Frank Mead: 'A New Type of Architecture in the Southwest,' Part II, 1907-1920

See Part I at: "Frank Mead: 'A New Type of Architecture in the Southwest,'Part I, 1890-1906"

(Click on images to enlarge)

Frank Mead, ca. 1914. Courtesy San Diego History Center. (Author's note: Thanks to San Diego architectural historian Erik Hanson I was made aware of this only known image of Mead.

Part II of the Frank Mead saga picks up in San Diego in 1907 when he began his short-lived, but historically consequential, partnership with Irving Gill. It is not yet known when Mead and Gill first crossed paths. Mead was in Southern California, possibly for the first time, during June-July of 1903. He came specifically to meet Charles Lummis shortly after befriending George and Natalie Curtis (see below) likely at the Hopi Pueblo at Oraibi. (Mead, Part I and Ladies of the Canyons by Lesley Poling-Kempes. University of Arizona Press, 2015, , p. 41).

George and Natalie Curtis playing a hand game with High Chief, Oklahoma, December 1904. From NatalieCurtis.org. Courtesy of Al Bredenberg. (Author's note: High Chief wrote the Foreword for Natalie's The Indians' Book  and addressed it "To the Great Chief at Washington [Teddy Roosevelt], and to the Chiefs of Peoples across the Great Water.")

Mead visited again in early 1906 on an exploratory trip after resigning from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. (Mead, Part I). It appears unlikely that the future partners would have crossed paths in 1903 but it seems more plausible that they could have met in March of 1906 as Gill was beginning to spend more time in Los Angeles around that time. (See my "Gill-Laughlin, Part I" for example). Mead may have made his way as far south as San Diego on that visit as well. There is about a year long gap unaccounted for in Mead's biography between his late March 1906 return to New York and the first evidence of his presence in San Diego in May of 1907 when his name originally appears on the Melville Klauber Residence plans in partnership with Gill. Perhaps Mead had been on another one of his wanderlust-driven trips abroad. He also likely reconnected with the Curtises in New York while Natalie was wrapping up work on The Indians' Book. (Mead Part I). (Author's note: I also speculate that Mead might have followed his close friend Lon Megargee to New York during the latter's studies at the Art Students League or any combination of the above).  

Gill cottages, 3732-34 1st St. (now Robinson Mews). Courtesy UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Collection.

Mead plausibly could have been working with Hebbard and Gill as early as mid-1906 as many historians suggest but until concrete evidence surfaces I speculate that some version of the former scenarios is more likely. Furthermore, there is no trace of Mead in the 1906 San Diego City Directory. He is first listed in 1907 in partnership with Gill and residing in one of Gill's cottages at 3732 1st St. (now Robinson Mews). (See above). Another indication that Mead had most likely not been employed by Hebbard and Gill in 1906 is that he obtained his State of California architectural license sometime in July 1907. ("Personals," American Architect and Building News, August 10, 1907, p. 27). 

It is also not yet known what prompted Mead to return to Southern California. The construction boom following the San Francisco earthquake may have been a factor. Also, during Mead's time with the Bureau of Indian Affairs he certainly would have been aware of the work of Gill colleagues Harrison Albright and Charles Whittlesey who were both busy designing numerous projects for the Santa Fe Railway and Fred Harvey Company in Arizona and New Mexico. By the time of Mead's arrival Albright had established offices in both Los Angeles and San Diego and Whittlesey had an office in Los Angeles. (Gill-Laughlin, Part I). In any event Gill and Mead formed a partnership by at least May of 1907 with an office in the Hebbard and Gill designed First Methodist Episcopal Church at the northeast corner of 4th and D Streets in San Diego. The church was completed around the time Hebbard and Gill dissolved their partnership (see below). (San Diego City Directory, 1907).

First Methodist Episcopal Church of San Diego, northeast corner of D and 4th Sts., Hebbard and Gill, architects, 1905-07.

The particulars of the Hebbard and Gill split are unclear but it has been speculated that the rift may have resulted over a scandal regarding their 1907 Nevill Goff Residence (see below). It is not known whether Mead was as yet associated with the firm during this project but the below design indicates plausibility. Gill was apparently accused by the City of San Diego sewer inspector of ordering a workman to break into the public sewer line to drain off standing water under the house, causing debris and sand to clog the line. Gill denied the charges but the negative press from a lengthy April 26th article in the San Diego Union might have prompted the strait-laced Hebbard, a founding member of the State of California Architectural Licensing Board, to sever ties with Gill. (Irving J. Gill, Architect by Bruce Kamerling, San Diego Historical Society, 1993, p. 44).

Goff House, 3580 5th St., San Diego, Hebbard and Gill, architects, 1907. Courtesy UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Collection.

Gill and Mead were undoubtedly comparing their creative ideas and anxious to try them out unfettered by the probable domineering eclecticist influences of Gill's senior partner Hebbard. Strongly imbued with Mead's earlier Moorish and recent Pueblo sensibilities and Gill's significant exposure to California Mission influences, the new partners synthesized the creation of "A New Type of Architecture in the Southwest." (See for example Curtis, Natalie, "A New Type of Architecture in the Southwest," The Craftsman, January 1914, pp. 330-335).

Front (east) elevation, Melville Klauber Residence, 3060 6th Ave., San Diego, Gill and Mead, drawing by draftsman Maury Diggs, May 3, 1907. Courtesy UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Collection.

The earliest date I have found placing Mead in association with Gill is May 3, 1907 when the Gill & Mead banner first appears on plans for the Melville Klauber House prepared by draftsman Maury Diggs (see above). The son of pioneer San Diego wholesale and retail grocer Abraham Klauber, Melville was at the time vice-president of the National Bank of Commerce, first vice-president of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce and co-manager of Klauber-Wangenheim food empire with his brother Hugo (see family portrait).

The Klauber family in the Abraham Klauber Residence, northeast corner of 30th and E, San Diego, 1902. Upper row: Victor Hugo Klauber, Elvira (Ella ) Klauber Wormser, Melville Klauber, Laura Klauber, Edgar Klauber, Middle Row: Theresa Klauber, Abraham Klauber, Alice Klauber, Lower row: Laurence Klauber (seated at left), Leda Klauber, and Stella Klauber. Courtesy of Philip Klauber.

The Klauber clan resided at the northeast corner of 30th and E Streets in an 1880s Victorian affectionately known as "Coyoteville" (see below). (Klauber, Allen S., "90 Years in San Diego: The Story of the Klauber-Wangenheim Company," San Diego History Center.).

Abraham Klauber Residence from 1886-1921 aka "Coyoteville," northeast corner of 30th and E, San Diego. Date and architect unknown. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

South and east elevations, Melville Klauber Residence, 3060 6th Ave., San Diego, Gill and Mead, 1908. Photographer unknown, ca. 1908 with Gill's 1908 Sherwood Wheaton House at far right. Courtesy UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Collection.

There was a flurry of design activity on the house during May and June. After a long summer pause design resumed in September and continued sporadically through the following February by which time Mead's name no longer appeared on the plans. A permit was finally issued to Gill alone in March of 1908 around the time Mead was nearing completion on the Allen House in Bonita (see discussion later below). (Author's note: Melville's artist sister Alice, who would later become best friends with Natalie Curtis, left for Europe to study under William Merritt Chase on May 18, 1907 and did not return until December 11th by which time the Gill-Mead partnership had been dissolved. From Alice Ellen Klauber and Friends by Martin E. Peterson). 

It is not known whether Mead met later close friend Alice before she left for Europe or if she played any role in Mead and Gill landing the commission. Although all sources list the Klauber House as being completed in 1907 the building permit was not issued until March of 1908 as Mead and George Curtis were preparing to depart for Indian country. ("To Erect $21,000 Home at Beautiful Pasadena [sic],", LAH, March 15, 1908, p. III-5).

The Melville Klauber house still exhibited some of the Hebbard and Gill design tendencies such as the pitched roof and prominent eaves. Previous eclectic ornamentation was replaced by prominent cubic massing perhaps inspired by Mead's recent four years of direct exposure to vernacular Pueblo architecture (see the southeast and northwest views above and below). 

North and west elevations, Melville Klauber Residence, 3060 6th Ave., San Diego, Gill and Mead, 1908. Photographer unknown, ca. 1908. From Irving J. Gill, Architect by Bruce Kamerling, San Diego Historical Society, 1993, p. 47.

Artist studio in the Melville Klauber House from Hines, p. 95.

 Residence for Wheeler Bailey, 7964 Princess St., La Jolla, Gill and Mead Architects, Grant Building, Maury Diggs, draftsman, June 27, 1907. Courtesy UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Collection.

Design work began on the Wheeler Bailey Residence in June. It is not known for certain how the commission materialized but it appears to most likely have arisen from the kindred affinities of Bailey and Mead for all things Indian. This is supported by the Indian decor selected for the house and the later close mutual friendships of Bailey, Mead, Alice Klauber, and George and Natalie Curtis which will be greatly elaborated upon later below. (Author's note: It is also bolstered by Bailey's apparent choice of Mead and Requa for the design of his Japanese servant's quarters ca. 1912-13 and his 1915 "Hopi House" and his brother-in-law Francis Wyman's selection of the duo to design his 1913 summer home forming the eastern anchor of their Princess Street compound in La Jolla.).

Wheeler Bailey, ca. 1908. Photographer unknown.

Bailey (see above) was a prominent San Diego businessman who supplied the local construction industry with building materials such as lumber, Portland cement, bricks, and hollow block tile. Bailey managed San Diego's Wyman, Gruendike and Company founded in 1888 by his brother-in-law Francis O. Wyman. Wyman was also President of the Union Lime Co., Summit Lime Co., Golden State Portland Cement Co. and Los Angeles Lime Co. in Los Angeles with which Bailey was also affiliated. Co-founder Jacob Gruendike was also President of San Diego's First National Bank. Wyman, who became a Mead client in 1913 as discussed later below, married Bailey's sister Emma in Ohio in 1875. (Press Reference Library, International News Service, Los Angeles, 1915, p. 525). Bailey took over the San Diego business under the name W. J. Bailey Company in 1905. (San Diego City Directory, 1905). (Author's note: Wyman was also a likely connection to Mead's 1917 Orrin W. Robertson commission in Ojai as Robertson was also also affiliated with numerous Midwestern Lime companies and listed as President of the Union Lime Company in Milwaukee in 1912. Wyman also headed the Genoa and Rocky Ridge Lime Company in Toledo likely placing him in the Edward D. Libbey circle as discussed later below.).   

Wheeler Bailey Residence, 7964 Princess St., La Jolla, Gill and Mead, architects, 1907.

Southwestern Pueblo-influenced stepped parapets and arching Mission-style window openings accentuated "Hilero's" 2-story cubist shape. A carryover from his well-publicized 1901 Stratford Lodge project, Mead's entryway and side porch pergolas were one of his singular design elements which would reappear in his work throughout his career. (Gill-Laughlin, Part I). From this point on Gill also adopted pergolas as one of his more favored and frequently used design elements. ("Stratford Lodge Near Bryn Mawr, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Designed by Keen and Mead, Architects," House and Garden, June 1901, pp. 1-8 and Mead, Part I). 

Bailey House circular east elevation pergola, Curtis, p. 333. Photo by Natalie Curtis.

Wheeler J. Bailey Residence, La Jolla, 1907, Gill & Mead, architects. Courtesy of UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Archive. 

Frequent House and Garden contributor Eloise Roorbach referenced Mead's strong vernacular Pueblo influences in taking advantage of the site's uneven terrain (see above for example). 

"The ground must not be leveled. It was as uneven as the waves of the sea. Huge boulders and small stones were outcropping in every direction. He selected as smooth a place as possible, and ordered the men to match the heap of reddish rocks into a foundation. Of course, the top of the foundation is level but the foundation of it fits into the ground as if it had grown there. The inside of the foundation was a mixture of upstanding boulders and hollows. The rooms were built to fit them! Every room has a floor on a different level." (Roorbach, Eloise, "A Seaside House That Fits Its Site," House and Garden, June 1914, pp. 453-5, 485-6).

Roorbach was similarly impressed with the decor. 

"Indian rugs are on the floor and hang from the balcony. Indian baskets are on the walls, holding brown grasses or gay flowers. They are used for waste paper baskets; rows of them are on the shelves. Indian pottery, saddle ornaments, blankets, etc. have been placed in decorative ways here and there. The table runners, pillow covers, even some of the book and magazine covers, have been ornamented with a pattern from the Indian rugs. Where it has not been possible to keep strictly to the Indian scheme of things he has filled out with material in similar colors from Mexico." (Ibid, pp. 485-6).

Ibid, p. 453.

Bailey and Mead seemingly took great pleasure in selecting from their collections the distinctively Southwestern decor for the dramatic La Jolla bluff-top aerie. Bailey's description of the choice in piano coloration is a case in point. (Author's note: Mead kept most of his collection in his and Gill's office evidenced by the diaries of George Curtis and discussed later below).

"I confess I rebelled when they suggested it. A red Steinway! (See upper left). It seemed sacrilege; but at length I agreed. They scraped the ebony slime off and laid over it an opaque red, not harsh or crude, as I had imagined, but a light, flat Chinese red. And they were right; for now the piano belongs to the room, and the room belongs to the house, and the house belongs to the sea and the sky and the cliff." (Curtis, Natalie, "A New Type of Architecture in the Southwest," The Craftsman, January, 1914, p. 332).

Original sheet music stand for the red Steinway currently on display at "Hilero." Photo by the author, June 29, 2016.

Roorbach was similarly fascinated with the impact the red piano contributed to the overall mood of the the unique home. Her closing paragraph exemplified Mead's handiwork,

"The crowning touch of originality is in the piano. The dark mahogany of the Steinway grand seemed to him to be a jarring note. It did not look at all like the rest of the room. With such courage as only a man can show, he painted it a rich Indian red! Not a common coat of paint, but a soft, rich sort of lacquer. Not a woman on earth would have ventured so original a trick. It would appear a most shocking absurdity in the ordinary drawing-room, but here, where he has had the joy of doing everything just as he wanted to, it is entirely suitable. The flood of sunlight pouring into the room, the sparkle and glitter from the ocean, seen through them, the barbaric coloring mellowed by the shadows from the high ceiling, the Indian-red piano, with a great, round bowl of sprawling sprays of red geranium, the flame of the open fire, combine to make as cheery, harmonious and original a room as can be found anywhere. It is full of the charm that always comes from a fearless expression of taste. It is a man's picture, his own technique, his own idea of comfort and cheer. It is complete, and left me nothing to suggest in the way of homey contrivances that make for convenience. Never could there be a neater home. My doubts as to man's ability to build pleasantly are stilled for ever." (Roorbach, p. 486).

(Author's note: Bailey's keen interest in collecting Indian artifacts and his later commissioning of Mead (and Requa) to design his adjacent servant's quarters ca. 1912 and adjoining Pueblo Revival style "Hopi House" in 1914 illustrate his kindred appreciation of his considerable Bureau of Indian Affairs experience among the reservations of the Southwest (see discussion later below).

Bailey House interior, Kamerling, p. 51.

 

Roorbach was also intrigued by the multi level design.

"Every room has a floor on a different level. ... The large reception room is up a step or so. From this room one steps up to the fireplace "snuggery." The dining room is reached by mounting four or five steps (see above). The kitchen is down a few inches around the corner. The guests' rooms are reached from a balcony that runs across one end of this large reception room. The bath room is down a step from this level. His bedroom is up a step or so. An outdoor sleeping porch must be stepped down into. There is a little writing room under the main stairway." (Roorbach, p. 454).

Bailey House dining room, Kamerling, p. 51.

Of the cowhide chairs in the dining and living rooms most likely designed by Mead Curtis wrote, 

"The chairs were the most original note in the room. They were copied from Spanish-Cuba, and were a sort of camp-chair with back and seat of cow-skin, the hide with all its decorative markings of black, white or red, being uppermost, tacked to the wooden frame with big brass nails." (Curtis, p. 333).

Lanier Hotel, Third and Ash Sts., San Diego, Hebbard and Gill, architects, 1908.

If Mead worked for Hebbard and Gill before he and Gill first teamed up for the Melville Klauber House in May of 1907 it might well have been during the design of the Lanier Hotel (see above). The hotel was a family enterprise for the Lanier family headed by Ward Crockett Lanier's widow Dora and her sons Fortune, who managed the hotel after its opening, and his brother Lufay. (1908 San Diego City Directory, pp. 328-9). Ward Lanier headed the West Point Manufacturing Company, a textile mill in Chattahooche, Tennessee before his passing in 1898. Dora moved the family to San Diego and commissioned the hotel to provide the family a steady source of income. The site was strategically located between Balboa Park and the heart of downtown San Diego.

The building permit for the Lanier was not issued until the Bailey House was completed in early November. There is seemingly a connection as Wheeler Bailey moved into the Lanier upon its early 1908 completion where it served as the confirmed bachelor's town home until 1913 when he moved into "Hilero" full time. (San Diego City Directories, 1908-1913). Bailey would have befriended the Laniers who also resided in the stylish hostelry during his entire time there.

Lanier Hotel, Third and Ash Sts., San Diego, Hebbard and Gill, architects, 1908.

Judging from the hotel's interior design and decor, including the red-hued piano in the lobby (see above), it seems plausible that Mead had a hand in at least the interior design. Even though groundbreaking did not take place until just before design began on the Russell C. Allen House in early November, the hotel was likely finished before Mead and Curits left San Diego in late April. Thus it seems plausible that if Mead did indeed play a part in creating the interiors, that could well have been what attracted Bailey to select the Lanier as his in-town residence. ("San Diego, Cal.," Carpentry and Building, November 1907, p. 204. Author's note: Mead was still in San Diego until mid-April 1908 overseeing construction on the Allen House so might also have assisted Bailey in decorating his new rooms at the Lanier.).

Period ad, Lanier Hotel, Third and Ash Sts., San Diego, Hebbard and Gill, architects, 1908. Note that front porch was enclosed by the time of this ca. 1915 image.

After publication of her book in the fall of 1907 Natalie planned a book tour to personally thank and present copies to her most esteemed collaborators and contributors. With winter rapidly approaching in New York, she and George packed their trunks and books with great anticipation to get back out among their friends in the Southwest. They headed directly to Southern California to reunite with arguably their most helpful collaborator, and by then dear friend, Frank Mead in San Diego. Obviously having been corresponding with the Curtises, Mead picked them up at the station the Tuesday before Thanksgiving from where they checked into their hotel. (George De Clyver Curtis Diaries, November 26, 1907, Charles E. Young Research Library (GDC)). 

The Indian's Book by Natalie Curtis, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1907.

For all his previous assistance Natalie proudly presented Mead with a warmly inscribed copy of her pride and joy, The Indian's Book (see above), in which she prominently acknowledged his considerable contributions. (Ibid, p. 329).  She would have been particularly pleased to show Mead Roosevelt's letter of endorsement included in the book's front matter (see below). Before some sightseeing the next morning, Mead eagerly introduced the siblings to his like-minded client Wheeler Bailey. Learning of Natalie's superlative piano skills Bailey immediately invited the group to "Hilero" to spend the following weekend and proudly show off his dramatic red Steinway. (George De Clyver Curtis Diaries, November 27, 1907, Charles E. Young Research Library (GDC)).

Roosevelt letter of endorsement,  The Indian's Book by Natalie Curtis, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1907, p. xix.

Russell C. Allen House, Bonita, Gill and Mead, architects, 1908. Courtesy of UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Archive.

Thanksgiving morning Natalie was too ill to leave the hotel. Mead and George were met in Chula Vista by Mead's then client Russell C. Allen who drove them to the construction site of the new home Mead was building for him and his family in Bonita in the Sweetwater Valley (see drawing above). The group celebrated Thanksgiving dinner during which the conversation certainly centered upon Allen's connections with Charles Lummis and Teddy Roosevelt and his role as a member of the Warner's Ranch Commission (see below). Natalie and George would also have learned firsthand of the Commission's work from Lummis during their 1902-03 visit to Los Angeles (as discussed in Part I ). Allen and Mead would already have discussed in great detail their similar roles in trying to assist the Cupeño and the Yavapai in finding permanent homes. They also would have discussed George and Natalie's travels recording Indian songs and proudly shown him Natalie's The Indian Book. George accompanied Mead on a construction site visit to the Allen House again the following Monday. (GDC, November 28 and December 2, 1907).

Warner's Ranch Commission camp at Monserrate Ranch, June 19-21, 1902. Charles Fletcher Lummis (center), Charles Partridge, Russell C. Allen and photographer Edward H. Davis (far right). From Lummis, Charles, "Turning Over a New Leaf," Out West, May 1903, p. 592.

Anna Held's Green Dragon Colony, La Jolla, n.d. Photo by William Henry Jackson. From Denver Public Library Digital Collections.

George and Natalie next spent a long weekend at "Hilero" with Mead in early December. Bailey came out twice during their time there. Natalie was likely the most accomplished pianist to perform on Bailey's red Steinway up to that point. While in La Jolla they received guests including Max and Anna Held Heinrich from their nearby Green Dragon Colony (see above). Natalie likely entertained the callers by playing Chopin and Indian songs on Bailey's red Steinway. A close friend of Anna's, Madame Helena Modjeska (see below), often stayed in "The Ark" at the Green Dragon and presided over the August 31st mid-construction housewarming for "Hilero" three months before the arrival of the Curtises. (Bailey Archive in custody of the Reynolds family). George and Mead made another visit to "Hilero" the following week again entertaining Anna Held Heinrich and friend. (GDC Diaries, December 12, 1907). 

