CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL RESOURCES INVENTORY DATABASE
City of Pasadena
 
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Resource Summary
1780 DEVON Rd
DPR523A - Primary [print]
State of California - The Resource Agency
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION
PRIMARY RECORD
 
 
Survey #:
DOE #:
Primary #:  
HRI #:  
Trinomial:  
NRHP Status Code: 5S1 
Other Listings:  
Review Code:    Reviewer:   
Date: -/-/-
 
 
*Resource Name or #:  
 
P1.  Other Identifier:  
 
*P2.  Location: not for publication   unrestricted
*a.  County Los Angeles 
and (P2c, P2e, and P2b or P2d. Attach a Location Map as Necessary)
b.  USGS 7.5' Quad:   YEAR:   T   ; R   ;   of   of Sec   ;   B.M.
c.  Address: 1780 DEVON Rd City: Pasadena State: CA Zip Code:
d.  UTM: (Give more than one for large and/or linear resources)   Zone:   ; -118.175305  mE/ 34.176863  mN
e.  Other Locational Data: (e.g., parcel #, directions to resource, elevation, etc., as appropriate)
 
*P3a.  Description:  (Describe resource and its major elements. Include design, materials, condition, alterations, size, setting, and boundaries)
Set on a hillside knoll below narrow and winding Devon Road, the Clark Residence is a flat-roofed, one-story house with a “T” shaped floor plan situated on its site to maximize views across the Arroyo Seco, the San Gabriel Valley, and beyond. The street side elevation is characterized by large expanses of white stucco walls inset with a clerestory window, maintaining privacy while providing light and ventilation. An extensive band of windows approximately half of the wall height provides generous amounts of daylight into the kitchen and breakfast room areas. Broad cantilevered roof sections and wooden trellises shade windows and provide filtered sunlight for the breakfast patio and waterfall fountain. The front door to the house is approached through a lush Japanese garden obscured by freestanding Japanese screens.

Just as on the street side elevation, broad cantilevered roof planes and wooden trellises provide shade and visually extend the primary living areas to the outdoors. The visual separation between the rooms inside and the patio and swimming pool is minimal. This effect is further enhanced at the southeast corner of the living room adjacent to the master bedroom, where the floor-to-ceiling windows feature a butt-joint detail, reinforcing the notion that the house is supported by a structural framework of posts and beams, not bearing walls.

One enters the house through a narrow vestibule. Once inside, the vestibule gives way to the open flowing plan of the primary living areas. The main public area of the living room and family room/dining room are visually connected by floor-to-ceiling windows running the entire length of both rooms, but are physically separated by a double-sided fireplace finished in brick. Both living areas feature expanses of blonde Japanese ash veneer wall paneling along with built-in cabinets and upholstered benches.

In all three of the bedrooms, Neutra designed built-in dressers and platform bed frames with attached night tables. The same maple veneer used in the living room and family/dining room is used for all built-in furniture, doors and doorjambs throughout the house. Above the wall-to-wall dressers, continuous expanses of windows provide generous amounts of light and ventilation. Each bedroom has views overlooking the Japanese gardens that surround the house.

It is on the patio elevation that the structural framework is most apparent. The patio elevation reads as a continuous grid of regularly spaced posts supporting the roof. The large floor-to-ceiling windows visually extend indoor and outdoor spaces into each other. From the patio, views overlook the swimming pool and small lawn area accented with stone pagodas.
 
*P3b.  Resource Attributes:  (List attributes and codes)  
 
*P4.  Resources Present:
Building Structure Object Site District Element of a District Other
 
P5a.  Photograph or Drawing (Photograph required for buildings, structures, and objects.)
P5b.
Description of Photo:
 
*P6.
Date Constructed/Age and Source:
Historic PreHistoric
Both Neither
Year Built: 1957 - Documented
 
*P7.
Owner and Address:
Name:  
Address:  
,  
 
*P8.
Recorded By:
 
*P9.
Date Recorded: -/-/-
 
*P10.
Survey Type:
Survey Title:
 
*P11.  Report Citation: (Cite survey report and other sources, or enter "none.")
 
*Attachments:
NONE Location Map Sketch Map Continuation Sheet
Building, Structure, and Ojbect Record Archaeological Record District Record Linear Feature Record
Milling Station Record Rock Art Record Artifact Record Photograph Record
Other:
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