 trips to California see my "Edward Weston and Mabel Dodge Luhan Remember D. H. Lawrence" and "Edward Weston, R. M. Schindler, Anna Zacsek, Lloyd Wright, Reginald Pole, Beatrice Wood and Their Dramatic Circles.")

More research led me to an article by Persis Bingham on the affordable "dirt-proof" bungalow published in 1916 in Countryside Magazine and Suburban Life from which the below photos and floor plan are extracted from. 

Chapin Residence entryway from Bingham, Persis, "The Dirt-Proof House," Countryside Magazine and Suburban Life, May 1916, p. 285.

Chapin Residence floor plan from Bingham, Persis, "The Dirt-Proof House," Countryside Magazine and Suburban Life, May 1916, p. 285.

Chapin Residence dining room from Bingham, Persis, "The Dirt-Proof House," Countryside Magazine and Suburban Life, May 1916, p. 285.

Chapin Residence screen porch from Bingham, Persis, "The Dirt-Proof House," Countryside Magazine and Suburban Life, May 1916, p. 285.

Chapin Residence kitchen from Bingham, Persis, "The Dirt-Proof House," Countryside Magazine and Suburban Life, May 1916, p. 308.

Chapin Residence garage, 1326 Lucile Ave., Silver Lake, 1915, Irving Gill, architect. Photo by John Crosse, May 21, 2014.

Chapin Residence, 1326 Lucile Ave., 1915, Irving Gill, architect. Photo by John Crosse, May 21, 2014.

Bingham, Persis, "The Dirt-Proof House," Countryside Magazine and Suburban Life, May 1916, pp. 285, 308.

Chapin, who later became a Christian Science Practitioner, may have been connected in some way to Cornelia Chapin who commissioned Gill's former employees and partners Mead and Requa to build her 1913 Moorish Palomar Apartments with views of the Panama-California International Exposition in Balboa Park (see below). Adelaide's younger sister Joy was a Christian Science Practitioner in San Francisco whose apparent success likely inspired Adelaide to switch careers. (Author's note: Chapin was also connected to Helen Girvin, the principal of Aline Barnsdall's Kindergarten at Olive Hill having sold her a lot in Laguna Heights in late 1921. She thus possibly knew Leah Press Lovell and/or Pauline Schindler. (Santa Ana Register, December 3, 1921).

Palomar Apartments for Cornelia Chapin, San Diego, 1913. From Toward a Simpler Way of Life: The Arts and Crafts Architects of California by Robert Winter, p. 235.

Persis Bingham, the author of "The Dirt-Proof House," was working for Gill at the time of its design evidenced by her signing the building permit on Gill's behalf. She and her future husband Robert M. Cassiday were both listed as draftsmen for Hunt and Burns in the 1915 City Directory. The Hunt and Burns office was in Gill's client Homer Laughlin's Laughlin Building. This was also around the time Gill was designing the Laughlin Theater in Long Beach. In 1916 Cassiday signed a building permit on behalf of Gill for the remodeling of Gill's 1913 Sarah B. Clark residence recently purchased by civil engineer William H. Code. This indicates that Cassiday also worked for Gill between stints with Hunt and Burns before going out on his own after obtaining his license. Bingham went on to become a full-time freelance architectural writer after she married Cassiday in 1917. 

Cassiday's employment with Gill coincided with the launch of Persis's career as a freelance writer of architectural pieces. Two of her first articles were on Gill projects, the above May 1916 Chapin cottage piece, which she drew up the construction plans for, and another on Gill's 1913 bungalow for Ella Giles Ruddy which appeared in the August issue of Bungalow Magazine. Bingham wrote about her transition from an overworked draftsperson to a freelance architectural writer for a fascinating piece in The Editor the following year around the time she and Cassiday were married. She made a fascinating statement in this article which indicates some close collaboration with Gill. 

"I had made a serious study of sanitary kitchen and bathroom construction for several years and chose for this the subject of my first article, partly because I was most familiar with it and partly because it seemed that men as well as women needed enlightenment along this particular line. The article turned out to be about 1800 words in length and as I was fairly good at pen and ink rendering, I illustrated it myself." (Cassiday, Persis Bingham, "Breaking Into the Architectural Magazines," The Editor, June 16, 1917, p. 536).

Through the couple's employment with Gill and Persis's articles on his work the couple became great proponents of his design philosophy. They incorporated many of his design elements for their personal cottage just two blocks north of Adelaide Chapin's house in 1920. Like Chapin's house, the Bingham cottage had, until my recent discovery of its location, also gone totally undetected and misattributed by Gill historians. (Bingham, Persis E., "Fire-Proof Home of Moderate Cost," Keith's Magazine, June 1924).