Madame Helena Modjeska, ca. 1907. From Stage Whispers by Carla Cushman.

From the left, Wheeler Bailey, George Curtis, Augusta "Mimsey" Curtis, Wheeler North and Natalie Curtis at the Bailey House, La Jolla, April 28, 1913. Photo likely by Alice Klauber who appears in other shots. Courtesy of Al Bredenberg from the Natalie Curtis Archive.

The overall impression "Hilero" made on visitors was most glowingly recorded by Natalie, 

"Those days at "Hilero" were to us a sort of California idyll, a song of the Pacific coast; and we felt that the charm of the house lay in the fact that it seemed the very voice of California. History, tradition and the spirit of the country seemed blended into it. Later on I realized that it was Mr. Mead's aim to make each house the expression of its environment and that what seemed in him a natural impulse toward the picturesque, was also the fruit of study and much conscientious thought." (Curtis, Natalie, "A New Type of Architecture in the Southwest," The Craftsman, January, 1914, p. 334).

Gill and Mead's Allen House was the short-lived partnership's most strikingly modernistic creation. Design began in November of 1907 not long after "Hilero" was completed. Construction began just days before the Curtises arrived. This project clearly set the tone for both Mead and Gill's future pioneering work. The commission most likely was a direct result of Mead's connections with Bailey and Charles Lummis who was a year behind Allen and Teddy Roosevelt at Harvard as mentioned in the Part I discussion of the relocation of the Cupeño Indians from Warner's Ranch. 

Sweetwater Fruit Company Label. From E-Bay.

Lummis's fellow Warner's Ranch Commission member Allen had been the manager of the Sweetwater Fruit Company (see label above) since its formation in 1890 with the purchase of the Henry E. Cooper's Bonita Ranch by Boston investors Robert Winsor, R. H. Weld and the financial firm of Kidder Peabody. Like Allen, Winsor was a fellow Roosevelt and Lummis Harvard classmate as was Weld's brother Christopher who was also a close boyhood friend of Roosevelt. (See TRC for example). 

Russell C. Allen, Harvard Class of 1880. From Harvard Yearbook, Class of 1880.

The Welds were related to Allen via his mother Anna Minot Weld. Allen's father was also a faculty member at Harvard. As discussed later below Winsor would become a Mead client in 1913 and Allen would become a member of the Board of Commissioners for the Panama-California Exposition in 1915. (Author's note: Christopher Minot Weld wrote Roosevelt at the end of 1901 seeking help in getting Allen appointed to a "collector" position in San Diego. C. Minot Weld to Roosevelt, December 29, 1901. TRC Center).

Teddy Roosevelt, Harvard Class of 1880. From the Internet.

Henry Cooper-Russell Allen Residence, Bonita, ca. 1900.

Since becoming general manager of the ranch Allen and his family were living in the old Victorian inherited from Henry Cooper (see above). The house burned to the ground in 1906 prompting Allen to commission Lummis's and the Curtis's mutual friend Frank Mead to design the below fire-proof cube. A kindred friend of the Indians, Allen had almost certainly visited Wheeler Bailey's "Hilero" in La Jolla emboldening him to hire Mead and Gill to design his new home. The Allens had to live in the company packing shed until moving into their almost completed new house on March 14th. (GDC Diaries). Mead finished up his final punch list and inspection was signed off on April 4, 1908. (Schoenherr, p. 40).

Russel C. Allen Residence, Bonita, 1907. Gill & Mead, architects. Courtesy of UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Archive.

From reading between the lines in George's late November-early December diary entries it appears that the Gill-Mead partnership dissolved sometime around late November. Either before the Curtises had arrived in San Diego or shortly thereafter, Mead agreed to help George find a suitable ranch somewhere in the Southwest where he could begin his dream life as a gentleman rancher. It is not yet clear whether this precipitated the Gill-Mead breakup or the breakup was an excuse for another round of Mead wanderlust. In either case George's diaries are replete with references to researching books on ranching in the San Diego library and meetings with Mead on where to begin their search.

As George's diary entries seemingly indicate, Mead assumed general contractor responsibility for the Allen house construction which began as soon as draftsman Maury Diggs completed the drawings on November 16th. Diggs then immediately went to work on the Laughlin House plans as construction began on the Allen House. Gill took full credit for the Laughlin residence design despite the plans apparently being completed by Diggs by the first of December. 

Homer Laughlin, Jr. Residence, Irving Gill, architect, 1908. Courtesy of UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Archive.

Notwithstanding his name being curiously omitted from the plans, Mead's influence is clearly visible in the Laughlin House (see above). This is most specifically evidenced by the house's crisp Moorish entryway and the liberal use of Mead's trademark pergolas in the backyard (see below). Neither of these elements were apparent in Hebbard and Gill's earlier work. Curiously, the Laughlin House plans were rushed to completion between November 24th and December 2nd while Mead was hosting the Curtises and breaking ground on the Allen House. The Laughlin building permit was not issued until the following May after Mead and George Curtis had departed for Indian country. (GDC Diaries, various dates. For much more on the Laughlin House and the possible genesis of the commission see my Gill-Laughlin Part I).

Laughlin Garden Court. Courtesy of UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Archive.

Russell C. Allen Residence, Bonita, Gill and Mead, architects, 1907-08. From Bonita by Steven Schoenherr and Mary E. Oswell, Arcadia, 2009, p. 41.

Like Homer Laughlin, Sr. and Jr., Russell Allen was an early auto enthusiast as can be seen in the above photo of the family out for a spin in their 1907 Cadillac. It is not yet known whether the Laughlins and Allens had Auto Club connections. (Gill-Laughlin Part I). 

Allen House dining room, (Ibid).

Hopi Pueblo at Walpi or Oraibi, n.d., ca. 1890-1907. Photo by John K. Hillers. From Wikimedia Commons.

To compensate for the dearth of ocean breezes in Sweetwater Valley Mead incorporated an element he likely picked up from Natalie and George's close friend Tawakwaptiwa's Hopi Pueblo at Oraibai and/or Walpi. He recessed the Allen House front porch and entry pergola and second floor balcony into the body of the house to create shady alcoves where the family could enjoy the sweeping views of the valley just as the Hopi did from their Mesas (see above and below). One can't help but wonder if this design feature might have been a topic of conversation when George and Mead dined with the Allens on Thanksgiving Day.

View from the front porch of the Allen Residence. From Kamerling, p. 53.

"Two priests stood absorbed in chant while rising tide washed up about their ankles." The Indians' Book, pp. 364-5.

Shortly after returning to San Diego from "Hilero" in early December, Natalie left for Los Angeles where she reconnected with and thanked her 1902-03 formative mentor Charles Lummis as she proudly presented him a copy of her opus. They certainly must have reminisced about the tribe of Navajos she photographed at his "El Alisal" after their 1903 Rose Parade appearance. She included photos of the Navajos' stop at the "Great Waters"on their post-parade Los Angeles sightseeing tour in The Indian's Book (see above for example). They also may have compared notes on Mead's new client Russell Allen who was a member of Lummis's 1902-03 Warner's Ranch Commission. (Mead, Part I). 

Natalie and Tawakwaptiwa at the Sherman Institute Indian School in Riverside, ca. January 1908. From Poling-Kempes, p. 57.

Natalie next made a lengthy stop at the Sherman Institute in Riverside to reunite with Tawakwaptiwa (see above) whom she had befriended and recorded at Hopi settlement of Oraibi at Third Mesa around the time she and George first met Mead in the spring of 1903. In the meantime Tawakwaptiwa and his family had been exiled from Oraibi to Riverside in 1906 to settle internal disputes at the Hopi colony known as the Oraibi Split. Natalie wrote of Tawakwaptiwa in The Indians' Book, "of all the Hopi poets, none sings a gladder song than Tawakwaptiwa. He is one in whom the gift of song wells up like living waters, a Hopi untouched by foreign influence, a child of the natural environment, spontaneous, alert, full of life and laughter." (Education Beyond the Mesas: Hopi Students at the Sherman Institute, 1902-1929 by Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert, University of Nebraska Press, 2010, pp. 63-65, and Indians' Book, p. 480). 

"The song of Tawakwaptiwa," The Indians' Book, p. 480.

Natalie's experiences recording songs at the Indian schools enlightened her to the problems in the Bureau of Indian Affairs'educational policies. She was hoping that The Indians' Book might be used as a text for all of the Indian schools and used this visit to try out her teaching theories. She wrote to anthropologist Franz Boas, 

"Realizing that the thoughts, the morals, the lives of the younger Indians are molded in the Government schools, Mrs. [Charlotte Osgood] Mason and I have felt that the singing of Indian songs in the schools would be one way in which something of the native spirit might be kept alive within the coming generation." (Natalie Curtis to Franz Boas, March 3, 1907, cited in Patterson, p. 184). 

Cadets and Band, Sherman Institute, Riverside, ca. 1910. From Wikipedia.

Natalie likely first visited the Sherman Institute at its opening dedication ceremony in February of 1903. (Mead, Part I). The school, one of the largest off-reservation boarding schools in the United States, followed other federally funded boarding schools of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in promoting the assimilation of indigenous people into mainstream America. Many Hopi schoolchildren, deeply conversant in Hopi values and traditional education before being sent to Sherman Institute, resisted this program of acculturation.

Tawakwaptiwa and his wife and other tribal elders were instrumental go-betweens for their people after relocation to Sherman, easing their children's assimilation while helping to keep their culture intact with native song, dance and arts and crafts. After returning to Oraibai in 1910 they used their new skills, fluency in English, and knowledge of politics and economics to advance their people. During her 3-4 month stay at Sherman "The Song Woman" as Natalie was affectionately called, helped in this process by teaching Indian music and art classes to the Hopi children, forever endearing herself to Tawakwaptiwa and his people. (Pages from Hopi History by Harry C. James, University of Ariziona Press, 1994, p. 173).

Hiparopai, n.d., Yuma Reservation. Photographer unknown.

After Natalie's stint at the Sherman School it was on to Yuma to present a copy to another meaningful contributor, Hiparopai (see above). Natalie, George and Charlotte Osgood Mason had likely met Hiparopai through Mead's largess in early 1904, or during her second visit with Mead in early 1905. (Mead, Part I). Natalie had timed the publication of a poignant five-page piece on Hiparopai and her family to hit the newsstands just about the time the Curtises arrived in San Diego. (Curtis, Natalie, "The Words of Hiparopai: A Leaf From a Traveler's Diary," The Craftsman, December, 1907, pp. 293-297). Natalie then returned to Riverside and was taken ill before she could reconnect with George and Mead in San Diego. After recuperating at Sherman for a couple weeks she again returned to Yuma while George and Frank charted their own separate course beginning in Arizona. (GDC Diaries, March 25, 1908). 

Ad from 1907 San Diego City Directory.

After Natalie left for Los Angeles, Riverside and Yuma George spent the rest of December busying himself with ocean swimming, hiking and general sightseeing. He dined often with Mead who was a proficient improviser of stews during their weekend camping forays. When dining out their restaurant of choice was the Vegetarian Cafe (see above). (GDC Diaries). George also befriended and moved in briefly with an apiarist named Frank Wire. He presciently learned as much as he could about bee-keeping thinking it might be something he would like to do in the future. George accompanied Mead on a few trips to his Grant Building office to help him pack, sort and arrange for storage his "Indian and Arab things." (GDC Diaries, December 18, 1908. Author's note: Oddly, there is no mention of Gill in any of George's diary entries. Also it is not known exactly when Mead moved out of Gill's Robinson Mews cottage but their draftsman Maury Diggs assumed his tenancy as indicated by the 1908 San Diego City Directory).

Mendenhall Ranch, date and photographer unknown. From Palomar Mountain, Past and Present by Marion F. Beckler, Desert Magazine Press, Palm Desert, 1958, p. 16.

While Mead was preoccupied with his general contractor function on the Allen House George decided to gain some practical ranching experience. In early January Wheeler Bailey gave him a letter of introduction to a Mount Palomar rancher named Carl Mendenhall. After six weeks of hard labor building new fences for the Mendenhalls and absorbing all he could about ranching George returned to San Diego. Mead brought him up to date with Natalie's affairs and arranged a position for him picking fruit in the Sweetwater Fruit Company groves near the Allen House construction site. While sweating through backbreaking days picking lemons and oranges George was living in a tent borrowed from Mrs. Allen. Mead often visited George's tent at night while finishing construction on the Allens' house. On March 17th the Allens hosted George and Frank with a celebratory dinner in their just completed home. A few days later George and Frank picnicked on Coronado Beach and discussed their upcoming plans to begin searching for a ranch in Arizona. (GDC Diaries, March 20, 1908).

On March 29th George and Mead were still discussing places they might want to live. On the 30th Mead brought George his last paycheck from Allen for $39.38. On April 1st George helped air out, brush and pack Mead's Indian textiles and sort his architecture magazines. The two spent most of the week packing and arranging storage of Mead's precious Indian pottery, silver jewelry and other belongings. Finally on April 10th the pair left for Riverside for a brief hookup up with Natalie and Tawakwaptiwa. The next day they continued to Yuma and dined at the Yuma Indian School. The school's director, Mr. Graham gave George and Frank a fateful letter of introduction to James W. Bennett who operated a cattle ranch and Indian trading post in Navajo country near Houck, Arizona. (GDC Diaries). George and Mead then headed to Phoenix. Natalie soon left Riverside for Yuma. In late April Native American reported from Yuma, "Miss Natalie Curtis visited the school this winter, and sang Indian songs with us." ("Correspondence from Yuma," Native American, April 25, 1908, p. 157).

April 13th found George and Mead at the Ford Hotel in Phoenix. They reconnected with friends at the Phoenix Indian School and showed off Mead's copy of Natalie's book. The school's Native American reported, "Mr. Frank Mead, formerly General Supervisor in the Indian Service, and Mr. George DeClyver Curtis were in Phoenix Monday. They registered from San Diego." ("Phoenix and Elsewhere," Native American, April 18, 1908, p. 148).

Tokens for the Bennett Trading Post, Houck, Arizona, ca. 1910.

Two days later the duo were in Flagstaff attending a meeting on the formation of a Navajo alphabet where Mead again proudly displayed Natalie's book. It was then on through Tawakwaptiwa's stomping grounds at the Hopi Mesas for a few days visiting old friends and sharing the book before arriving at Bennett's Trading Post in Houck where they spent a comfortable night sleeping on his Navajo blankets (see above). They talked sheep ranching with Bennett and bought some Navajo silver and saddle blankets. After some prescient reconnoitering they continued through Gallup to Albuquerque on the 26th, Amarillo on the 27th and Hydro, Oklahoma on the 28th where George introduced Mead to his and Natalie's old friend Chief Wolf Robe (see below). (GDC Diaries, April 24-7, 1908).

 

Chief Wolf Robe, 1904. Photo by Charles H. Carpenter.

George and Frank spent the entire month of May among the Cheyenne socializing with Wolf Robe's family, High Chief's nephew Thomas Spotted Crow, White Spoon and their circle of friends and happily experimented with peyote on more than one occasion. George and Mead bought some moccasins from Wolf Robe and a $15 tepee from American Horse. They agonized over where to go next, with George opting to stay in friendly Cheyenne territory and Frank wanting to return to Arizona. They met numerous ranchers and scouted for a place for George who actually made a serious offer on a 160 acre ranch. Frank offered to stay for three months to help George get established and also provide any assistance he could to the local Indians. In the end George got cold feet and backed out of the deal. After much "medicine making" they finally decided to head back west to Arizona. After taking lessons from Wolf Robe's wife on how to set up their tepee, they bid farewell to Thomas Spotted Crow and Wolf Robe on May 27th. (GDC Diaries, May 1908).

Frank and George spent late May and early June in Albuquerque scouting and debating whether to return to the Houck area. They finally decided to return to Houck to scout for a potential ranch site and arrived on June 4th. They looked at various properties and discussed potential opportunities with Bennett. Bennett proposed to George that he oversee his cattle ranch and the two came to a trial agreement on the 15th. Mead agreed to stay until George felt comfortable with the arrangement. After a few weeks of acclimation George decided to stay on as ranch manager and Mead decided to head for parts east. On her way back east Natalie finally reconnected with the duo at the Bennett Ranch on July 3rd. (GDC Diaries, June-July 1917).

George Curtis at work on the Bennett Ranch, July 3-19, 1907. Photos by Natalie Curtis. (George DeClyver Curtis (GDC) Papers, Charles R. Young Research Library, UCLA).

On July 20th Frank and Natalie caught the eastbound train in Houck after bidding goodbye to her younger brother, "the cowboy rancher," and his horse Kola (see above). Natalie made it safely back to New York and on August 14th sent George the above photos taken during her stay in Houck. George's diaries over the next year discuss the day to day activities of running a ranch populated by over 700 head of cattle in the middle of Indian country. He frequently dined with the Bennetts in Houck and had countless interactions with the local Navajo who passed through the ranch. George made a hasty trip back to New York in early October due to his mother's illness but was back a week later. Exactly a year after dining with the Allen's in Bonita George had a prescient Thanksgiving dinner with the Bennetts who five years later would become clients of Mead in San Diego. (GDC Diaries, August-November 1908).

The Wooing of a Recluse by George DeClyver Curtis (Gregory Marwood), Devin-Adair, New York, 1914.

During his close to two years on Bennett's ranch George did a lot of reading and wrote a novel, The Wooing of a Recluse to help pass the lonely evenings. Likely excerpted from his actual letters to Natalie and family and Mead, the book was written in the form of a series of letters to a lover back east. The work autobiographically described his cowboy duties and social activities which were also chronicled in his diaries (see below for example). 

"As for what I am doing in this country, please to know that I am a cowpuncher; my cabin at the springs is an outpost of a larger ranch. By what drift of circumstance I came here, it would perhaps be more interesting not to relate. I ride the limits of our range, keeping watch on the cattle; such as have the Wanderlust (and they are many) I follow up by their tracks and drive back. I also see to it that the neighbouring Indians do not encroach with their bands of sheep." (Ibid, p. 5).

Herd of Indian cattle at Tongue River, Montana, Date and photographer unknown.

We pick up Mead's trail in 1909 at the Tongue River Indian Reservation (later Lame Deer). He was seemingly retracing George and Natalie's winter of 1904-05 footsteps among the Plains Indians. His 1905 Bureau of Indian Affairs traveling secretary, John R. Eddy, had become supervisor and disbursing agent at Tongue River and it was likely through his largess that Mead landed the relatively well-paying position as stock detective at the annual salary of $1,500 per year. The main income producing activity for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe was cattle raising thus there was a need for Mead to ride the range to minimize rustling of the Indian's cattle and inspect brands on cowhides. (American Indians in World War I: At Home and at War by Thomas A. Britten, University of New Mexico Press, 1999, p. 109).

Wahpeton Indian School, ca. 1910. 

The 1910 Census (April 25, 1910) placed the wandering Mead as a boarder at the Wahpeton Indian School in North Dakota (see above). The school was formed in 1904 for the education of Native American children from northern Minnesota, North Dakota and northern South Dakota. Mead was performing carpentry work for the school at a salary of $720 per year. ("Indian Service Changes for the Month of August: Appointments by Transfer," Carlisle Arrow, December 2, 1010, p. 4).

Cadets Drill Team and Band, Sherman Institute, Riverside, ca. 1910. From Internet.

From Wahpeton the peripatetic Mead soon made his way back to Southern California for a brief stint at the Sherman Institute as Commandant of Cadets at the salary of $1,200 per year. ("Indian Service Changes for the Month of July 1910: Appointments," Native American,October 22, 1010, p. 442). His and the Curtis's close friend Tawakwaptiwa and family had by this time returned to Oraibi. Mead and the Curtises possibly reconnected about this time as Natalie, while visiting George at his new spread in Foster, also visited Charles Lummis and others in Los Angeles during May. (Poling-Kemps, p. 70).

Pala Reservation, ca. 1910. with prefab housing built after the Cupenos were relocated to Pala from Warner's Ranch in 1903.

Mead quickly moved on to the better paying position of Superintendent and Special Disbursing Agent at the Pala Reservation (see above) at an annual salary of $1,600. He had first learned about Pala from Charles Lummis during his fateful June 1903 visit to "El Alisal" where Lummis filled him in on his and Russell Allen's Warner's Ranch Commission and their help in selecting and purchasing the Pala site for the displaced Cupeño Indians. (Mead, Part I).

By January 1911 Mead had already laid out an ambitious plan for improving conditions at Pala. The Sacramento Union quoted his intentions,

"I will fight for these Indians," says Superintendent Mead. "They shall have title to their lands, decent houses to live in, pure drinking water piped from springs, an experimental farm and instruction in agriculture and a good doctor, for whom I have built a comfortable house (see below perhaps). And their graveyard shall not be violated if I can find any way to prevent it.” ("Father Hughes to Speak on Indians," Sacramento Union, January 29, 1911).

Store and ranch house at Pala, ca. 1911.

The move placed him in much closer proximity to George who had by this time also returned to Southern California from his two-year stint at the Bennett Ranch. Finally fulfilling his dream to become a gentleman rancher, in early 1910 George purchased a 20 acre spread in Foster, about 20 miles northeast of San Diego. While steadily making improvements to the property he began raising bees and selling honey. Mead remained at Pala through much of 1911. George's 1911 diaries list numerous get togethers with Mead in Foster and San Diego and a trip to La Jolla with Wheeler Bailey, indicating a strong renewal of their mutual friendships. ("Indian Service Changes for the Month of August," Carlisle Arrow, December 2, 1910, p. 4 and An inventory of the Pala Indian Agency Records by James Russell Young, Dennis Moristo, and G. David Tenenbaum, American Indian Treaties Publication, American Indian Studies Center, University of California, 1976). 

