Raven Jake Dawes

Lummis Home, Part 2

El Alisal

Like I said, I loved the Lummis Home - just the right blend of do-it-yourself funk, an eccentric with vision and bags of concrete, and Southwestern heritage. Got "Raven Jake" all over it. So here are a few more photos from my big day out. "El Alisal," Lummis' name for his castle, refers to Lummis' beloved sycamore tree, which still presides over the patio.

El Alisal, the home and garden of Charles F. Lummis, 200 East Avenue 43, Los Angeles, CA 90031

Lummis Pond

 

 

Photo windows

 

Belfrey and Tower

 I think this painting is an "undiscovered" Orpha Mae Klinker original:

Lummis_Painting

The Lummis Home

Dining Room

Last Sunday was the Museums of the Arroyo Seco Day, and I went to check out some of the museums I haven't seen before. My favorite, hands down, was the Lummis Home, aka El Aisal. It was built by the first daily editor of the LA Times, Charles Lummis.

Window

Now I think y'all know me well enough to know that I love desert rats, and that was Charles Lummis. He was a hard drinkin,' womanizing, smoking son-of-a-gun and he did more to save southwestern art than just about anyone in Southern California. And I don't just mean pots and baskets - he was in to the cultural aspects like dance and storytelling, architecture and history and was also instrumental in saving the

John Roberta and Jake

missions. His collection started the Southwest Museum and their seminal journal, the Masterkey.

Celebrate Latino Heritage

We got a tour from Ariel Van Zandweghe, the curator, who was nice enough to let me play his guitar in the administrative offices. And while we were in the office, Jane spotted a painting that she's sure is an Orpha Mae Klinker. Orpha painted a number of buildings from the Spanish colonial days including the Michael White Adobe. Her work was kind of wacky and colorful - like stone buildings were often represented with purple paint. We also ran into Roberta and John from Latino Heritage, which was a pleasant surprise.

Front Doors

Raven Jake and Charles Lummis

The Historical Society of Southern California is trying to raise money to restore the front doors, so if you've got money or skills to donate, please get in touch with them. Lummis ended up getting cremated and is now interred in the wall along with his son's ashes, which seems pretty fitting - he never left the house where he invested so much of his time, creativity and energy.

Playing the Guitar

 

Water lily

The Gamble House

Raven Jake at the Gamble House

Northwest Corner Gamble House

Probably the most famous of all the Museums of the Arroyo Seco is the Gamble House, which is the epitome of Arts and Crafts Movement architecture. It's basically what two motivated architects could do with unlimited money and virtually no creative constraints. So they did it all - designed the house, the interior, the fixtures and the furniture. And it is amazing. Now y'all know I'm a little more partial to the funky than the grand, but anyone who likes fine craftsmanship needs to see this place before they die. I'm glad I finally did! www.gamblehouse.org

On the Setee

 

 

Northwest Corner

The L.A. Police Historical Society Museum

In the Cell Block

Folks, last Sunday I went to jail. Not "real" jail, although of course it used to be a real jail - one of several identical ones in the greater Los Angeles area. This one's the last one standing. Now it's the Los Angeles Police Historical Society Museum, and I gotta say it offers one of the more unique museum experiences around.

I'll be honest, the place gives me the willies, and I might not have gone at all, but for the fact that it was the Museums of the Arroyo Seco Day. Now I'm looking forward to their upcoming Patty Hearst exhibit. Sure is a good place for photo ops and taking a cop-obsessed kid (or one you need to scare straight.) I also did not know that the LAPD was the first police force in the nation to hire a female officer, and there's plenty else to learn, so the next time I'm over there, I'm takin' a formal tour. http://www.laphs.com/

Book 'Em

Evidence Camera

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LAPD Blues

 

 

Handcuff display

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alice Stebbins-Wells 1910

 

Raven Jake with Police Car

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grand View Memorial Park

Susan Hails Photo

The Grand View Memorial Park

in Glendale, Calif., has been closed for regular business since June 13, 2006 and remains under a preservation order by the court.  Although it is anticipated that the cemetery will be restored to normal operations under new ownership in the future, it is not known exactly when that will happen, pending the outcome of various legal and government actions.

They're only open for certain court-appointed dates (in this case Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, April 24), and we were trying to find some of the Michael White relatives who may or may not actually be interred there.

Folks, it was a huge pain in the butt. The place is completely overgrown with weeds and finding anything in

Grand View Sign

Lizzie Craner

there entails a major excavation. And so we have to give a huge shout out to volunteer Susan Hails for her fine archaeological work in finding the grave of James Courtney. Unfortunately, he's not the James Courtney we were looking for, but we wouldn't have found that out without finding the grave marker. There is

Jake looks for James Courtney

Susan looking for graves in M

every possibility that he is the great-grandson of Michael White, but we don't have enough information to go on to reach that conclusion - yet. Lola White, possibly James White's daughter (Michael White's granddaughter), is also there in an unmarked grave. 

Grand View Headstones

More headstones at Grand View

 

 

 

 

Find-a-Grave http://www.findagrave.com/ is a terrific resource (even if you do go out on a hummer every once in a while) and there are worse ways to spend the afternoon than pulling weeds and cleaning headstones in a sunny, quiet cemetery, so if you are so inclined contact the Grand View volunteer group, they could use some help. http://www.grandviewmemorialpark.info/ 

 

John Ehn's Boot Hill

Raven Jake_Pegleg_Bigbear

We were looking forward to a meeting of the LA Heritage Alliance yesterday at Pierce College's Farm Center, for an excuse to check out The Old Trapper's Boot Hill sculptures.

Now I'm turnin' to roadside America's site for the explanation:

"The statues were built by an aged visionary named John Ehn. Proud of his pioneer ancestry, he called himself "The Old Trapper" and spent the last thirty years of his life crafting his masterworks, using his family and himself as models, a classic victim of dementia concretia. He displayed the finished sculptures at his motel near Burbank Airport, which he named The Old Trapper's Lodge.

Ehn was 84 when he died in 1981. His creations were declared a California state cultural landmark four years later. Culture, however, rarely stops progress in Southern California. Bulldozers arrived to level The Old Trappers Lodge in the late 1980s. The statues were imperiled. And here's where the story gets murky... " http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2046

 

Deadly Combat

Jake with John Ehn's sculptures

Long story short, they got moved to Pierce College, specifically Cleveland Park, behind the old chicken coop. And they're just awesome. Whn had a real obsession with the concept of "boot hill." Now wheter the inhabitants of his boot hill were real people or characters he imagined, I don't know, but I hope I get te chance to buy the Old Trapper and all his friends a round in the Afterlife. Weve got Pegleg Smith duking it out with Chief Big Bear, a bunch of "soiled doves" and prospecters, and an entire population of headstones of the dearly departed, including a gal who was knifed by Sweet Violet fer watering her whiskey; can't we all just git along? 

Pierce College was founded as an agricultural school and they're starting to turn back to their roots. We had a terrific tour of their teaching farm and I'll be covering that in a later post.

John Ehn Plaque

Raven Jake and the Girls