Gill has been attributed by both Robert Winter and Thomas Hines for the design of the cottage for the Bingham and Cassiday. Recent research confirms that Gill did not do the design. The building permit lists Robert M. Cassiday as the owner but does not name an architect but the June 11 issue of Southwest Builder and Contractor lists him as the designer. Kamerling also does not mention a cottage for either Bingham or Cassiday. Bingham wrote about the house in 1921 article in Sunset, "Three of Us in a Pill Box," which alludes to her husband Big Chief Pill-Box as the designer and makes no mention of Gill. The cottage was certainly Gill-inspired. The article (seen below) describes many features he used in his houses that Persis wrote about in her previous articles on Gill. She also wrote on her beloved Pill Box in a 1924 article in Keith's and a 1930 article in Sunset.

Bingham cottage front yard and floor plan. From "Three of Us in a Pill Box," Sunset, January 1921, pp. 62-4.

Bingham cottage front yard and floor plan. From Gebhard, David, "Irving J. Gill," in Toward a Simpler Way of Life: The Arts and Crafts Architects of California by Robert Winter, p. 207.

Bingham and Cassiday married in 1917 by which time erstwhile architectural designer and drafstwoman Persis had switched to a more lucrative free-lance career writing about Crafstman-Style architecture and other topics for publications such as Sunset, House Beautiful, Sunset, Keith's Magazine, Beautiful Homes, The Craftsman, Countryside Magazine and Suburban Life and others. In an article in a publication geared towards writers, Persis wrote of the opportunities for articles which popped up in the five months since her new child was born, many of which centered upon her new house's Gill-like features. 

"...a small hollow tile home with hollow tile floors, wall safety deposit boxes and many other original ideas in construction. A description of the house, with plan and photograph (see above), sold to Sunset Magazine for $22.00 and was used in the issue being made up at the time they received it, which, I should judge, is the next best thing to the presses being stopped to receive your work. Another more technical description, and twice as long, has gone to an eastern building magazine. 

We made our own slab doors by taking old panel doors and filling in the panels with a substance known as magnesite composition. A short description of this process brought $6.00 and took less than two hours to write. Our floor construction is unique and highly satisfactory. I have just found a magazine devoted to fireproof construction to which I will send an illustrated account of how the floors were made. Also an article on the fire-proof storage vaults will go to the same market." (Cassiday, Persis Bingham, "Opportunities Plus Difficulties," The Editor, June 25, 1921, pp. 67-8).

Persis wrote of additional opportunities presented by her house in a follow-up article, 

"...We needed a splash of color on our grey house as well as shade over one sunny window. The story of how an orange, blue, grey and black awning was bought by the same magazine [Sunset] on its first trip for $12.00. Our kitchen floor is made up of a material called magnesite composition, which we laid ourselves. A description of this process sold to Science and Invention, price not named. (Cassiday, Persis Bingham, "Hardest Problems Easiest to Sell," The Editor, December 2, 1922, p. 74). 

Seemingly unaware that Bingham and Cassiday were married, David Gebhard described the Bingham House thusly, 

"What Bingham received was a fireproof cube house that was easy to maintain. The plain stucco exterior walls were relieved in a painterly fashion by the continually shifting shadow patterns of three large California pepper trees that grew outside. The interior, with its many built-ins, conveyed the feeling of the tight cabin of a small sailboat." (Gebhard, p. 206).

Bingham cottage,  rear of 1634 Edgecliffe Dr., Silver Lake. Robert M. Cassiday, architect, 1920, 1926, 1933, 1934. Photo from Google Earth.

Built at the back of a deep lot like the Chapin house, the Bingham-Cassiday cottage appears to still exist, albeit in a much altered state, with another house built in front of it closer to the street. Field verification should be able to clarify whether the back house above is indeed a still-existing, albeit modified, Cassiday. At any rate, I tracked down the location by first determining that Bingham and Cassiday married in 1917 and that the Cassidays were listed in the 1921 Los Angeles City Directory as residing at 1634 Edgecliffe Dr. (Author's note: Kamerling correctly does not have reference the Bingham house. Hines includes a brief mention on p. 230 of his Gill monograph based on Gebhard's above cited article but states in note 1 on page 271 that "...since Gill's records were lost, and since neither the Bingham nor the Gebhard articles gives the address of Bingham's "Hollywood house," it is impossible to locate it and to know whether or not it still exists. City directories and census records were also unrevealing.").

I also recently discovered another heretofore unknown, or if known, mislocated Gill project at 1655 West Adams Blvd. where in 1917 Gill was commissioned to remodel existing apartments for another teacher, Anna W. Mills (see article below). It is not yet known whether Mills and Chapin knew each other. The project was for some reason mislocated when it was described in the below period article which is likely why no one had discovered it's actual location to date.

"An Electrically Equipped Home in Pasadena," Architect and Engineer, April 1918, p. 111.

"Contract Awarded: Alterations for Apartments," Southwest Builder and Contractor, August 3, 1917, p. 15.