Richard Requa, 1910, photographer unknown. San Diego Historical Society.

Around the end of 1911 Mead had seemingly burned himself out at Pala and began spending increasingly more time in San Diego and his name beginning to appear in partnership with Requa on plans for increasingly larger projects. Irving Gill had a falling out with his field superintendent Requa in late 1910 over allegations of moonlighting and unethical conduct. Gill requested that the grievance committee of the newly formed San Diego Architectural Association conduct an investigation (see below). Requa's brother Lewis was also employed by Gill as a draftsman in 1909 thus it appears that the enterprising brothers were designing and building houses after hours.

Irving Gill to San Diego Architectural Association, November 10, 1910. Courtesy of UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Archive.

Requa could not resist publishing an article espousing many of Gill's design principles and photos of a Gill and Mead-like bungalow he and his brother seemingly designed sometime in 1908 which was perhaps what provoked Gill's ire (see below). (Requa, R. S., "A California Cottage Home," Good Housekeeping, January, 1909, p. 64). Requa designed a $2,000 bungalow in La Jolla in May of 1909 for which he was listed as the owner. (SWCM, May 8, 1909, p. 13).

Unidentified bungalow, likely in San Diego, Richard and Lewis Requa, designers?

The rift resulted in Requa leaving Gill's employ and opening his own office in the McNeece Building at the northwest corner of 5th and F Streets (see below). Despite being unlicensed Requa misleadingly listed himself as an architect in the period San Diego City directories. Still unlicensed at the time of publication of a 1913 autobiographical sketch, Requa's brazen account of his break with Gill read,

"He came to San Diego in July, 1900, and here he again took up electrical engineering but later turned his attention to architectural drawing and for three and a half years was associated with I. J. Gill, an architect of this city. Feeling that his training and experience were sufficient to qualify him to engage in business on his own account he opened an office in December 1910, and has since specialized in the construction of fine homes." (San Diego County, California: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, Volume II, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1913, pp. 215-6). Author's note: Despite Requa's statement that he turned his attention to architectural drawing during his time Gill, an exhaustive search turned up no evidence of that in the plans emanating from Gill's office during that period. The 1908-11 San Diego City Directories instead listed him as Gill's [field] superintendent.).

McNeece Building, George Keating Block, 432 F Street, San Diego, Reid Brothers, architects, 1891. From San Diego History Center.

The uncredentialed Requa might have approached Mead, who was often in San Diego during his tenure as Superintendent at the Pala Reservation, to sign the plans for projects he had in the works before they officially formed their partnership. For example in February and July of 1911 Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer listed Requa as the designer for an unidentified three story business block building and a two-story, frame flat building on 17th between F and G. Requa also that year designed residences for Jarvis Doyle, Charles Martin, John Hawley, Owen Wister, Ed Fletcher, Mary Richmond and his mother which he spent much of 1911 designing and building (see below). (Sharp, Dennis G., "Guide to the Architectural Records Collection, Requa, Richard S.," Journal of San Diego History, Summer/Fall 2003, p. 204).

Requa Residence, 4346 Valle Vista, San Diego, Mead and Requa, architects, 1911. Photo from Google Maps.

Mary Richmond cottage, La Jolla, 1911 Richard Requa, architect. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Mary Richmond compound, 204-212 Coast Blvd., La Jolla, 1911-13. Mead and Requa, architects. Photo from San Diego Museum of Art Archives. (Author's note: Above cottages attributed to Irving Gill in Peterson, Martin E., "Alice Ellen Klauber and Friends," San Diego Historical Society,  p. 16).

In August of 1911 Requa, with a possible assist by Mead with whom he was joining forces around this time, designed the above cottage for prominent La Jolla Woman's Club member Mary Richmond. Richmond was active in the LaJolla Women's Club with Ellen Browning Scripps and was likely a mutual friend with prominent fellow La Jollan and former Mead client Wheeler Bailey. The following year Mead & Requa designed a second cottage for Richmond (see below) and in early 1913 designed some alterations and additions for Richmond's vacation rental compound she named Richmond Court. They designed yet a third cottage for Richmond's compound in 1919. 

Mary Richmond compound, 204-212 Coast Blvd., La Jolla, 1911-13. Mead and Requa, architects. Photo from San Diego Museum of Art Archives. (Author's note: Above cottages attributed to Irving Gill in Peterson,  p. 16).

Also in 1911 San Diego developers and businessmen Ed Fletcher and George Marston (see above) and banker Myron T. Gilmore incorporated and began developing their considerable Pine Hills property holdings near Julian. Transplanted Bostonian Fletcher formed a wholesale grocery business specializing in buying and selling produce to San Diego backcountry stores. His transportation difficulties due to the poor condition of roads and trails turned him into a lifelong advocate for better highways. It seems plausible that Mead and Fletcher might have crossed paths during their backcountry meanderings while Mead was dividing his time between the Pala area, George Curtis's place in Foster near Lakeside, and San Diego. Fletcher's backcountry adventures also opened him up to acquiring property in Grossmont, Cayamuca and the Pine Hills area near Julian northeast of San Diego. (Zane, Bobbi, "Col. Ed Fletcher: Pioneer and Julian Developer," Romona Home Journal, February 1, 2103).

Ed Fletcher, George Marston and John Nolen, Pine Hills, 1907. Courtesy San Diego Historical Society.

In the fall of 1907, around the time Mead and Gill and their new field superintendent Requa were busy on the Bailey and Allen houses, Marston summoned a Harvard protege of Frederick Olmsted, Jr., landscape architect and city planner John Nolen, to San Diego to prepare a comprehensive plan for the development of San Diego. While Nolen was in town Fletcher and Marston took him to Pine Hills to help them conceptualize a subdivision plan for their land (see above).  In March of 1912 Fletcher commissioned Requa to design the Pine Hills Lodge (see below) as a mountain summer vacation resort for tourists and to provide potential buyers in their new subdivision a place to stay while exploring the area. Two months later 2 cottages and a garage were also designed around the time Mead and Requa began to discuss forming a partnership. (Author's note: In 1919 Fletcher asked Mead and Requa to design a saloon substitute for the Army and Navy Y.M.C.A. for which he was a longtime patron).

Pine Hills Lodge, Mead and Requa, architects, 1912.

In August Marston commissioned Mead & Requa to design his Pine Hills weekend retreat (see below). He hoped the cottage would help entice San Diego's elite to purchase lots on which to build summer homes in the protected forest. (Author's note: Fletcher was also a Director for the 1915 Exposition with Marston and former Mead client Russell C. Allen.). 

Marston Cottage, Pine hills, 1912. Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

"Marston Store Is Up To Date," San Diego Union, January 1, 1912, p. 1.

Marston again hired the partners in October to design a "Children's Corner" play area for his new department store at 5th and C in downtown San Diego (see above and below). I have yet to determine whether this project was actually built but at 22 sheets of drawings it seems highly likely. ("Guide to the Architectural Records Collection, Mead and Requa, Journal of San Diego History, Summer-Fall 2003, p. 190. Author's note: In 1919 Marston tasked Mead and Requa for two minor jobs for his department store, a pattern hat room and a drapery room.)

"The Children's Corner," Dry Goods Reporter, June 1912, p. 9.

Jarvis Doyle House, 1625 Plumosa Way, San Diego, 1911, Richard Requa, architect. From Google Maps.

Beginning in March of 1912 Requa began design on a residence for Fletcher's brother-in-law Jarvis Doyle at the corner of Plumosa Way and Hunter Street. Doyle was also Fletcher's business partner in the Fletcher-Doyle wholesale produce company. (Zane, Bobbi, "Col. Ed Fletcher: Pioneer and Julian Developer," Romona Home Journal, February 1, 2103). Doyle partnered with E. Y Barnes after Fletcher left in 1907 to become more involved in his real estate development ventures. 

The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister, 

Also in August Requa was commissioned by noted author, Owen Wister (see above), a major investor in Fletcher's new Grossmont subdivision, to design a country home. Work began late in 1911 and was completed early the next year (see below). Like Mead's friend Charles Lummis and his cousin clients Russell Allen and Robert Winsor, Wister was a classmate and a close friend of Teddy Roosevelt. Indeed it was to Roosevelt that Wister dedicated his most famous work, The Virginian, a 1902 novel set in the Wild West. It describes the life of a cowboy on a cattle ranch in Wyoming and was deemed by many the first true western novel ever written. It perhaps inspired fellow Harvard grad George Curtis's earlier mentioned The Wooing of a Recluse written about his time on the Bennett Ranch in Arizona. 

Owen Wister Residence, Grossmont, 1911-12, Richard Requa, architect. From Around Mt. Helix by James D. Newland, Arcadia, 2015, p. 34.

John S. Hawley Residence, 2nd and Laurel, San Diego, 1911, Richard Requa, architect. From Google Maps.

Between March and May of 1911 Requa was designing a house for John Savage Hawley at the corner of 2nd and Laurel. The house was across the street from Gill's 1910 First Church of Christ Scientist for which Hawley and his wife were prominent parishioners and had donated the building site. It was likely while Requa was Gill's field superintendent for the church construction that resulted in the Hawley commission. Hawley was a retired confectioner from New York whose company, Hawley and Hoops, employed 800 people at the time he retired in 1905 and permanently moved to San Diego after wintering there the previous few years (see below). (Many thanks to San Diego historian Erik Hanson for this information.).

John Savage Hawley. From Biographical History of Westchester County, New York, 1899. Courtesy of Lewis Publishing Co. 

Period Hawley and Hoops advertising ephemera from internet. From bethkimmerle.com.

The common design element in Requa's 1911 houses was the step-supported balcony projections above the entryways inspired by Gill and Mead's 1908 Laughlin and  Klauber Houses and Gill's 1908 Darst House (see below). In August of 1912 Mead and Requa partnered on some alterations and additions to Darst's house at 2425 5th Ave. (Author's note: In anticipation of the upcoming Panama California Exposition, Annie Darst commissioned Mead and Requa in June of 1913 to design an apartment building on Kalmia St. near 5th Avenue, a block south of the El Prado entrance to Balboa Park). 

Anna B. Darst Residence, 2425 5th Ave., San Diego, Irving Gill, architect, 1908. Courtesy of UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Archive.

Colonial Apartment Hotel, 1902-04 Prospect Ave., La Jolla, Mead and Requa, architects, 1913. From Grande Colonial web site.

August also marked the beginning of design on an apartment hotel for real estate developers B. B. Harlan and George Bane in La Jolla. Construction began the following month on the 25-room, 28-apartment, 3-story frame and plaster Colonial Apartment Hotel located at 902-904 Prospect Avenue in the heart of La Jolla next door to the Harlan-Bane Realty office (see above and below). (Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer, September 14, 1912, p. 22).

Colonial Apartment Hotel, 1902-04 Prospect Ave., La Jolla, Mead and Requa, architects, Harlan and Bane, developers, La Jolla Building Co., contractor, 1913. From Grande Colonial web site.

Mead and Requa possibly also designed the Harlan and Bane real estate office next door which began construction the month before using the same builder, Perl Acton's La Jolla Building Co. (Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer, August 10, 1912, p. 38). Coincidentally, in April 1908, the same month Curtis and Mead left for Indian country, Perl Acton and James Wilson commissioned Gill to design the Wilson-Acton Hotel which was soon renamed the Hotel Cabrillo. The Cabrillo was just a block north of the Colonial on La Jolla's main drag, Prospect Avenue. Mead's influence on Gill is readily apparent in the recessed balconies reminiscent of Mead's just completed Allen House as well as the Moorish arches on the top floor (see below). 

Hotel Cabrillo ad in Ground Breaking Panama-California Exposition, July 19-20-21-22, 1911, Official Program, 1915 San Diego, p. 15.

Hugo Klauber Residence, 2626 6th Ave., San Diego, 1908.  Irving Gill, architect. Courtesy of UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Archive.

It was perhaps just a coincidence but Gill unleashed a torrent of projects as soon as Mead and Curtis left for Indian country in April of 1908. It was truly a breakout year for Gill for which Mead served as one of the catalysts. Leaving Hebbard's eclecticism behind and absorbing Mead's vernacular idioms triggered an eruption of an ever more modern ouvre. As Mead and Curtis were leaving Gill and his field superintendent Requa began construction on the Melville Klauber house at Redwood 6th and the Hotel Cabrillo in La Jolla. They also broke ground on the highly Mead-influenced Laughlin House in Los Angeles which was designed the previous November while they were still partners. Besides the above-mentioned Darst House, Gill also designed residences for Sherwood Wheaton which echoed the Melville Klauber house across the street and Hugo Klauber near 6th and Maple. Hugo Klauber's house reiterated the lines of the Mead-dominated design of the Allen House where Gill replicated the recessed entry porch but omitted the pergola (see above) else the houses would be very similar indeed. 

Sherwood Wheaton Residence, 3102 6th. Ave., San Diego, 1908. Irving Gill. architect. Courtesy of UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Archive.

Gill's house for Sherwood Wheaton (see above) came hard on the heals of the two Klauber houses. With the Wheaton and Melville Klauber houses Gill had not quite yet shed all of his Hebbard-infused design sensibilities. He did, however, incorporate some Mead-inspired design elements such as the Pueblo-influenced cubic massing, recessed entry and second floor balcony, and stepped parapets which Gill and Mead also used on the Bailey House (see above).  Gill also included a distinctive multi-arched porte-cochere presaging his soon to come Bishop's School design (see below). (Author's note: Mead and Requ'a Palomar Apartments for Cornelia Chapin was built on the lot directly south of the Hugo Klauber House at the northwest corner of 6th and Maple (see discussion later below). 

Sherwood Wheaton Residence, 3102 6th. Ave., San Diego, 1908. Irving Gill. architect. Courtesy of UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Irving Gill Archive.

Ellen Browning Scripps, 1915. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Getting back to Mead and Requa, around 1912, as construction was beginning on the new coast road to Los Angeles, Ellen Browning Scripps donated money toward the construction of a refectory in the heart of the Torrey Pines Park she and George Marston had been instrumental in convincing the San Diego City Council to form. In 1899, at Scripps and Marston's urging, the City Council set aside 364 acres of former pueblo lands as a public park to help preserve the rare and endangered Torrey Pines. When the lands surrounding the park were in danger of being developed, Scripps bought three additional former pueblo parcels and willed them to the City in 1911. (National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Torrey Pines Lodge, United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1998, p. 1).

Torrey Pines Lodge, Old Coast Highway, Requa and Jackson, architects, 1923.

Most likely through fellow La Jollan Wheeler Bailey's largess, Scripps hired Mead (and new partner Requa) to design a building that complemented the area's natural resemblance to a Southwestern mesa top, not unlike Bailey's shoreline aerie a few miles south. Mead's preliminary sketches portrayed the refectory as a simulated Hopi Indian village compound predicting what would manifest itself as the Painted Desert exhibition at the upcoming Panama California Exposition in Balboa Park. Since the building site was on Torrey Pines parkland, the city, not Miss Scripps, had to select the building contractor. Before the contract could be finalized, the city's fiscal year ended, and all of Miss Scripps' donation reverted into the general fund. Much to Mead's dismay, preparations for the upcoming Exposition soon diverted the city's attention from the Torrey Pines Park refectory. The War then delayed the project until 1922 when Scripps rehired Requa and his new partner Herbert L. Jackson to collaborate with landscape designer Ralph Cornell on site location, complete the construction drawings and finally finish the project. (Ibid).

During this period Mead also began spending more time in Los Angeles where he had apparently become fascinated with the activities of a new band of Theosophists. The group was founding a new colony named Krotona under the leadership of A. P. Warrington, who became President of the American Theosophical Society around this time. First founded in 1875 in New York, the Society's headquarters soon moved to Adyar, India and quickly became popular among educated middle-to-upper class freethinkers in Europe, America, and India. Mead was possibly first exposed to a sister colony called Lomaland founded by Katherine Tingley on San Diego's Pt. Loma. Mead and George Curtis hiked past Lomaland together on a few occasions in late 1907 and early 1908. (GDC Diaries, December 1907 and March 1908).

"Summer School for Theosophists," Los Angeles Herald, June 25, 1912, p. 9.

Mead was likely strongly attracted to Theosophy's esoteric school of thought which strove to foster universal brotherhood and a belief in equality of the sexes, the basic truth of all religion, and "scientific" exploration of the unexplained. He was perhaps attending the group's summer lecture series which included a talk on "Nutrition and Vegetarianism" by Jenny L. K. Haner and another by his soon-to-be client Augustus F. Knudsen on "Theosophcal Pedagogy" (see above). Many of the lectures were conducted in Blanchard Hall in downtown Los Angeles in a successful attempt to attract new members to the Society. (Author's note: Blanchard Hall was where Mead's close friend Lon Megargee would soon be sharing the top floor with artist Hernando Villa while creating 15 mural panels for the new Arizona State Capitol Building in Phoenix. ("Arizona's Cowboy Artist" by Cindy Winkelman)).

Krotona Hill, Beachwood Canyon. From DWP Associates.

While forming their fledgling colony Warrington's band of Theosophists also began planning an ambitious building program on their recently purchased 12-acre site in Beachwood Canyon overlooking Hollywood (see above). Augustus Knudsen financed most of the $24,500 purchase price of the property from the Hastings estate. Knudsen was a frequent lecturer at Krotona and also the financier of the colony's first building, the Krotona Court. (Krotona of Old Hollywood, Volume I, 1866-1913 by Joseph E. Ross, El Montecito Oaks Press, 1989, pp. 189-190). 

"Krotona Group To Be Unique," Los Angeles Times, September 29, 1912, p. V-24.

A preliminary drawing for a "Romanesque" Krotona compound drawn by Arthur S. Heineman was featured in the Los Angeles Times in late September. The article intimated that the Heineman brothers were to be the architects for Warrington's entire Krotona compound. Right around this time however, Mead had ingratiated himself with Knudsen and Warrington and got his foot in the door to land the prestigious Krotona Court commission. A civil engineer by education and a rancher and agriculturalist by vocation, Knudsen and Mead had much in common. Furthermore, now that the Society's international headquarters was now based in India, Mead's sympathetic vernacular Moorish influences ultimately proved more attractive to Warrington's and Knudsen's design sensibilities, at least for the Colony's inaugural project, the Krotona Court (see below). (Krotona of Old Hollywood, Volume I, 1866-1913 by Joseph E. Ross, El Montecito Oaks Press, 1989, pp. 189-190). 

Krotona Court rendering, 1912, Mead and Requa, architects.

Since the Colonial Apartment Hotel and Krotona Court projects chronologically overlapped and were strikingly different in design, a case could seemingly be made that the La Jolla project was largely designed by Requa while Mead took the lead on the Hollywood job. The Krotona design, begun in late October, centered around a lush courtyard off of which fanned guest rooms, a dining room and kitchen, offices for the sect's magazine staff and officials, a lecture room for public classes, and an "esoteric" meditation room enclosed by the prominent Moorish dome atop the east wing. The 90 by 97 foot, 18-room structure was a relatively large project requiring much oversight. Requa's brother Lewis was awarded the construction contract, likely through Mead's connections, and was listed as residing at 1736 N. Vine St. a few blocks from the site. (Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer, November 16, 1912, p. 34. Author's note: Mead was first listed among the architects of San Diego in room 441 of the McNeece Building on p. 46 of this same issue of Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer. The as yet unlicensed Requa was not listed.). 

A. P. Warrington in front of his flat at the Krotona Inn. Ross, p. 165.

Augustus F. Knudsen at Krotona Court, ca. 1913. Ross, p. 

Mead's trademark pergolas and upper floor loggias used so successfully during his brief partnership with Gill were reintroduced at Krotona Court and would remain prominent elements in his design language throughout the rest of his career.

Krotona Court shortly after completion, spring 1913. Ibid, p. 165.

Kate Sessions, n.d., photographer unknown.

Krotona Court, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, Mead and Requa, Architects. Western Architect, October, 1914.

"As soon as the friendly vines and plants have softened its lines and decorated its simple plaster surfaces, the building will indeed seem very much at home in its semi-tropical environment." (Ibid).

Mead is remembered to have made numerous site visits and bringing in his friend, San Diego horticulturalist Kate Sessions, to assist with "beautifying the grounds" upon the project's completion in March 1913 (see above and below for example). Sessions "took charge of the work for some months, coming every few days." (Ross, pp. 189-91). 

Interior courtyard and lily pond, (Ibid).

"The patio, a most indispensable feature of Mediterranean buildings, is here faithfully reproduced in all its charm and floral splendor." (Ibid).

Looking towards the esoteric meditation room. (Ibid).

"A quaint oriental balcony of Moorish "Musharabiya" or grille work connects the principal rooms of the second floor. By this means the privacy of the apartment is maintained but permits interesting glimpses of the patio and the devotional or "esoteric" room beyond." (Ibid).

Central patio and lily pond. (Ibid).

"The dominating feature of the patio is the large lily pond, where blooming aquatic plants, playing gold fish and the ripple and patter of incoming water add greatly to its interest and charm. At night the entire surface of the pond can be made to glow by reason of numerous electric lamps below the water's surface, ingeniously concealed under the projecting edge of the border." (Ibid).

Another view of the central patio and pergola. (Ibid).

Presentation rendering, Frederick Webb Residence, 2483 C St., San Diego, 1913, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

While Krotona Court was under construction, in December of 1912 Frederick Webb commissioned a house at 2483 C St. in San Diego. Webb was an analytical chemist and metallurgist who coincidentally graduated from Harvard in 1895, two years after George Curtis. He maintained an office at 860 3rd Ave. and he specialized in recovering precious metals from mining waste in Nevada. (Harvard College: Class of 1895, Fifth Report, Cambridge, June 1915, p. 343). 

It is not known how the project materialized but it perhaps emanated from Webb's six years of literary and mining work in Arizona between 1900 and 1906 which overlapped Mead's time there with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The house was a classic Mead design, with rooms surrounding a central patio like at Krotona. Webb was likely quite well-to-do evidenced by the two separate maid's rooms. One was likely for a nanny as there was also a nursery for the new baby and the other was for the housemaid.  

Floor plan, Frederick Webb Residence, 2483 C St., San Diego, 1913, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

(Author's note: The house still exists, albeit broken up into four rental units as seen below. Coincidentally, Mead and George Curtis's mutual friend James Bennett would build a house next door in 1914 as discussed later below. This perhaps raises the possibility that fellow Harvard grads George and Webb might also have crossed paths during George's 1908-09 tenure on the Bennett ranch.).

2483 C St., San Diego. From Google Maps.

As the Webb House and Krotona Court were nearing completion in March of 1913, Natalie Curtis arrived in San Diego with mother Augusta "Mimsey" Curtis in tow for a lengthy stay. George and Mead met them at the station, got them settled and showed them the sights. Mead likely took them up to Los Angeles to reunite with Lummis and show off his just completed Krotona Court project. He also at this time completed a modest guest ranch house for George in Foster with materials supplied by Wheeler Bailey and plants provided by Kate Sessions. (GDC Diaries). Natalie and Mimsey divided their time between George's new cottage which they helped decorate, and San Diego where they befriended Alice Klauber and her circle, likely through Mead's and Bailey's introduction.

George and "Mimsey" Curtis, Wheeler North, Alice Klauber and Wheeler Bailey at "Hilero." Photo by Natalie Curtis, April 28, 1913. Courtesy Al Bredenberg, Natalie Curtis Archive.

Mead, the Curtises and their new best friend Alice Klauber all visited Wheeler Bailey in La Jolla in late April. Natalie and George also befriended Bailey's sister and brother-in-law Francis and Emma Wyman around this time as George's diaries recorded Natalie's visits with them in both Los Angeles and La Jolla. Natalie's, Mead's and Yuma Frank's 1903 benefactress Charlotte Osgood Mason (see below) and Katherine G. Chapin (and likely her mother Cornelia) also visited "Hilero" a couple months later through Natalie's introduction evidenced by their signatures in the "Hilero" guest book. ("Hilero" Guestbook, April 27, 1913. Courtesy Marelene, Dave and Jeannie Reynolds, Bailey Family Archives. Author's note: On the same date Klauber and the Curtises were at "Hilero" Edgar Hewett was visiting mutual friend Charles Lummis at "El Alisal.". "El Alisal" Guest Book, April 27, 1913).

Charlotte Osgood Mason and Tawakwaptiwa's wife, Fort McDowell, December 25, 1903. Photo by Natalie Curtis. Mason accompanied Natalie and George to Phoenix for the Christmas 1903 dedication of the new Mohave-Apache Reservation at Fort McDowell Roosevelt created after meeting with Mead and Yuma Frank on September 2, 1903. (Mead, Part I)).From Curtis, Natalie, "The Winning of an Indian Reservation: How Theodore Roosevelt and Frank Mead Restored the Mojave-Apaches to Their Own," The Outlook, June 25, 1919, pp. 327-330.

Mason and the Chapins were in the midst of a lengthy Western vacation and Cornelia was likely scouting for an architect for an investment in a San Diego apartment building to take advantage of the upcoming Exposition. Thus it was certainly through these connections that Katherine and Cornelia Chapin met Mead in San Diego that summer and the Palomar Apartments commission was born (see more discussion later below). It also seems likely that Chapin would have purchased her prime lot directly south of Alice's brother Hugo's house during this trip. The lot was also just across the street a block north of the Exposition's El Prado entrance. (Author's note: Likely receiving much inspiration from close friend Natalie, Katherine would soon co-found the Hampton Institute-based Armstrong Leagues, an organization of young people formed in 1914 to help solve problems confronting Indians and African Americans.).

East elevation, Lorenze Barney Residence, 3534 7th Ave., San Diego, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center. 

Upon completion of the Krotona Court, Webb House and Colonial Hotel projects Mead and Requa received a commission in April 1913 from Mission Beach real estate developer George Barney to design a home as a wedding present for his son Lorenze and his new bride Miriam. The home was to be built next door to his own home on prestigious 7th Avenue directly across the street from Hebbard and Gill's George Marston House. It is not known whether Barney considered hiring Gill who may not have been available due to his then heavy Los Angeles workload. (Gill-Laughlin, Part II). He perhaps may have visited Russell Allen's house in Bonita, Wheeler Bailey's "Hilero" and/or Krotona Court to inform his decision. In any event Mead and Requa were definitely pleased to land such an important client. Lorenze and brother Philip were also into real estate and would later form a prominent insurance company. (Seventh Avenue Historic Home Tour, SOHO, pp. 22-3).

"Residence, Mr. Lorenzo [sic] Barney, San Diego, California, An Interesting Treatment of a Fifty Foot Lot, Mead and Requa, Architects," Western Architect, July 1917, p. 69.

Mead incorporated a small amount of Mission roof tile over the front bay window and an arched entry to give the house a clean, stripped down Spanish flavor (see above). These would go on to become favored elements in his design vocabulary. In summing up a laudatory feature article on Mead and Requa's recent work, noted San Francisco architect and Architect and Engineer of California contributor W. Garden Mitchell touched upon these subtle elements and the home's distinctive pergola, 

"The pergola protected corridor in the home of Mr. Lorenze W. Barney in San Diego exhibits in a pleasing manner the intimate relation of house and garden wherein the two are intertwined. Taking it all in, we may confidently say, in viewing this work, that Messrs. Mead & Requa are following along the right lines in their quite successful attempt to provide interesting and sane homes of moderate cost by the use of simple forms, with only just sufficient elaboration in some special feature or features to provide the necessary contrast to plain and restful backgrounds." (Mitchell, W. Garden, "Some Picturesque Homes in Southern California," Architect and Engineer of California, March, 1918, pp. 39-49).

"Terrace, Residence, Mr. Lorenzo [sic] Barney, San Diego, California, Mead and Requa, Architects," Western Architect, July 1917.

Fallbrook High School, Iowa and Ivy Streets, 1913, Mead and Requa, architects.

In May of 1913 Mead and Requa were commissioned by Fallbrook Union School District to design a a California Mission-style school of hollow tile construction. (Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer, May 24, 1913, p. 22). The commission may have come about due to Mead's nearby Pala connections with soon-to-be client William E. Gird who was on the Board of Directors of Fallbrook's Citizens' Commercial Bank. Gird was the son of pioneering rancher Henry Gird who had just died in March. His mother Martha passed away the same month Mead received the commission (see more on Gird later below).

North elevation, Dr. Isaac D. Webster Residence, 1028 32nd St., San Diego, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Also in May Dr. Isaac Daniel Webster asked Mead and Requa to design a residence at 1028 32nd St. between C and D Streets. How the commission materialized is unknown but during Mead's 1907 stay at Gill's Robinson Mews cottage he was living just a few blocks west of the Websters. The 2-story, 8-room residence was of hollow tile construction. It also included a large formal garden laid out in connection with the house which was likely another Kate Sessions design (see site plan below). (Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer, May 24, 1913, p. 23). 

East elevation, Dr. Isaac D. Webster Residence, 1028 32nd St., San Diego, Mead and Requa, architects. Western Architect, July 1917, p. 69.

Fountain on east garden wall, Dr. Isaac D. Webster Residence, 1028 32nd St., San Diego, Mead and Requa, architects. Ibid.

Dr. Isaac D. Webster Residence, 1028 32nd St., San Diego, 1913, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Site and first floor plan, Dr. Isaac D. Webster Residence, 1028 32nd St., San Diego, Mead and Requa, architects. Western Architect, July 1917.

Entrance hall, Dr. Isaac D. Webster Residence, 1028 32nd St., San Diego, Mead and Requa, architects. Ibid.

Dining room, Dr. Isaac D. Webster Residence, 1028 32nd St., San Diego, Mead and Requa, architects. Ibid.

San Diego County General Hospital Nurses' Home and Superintendent's Residence, Dickinson and Front St., San Diego, 1913. Mead and Requa, architects. From Training School for Nurses, San Diego County General Hospital, San Diego, California, 1913-1914, p. 11.

Webster was on the Board of Directors of the San Diego County General Hospital and was also listed as County Physician and Chief of Medical Staff and Surgical Staff Director of the Hospital. Pleased with the design of his new house Webster was emboldened to champion Mead and Requa for the commission for the hospital's Nurses' Home and Superintendent's Residence the following September (see above). Bids were received the first of October and ground broke two weeks later. (Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer, October 4, 1913, p. 23).

The below period article wrote glowingly of the design of the nurse's home, 

Excerpt from City of San Diego and San Diego County, Volume II by Clarence Allen McGrew, American Historical Society, Chicago and New York, 1922, p. 260.

San Diego County Hospital, ca. 1920. From San Diego State University Library Digital Collections.

Courtyard of Nurses' Home. From Wicherski, O. G., "Public Health Service in San Diego," California State Journal of Medicine, December, 1919, p. 356.

Perhaps unaware as yet that Requa had partnered with Mead, Requa's lack of a license was disconcerting to his former employer William S. Hebbard who on September 19th wrote two irate letters to the "Honorable Board of Supervisors of San Diego County." He wrote one as the 'President of the San Diego Architectural Association' and the other as 'Member of State Board of Architecture for the Southern District of California' protesting the awarding of the San Diego County General Hospital Nurses' Home contract "to Richard S. Requa who does not hold a certificate to practice architecture in this State, as required by law." Mead and Requa's letterhead and plan signature blocks by this time were bannered "Frank Mead - Architect - Richard S. Requa" technically correctly associating the term, architect, with Mead, while giving the implication that they were both licensed. (Letters in David Kamerling Papers, San Diego History Center. Author's note: Mead was originally licensed in July 1907 (No. B-461) and was seemingly required to renew it around this time (No. B-740). Requa finally obtained license No. B-899 ca. 1916. Herbert L. Jackson, Mead and Requa's draftsman since 1914, obtained his architectural license (No. B-1009) in 1917 and was thereafter listed as an architect in the Mead and Requa office until Mead left in 1920 at which point the firm name changed to Requa and Jackson. (California State Board of Architectural Examiners, 1949, p. 64.)).

Arthur G. Merriam and Yellow Sky, Mesa Grande, September 1912. Photo by Edward H. Davis. From Davis Collection, San Diego History Center.

In early May of 1913 Mead and Requa broke ground on a store in La Jolla for Arthur G. Merriam, son of Homer Merriam, former president of the Merriam Publishing Co., publishers of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam (see above) was a close friend of photographer and noted Indian artifacts collector Edward H. Davis (see below). Like Mead, Davis was fascinated by Indian life and culture, and befriended his neighbors, the Mesa Grande Indians. In 1907 he became a ceremonial chief of the tribe which allowed him to participate in their meetings and ceremonies. Mead certainly would have visited nearby Mesa Grande in conjunction with his duties while Superintendent at the Pala Reservation. Davis also would have photographed at Pala and possibly crossed paths with Mead even earlier in Arizona. Coincidentally, Davis also served as photographer for Lummis's and Russell Allen's 1903 Warner's Ranch Commission sojourn which resulted in relocating the Cupeños from Warner's Hot Springs to Pala. (Mead, Part I. Author's note: The location of the store Mead and Requa designed for Merriam is unknown he was listed in the 1914-15 San Diego City Directories as residing at 1369 Cave in La Jolla, current site of the Cave Store.).

Edward H. Davis and Yellow Sky, Mesa Grande, September 1912. Photo possibly by Arthur G. Merriam. From Davis Collection, San Diego History Center.

"The Winsor House with its pergola entrance and roof-loggia, designed by Mead and Requa." From White, Goddard M., "Where the Garden is the Center of the House," The Craftsman, March 1914, p. 571.

It was also around this time that Robert Winsor commissioned Mead to build a winter home near his and his cousin Russell Allen's Sweetwater Fruit Company holdings in Bonita. Mead undoubtedly landed the commission via his 1907 client Allen. Winsor family members had previously visited Allen in Bonita so it is not yet known when Mead and Winsor first met. Allen certainly would have shared with his cousin his and Mead's mutual Indian connections with fellow Harvard alums Charles Lummis and Teddy Roosevelt. (Mead, Part I). Winsor also had strong Roosevelt connections as he was a star on the Harvard Football team in the late 1870s and close friends with Robert Bacon who was a cross-country team member with Roosevelt and his future secretary during his presidency. (The Real XC).

Robert Winsor, Sr., 1913. Courtesy "This Is Where I Came From."

First floor plan for the Robert Winsor Residence, Evergreen Rd., Bonita, Mead and Requa, architects, 1913. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

"Looking down from the roof of the Winsor home into the patio; beyond the roof-loggias the distant mountains are seen: two gardens are shown here." From White, Goddard M., "Where the Garden is the Center of the House," The Craftsman, March 1914, p. 569.

Mead experimented with rooftop loggias on this project to take advantage of the commanding views of the valley (see above and below).

Second floor plan for the Robert Winsor Residence, Sweetwater Valley, 1913. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Winsor Residence entryway, Mead and Requa, architects, 1913. From Mitchell, W. Garden, "Some Picturesque Homes in Southern California," Architect and Engineer of California, March 1918, p. 47.

"The picturesque patio in the center of the Winsor House." Ibid, p. 569.

The Winsors and the Allens in electriquettes at the Panama California Exposition, March 23, 1916. Courtesy "This Is Where I Came From."

Winsor and Allen families at the Winsor House, Bonita, March 1916. Russell Allen (left) and Robert Winsor (center). (Ibid).

The Winsor family came out for the Panama California Exposition in March of 1916 and had a lengthy reunion with cousin Russell Allen and his family. They did much sight seeing and socializing together and with Allen's San Diego social and Exposition connections. (Ibid).

Directors of the Panama-California Exposition Company stand on the steps of the California Building with the men responsible for the design and construction of the fair, c. 1915. Left to right: architect Carleton M. Winslow, David C. Collier, unknown, and G. Aubrey Davidson. The other figures include R.C. Allen (center); G.W. Johnson; Fred H. Wurster; Clarence A. Hinkle; and H.L. Mebius, c. 1915. © UT25410.1.

While the Winsor House was under construction Natalie and Alice Klauber journeyed to her and brother George and Frank Mead's old Navajo and Hopi stomping grounds in Arizona. Natalie wanted to introduce Alice to the passion of the last ten years of her life and her and Mead's mutual friend Teddy Roosevelt whose entourage was scheduled to view the Hopi Snake Dance at Walpi on First Mesa on August 20th while on an extensive tour of the Southwest. After retracing Natalies's and Mead's footsteps from the trading posts of Ash Fork, Holbrook, Ganado and Chinle, Natalie and Alice's entourage traveled to Canyon De Chelly, Keams Canyon and the Hopi Mesas in central Arizona. (Curtis, Natalie, "Theodore Roosevelt in Hopi-Land," The Outlook, September 17, 1919, pp. 88-89).

Teddy Roosevelt at the Hopi Pueblo of Walpi, August 20, 1913. 

Their first Pueblo stop was at Walpi on First Mesa where the Hopi Snake Dance was to take place. Per Klauber's journal, the highlight of her entire trip was meeting President Theodore Roosevelt at Walpi (see above). She had a short conversation with him and “liked him immensely and thanked him for his work.” He inscribed her copy of Natalie's Indians' Book "To Alice Klauber with all good wishes, from Theodore Roosevelt, Walpi August 21, 1913." Natalie's inscription the same day read, “To Noi-ya-hoi-nim (Alice Klauber) from the companion of her first visit to the Hopi people - Tawi-Mana, the Song Woman (Natalie) - Natalie Curtis. August 21st, 1913.” (Peterson, p. 14).

Teddy Roosevelt and Natalie Curtis viewing the Hopi Snake Dance at the Hopi Pueblo of Walpi, August 20, 1913. 

In the evening after they all viewed the Snake Dance (see above) Roosevelt was busy writing a piece for The Outlook for which he was a frequent contributor. He asked Natalie to take a look at it before wrapping it up. They discussed vernacular Indian architecture and Frank Mead's body of work in Southern California to which she had been recently reintroduced which resulted in the following passage. "

"The Hopi architecture can be kept, adapted, and developed just as we have kept, adapted, and developed the Mission architecture of the Southwest - with the results seen in beautiful Leland Stanford University. The University of New Mexico is, most wisely, modeled on these pueblo buildings; and Mr. Frank Mead, the architect, has done admirable work of the kind by adapting Indian architectural ideas in some of his California houses." (Roosevelt, Theodore, "The Hopi Snake Dance," The Outlook, October 18, 1913, pp. 365-373).

Roosevelt and Curtis seemingly had an in-depth discussion on the issue of the white man imposing inappropriate architectural styles upon the Indians evidenced by a 1919 article in the same magazine in which she reminisced of her 1913 discussion with Roosevelt,

"We dwelt with Colonel Roosevelt upon the historic and cultural value of the ancient Indian towns of Arizona which, had they been in Europe, would doubtless have been preserved unchanged as living records of successful communistic forms of government whose social and ceremonial life offered a study of the greatest possible importance to our knowledge of mankind as a whole. And we asked: What right have we in "free America" to stretch forth an autocratic hand arbitrarily to change the village life of this ancient and peaceful folk? We spoke of the characteristic architecture of the pueblos, by many centuries the oldest inhabited towns in America, whose flat-roofed, terraced houses are not only in utter harmony with natural surroundings, but constitute, from a practical standpoint, the most successful type of building for desert cities. High above the sands, the flat roof forms a porch for the open-air Indian, whereon at certain seasons he works, rests, receives his guests, eats, and sleeps."

Remembering her discussions with Mead regarding the vernacular architecture of his world travels she continued,

"In North Africa, in Spain, in Asia Minor, where climatic conditions are similar to those in Hopi Land, the same flat roof may be found. But we think we know better! In a land of burning sun, the slanting, hot, tin roofs of the government dwellings clinging in an inherited architecture of rain-soaked central Europe, cut their incongruous outline against a rainless sky, impotent in their longing to shed water! And the sun streamed into their big European windows, inviting myriads of flies, and forming a contrast indeed to the shadowed cool of the thick-walled Indian houses, whose open fireplaces insured at all seasons wholesome ventilation, in spite of high, narrow windows. And yet the white man's unpractical transplanted house, brought from far other climes, is urged upon the Indians as "civilized." With no eye to either beauty or fitness, our arbitrary standards (rarely, in the Indians' case, put to the test of experimentation first) are forced upon a people who through centuries of experience have learned how to conquer conditions foreign to us. Improvements there might certainly be in the Indian's manner of life but why not along those lines which nature has taught as most appropriate?" (Curtis, Natalie, "Theodore Roosevelt in Hopi-Land: Another Personal Reminiscence," The Outlook, September 17, 1919, pp. 87-88).

The next day the Klauber-Curtis entourage traveled to Oraibi on First Mesa where the Hopi Snake Dance was to take place. Now seeing first hand Mead's inspiration Klauber sketched the Pueblo architecture that he had been so successfully incorporating into his Southern California work.

Alice Klauber sketch of the Hopi Pueblo of Walpi, August 21, 1913. From the Alice Klauber Collection, San Diego Museum of Art.

Now seeing first hand Mead's inspiration Klauber sketched the Pueblo architecture that he had been so successfully incorporating into his Southern California work.

 Hopi Pueblo of Walpi., n.d., photographer unknown.

Photo of Tawakwaptiwa and Alice Klauber at the Hopi Pueblo of Oraibi, ca. August 24, 1913. Photo by Natalie Curtis.

Their next Pueblo stop was at Oraibi on Third Mesa where the Curtises and Mead had first crossed paths ten years earlier. Natalie introduced Alice to Tawakwaptiwa, her and Mead's old friend from both Oraibi and the Sherman Institute in Riverside (see above and below). After Alice drew Tawakwaptiwa's portrait he inscribed her copy of Natalie's Indians' Book next to his photo, “Hopi Chief/Orababi/August 24, 1913.” (Peterson, p. 13).

Alice Klauber portrait of Tawakwaptiwa at  Oraibi, Third Mesa, ca. August 24, 1913. From the Alice Klauber Collection, San Diego Museum of Art.

After an arduous yet inspiring three weeks tramping through Indian country Alice returned to San Diego in early September. Natalie had stayed behind to continue her work and organize her field notes. In her journal Klauber expressed concerns “about leaving her alone,” in a somewhat unsure and unfamiliar part of the country. (Peterson, p. 14).

South elevation, Palomar Apartments, northwest corner of 6th and Maple, San Diego, 1913-14, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

There is no evidence that Mead accompanied Klauber and Curtis to rendezvous with Roosevelt although he undoubtedly would have had a strong desire to do so. He was likely too busy to make the trip with the Winsor House nearing completion and the impending commission for his and Natalie's mutual friend Cornelia Chapin's Palomar Apartments. Design work began on the Palomar Apartments in October, about the time of the below Panama California Exposition construction photo. ("Hotels and Apartments: San Diego," Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer, October 4, 1913, p. 23).

Balboa Park Construction site ca. 1913, from Cabrillo Bridge. Science and Education Building at left, Indian Arts Building at right. From Panama California Exposition Digital Archive.

Cornelia G. Chapin, 1924. Passport photo.

Cornelia was a widowed New York socialite who had three children during her brief marriage to Lindley Hoffman Chapin of whom Katherine, like Natalie, would go on to become an activist in Indian and African American affairs and published poet of note. 

Palomar Apartments, northwest corner of 6th and Maple, San Diego, 1913-14, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

"Entrance facade, Palomar Apartments, San Diego, California, Mead and Requa, Architects," Western Architect, May 1915.

"Patio through Moorish arch. (Ibid).

A Morrocan Interior, ca. 1895. Photo by Keen and Mead, architects. From Morocco: Its People and Places, Vol. II by Edmondo De Amacis, Hebry T. Coates and Co., Philadelphia, 1897, p. 26. (See also Mead, Part I).

Mead's inspiration for the distinctive interior patio of the Palomar clearly resulted from his 1895 Moroccan travels (see above for example). 

Palomar Apartments, ground floor interior patio. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

The Palomar's glass-covered patio was singled out for much praise in the October 1915 issue of California Garden published by the San Diego Floral Association. Mead's friend Kate Sessions, the Association's vice-president, was most likely responsible for its design. Frequent contributor Ruth Ingersoll Robinson wrote glowingly of the patio's plants, decor and expansive rooftop view of the Exposition grounds and San Diego Bay and the Palomar's active social calendar of dances and receptions related to the Exposition.

"Patio from second story arcade, Palomar Apartments, San Diego, California, Frank Mead and Richard S. Requa, Architects, Western Architect, May, 1915.

"One of the most typically Spanish patios to be found in San Diego is that of the Palomar Apartments. It is not open to the sky but is glass covered, and this makes it possible to have the most delicate of ferns and tropical grasses growing there in perfect luxuriance." 

 
"Patio looking north.." (Ibid).

"A circular garden plot is in the center of the patio and here grows a splendid banana tree, bright leaved coleus, sword ferns, and a "jungle" palm. Enclosing this space is a low wall built of highly glazed blue and yellow tile of Intricate design . Balconies from the several upper floors open on this court, and boxes of ferns, myrtle, begonias and coleus are fastened to the artistic Iron grille work which surrounds these balconies." 

Second floor atrium. (Ibid).

 
Corner of patio. (Ibid).

"The feathery cocos plumosus add to the tropical scene, and prim Italian cypresses lend a formal note. Heavy log beams show through under the arches which are on two sides of the patio. Bold, conventional designs in grey and red display the dominant colors, and navajo rugs have been chosen to harmonize with the wall decorations. The grey and white furniture is unique and appropriate. Another Spanish detail is noticeable in the light green window casements. This patio is winning much well deserved praise and is worthy of a visit. "

 

"Third story balcony." (Ibid).

"Corner of patio." (Ibid).

Expo Buildings viewed from Palomar Apartments, n.d. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

"From the roof of the Palomar Apartments (see above and below) an inspiring and expansive view may be obtained of the Exposition; San Miguel and the blue mountains in the distance; the Silver Strand, Coronado, North Island and Point Loma may all be admired from this vantage point. In the immediate foreground are seen the well-kept lawns and shrubs and trees of Balboa  Park. On this roof many delightful dancing parties and receptions have been given during the summer and surely no more attractive surroundings could he desired." (Robinson, Ruth Ingersoll, "Palomar Aprtment Patio," California Garden, October 1915, p. 7.

On the rooftop deck looking east toward the loggia. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

The rooftop loggias Mead incorporated in the Winsor house a few months earlier proved so popular that he again designed one for the Palomar to take advantage of the 360 degree views of Balboa Park and San Diego Bay (see above and below). 

View of the Palomar Apartments (upper right) from the Exposition ca. 1915. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

After the Palomar's completion in February of 1914 Chapin moved in as resident manager for most of 1914-15 and hosted numerous friends from New York and San Diego. Natalie couldn't have timed her Craftsman article on Mead's "Hilero" any better as it appeared in the January 1914 issue just as she and Charlotte Osgood Mason and their mutual friends were preparing to move into the Palomar (see below). After the building's completion the group spent much of 1914 closely bonding with Alice Klauber and monitoring final construction of the Exposition grounds. Chapin's penthouse loggia provided a strategically located social center for her and Mason, Natalie, Alice Klauber, Olive Percival and their ever-widening circle of friends throughout the two-year run of the Exposition. (Author's note: Olive Percival, Charles Lummis's neighbor in the Arroyo south of Pasadena, also rented rooms here for her extended stays in 1914-1916. Percival's travel diaries at the Huntington Library document her reconnecting with Natalie during an extended New York vacation.). Percival also befriended Wheeler Bailey's La Jolla neighbor Anna Held Heinrich evidenced by the 1921 manuscript Old Green Dragon Days with Anna Held she co-authored with Mrs. Denville. For much more on Percival see my "Bertha Wardell Dances in Silence: Kings Road, Olive Hill and Carmel").

Curtis, Natalie, "A New Type of Architecture in the Southwest," The Craftsman, January, 1914, p. 330.

Convenient to Alice while working at the Exposition, her brother Hugo's house was next door to the north of the Palomar as well. (GDC). The Palomar Apartments proved to be a very sound investment for Chapin, likely paying for itself before the Exposition ended in December 1916 (see below ad for example).  

Palomar Apartments ad, San Diego Tourist, November 1918.

Edgar L. Hewett, 1915. Courtesy of the Palace of Governors (Santa Fe) Photo Archives.

Natalie used the Palomar as her base of operations as she and Mead closely monitored the completion of the Painted Desert exhibition, and the New Mexico and Indian Arts Buildings. They befriended its Indian participants including San Ildefonso Pueblo potters Maria and Julian Martinez. She also assisted Alice Klauber and anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka, on preparations for the opening of the Exposition. Natalie and Hrdlicka, a mutual friend and colleague of the Exposition's Director of Exhibitions Edgar L. Hewett (see above) and Charles Lummis, collaborated on the design of an Indian Art Industries exhibit for the Indian Arts Building which included ceramics, blankets, rugs and Mead's collection of rare Navajo silver jewelry. (Poling-Kempes, p.  101). 

Robert Henri with wife Marjorie and her sister Viv at the Richmond Cottage, La Jolla, summer 1914. San Diego Museum of Art, Alice Klauber Collection.

As mentioned earlier above, it was also during the summer of 1914 that Alice finally lured her mentor Robert Henri (see above) to San Diego for a summer of painting. She put her idol up in a Mead and Requa cottage designed for her and Ellen Browning Scripps La Jolla Women's Club friend Mary Richmond. While introducing Henri to her social circle and friends ensconced in the Palomar, Alice and Edgar Hewett were able to convince him to help organize an exhibition of modern art for the upcoming Exposition. The mutual friends spent spent much time at the Palomar throughout 1914 and during the 1915-16 run of the Panama California Exposition (see below for example). (For much more on Henri's 1914 stay at the Richmond compound which resulted in his collaboration with Alice Klauber and Edgar Hewett organizing the fine art exhibition at the Panama California Exposition see my "100 Years Ago Today: Robert Henri, Alice Klauber and Irving Gill Connections, April 25, 1915").

George and Natalie Curtis at the Palomar Apartments, December 1916. Photographer unknown but possibly Alice Klauber. Courtesy Al Bredenberg, Natalie Curtis Archive.

Persimmon Room, Panama California Exposition, 1915. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

George Curtis often took the train into town from his Lakeside ranch to visit Mead, Natalie, Alice and Wheeler Bailey and also spent much time socializing in the the Woman's Official Board Room, aka the "Persimmon Room."(see above). (GDC). Deemed one of the most striking interiors of the Exposition, the "Persimmon Room" decor was the brain-child of Alice Klauber, likely with an assist from Mead and perhaps Natalie Curtis as well. Using the colors from an Indian rug she purchased during her trip to Pueblo country with Natalie in the summer of 1913, Alice painted the walls in shades of gray, used a persimmon red dye on draperies and cushions and covered the floor with Navajo rugs, possibly supplied by Mead's client, Houck, Arizona Navajo trading post operator James Bennett. Seemingly more than a coincidence, this was the same color palette Mead and Chapin selected for decorating the patio of the Palomar Apartments. Another unique touch, riffing off of Mead's red Steinway for Wheeler Bailey's "Hilero," Alice converted a rosewood piano into a handsome writing desk (see below left). (Balboa Park and the 1915 Exposition by Richard W. Amero, History Press, 2013, p. 78 and "San Diego is Hospitable, Los Angeles Times, January 31, 1915, p. VI-1).

Persimmon Room, Panama California Exposition, 1915. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Alice Klauber and Natalie Curtis (and possibly Mead) undoubtedly reunited with Teddy Roosevelt at some point during his July 26-28 San Diego Exposition visit. ("Col. Roosevelt is Heard by Thirty Thousand," Los Angeles Times, July 28, 1915, p. II-7). It was likely during Roosevelt's 4:30-5:00 p.m. "Roosevelt Day" reception in the "Persimmon Room" or perhaps during his 5:00-5:30 stop at the Painted Desert exhibit where he also took great pleasure in witnessing an Indian dance and the christening ceremony of a newly born Indian boy "Theodore Roosevelt" (see below).

Teddy Roosevelt, Ed Fletcher and D. C. Collier and others at the Painted Desert christening, July 27, 1915. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Left, Jesse Nusbaum and Charles Lummis in Guatemala, 1911. Right, Quimu and Charles Lummis with ancient Mayan sculptural monument Stela K exhibited at the Panama California Exposition, Quirigua, Guatemala, 1911.

Hewett had also sent his very close archaeological pal Lummis a special invitation for the Exposition's "Roosevelt Day" proceedings and other events. Before reconnecting with his former Harvard classmate, Lummis and his son Quimu visited the Guatemalan exhibition in the California Building to reminisce about their 1911 archaeological expedition with Jesse Nusbaum (see above). They viewed reproductions of the Mayan monument known by archaeologists as Stela K and other Mayan artifacts commissioned by Hewett for the main rotunda of the California Building (see below). (Author's note: This material also provided inspiration for Frank Lloyd Wright's designs for Aline Barnsdall's Hollyhock House and his Freeman, Storer and Millard Houses in the early 1920s as described in my "Gill-Laughlin, Part II").

Mayan artifacts exhibit in the rotunda of the California Building, 1915. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Lummis's activities for the three days were exhaustively captured in his journal. He began,

"Hewett was on the wing, as usual; and I took Quimu the rounds of the California Building and especially the wonderful replicas of the Guatemalan monuments which he knows in life; and finally Hewett caught us there (see above). ... So Quimu and I trotted over to the New Mexico Building and investigated that."

At the New Mexico Building they met the daughter of Pat Garrett who captured "Billy the Kid." They then took in the Brazil and U.S. Navy exhibits before having lunch with Hewett at the Cristobal Cafe, site of a banquet honoring Roosevelt the following day (see below). (Charles Fletcher Lummis Journals, July 26, 1915, Occidental College Library).

Cristobal Cafe, Panama California Exposition, 1915. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

After more sightseeing at the Isthmus and Coney Island exhibits Lummis and Quimu 

"...had a good time at the Painted Desert exhibit - though chagrined to find that our San Ildefonso friends had all gone home. But the Lieutenant Governor of Acoma was there (who knew me very well) and was very nice. And several of his relatives and friends who knew me slightly. And Quimu felt very much at home in this reproduction of the Pueblo country."

After some more sightseeing they went back to their hotel for a rest and dinner before going back to the Exposition for the evening's activities. 

"After a long wrestle with his tie in which I had to assist like a surgeon, we got away at last to the Exposition and found Colonel Collier and President Davidson and Hewett on deck. And also Russell Allen who was with me on the Warner Ranch Commission. Finally Teddy and Mrs. Roosevelt and their party arrived. The matter had been kept absolutely quiet and the doors were locked and none of the outside crowd caught on at all to what was proceeding.  

Teddy was more than cordial, and Hewett and I had him a large share of the time for more than two hours in going over the exhibits in the California Building and in the Science of Man Building and the Indian Arts Building. He was enormously interested, and full of original thought and cognate learning. He thought these exhibits among the most interesting he had ever seen - particularly Hrdlicka's incomparable display. Poor Mrs. Roosevelt was very much tired - but very game...

It was a memorable evening for all concerned and the close of it distinctly like Teddy. When he shook hands goodbye, with Quimu, he said in his characteristic way when he wishes other people to hear (and all were gathered around as he took his auto) "I have known your father a great many years and I value and believe in him. I hope you do as well." Which was very nice for Mr. Quimu to remember." (Ibid).

Colonel Collier dropped Lummis and Quimu off at the hotel around 11:30 that night. 

Ed Fletcher and George Marston had earlier that same day tried unsuccessfully to collar an hour of Roosevelt's time after his 1:00-1:30 p.m. "secret conference" with San Diego's "Progressives" in the green room of the U.S. Grant Hotel. "In explaining his effort to get an hour with Roosevelt Fletcher said he had done so on behalf of  Owen Wister, an old college classmate of the Colonel’s." ("Roosevelt Holds Secret Conference with Progressives at San Diego," Los Angeles Herald, July 27, 1915, p. 1). (Author's note: As mentioned earlier Wister had in 1911 commissioned Requa to design a house for him in Grossmont

George Marston and Teddy Roosevelt at the Exposition, July 27, 1915. From Smithsonian Museum.

After being taken back to the hotel Roosevelt was given a driving tour by his first wife's second cousin Alice Lee who lived with her partner Katherine Teats in an Irving Gill-designed house across the street from George Marston. ("Colonel Happy in San Diego," Sacramento Union, July 27, 1915, p. 2). Lummis also wrote of meeting Alice Lee,

"... and Miss Lee (the Colonel's cousin) and other guardians had their hands full to try to get her to rest by the wayside. They would get her to sit down but in about two minutes she would hop up to hear what was being said and to see what was being shown. She is a most lovely lady and I was glad to have Quimu meet her." (Charles Fletcher Lummis Journals, July 27, 1915, Occidental College Library).

The next day after breakfast Lummis went down to the U. S. Grant Hotel to meet with Grant. Later it was over to the Exposition for the Roosevelt luncheon at the Cristobal Cafe. Lummis proudly penned in his journal, "Hewett and I really had almost a monopoly of his conversation at lunch. He is tremendously interested in that Science of Man business and cannot get over some of the impressions it made on him." After the very long lunch Lummis went back to the Grant where he "saw Wheeler Bailey of La Jolla and various other amiable acquaintances." 

After dinner back at his hotel he and Quimu made their way back to the Exposition to meet Hewett at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion for Roosevelt's evening address. Lummis wrote, 

"...and there I was grabbed by various San Diegans and rushed onto the platform in the front row, while Quimu went with the Hewett party upstairs. I was within 8 feet of Teddy and could see his action and hear his words. And they were Some Words. He had an audience of 20,000 people and he talked for and hour and three-quarters, and he rubbed in the Teddy Gospel most characteristically. I don't know if I ever heard him speak in better fettle, nor fuller of humor and sarcasm. And his quickness of wit was illustrated several times when there were interruptions. ... It was really a memorable evening. ... 

After the talk, I caught Quimu and Mr. Bailey and the latter brought us down in his Juggernaught, which was very welcome after a day of all the trotting we needed. And he also arranged with us tomorrow's gadding."

The next morning it was over to the Grant Hotel for another Roosevelt address.

"And Mr. Grant kindly took us up to his private balcony where we could watch the parade of 800 Annapolis middies from the Ohio, Wisconsin and Missouri, with the fine cavalry stationed there and many other gallant features. It was a handsome showing the youngsters made and I had an uncommonly pleasant talk with Mr. Grant. He looks more and more like his distinguished father though he now has a clean-shaven face. But he talks more in five minutes than the old general did in an hour." 

 After a late lunch and rest back at the hotel,

"A little before 5 along came Hewett and Mrs. Hewett and Mrs. McLean (who is to take the Bishop's School there) with Bailey in his car to La Jolla, a very pretty ride. He is a funny little old bachelor somewhere near my age, who has built an uncommonly and cozy nest right on the edge of the cliffs at La Jolla and has gathered a good many Indian relics of the buyable sort. And takes more comfort in his house and more pride in it than most people. He is also sort of a Mr. Leo Hunter, and his chief delight is to capture someone who is known and take him to see his place. He is now finishing what he calls a Hopi House, which is very well done outside and in but adapted to civilized life. And it stands within 30 feet of the ocean. I suppose it would make a Hopi laugh to see his desert architecture up there - since the only ocean he ever saw is the sea of endless sands, without enough water to irrigate a blade of grass. But the house is attractive and comfortable and artistic and it is Bailey's chief delight." (Ibid). (Author's note: Oddly Lummis makes no mention of Mead in any of his journal entries thus it is not clear whether Bailey ever shared with Lummis (or others) whom the architect(s) might have been.).

Bailey took the group back to town in time for Lummis and Quimu to catch the midnight train back to Los Angeles.

Francis O. Wyman, 1910, From Greater Los Angeles and Southern California, Portraits and Personal Memoranda edited by Robert J. Burdette, Lewis Publishing Co., Los Angeles, 1910, p. 268.

Wheeler Bailey's 1907 "Hilero" and 1912 servant's quarters, Princess St., La Jolla, Mead and Requa, architects. From Curtis, Natalie, "A New Type of Architecture in the Southwest," The Craftsman, January, 1914, p. 330.

Concurrent with the Palomar during November 1913, construction began on the Wyman House for Wheeler Bailey's sister and brother-in-law Francis O. Wyman on Princess St. in La Jolla next door to the east of "Hilero" and it's recently added servant's quarters, also apparently designed by Mead and Requa (see above). As mentioned earlier above, Wyman was a cement tycoon with beginnings in Toledo, Ohio before moving to Los Angeles. The Wyman's main residence was in Pasadena but they could not resist the lure of a prime lot in La Jolla neighboring "Hilero." George Curtis's diaries reflect that Natalie stayed with the Wymans in both Pasadena and La Jolla during this period further indicating their close mutual friendship with Wheeler Bailey.

West elevation, Francis O. Wyman Residence, Princess St., La Jolla, 1914, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

East elevation, Francis O. Wyman Residence, Princess St., La Jolla, 1914, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Wyman Residence, Princess St., La Jolla, 1914, Mead and Requa, architects. Photo by the author.

North elevation, James W. Bennett Residence, 2475 C St., San Diego, 1914. Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

As the Palomar Apartments and Wyman house were nearing completion in February of 1914, design was completed and construction began on a residence for George Curtis's former Houck, Arizona ranch employer and Indian trading post operator James W. Bennett. Possibly upon Mead's or Curtis's recommendation, beginning in 1912 Bennett had been making exploratory forays to San Diego to scout out opportunities to profit from the Exposition. In early 1914 he commissioned his old friend Mead to design a home at 2475 C St. and opened an Indian curio shop at 1236 5th Ave. (San Diego City Directories, 1912-15). Interestingly, the house was located next door to the Frederick Webb residence completed in early 1913. It is not yet known whether there was a connection between Webb and Bennett but the proximity of the two houses seems more than coincidental.

The enterprising Bennett had previously met Edgar Hewett in late 1911 right after he was named Director of Exhibitions for the Panama California Exposition, possibly through Mead's and the Curtis's connections with Charles Lummis. It was through his archaeology crony Lummis's connections with the Exposition President Col. D. C. Collier that Hewett was offered the fateful position. After Hewett had an ample budget to acquire exhibits for the Exposition's new Indian Arts and Crafts Building Bennett sold him a collection of rare Indian pottery for that purpose (see below).

James W. Bennett letter to Edgar L. Hewitt, December 28, 1911. Courtesy New Mexico History Museum, Edgar L. Hewett Collection.

James W. Bennett Residence, 2475 C St., San Diego, 1914. Mead and Requa, architects. Photo by the author, June 29, 2016.

In early 1914 Mead briefly ventured into incorporating elements from the California Mission Revival style with the distinctive roof parapets seen in the front elevations of the Bennett Residence and the La Mesa Grammar School projects (see above and below).

La Mesa Grammar School, Mead and Requa, architects, 1914. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

The same month they were designing the Bennett house Mead and Requa were commissioned to design a grammar school for the La Mesa School District. The structure was of hollow tile wall construction enclosing a large court (see above). It contained six class rooms, a board room, principal’s office, teachers' lounge, and student bathrooms. The genesis of the commission likely came about through their earlier work for Ed Fletcher in Pine Hills and Grossmont. Construction began sometime in April in time for completion for the opening of  the fall term.

Adelbert Hiram Sweet, ca. 1930, photographer unknown. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

In late 1913 Mead and Requa landed one of their most important commissions to date, a stately residence and guest house for Judge Adelbert Hiram Sweet. Sweet had run across the Palomar Apartments which had been far enough along for him to be attracted by its Moorish exoticism and also liked the fine attention to detail in the Webster Residence. (San Diego Home Garden, Vol. 7, Issues 1-6, 1985). Mead and Requa began design in earnest in late December and by the April 1st groundbreaking had prepared 111 sheets of drawings. (Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer, March 28, 1914, p. 28). 

Judge A. H. Sweet Residence, Spruce and Curlew Streets, San Diego, 1914, Mead and Requa, architects. From Western Architect, October 1915.

Stepping up an imposing hillside lot at the southeast corner of Spruce and Curlew Streets, just west of the recently completed Spruce St. suspension bridge. The main and guest houses were connected by arched colonnades flanking a central courtyard. After The home was built throughout 1914 using day labor as no general contractor felt comfortable bidding on such an unusual project, especially for the prominent Judge Sweet. (Schaelchlin, Patricia, "The Sweet Houses," Report to the City of San Diego Historical Site Board, 1971, p. 11.).

Front entrance. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Echoing Natalie Curtis's January 1914 Craftsman title for her "Hilero" article, the author of the descriptive captions for a four-page spread on the Sweet Residence in the October 1915 issue of Western Architect dubbed Mead and Requa's work as,

"A type of new architecture of the Southwest where nature is called upon to complete the architectural effects. The plain wall surfaces, the straight lines and sharp angles will soon be relieved and enlivened by masses of foliage and color such as only the climatic conditions of Southern California can produce." (Ibid).

Plot and first floor plan. Ibid.

The landscape was designed by Paul C. Thiene who first came to San Diego in 1911 and was a gardener in the City Park system. From 1912 until 1915, he was the Supervising Nursery Foreman for the 1915 Panama California Exposition. (Author's note: Thiene left for Los Angeles in late 1915 and briefly partnered with former Irving Gill employee Lloyd Wright who also got his start in San Diego as a gardener for the Exposition in 1911. (Gill-Laughlin, Part II).

Pergolas flanking the garden court between the main and guest houses. Ibid.

Pleasing views of the pergolas and garden court are had from the of the master bedroom balcony, the dining room and the living room. 

Sun room exterior and courtyard entrance. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Courtyard entrance. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Moorish doorway off garden court. (Ibid).

Pergola-covered walkway adjacent to the garden court. (Ibid).

Mead's signature pergola-enclosed promenades are flanked by built-in seats finished with blue, white and yellow Moorish tiles. (Ibid).

 Sun room with coffered redwood ceiling and oriental lights with outdoor terrace to the right. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Dining room interior with Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Entry parlor. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Period ad for the Great White Fleet from E-Bay.

While construction was winding down on the Sweet residence, as had his mentor Frank Miles Day in the early 1890s, Mead strongly encouraged his yet unlicensed junior partner to take an inspirational exploratory architectural tour of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Likely with an itinerary gleaned from Mead's extensive travels in the region, amateur photographer Requa made his way down through Mexico during the spring of 1914 visiting iconic architectural sites along the way. By May he traveled his way through Central America to Panama. From Colon he booked a tour to Cuba, Jamaica and Colombia aboard the Zacapa, part of the United Fruit Company's Great White Fleet (see above). Requa arrived back in San Diego in late June via New York. (New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), June 11, 1914).

Will Gird, n.d.

As the Sweet Residence was completed, in August 1914 Mead's back country friend William E. Gird commissioned a new house for his ranch about 10 miles west of the Pala Reservation in Bonsall near Fallbrook. As mentioned earlier, Mead and Gird likely became friends during Mead's time as the Pala Reservation Superintendent. After inheriting land from his back country pioneering father Henry in 1913, Gird married his father's caretaker Nina Allen and asked Mead and Requa to to design more modern accommodations. Part of the improvements also included a water tower. 

Front elevation, Gird Residence, 3640 Gird Rd., Fallbrook. Courtesy Mead and Requa, architects. San Diego History Center.

Water tower. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Mead included matching wings with fireplaces faced with indented arches flanking a dramatic three arch entrance patio. The living-room of the two-story main house had three sets of matching french doors also opening onto the entrance patio. The house still exists per the Fallbrook Historical Society.

Will Gird Residence, 3640 Gird Rd., Fallbrook, Mead and Requa, architects, 1914. From Ray, Margaret, "The Gird Family," Fallbrook in Review, Summer 2000, p. 79.

"Like Mansion of Old Spain," Los Angeles Times, March 21, 1915, p. VI-4.

While Requa was traveling in the Caribbean, Krotona Court patron Augustus Knudsen gave Mead what was possibly the firm's largest residential commission ever in May 1914. He asked Mead to design a 2-1/2 story and basement, frame and plaster residence for his mother Mrs. Valdemar Knudsen, on a hillside site at the head of Vista Del Mar Ave. just downhill and across the street from Krotona Court (see below). A period article in the Times described it as being "designed to be in keeping with the Krotona executive building, which is above it, at the head of a pretentious reinforced concrete stairway" also designed by Mead and Requa. Due to Knudsen's travels construction under contractor Charles H. Richmond did not begin until November as the above-mentioned Sweet Residence was nearing completion. (Ibid, Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer, November 21, 1914, p. 15, and "For Hillside Site," Los Angeles Times, November 22, 1914, p. VI-3). 

Krotona Court stairway (left) and Knudsen House (right), Vista Del Mar, Hollywood, Mead and Requa, architects. From Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection.

The ornament-free Spanish-Moorish design for the $30,000, 95 x 112 ft. residence included brick and concrete porches and terraces and terra cotta Spanish roof tile roof and chimney caps. As they had done for the Sweet Residence in San Diego which was then nearing completion, Mead followed the contour of the hillside site, receding each level from the one below, providing broad, open roof terraces overlooking the southerly views (see below). The crowning feature was the solarium and roof garden encompassing the entire third floor. As at Krotona Court Mead likely recommended his San Diego horticulturist friend Kate Sessions to do the landscaping although she is not mentioned in any period articles.

Residence for Mrs. V. Knudsen, Vista Del Mar, Hollywood, Mead and Requa, architects. From Western Architect, July 1917, p. 62.

Mead and Requa also designed "Krotona Flight" as a separate project at the same time. The stairs not only provided access to the Knudsen residence to the east but served as the south entrance to the hillside Krotona Colony. The stairs fulfilled the function of delineating the Colony from the ordinary world. Krotona colonists used the stairs to get to and from the electric railway stop at Argyle and Franklin Avenues. Although the original plans called for a large gateway at the bottom of the stairway, it was never built. 

"Wall Fountain and Entrance to Service Department," Mitchell, W. Garden, "Some Picturesque Homes of Southern California," Architect and Engineer of California, March 1918, p. 42.

"Overhanging Window and Balcony," Ibid, p. 39.

First floor plan, Ibid, p. 43.

Rear Elevation, Ibid, p. 40.

Second floor plan, Ibid, p. 43.

"North Courtyard," Ibid, p. 41.

Augustus Knudsen in the garden ca. 1915. 

Harry T. Sinclair Residence, south and west elevations. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

While the Gird House was still under construction, in September Mead and Requa were commissioned by Harry T. Sinclair to design a striking residence on what is now Fairview Road in the foothills of the Topatopa Mountains above Ojai. The commission came about when Sinclair visited Mead and Requa's recently completed residence for Robert Winsor in the Sweetwater Valley and decided he wanted one like it built in Ojai. (Werner, Willis, "Town Builder," San Diego Union, December 27, 1958).

Sinclair was a wealthy Midwesterner from Toledo, Ohio where he was close friends with glass manufacturer Edward D. Libbey. Retired world traveler Sinclair first "discovered" Ojai (at the time Nordhoff) around 1900 and lured Libbey to visit in 1907. Libbey immediately purchased considerable land holdings and soon built a winter home designed by Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey. Like the Klaubers, Wangenheims, and Ed Fletcher, the Sinclair family amassed their family fortunes in the wholesale grocery business. It is unclear who in San Diego Sinclair may have been visiting in 1914 when he fell in love with Winsor's house but he was almost certainly would been given a tour of Mead and Gill's nearby 1908 house for Winsor's cousin Robert C. Allen discussed earlier above. He also would have been shown Mead and Gill's 1908 Klauber house, their 1907 Wheeler Bailey house and Mead and Requa's recently completed mansion for Judge Sweet.

Harry T. Sinclair Residence, 371 Fairview Road, Ojai Valley, Ventura County, 1915, Mead and Requa, architects. From Greene, Charles Sumner, "Architecture As A Fine Art," The Architect, April 1917, Plate 66.

Mead's trademark pergolas were featured at the entrance and the living room patio of the Sinclair residence (see above). As with the Winsor house in the Sweetwater Valley, it was surrounded by loggias, pergolas and terraces to take advantage of the expansive views overlooking the Ojai Valley. The Sinclair project would ultimately lead to the Ojai Civic Improvements commissioned by Sinclair's close friend Edward D. Libbey the following year as discussed later below. ("E. D. Libbey Buys Smith Property," The Ojai, May 12, 1916, p. 1).

Sinclair Residence first floor plan, Mead and Requa, architects, September 23, 1914. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Col. Robert H. Noble of the 6th U.S. Infantry in Mexico, 1917. From Sunset Magazine, March 1917, p. 5.

Sometime in late 1914 or early 1915 Col. Robert H. Noble (see above), a close friend of Wheeler Bailey, was planning a subdivision of a 175 x 500 ft. tract in La Playa on Point Loma and asked Mead and Requa for preliminary drawings for five "Spanish-Moorish" houses. It is not known if the houses were ever built but one of the elevations is seen below. (Southwest Builder and Contractor, January 16, 1915, p. 19).

House No. 1 for Col. Robert H. Noble, La Playa, Cal., 1915, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Wheeler Bailey "Hopi House," La Jolla, 1915, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Perhaps inspired by the cauldron of Curtis-Klauber-Hewett-Hrdlicka creativity and social activity associated with the Exposition taking place at Cornelia Chapin's Palomar Apartments, in September Wheeler Bailey asked his by then old friend Mead to design a unique guest house for "Hilero." Bailey wanted something in keeping with the Expo's Painted Desert exhibit (see below) masterminded by Lummis's close friend Hewett and the Santa Fe Railroad and knew from experience that Mead could deliver. A model of the Painted Desert by the Grand Canyon's 1904 Hopi House designer Mary Colter was on prominent display in the U. S. Grant Hotel throughout 1914. ("Model of Indian Pueblo Shows Santa Fe Exhibit," San Diego Union, March 24, 1914, p. 1). (Author's note: Mead witnessed first hand the construction of Mary Colter's 1904 Hopi House during his 1904-06 tenure as Superintendent of Reservations in Arizona for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He and Bailey were also definitely aware of Colter's 1914 Lookout Studio and Hermit's Rest at the Grand Canyon built to take advantage of the expected swarm of visitors to San Diego's Panama California Exposition.).

Painted Desert model by Mary Colter. From "Model of Exhibits at San Diego," El Palacio, February-March, 1914, p. 5.

Southern Pacific Railroad Painted Desert exhibit, Panama California Exposition, San Diego, 1915. Mary Colter, architect, Jesse Nusbaum, builder. Jesse Nusbaum Collection, San Diego History Center.

California Belgian Relief Ship. From The Humanitarian Mobilization of American Cities for Belgian Relief, 1914-1918 by Brandon Little, 2014.

Before design was completed for "Hopi House" Mead's humanitarian instincts got the better of him in the fall of 1914, months after the outbreak of World War I. When he heard of the plight of the starving populace of Belgium and northern France he answered the call to arms put out by Herbert Hoover who had negotiated the formation of the Commission for Relief in Belgium. Mead committed his considerable Indian reservation organizational skills to a four month stint in Belgium to help get the massive relief effort on track. He left for the East Coast in November, sailed to Europe in December and returned in late March. (November 28, 1914 passport application and New York Passenger Lists, 1892-1924, March 21, 1915). (Author's note: Perhaps a coincidence, Mead and Requa's client George Marston was one of the honorary chairmen of the California Committee for the Commission for Relief in Belgium. (Commission for War Relief in Belgium, Herbert Hoover, Chairman, Final Report, p. 39).

San Francisco Chronicle, December 5, 1914.

As Mead was busily preparing to leave for Europe, Requa lectured on the differences between Moorish and Mission style architecture at the Clark Hotel in Los Angeles. By then well-schooled by Mead, Requa was perhaps describing the Palomar Apartments and Sweet Residence when he opined, "The Moorish has a recognized residence type of architecture. The prominent features of the Moorish style for dwellings are the patio, long windows opening on an ornamental balcony, and touches of strong color." He continued "The use of Mission style is all right for churches and some other public buildings, but in dwellings it offends taste." ("Revive Moorish Style," Los Angeles Times, November 1, 1914, p. 7).

Mead couldn't have chosen a more busy time to drop everything and leave. However he knew that he could entrust the construction supervision of the Sinclair House in Ojai and the Knudsen House in Hollywood to experienced field men Requa and his draftsman-contractor brother Lewis and another Gill ex-pat field supervisor Herbert L. Jackson who had recently joined the firm. Mead seemingly talked Bailey into waiting until he returned to break ground on the "Hopi House," a project that would have held much personal interest to him. 

Rose, Ethel, "New Hopi Architecture on the Old Mesa Land," The Craftsman, July 1916, p. 

While Mead was in Europe his by then longtime friend Charles Lummis visited "Hilero" on January 3, 1915 shortly after the opening of the Exposition. He wrote in Bailey's guest book "With all best wishes to the Joya of La Jolla." (Bailey House "Hilero" Guest Book, courtesy Dave and Marlene Reynolds). 

Adkins, Lynn, "Jesse Nusbaum and the Painted Desert in San Diego," Journal of San Diego History, Spring, 1983, front cover.

Upon Mead's return to San Diego in late March of 1915 construction proceeded quickly on "Hopi House." Mead arranged with Hewett and his Painted Desert builder and right hand man Jesse Nusbaum (see above) to use Julian Martinez and his San Ildefonso tribe members who were in residence at the Exposition to add an authentic touch to the construction of the house. As he also likely did for "Hilero," Mead seemingly designed all of the furniture including the tables, chairs and built-ins (see below). (See furniture drawings in Mead and Requa's Hopi House folder at the San Diego History Center).

Hopi House for Wheeler Bailey, La Jolla, 1915. Mead and Requa, architects. From Rose, Ethel, "A New Hopi Architecture On the Old Mesa Land, The Craftsman, July 1916, p. 374.

Henri, Robert, Julian Martinez aka. Po Tse (Water Eagle), September 1914. From Santa Fe Art Auction, November 14, 2015, p. 117. (Author's note: The painting was exhibited in the Panama California Exposition's Fine Arts exhibition during 1915 and then traveled to an exhibition of Henri's work in Los Angeles in early 1916.).

In the middle of all of this activity Alice Klauber, who had first met Julian and Maria Martinez in the summer of 1914 when he was sitting for the above Robert Henri portrait, that she introduced him and his potter wife Maria to Natalie Curtis. Maria and Julian were resident and giving daily demonstrations at the Exposition's Painted Desert exhibit. (Author's note: Julian Martinez had in 1912-13 assisted Nusbaum with the restoration of the Palace of Governors, the site of Hewett's and Nusbaum's offices in Santa Fe as discussed later below.).

Alice Klauber and Julian and Maria Martinez and family on the roof of "Hopi House," 1915. 

Further indication that Julian was involved with "Hopi House" construction was that while Henri was staying in La Jolla at the Richmond Court in September 1914 near Wheeler Bailey's "Hilero" he painted Julian Martinez, aka. Po Tse (Water Eagle). 

In a July 1916 article on "Hopi House" in The Craftsman, Ethel Rose described the distinctive steps leading to the roof (see above).

"Those ladders with unequal uprights outlined against the sky were certainly most strikingly decorative. Naturally Mr. Bailey must have so distinctive a Hopi feature to give color and atmosphere. As a matter of fact, this ladder is not an absolute necessity, for the majority of guests prefer to reach the roof, where they assemble for the full enjoyment of the sunset play of colors, by way of the steps along the wall-those wide, safe steps that go up on one side and down the wall on the other, as may be seen by a glance at the accompanying photographs." (Rose, Ethel, "A New Hopi Architecture On the Old Mesa Land, The Craftsman, July 1916, p. 374.

"Hopi House" for Wheeler Bailey, La Jolla, 1915. Mead and Requa, architects. From Rose, Ethel, "A New Hopi Architecture On the Old Mesa Land, The Craftsman, July 1916, p. 374.

"Hopi House" from "Beach Cottage in Hopi Indian Architecture for W. J. Bailey, La Jolla, California," Western Architect, June 1920.

Gerald Cassidy, ca. 1915. Photographer unknown. Palace of Governors Collection.

Besides Lummis, Bailey had many visitors associated with the Exposition during 1915, before and after the completion of "Hopi House." Santa Fe artist Gerald Cassidy (see above), whom Hewett commissioned to paint fifteen large prize-winning murals to depict the habitations of Cliff Dwellers in the Indian Arts Building where Mead's Navajo jewelry collection was also on display. Cassidy, who was an artist-in-residence at the Exposition throughout most of 1915, visited in April and sketched an Indian and inscribed Bailey's "Hilero" guest book, "There are Indians and Indians, and they are not all red skinned. Here's success to the Hopi house and its builder" (see below). 

Gerald Cassidy inscription and drawing, April 10, 1915. (Bailey House "Hilero" Guest Book, courtesy Dave and Marlene Reynolds).

Hewett visited Bailey on May 6, 1915, a month after artist Cassidy. Lummis described "Hopi House" in his later memoirs as, 

"an uncommonly cozy nest right out of the edge of the cliffs of La Jolla...very well done outside and in, but adapted to civilized life. I suppose it would make a Hopi laugh to see this desert architecture up there - since the only ocean he ever saw [was] the sea of endless sands, without enough water to irrigate a blade of grass." (Charles Fletcher Lummis, "Memoirs," typescript, Special Collections, Mary Norton Clapp, Library, Occidental College, Los Angeles, cited in Eddy, Lucinda, "Frank Mead and Richard Requa," in Toward a Simpler Way of Life: The Arts and Crafts Architects of California edited by Robert Winter, University of California Press, 1997, p. 237. Author's Note: While exhibiting in Los Angeles Cassidy visited Lummis at "El Alisal" in July of 1915. ("El Alisal" Guest Book, July 11, 18,, 1915).

Door of Hope, Ocean Beach, 1915, Mead and Requa, architects. From Ocean Beach by the Ocean Beach Historical Society, Arcadia Publishing, 2014, p. 116.

Around the time Wheeler Bailey's "Hopi House" was nearing completion in May-June of 1915 Mead and Requa began construction on a home for unwed mothers for the Door of Hope Society in Ocean Beach. The commission came about through the largess of Door of Hope patron Ella B. Allen, the wife of Mead's 1907 client Russell C. Allen discussed earlier above. The "Door of Hope" was built on a 10-acre site leased from the City of San Diego in Collier Park. Browner and Hunter were awarded the $6,800 construction contract for the two-story frame and plaster building which surrounded a central patio (see above). (Southwestern Contractor and Manufacturer, May 15, 1915, p. 18-b and The Chula Vista Historical Society Presents - Family, Friends, and Homes,  1991 Tecolote Publications, San Diego, CA). (Author's note: I am grateful to Mary Oswell, who is researching the life of the Allen family, for bringing to my attention the Ella Allen-Mead-Door of Hope connection.). (Author's note: This was also around the time Frank Lloyd Wright was visiting the San Diego Exposition with son Lloyd. He also met Hewett and Alice Klauber and reconnected with Gill and gained inspiration from Hewett's Mayan exhibits for his Mayan revival designs for Aline Barnsdall and others in Los Angeles in the early 1920s. For much more on this see my "Gill-Laughlin, Part II"). 

Richard and Katherine Brackenbury and their six sons Lionel, Richard, Charles, William, Gabriel and Geoffrey, 1917.

In March of 1916 English immigrant Richard A. Brackenbury, a pioneering Medicine Bow, Wyoming and Trinidad, Colorado cattle and sheep rancher and Denver sheep broker, commissioned Mead and Requa to design a substantial 14-room winter residence for himself and his wife Katherine and their six sons (see above). The son of an officer in the British Army, after a three-year stint at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, 18-year old Brackenbury immigrated to the United States in 1883 to work as an interpreter for an Italian colony that dissolved shortly after his arrival. With a friend from England Brackenbury made his way to Wyoming where he soon saved enough money to buy a ranch. The spread rapidly grew to cover a six-mile stretch of the Medicine Bow Valley where he raised cattle and sheep. 

In 1893 Brackenbury went back to England and married his wife Katherine and returned via the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The couple had three sons in Wyoming before moving to Colorado in the late 1890s. Besides also amassing what became the largest sheep ranch in Colorado, Brackenbury operated a major sheep brokerage in Denver while the couple had three more sons. 

Rendering of northwest elevation, Richard A. Brackenbury Residence, 1008 32nd St., San Diego, 1916, Mead and Requa, architects. ("Novel Features Planned for New Home," San Diego Union, May 7, 1916).

Brackenbury and Webster Residences, Mead and Requa, architects. From Western Architect, July 1917.

The Brackenburys at some point began wintering in San Diego and bought two lots from Ed Fletcher in October 1913 adjoining Mead and Requa's earlier-mentioned 1913 house for Dr. Webster (see above right). Liking what Mead and Requa designed for Webster, Brackenbury hired them to build something along the same lines on his property a couple years later. While the house was under design kindred cowboy Mead certainly would have enjoyed reminiscing with Brackenbury about his time as a cowpunching stock inspector on the Tongue River Indian Reservation in Montana in 1909.

Apparently more than coincidental, Fletcher's earlier-mentioned 1911-12 Grossmont investor and Requa client Owen Wister also spent much time in the Medicine Bow Valley the same time the Brackenburys were there. Thus he may have been the one to recommend San Diego to Brackenbury. Wister's time in Medicine Bow inspired his pioneering 1902 Western novel The Virginian which he dedicated to fellow Harvard alum and kindred lover of all things Western, Teddy Roosevelt.

East elevation, Richard Brackenbury Residence 1008 32nd St., San Diego, 1916, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

The two-story, 14-room, $10,000 dwelling was described in a May 1916 article in the San Diego Union.

"Many novel and interesting features have been planned for the interior, and the general exterior design is the simple type of building suggestive of the Mediterranean countries - plain plastered walls relieved by delicate window grilles and oriental overhanging balconies. 

The red tile roofs and the window hoods will combine with the green of the planting of the numerous flower boxes and receptacles to furnish color and variety to the plastered surface. The main roof parapets enclose an extensive roof garden reached in true oriental fashion by an outside stairway. 

The main floor contains a spacious reception hall, living room, conservatory, den, dining room, kitchen and the service rooms. A sitting room and the sleeping room and porches comprise the second floor and a stairway from the main hall leads to a spacious billiard and recreation room in the basement."

Billiard room. (Mitchell, p. 44).

"The Moorish idea was kept constantly in mind in designing the interior. The main rooms in particular savoring the orient, especially in the magnesite tile floors and stairways having the richness and charm of oriental tiling. The east end of the living room is of glass opening into the conservatory, where trellised vine-covered walls (see below) and the masses of semi-tropical plants, with the splashing little fountain in the wall, serve as a harmonious link between the house and gardens."

North elevation, Richard Brackenbury Residence 1008 32nd St., San Diego, 1916, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

"As a part of the design, a simple but effective lath house will serve to complete the garden scheme and also provide a constant supply of greenery for the home. Another interesting feature of the house is the entirely concealed indirect lighting of the dining room, eliminating the conspicuous central lighting fixture." ("Novel Features Planned for New Home," San Diego Union, May 7, 1916).

Robert C. Gemmell, ca. 1900. Utah State Engineer portrait. From Utahgov.

In April of 1916 Robert C. Gemmell commissioned Mead and Requa to design a two-story winter home in Mission Hills. Formerly Utah's State Engineer, Gemmell was at the time of the commission the general manager of the Utah Copper Company. Gemmell was also a former mining engineer thus likely knew Frederick Webb for whom Mead and Requa built a house in early 1913. It seems plausible that Webb may have done consulting work for Gemmell's company during this period.

Robert C. Gemmell Residence, 4476 Hortensia, Mission Hills, 1916, Mead and Requa, architects. From Mission Hills by Allen Hazard and Janet O'Dea, Arcadia, 2015, p. 106).

The $8,500, two-story, nine room, hollow tile and concrete residence was built using day labor as Mead and Requa normally acted as their own general contractors to maintain the quality of the final product. (Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer, June 3, 1916, p. 24).

West elevation, Robert C. Gemmell Residence, 4476 Hortensia St., Mission Hills, 1916, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

A period article in the San Diego Union stated that the 16 foot tall living room "would admit an abundance of light and air through the windows...A rare old life-size painting will be built into the north side of the living room.The entrance hall, living and dining rooms will all be high wainscotted in Philippine mahogany." (Cited in Mission Hills by Allen Hazard and Janet O'Dea, Arcadia, 2015, p. 106).

Robert C. Gemmell Residence, 4476 Hortensia St., Mission Hills, 1916, Mead and Requa, architects. From Mission Hills by Allen Hazard and Janet O'Dea, Arcadia, 2015, p. 106).

North elevation, Robert C. Gemmell Residence, 4476 Hortensia St., Mission Hills, 1916, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

A couple months later the busy firm also received a commission for a personal residence for earlier-mentioned 1914 La Playa spec house client Col. Robert H. Noble. I have not as yet been able to determine if the dwelling was ever built or its location. Plans exist at the San Diego History Center for the cottage Noble named "La Casita de la Canada" and an illustration of it was published in the San Diego Union. (San Diego Union, July 16, 1916, p. II-3).

Edward D. Libbey at his Ojai estate. 

While Mead was heavily preoccupied with the substantial Gemmell and Brackenbury projects, Ojai benefactor Edward D. Libbey (see above) contacted the firm to discuss options for beautifying Ojai's ramshackle main commercial strip (see below). Libbey and his close friend Harry Sinclair had already begun the process by appealing to the public-spirited shop owners on Ojai Ave. to aid in the undertaking. Libbey jump-started the process by buying and deeding to the community the site of the old Ojai Inn in the center of the town's business district, as a public park and site for a new post office. ("E. D. Libbey Buys Smith Property," The Ojai, May 12, 1916, p. 1).

Much impressed by Mead and Requa's residences provided for his close friend Harry Sinclair the year before, Libbey was anxious to get the ball rolling to spruce up the village and attract more visitors for his visionary real estate developments. Having just received his state architectural license, Requa eagerly represented the firm for the initial client consultation with Libbey and Sinclair in Ojai in early May. (Ibid).

Reed, George H., "The Civic Improvement at Ojai, California, Mead and Requa, Architects" Western Architect, August 1918, p. 63.

After consultation with Libbey and the Ojai Avenue shop owners, over the next few months a plan was devised to raze some decaying structures such as the old post office and barber shop, remove the hodgepodge of metal awnings, parapets and cornices and the old wooden boardwalk and replace it all with a 575 foot long arcade complete with 27 arches covering a new concrete sidewalk (see above and below). Each shop owner agreed to pay a proportion of the construction cost and the balance required for the overall improvements was contributed by Libbey and other business interests in the valley. The total tab for the Arcade improvements, exclusive of Clark's garage was just under $5,000 or roughly $250 per storefront. (Preliminary estimate letter from Richard Requa to Harry Sinclair for the Ojai Arcade project, June 22, 1916. Ojai Valley Museum of Art).

575 ft. long Arcade on the left and Libbey Park entrance and pergola on the right. Reed, p. 63).

The construction was to be of totally fireproof materials including hollow tile, reinforced concrete and stucco. A model of their proposal for the arcade, post office and tower and Libbey Park improvements was prepared by Mead and Requa's model maker-draftswoman Charlotte Mesick and shipped to Libbey in Toledo for approval. Libbey signaled the go-ahead and construction quickly proceeded to completion by the following spring. ("Requa's Plans Are Satisfactory," The Ojai, November 3, 1916 (Ojai Valley Museum Archives) and Werner, Willis, "Town Builder," San Diego Union, December 27, 1958 found in the Kamerling Papers, San Diego History Center).

Palace of Governors, 1910. Courtesy New Mexico Digital Collections.

The inspiration for the striking makeover accomplished through the use of a uniform facade quite possibly sprung from the recent renovation of the Palace of Governors in Santa Fe carried out by the same team that was responsible for construction of the Painted Desert Exhibit at the Panama California Exposition in San Diego in 1914 and Mead and Requa's "Hopi House" for Wheeler Bailey in 1915 in La Jolla, i.e., Jesse Nusbaum and Julian Martinez (see discussion earlier above).

Palace of Governors during restoration, ca. 1913. Courtesy of New Mexico Museum.

Palace of Governors, 1915. Photo by R. M. Schindler. Courtesy UC-Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collections, Schindler Papers. (For much more on Schindler's early inspiration from the vernacular Pueblo architecture of the Southwest see my "Edward Weston and Mabel Dodge Luhan Remember D. H. Lawrence and Selected Taos-Carmel Connections").

Oxnard Dailey Courier and Nordhoff Ojai, December 8, 1916.

Much progress had been made on the Ojai Arcade by builder Robert Winfield and Lewis Requa by early December as can be seen by the photo on the above cover of the "Progress Edition" of the Oxnard and Nordhoff (soon-to-be Ojai) papers.

Tom Clark, n.d., photographer unknown. Courtesy Ojai Valley Museum of Art.

Pioneering Ojai businessman and longtime Ventura County Supervisor Tom Clark (see above) seized upon the opportunity to have  Mead and Requa convert his dilapidated livery stable into an automobile repair shop which required some special treatment. The building was refaced in native stone and fronted with a Mission style parapet and its interior retrofitted for auto repair (see below). Clark also commissioned Los Angeles architect A. C. Martin to design and Arthur Peffey to construct a 75X100 square foot commercial building to contain five stores in 1918, most likely at the end of the original arcade. ("T. S. Clark Putting Up a New Ojai Building," Ventura County Weekly Post and Democrat, April 19, 1918, p. 7. I am grateful to Ojai historian Craig Walker for making this article known to me.

Tom Clark auto repair garage at west end of Arcade. (From Van Houten, Perry, "A Heart of Glass: Edward Drummond Libbey's Vision Turns 100 this Year," Ojai Visitor's Guide, Summer 2016, p. 104)

A section of the main street, Ojai Ave., looking east after remodeling in early 1917. (Reed, plate 1).

Approaching from the highway, Tom Clark's garage and the Arcade is on left, the connecting walls, arches and pergola for the entrance to Libbey Park is in the distant center and the Post Office and its tower are at right center. Requa stated that his inspiration for the tower came from his 1914 Mexico and Caribbean travels, specifically the Columbus Cathedral in Havana (see below). ("Making Over a Town," Country Life, December 1917, pp. 49-51).

Columbus Cathedral, Havanna, Cuba. From the Internet.

Arcade arches and Post Office Tower. Reed, p. 64.

The size of the arcade arches was carefully planned to protect the shop windows during the heat of summer and still allow for plenty of light during the cool winter months. Ojai shoppers were also fully protecting the from the summer's hot sun and winter rains. 

The pergola at the entrance to Libbey Park. (Reed, plate 4).

The pergola at the park entrance was a classic Mead design element which seamlessly incorporated the existing fountain across the street from the arcade.

Looking west on Ojai Ave. with the park entrance arches and pergola on the left, the Arcade on the right and Post Office Tower in the distant center. Reed, p. 64.

Entrance at the back of the park with the Post Office and Arcade in the background. Reed, plate 6.

Ojai Post Office and Tower, Ojai Ave., 1917, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

The Spanish Colonial dome of the post office tower was covered with polychrome Spanish tiles, the finials with gold leaf and the interiors of the arches were tinted a strong cobalt blue.

Post office and tower from Libbey Park with west end of Arcade and Tom Clark's garage on the right. (Reed, plate 2).

Renaming their town Ojai (formerly known as Nordhoff) to coincide with the proud completion of their new civic improvements, 2000 people celebrated the first annual Ojai Day by honoring their benefactor Edward Libbey in newly completed Libbey Park (see below).

"History-Making Event Is Ojai Day," The Ojai, April 6, 1917, p. 1.

The Ojai improvements had only been completed two months when a devastating wild fire swept down Matilja Canyon on June 17th and destroyed many of the town's residences, the original St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, and the Foothills Hotel. Libbey's 1907 and Orrin W. Robertson's 1909 Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey-designed homes were not spared. 

Mead and Requa were quickly called in to head the rebuilding efforts. The trade journal Southwest Builder and Contractor reported,

"Mead & Requa, who are preparing plans for the rebuilding of Ojai (formerly known as Nordhoff), which was recently devastated by a forest fire, states that the work of rebuilding cottages for the fire sufferers at Ojai will begin the first of next week. Plans have been prepared for various types of inexpensive bungalows which will be used for the cheaper type of buildings. About twelve cottages will be erected at the start. Besides immediately rebuilding the Sinclair and Robertson houses, the architects have plans under way for residences for Mr. Bristol, Mr. Van Curren, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Cotta, Mr. Tims and the manse for the Presbyterian Church. Preliminary sketches are also being made for the new St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. Plans for the Foothills Hotel will be ready for estimates in about ten days." ("Rebuilding Town of Ojai," Southwest Builder and Contractor, July 27, 1917, p. 16).

O. W. Robertson House, Ojai, 1917-18. Mead and Requa, architects. From Jennings, Frederick, "Civic Improvement Ojai, California," Architect and Engineer. August 1919, p. 45.

Robertson's selection of Mead & Requa to design his more fireproof replacement home was definitely informed by their previous work for Harry Sinclair and Edward Libbey's downtown civic improvements. It perhaps may also have been influenced by his previously-mantioned Midwest cement industry connections to Wheeler Bailey and Francis Wyman in La Jolla. Robertson was president of the Union Lime Company in Milwaukee thus possibly had building industry supply connections with 1907 Mead and Gill client Wheeler Bailey and 1913 Mead and Requa client Francis O. Wyman, Bailey's brother-in-law (see earlier discussion). 

O. W. Robertson Residence, Ojai, 1917-18, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Mead incorporated the pergola tower from his ahead-of-its time 1894 "Spanish" duplex he and then partner Charles Barton Keen designed for developers Wendell & Smith in Overbrook Farms, the pergolas from their 1900 Stratford Lodge project and loggia from his 1913 Winsor House in the Roberston House design. (Mead, Part I). 

O. W. Robertson Residence as it looks today. From Google Maps.

South elevation, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, Ojai Ave., 1918, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Southwest elevation, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, Ojai Ave., 1918, Mead and Requa, architects. From Jennings, Frederick, "The Civic Improvement, Ojai, California," Architect and Engineer of California, August 1919, p. 45).

St. Thomas was rebuilt built in two phases. The main church building was swiftly rebuilt with the tower echoing and acting as a counterbalance to the Post Office Tower. The perimeter walls and rectory and connecting arcade followed soon thereafter (see below).

Southeast elevation, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, Ojai Ave., 1918, Mead and Requa, architects.

Main entrance to St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. Western Architect, June 1920, Plate 8.

Preliminary rendering for the Foothills Hotel, Ojai, 1917, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

In February of 1918 Mead was in Ojai to oversee completion of the rebuilding of the Sinclair and Robertson houses, the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, the Foothills Hotel and the Presbyterian Manse and likely to consult with Libbey on ideas for future projects.

"New Spanish-Style Hotel for Picturesque Ojai Valley," Los Angeles Times, July 6, 1919, p. 74. (I am grateful to Ojai historian Craig Walker for bringing this article to my attention.).

For an undetermined reason, perhaps design cost overruns or World War I, the Foothills Hotel project was delayed until A. C. Martin of Los Angeles came up with a more semingly economical design and the project was completed the following year. (See above and below).

Foothills Hotel, Ojai, 1919, A. C. Martin, architect.

Just up the hill on Foothill Road above the Libbey, Sinclair and Robertson houses and the homes of other wealthy snowbirds (see above), the new Foothills was completed in time to take advantage of some of the 1919-20 winter tourist season.

In February of 1919 Mead and Requa began design on the Ojai Tavern. In April Mead was back in Ojai to consult with Libbey and other investors regarding the design for the project which was to be situated between the Arcade and the St. Thomas Aquinas Church. ("Local Mention," The Ojai, April 18, 1919). Mead and Requa quickly finished design on the $50,000 hotel project which was renamed the El Roblar, and construction was completed in time for the winter season. Becoming more involved with Libbey's affairs Mead was soon named to the hotel's board of directors.

Ojai Tavern, aka El Roblar Hotel, Jennings, p. 46.

El Roblar Hotel shortly after completion in late 1919.

Looking northwesterly from Libbey Park between the Post Office on the left and Tom Clark's garage on the right towards the El Roblar Hotel. Western Architect, June 1920, Plate 9.

Looking southeasterly from the El Roblar Hotel eastern pergola towards the Post Office. Postcard.

Entrance arch to the El Roblar Hotel. Western Architect, June 1920, PLate 10.

To finance this hotel, Libbey donated $10,000, and two prominent Ojai citizens, Judge Boyd Gabbert and J.J. Burke of the Ojai Realty Co., took it upon themselves to sell stock for the projected amount of $30,000. Building commenced in the summer of 1919, with Robert Winfield, a noted builder from Pasadena, overseeing the construction. Here again, the very best features of Spanish architecture were used, and the results were beautiful. 

View from the Post Office Tower looking west to the El Roblar Hotel and St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church.

Abram L. Hobson, ca. 1906. 

Hobson House, Ojai, Mead and Requa, architects. (Ibid).

Around this time Mead and Requa remodeled a house for Abram L. Hobson and family. Hobson was a pioneering Ventura County cattle rancher who with his brother William formed the Hobson Brothers Meat Packing Company. Wanting something in keeping with the Mission Revival style Libbey and Mead and Requa were making over the heart of Ojai with, Hobson also sought the firm's help to redesign their home along the same lines (see above and below). In addition, the builder of the arcade, Robert Winfield, was hired for this renovation. (Mason, David, "The Hobsons Left a Lagacy That Includes Ojai's City Hall, Ojai Valley News, February 25, 2000). Hobson also had Mead and Requa lay out a subdivision plan in Ventura about this time for acreage he owned at the intersection of Old Conejo Rd. and Pacific (San Diego History Center, Mead and Requa Collection, p. 188)

Hobson House pergola, from A Photo Guide to Fountains and Sculptures of Ojai, Art, History and Architecture by R. Elise DePuydt, Sun Coast Enterprises, 2009, p. 52.

Sometime after Frank Mead's permanent move to Ojai in 1921 Hobson had him design a guest house and connecting pergola. The Hobson's daughter Grace and her husband Fred Smith moved permanently after his 1929 death (see more on 1919 Mead and Requa client Fred Smith later below).

Hobson guest house and pergola, Ventura Ave., Ojai ca. 1925, Frank Mead was the likely architect. From Google Maps.

Captain John Francis Anderson, n.d., photographer unknown. From "Find A Grave."

North elevation, Anderson Residence, 3136 Front St., San Diego, Mead and Requa, architects, 1918. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

In August 1917, at the height of their involvement in the rebuilding fire-ravaged Ojai, Mead and Requa landed another substantial residential commission in San Diego. After retiring from a career of building bridges all over the world noted civil engineer John F. Anderson commissioned kindred world traveler Mead and his partner Requa to design a residence on his hillside lot at 3136 Front Street across the canyon from their earlier residence for Judge Sweet at Spruce and Curlew Streets (Sweet house at upper left below). One of Mead and Requa's more substantial commissions, the $14,360 construction contract for the three-story residence was awarded to Chisolm and Jackson. The house was completed the following February about the same time as the Ojai work. (Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer, August 31, 1917, p. 18 and February 28, 1918, p. 20. Author's note: Also across the canyon to the southeast lay Irving Gill's Bishop's Day School.). 

Sweet Residence, upper left, near Spruce St. Bridge, Edward M. Capps, 1912. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Anderson was perhaps attracted to the site by the Edwin M. Capps-designed suspension bridge on Spruce Street spanning the Arroyo (now Kate Sessions) Canyon. (Author's note: Fellow civil engineer Capps was former City Engineer for the City of San Diego and was ending his second stint as Mayor at the time Anderson was building his house. Thus Anderson and Capps were most likely well acquainted.).

Anderson Residence, far right next to Spruce St. Bridge, Edward M. Capps, 1912. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

West elevation, Anderson Residence, 3136 Front St., San Diego, Mead and Requa, architects, 1918. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Map of Coronado Beach, Coronado Beach Company.

Perhaps feeling somewhat flush with his Ojai and Anderson design fees in hand, Mead purchased two lots in Coronado from realtor Sylvester Kipp, lots 12 and 13 of block 167 on the west side of F Avenue between 1st and 2nd Streets for $2,000 (see above). Mead and Requa's assistant Herbert L. Jackson had been living in Coronado since 1910. Mead apparently designed and built a duplex on the property as subsequent San Diego City Directories listed him as living at the site at 130 1/2 Avenue until his permanent move to Ojai in 1921. ("Personalities," Coronado Strand, October 20, 1917, p. 3 and 1918-21).

The summer and fall of 1917 was quite a busy period for Mead's dear friends the Curtises and Alice Klauber. Natalie married artist Paul Burlin in Santa Fe on July 25th and George married Josephine (Lora) D. Jones on September 8th in San Diego. Goerge's bride had been staying at Cornelia Chapin's Palomar Apartments. They honeymooned in La Jolla staying at the home of friends of Alice Klauber, the Chase residence on Prospect, a few short blocks from the Bailey and Wyman houses on Princess St. 

Besides family, Natalie almost certainly invited friends Frank Mead, Alice Klauber, Wheeler Bailey and her mentors Charles Lummis, Teddy Roosevelt to her wedding. It is not known if Mead was able to make it to Natalie's wedding but he certainly would have been in attendance at George's. Roosevelt and Lummis sent their congratulations and regrets for not being able to attend. Alice Klauber did not attend Natalie's wedding having spent the previous summer in New Mexico but provided flowers for George's ceremony. (Poling-Kempes, pp. 206-208)

Art and Archaeology, January-February 1918. From Internet Archive.

Alice Klauber, Alice Lee, William Templeton Johnson, Wheeler Bailey and possibly other San Diego friends and patrons of Hewett traveled to Santa Fe for the November 24th opening of the recently finished New Mexico Art Museum. The building was a virtual replica of the State of New Mexico Building at the San Diego Exposition designed by the Rapp Brothers. Here Klauber reunited with Natalie and her artist and archaeologist friends from the Panama California Exposition including Robert Henri, Hewett, Jesse Nusbaum, Kenneth Chapman, Gerald Cassidy, Carlos Vierra, and numerous others. Henri had been in town painting and helping Hewett organize the new museum's inaugural exhibition. 

Museum Gallery, Art and Archaeology, January-February 1918. From Internet Archive.

The exhibition (see above) was a veritable Who's Who of prominent Southwestern artists including besides Alice, Gerald Cassidy, Carlos Vierra, Robert Henri and his Eastern friend George Bellows, Taos and Santa Fe artists Walter Ufer, Victor Higgins, Oscar Berninghaus, Ernest Blumenschein, E. Irving Couse, Joseph Henry Sharp, E. Martin Hennings, Paul Burlin, Bert Philliips, Sheldon Parsons, William Penhollow Henderson, Julius Rolshoven and numerous others. (Author's note: Klauber had spent much time in Santa Fe the previous summer with Natalie, her new boyfriend Paul Burlin and Robert and Marjorie Henri as a prelude to the upcoming opening of the New Mexico Art Museum. While there she attended the opening of an exhibition of Henri's paintings at the Palace of Governors where he was artist-in residence. (Alice Ellen Klauber by Martin E. Petersen, p. 19).

Table of Contents, Art and Archaeology, January-February 1918.  From Internet Archive.

The above issue of Art and Archaeology was dedicated to the opening of the new museum and included articles by Edgar Hewett, Robert Henri, Alice Klauber, Natalie Curtis, and San Diego architect William Templeton Johnson.There was now firmly in place a strong cross pollination between Hewett's connections in both Santa Fe and San Diego as he was by then in charge of both the New Mexico Art Museum and the new San Diego Museum formed after the closing of the Exposition.

Hewett also invited dear old friend Charles Lummis to the opening ceremony and related events. Lummis delightedly wrote at length in his Journal of his week long Santa Fe sojourn attending the dedication and reuniting with Natalie, Hewett, Ken Chapman, Nusbaum, the Henris, Alice Fletcher, and numerous other old friends in the archaeological community. Shortly after Lummis arrived in Santa Fe during Thanksgiving week, 

"... when I emerged to the street, a lovely lady in intimate knickerbockers hailed me. I had to peer twice under her sombrero to make sure it was the notoriuous Natalie Curtis, now Burlin. We were both glad it was she and we Joyfully Jawed some time." (Charles Fletcher Lummis Journals, December 1, 1917, Occidental College Library).

 Mueum auditorium, Art and Archaeology, January-February 1918. From Internet Archive.

Lummis and Natalie spoke at a couple different sessions including the Science Banquet. A typical entry,

"Had to get up at 8:30 for to be ready for my 10:00 "lecture," and was not half waked when I began it. No idea what I said but it pleased them hugely, and some hundred came up after to congratulate, half strangers. So we were all Satisfied. Audience of 750 (see Museum auditorium above). Then Natalie made a splendid short talk ["The Indian's Part in the Dedication of the New Museum], and two of our San Ildefonso boys did the "Eagle Dance" superbly, with Juan Gonzalez (now their Governor) leading the chorus of 7. 

Fine lunch at Hewetts (see below) with the Kelseys, Rolshovens, Peabody of Harvard, [Wheeler] Bailey of San Diego. Hewett has made the stunningest dining room set I ever saw - of the native red cedar, the chairs backed and seated with sea lion skin." (Ibid, November 28, 1917).

Edgar Hewett Residence, Santa Fe, 1917. Art and Archaeology, January-February 1918, p. 26.  From Internet Archive.

Paul Burlin, n.d. Photographer unknown. Courtesy Al Bredenberg, Natalie Curtis Archive.

He wrote of a later visit to the home of Natalie and her new husband Paul Burlin of whose art he was not a big fan (see above and below).

"Then a long tramp over to the east side of the "Rio Chiquito" but finally found the distant [home] of Natalie Curtis, despite Hewett's wrong directions. And we had a bully visit for a couple of hours, Mr. Burlin getting back in time to join in, though he didn't add much to the progress of conversation, for he was packing up to go to Zuni in the morning. And I think it was good for his constitution that I got there at that time, for he was not going to take a bed-roll - which I sorta bullied him into taking. If he had got over that 7000-ft. plateau in this weather he would have frozen his young marrow. He seems a fine young fellow - I guess he must be - It certainly was not his painting that won Natalie - for of all the Impressionists I have ever seen, he is the Wustest." (Charles Fletcher Lummis Journals, December 1, 1917, Occidental College Library).

"Cowboy Sport" by Paul Burlin and "Taos Afternoon" by Alice Klauber. Art and Archaeology, January-February 1918, p. 67.  From Internet Archive.

Natalie Curtis Burlin, Santa Fe, November 1917, inscribed to Charles Lummis, December 1, 1917. Photo by Jesse Nusbaum. Braun Research Library, Lummis Collection.

He also wrote of Natalie's gift of a photo (see above), "Natalie gave me a very characteristic photograph of herself on horseback, which Jesse Nusbaum snapped the other day. She really looks fine in knickerbockers, horseback or afoot." (Ibid).

E. Roscoe Shrader, 1924. Photo by Viroque Baker. From "E. Roscoe Shrader: A Hollywood Artist of Many Honors, Holly Leaves, January 25, 1924.

Back in Southern California, as Mead and Requa's Ojai projects and Anderson house were nearing completion in January of 1918 noted artist E. Roscoe Shrader (see above) commissioned them to design a house and studio for his lot at 1927 N. Highland Ave. in Hollywood (see below). Having recently returned from the East he would soon join the original faculty of the fledgling Otis Art Institute and later become the school's Dean of Faculty and President of both the California Art Club and the Hollywood Art Association.

E. Roscoe Shrader Residence, 1927 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood, 1918, Mead and Requa, architects. From "The Three Best Houses in Los Angeles," House Beautiful, February 1920, p. 100.  

Builder C. D. Goldthwaite was contracted to build the two-story, seven-room frame and plaster residence on the west side of Highland Avenue just north of Franklin Avenue. "The house will contain seven rooms and will have concrete foundation, cement plastered exterior, composition roof, pine and redwood interior finish, hardwood floors, brick fireplace, tile floor in bathroom, furnace, wiring." (Southwest Builder and Contractor, January 25, 1918, p. 17).

Mead and Requa's striking modernist design was soon recognized by the architectural press. In 1920 the house made appearances in Western Architect, Architect and Engineer of California and House Beautiful where Charles Alden deemed it:

"Type of architecture appropriate to setting against Southern California foothills. Well planned to meet requirements of owner, an artist. Studio at right, effectively lighted with window at north end. Two-storied portion takes care of other household needs with attractive pergola porch at rear and entrance court at front." ("The Three Best Houses in Los Angeles, California," House Beautiful, February 1920, p. 100).

"Detail of entrance and entrance garden," Western Architect, June 1920, Plate 1.

Mead's signature arched entryway guides the visitor's eye up to a balcony overlooking the entrance patio and garden, very similar to the garden patio for the earlier-mentioned Sweet House.

Shrader and son playing in the front yard. (From  The Art and Life of Edwin Roscoe Shrader by Janet Blake and Phil Kovinick, George Stern Fine Arts, 2010, p. 25. Courtesy Shrader Family Archive.)

Mead's highly resolved, Pueblo-inspired cubic massing resulted in an Honorable Mention as a notable example of Small House Architecture by the Southern California Chapter of the A.I.A. (Jennings, Frederick, "Los Angeles and Vicinity," Architect and Engineer of California, June 1920, pp. 108-109).

"Outside the House," in the entrance garden looking towards the front door and entrance gate. E. Roscoe Shrader, oil on canvas, ca. 1920. (Blake and Kovinick, p. 24).

The Shraders frequently entertained Otis Art Institute faculty and students, and Hollywood Art Association and California Art Club members at their modernist home which was coincidentally located directly below and adjacent to the future sites of Frank Lloyd Wright's Freeman House and R. M. Schindler's DeKeyser Duplex on Glencoe Way. (For much more on Shrader's prominence in Los Angeles art circles see my "The Schindlers and the Hollywood Art Association." Author's note: Shrader and Mead intimate Lon Megargee exhibited together in the Spring Exhibition of the California Art Club at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art during April of 1919.).

Shrader enjoying his back pergola-covered patio. (Western Architect, June 1920, Plate 3.

In March of 1918 noted Detroit industrial architect Albert Kahn was looking for a San Diego-based architectural firm to supervise the construction of war-related facilities he designed for the U.S. Army on North Island just north of Coronado. The particulars as to how they met aren't known but Kahn selected Mead and Requa as his San Diego associates, likely based on their body of Spanish Mission-themed work. The building trade journal organ Southwest Builder and Contractor reported,

"Architects Mead & Requa of San Diego, have been appointed supervising architects of the army aviation buildings at Rockwell Flying Field on North Island (see above). Architect Albert Kahn of Detroit, prepared the plans for the buildings. There will be a large number of structures of Mission design. The construction will be concrete, hollow tile and wood. The Hampton Construction Company of Los Angeles and San Diego, is the general contractor. All orders for materials must be approved by the supervising architects, Mead & Requa. Mail can be addressed to them at Rockwell Aviation Field, North Island, San Diego. (Southwest Builder and Contractor, March 1, 1918, p. 17).

Rockwell Field, ca. 1924. Albert Kahn, architect, 1918. Mead and Requa, supervising architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

For Mead it was about a five minute walk from his new residence at 130 F Ave. in Coronado just across the Spanish Bight bridge to North Island to the construction site. Silent partner Herbert Jackson also lived in Coronado, albeit about a half-mile mile further away. 

Oliver Moorshead, n.d. From Find-a-grave.

While North Island work was ongoing and about the time construction was beginning on the the El Roblar Hotel in Ojai, in August of 1918 Oliver Moorshead commissioned Mead and Requa to design a Craftsman style house for his lot at 1174 Prospect in La Jolla (see below). Moorshead got his start as a civil engineer for the Frisco Railroad and became involved with the Hanlin Supply Company in 1908 when he married the daughter of the founder Samuel A. Hanlin. A longtime member of the San Diego Yacht Club, Moorshead and his wife Berta had been wintering in La Jolla from their home in Newton, Kansas, headquarters of Hanlin Supply. Hanlin Supply was filling a need for the Santa Fe Railroad during its track and hotel building heyday in the Southwest by providing labor, food and housing for the track gangs building the railroad through Indian country. Moorshead took over the firm in 1923 upon the retirement of his father-in-law. Mead likely befriended Moorshead during his and George Curtis's's wanderings in Indian country during 1908-10. 

Oliver Moorshead Residence, 1174 Prospect Ave., La Jolla, 1918, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Ed Fletcher and Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Grossmont, ca. 1913. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Sometime during a very busy 1918 for Mead and Requa, one of Ed Fletcher's first major Grossmont investors, noted global opera star Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, commissioned a substantial two-story house and detached servants quarters for a lot somewhere on Coronado (see elevations below). It is not known whether the house was intended for her or one of her extended family but it was apparently never built.

North elevation, Schumann-Heink Residence, 1918, project, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

West elevation, Schumann-Heink Residence, 1918, project, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

South elevation, Schumann-Heink Residence, 1918, project, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

South elevation, William Barie Residence, northeast corner of K Ave. and 9th St., Coronado, Mead and Requa, architects, 1919. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

In April 1919 Mead and Requa began design on the William Barie House, at northeast corner of K Ave. and 9th St. Louis R. Dilley of Coronado was awarded the substantial $14,770 construction contract. A longtime merchant and businessman in Saginaw, the 80-year old Barie died on August 9th after an eight week illness as the house was nearing completion. ("Mr. Barie Dies in Saginaw," Coronado Strand, August 9, 1919, p. 1). This project was just blocks away from both Mead's and his silent partner Herbert Jackson's residences. 

West elevation, William Barie Residence, northeast corner of K Ave. and 9th St., Coronado, Mead and Requa, architects, 1919. From Google Maps.

Mrs. Edward M. Bruce Residence, Altadena, 1919, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

In August of 1919 Mrs. Edward M. Bruce had Mead and Requa design for her lot in Altadena a Pueblo Revival residence exhibiting echoes of Wheeler Bailey's "Hopi House." The house surrounded on three sides a striking entrance patio (see below). I have not as yet determined whether the house was built.

Mrs. Edward M. Bruce Residence, Altadena, 1919, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Fred W. Smith, ca. 1940. From Torrance Herald, 1947.

In late 1919 Abram Hobson's son-in-law Fred W. Smith, an associate in the Hobson Brothers Meat Packing business, commissioned a Pueblo Revival house in Ventura. As were the Hobsons, Smith was well-connected in Ventura County ranching, oil and banking circles. If the house was built the location is unknown. Smith and his wife Grace would move into the Mead and Requa-remodeled Hobson home in Ojai after the death of Abram in 1929.

South elevation, Fred W. Smith Residence, Ventura, 1919, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

East elevation, Fred W. Smith Residence, Ventura, 1919, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Verner Residence, 400 10th St., Coronado, Mead and Requa, architects, 1920. Courtesy San Diego History Center.

Alex Verner, sales manager for the investment banking firm G. C. Stephens and Company, commissioned a two-story residence at the northeast corner of J Ave. and 10th St. in Coronado a few blocks from Jackson's house. G. C. Stephens also lived nearby on Ocean Blvd.

Verner Residence, 400 10th St., Coronado, Mead and Requa, architects, 1920. From Google Maps.

It was sometime in 1920-21 that Mead began considering a permanent move to Ojai. Through his latest work for Libbey on the El Roblar Hotel he had gained his client's complete trust. In 1920 Mead was named a trustee for the Ojai Library. (The Story of the Ojai Valley by Wallace Bristol, p. 94). Mead was also named to the Seating Committee for the next Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament along with Libbey and Sinclair. ("Tennis Conference at E. D. Libbey Home, The Ojai, March 4, 1920, p. 1). The same year he was named one of the founding incorporators of the Ojai Mutual Water Company along with Edward Libbey and Harry Sinclair. ("Ojai Water Organized, Oxnard Press Coutier, May 24, 1920, p. 1). 

The following March at the annual meeting of the Ojai Hotel Company which owned the El Roblar Hotel, Mead was named a director along with his clients Edward Libbey, Harry Sinclair and Martha Hennessey and S. D. Thacher, G. H. Holsten, D. A. Smith, E. L. Wiest and Boyd E. Gabbert. ("Ojai Hotel Company Hold Annual Meeting," The Ojai, March 4, 1921, p. 1). Later that year Mead was employed by Libbey on a full-time basis to take charge of his interests in the valley. These interests were summarized in an excerpt from Mead's bio in Sol Sheridan's 1926 The History of Ventura County, California Volume II,

"Mr. Mead has taken great interest in the development and progress of his community to which he has contributed in every possible way. He is treasurer and manager of the Ojai Valley Company, treasurer and manager of the Mutual Water Company, treasurer of the Ojai Valley Country Club and has charge of all the E. D. Libbey interests in this Valley. With all these connections it can be seen that he is a busy man, but he is so systematic in his methods that he easily handles all  of his interests and discharges his duties in an able and satisfactory manner." (Ibid, p. 60).

Libbey Office Building, Ojai Ave, 1921, Frank Med, architect. Courtesy Ojai Valley Museum of Art Archives.

In the spring of 1921 Libbey commissioned Mead to design a headquarters building from which he efficiently oversaw Libbey's numerous business interests until his death in 1925. The building housed the offices for Libbey's Ojai Valley Company, Ojai Mutual Water Company and Maravilla Realty Company. It was conveniently located across the street from the El Roblar Hotel for which Mead was still a board member. The office was also conveniently located for Libbey's new Arbolada real estate development (see later below). ("Marvilla Company to Have New Up-To-Date Office," The Ojai, June 24, p. 1).

During the summer of 1921 Ojai was also in the midst of incorporating as a city. Mead was listed among a slate of candidates put up for election to the inaugural Board of Trustees. The incorporation vote passed on July 26th and Mead was duly elected. ("Incorporation Carries by a Vote of 127 to 44," The Ojai, July 29, 1921, p. 1). ("City of Ojai Duly Organized and Functioning; City Trustees Elect Organize and Take Up Duties Like Veterans," The Ojai, August 12, p. 1). Mead would go on to serve a short stint as Mayor the following year. 

Libbey Estate Gate Keeper's Cottage, Foothill Rd., 1916, architect unknown (Mead and Requa?). From Ojai Valley Museum Archives.

Mead and Requa designed a servant's cottage and a guest cottage for the Libbey Estate in 1916 which I have not as yet confirmed were actually built. The above gatekeeper's cottage I speculate might have been one of their Libbey projects based solely on the fact that they designed something quite similar for San Diego client Arthur Goldberger in March of 1920 (see below).

South elevation, Arthur Goldberger Residence, San Diego, 1920, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center. 

North elevation, Arthur Goldberger Residence, San Diego, 1920, Mead and Requa, architects. Courtesy San Diego History Center. 

The September 1924 issue of Country Life Henry Gulliver published a multi-page spread on Libbey's Arbolada development. The article included photos of all of Mead and Requa's public projects in Ojai and Wallace Neff's Ojai Country Club. Mead packaged it together with cover art work of the post office tower and arcade he commissioned from Edwin Megargee, the brother of his longtime intimate cowboy artist Lon Megargee to create a wonderful marketing brochure not only for Arbodala but for the entire Ojia Valley (see below).

Abolada marketing brochure with text by Harold G. Gulliver, 1924. Cover art by Edwin Megargee. Courtesy Toledo Art Museum, Libbey Collection.

From this point on information on Mead becomes very sketchy to say the least. He is listed among the few available period editions of the Ojai City Directory. In the early 1920s he is listed as manager of Libbey's Ojai Valley Company and living on Foothills Road. Based on this it could be hypothesized that Mead might have lived for a time in one of the cottages he designed for Libbey.

111 Canada St., Ojai, architect unknown, 1930. Photo by the author, August 2016.

It is thus a certainty that Mead has a portfolio of Ojai projects waiting to be discovered. For example, some very Meadesque looking houses built in the late 1920s exist at the southwest corner of Matilja and Canada Streets near the Ojai Valley Museum, formerly Mead and Requa's St. Thomas Aquinas Church (see above and below) 

109 Canada St., Ojai, architect unknown, 1926. Photo by the author, August 2016.

107 Canada St., Ojai, architect unknown, 1928. Photo by the author, August 2016.

Libbey passed away in 1925 after which Mead participated in the transfer of the assets of his estate into new corporations. For example, in 1927 Libbey's controlling interests in the Ojai Valley Country Club and the Ojai Mutual Water Company were sold to reorganized Boards of Directors which still included Mead. ("Option Obtained on Ojai Country Club, Los Angeles Times, January 22, 1927, p. I-3). 

Libbey's estate also finally distributed a few months later. Besides leaving an endowment of $40,000 to the Ojai Civic Association for ongoing support of the library, Libbey Park and other civic improvements, he left $25,000 to Harry Sinclair and $5,000 to Frank Mead, his closest remaining friends in Ojai. Near the end of the same year Mead was selected to serve on the Ventura County Grand Jury. (Oxnard Press-Courier, December 23, 1927, p. 1).

In 1930 Mead was involved in a serious auto accident on the State highway at Perkins Road near Oxnard. He was passing a truck full of farm workers when the truck unexpectedly made a left turn. Mead and his passenger Mrs. M. Hennessey, a former Ojai client, were rushed to St. John's Hospital in Oxnard. ("Fifteen in Truck-Auto Crash Hurt," Los Angeles Times, May 22, 1930, p. I-8).

Epilogue

There is still much to learn about the eccentric and enigmatic Frank Mead. Besides much more detail regarding his early career in Philadelphia and his roughly seven years with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, there is perhaps another entire chapter regarding his post-1920 work in Ojai waiting to be discovered. What is finally coming to light however, is the significant impact his brief 1907 partnership with Irving Gill had on both of their distinguished and groundbreaking architectural careers. 

The importance of Mead's friendship with Natalie and George Curtis and his most important clients Wheeler Bailey and Edward Libbey I found fascinating to research. Through the Curtises, Mead's introductions to Charles Fletcher Lummis and Teddy Roosevelt and their fellow Harvard classmates, cousins Russell Allen and Robert Winsor were pleasant surprises. Mead's Indian country travels with the Curtises also resulted in a surprising number of commissions from back country denizens seeking to profit from the Panama California Exposition and/or warmer climates for winter homes.

I consider this essay a possible placeholder for a more exhaustive book on Mead and I will continue to add relavent material to this essay as it turns up in my ongoing research so check back from time to time for updates. As always I welcome any and all feedback, especially where inaccuracies are concerned.

See Part I at: "Frank Mead: 'A New Type of Architecture in the Southwest,' Part I, 1890-1906"

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the archivists at the San Diego History Center, Jane Kennedy, Samantha Mills and Jane Kenealy, for their gracious assistance with the Mead and Requa archive and related collections. A special thanks to San Diego architectural historian Erik Hansen is in order for turning me on to the only known image of Frank Mead and other precious nuggets of information. Likewise thanks to his fellow San Diego historians Allen Hazard and Alana Coons for their ongoing feedback and support.

From the Ojai Valley Museum Library, big thank yous to archivist-curator Dawn Thieding and Ojai historians David Mason and Elise DePuydt for sharing their expertise on Mead and Requa's considerable body of work for Edward Libbey and friends in Ojai. 

For my Indian country research I owe a debt of gratitude to Lesley Poling-Kempes whose recent Ladies of the Canyons contained a wealth of information on George and Natalie Curtis, Alice Klauber and friends which truly inspired this essay. Michelle Wick Patterson's Natalie Curtis Burlin: A Life in Native and African American Music was also a helpful source of material. A big thank you also to Al Bredenberg, steward of Natalie Curtis Archive, who shared some wonderful photos of George and Natalie and Alice at Wheeler Bailey's "Hilero" and other period newspaper articles which helped tremendously in piecing this puzzle together. Thomas Jaehn Director of the New Mexico Museum of Art Library was a tremendous help in locating important material for me from their extensive indeed Edgar L. Hewett Collection.

For those of you who I inevitably did not mention please send me a reminder so I can add you to the list, especially if I did not cite you appropriately in the essay.