CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL RESOURCES INVENTORY DATABASE
City of Pasadena
 
Home   |    Search   |    Help   |    Contact Us   |    Acknowledgements    |    Admin   |   
Resource Summary
875 Canon Dr
Resource Summary
Address: 875 Canon Dr APN: 5325-020-021 [print]

This property is designated by the city as an individual historic resource (see "designation type" field for the specific city designation type).
*
 
RESOURCE OVERVIEW
Address: 875 Canon Dr
City: Pasadena State: CA
Zip Code: 91106 County: Los Angeles
County Code: 37
Historic Name: Spencer House; Culbertson Accessory Structures Common Name: Spencer House; Culbertson Accessory Structures
APN: 5325-020-021 Zoning: RS2
Building Sq. Ft: 1868 Site Size (Acres): 0.380
Year Built: 1952 Documented District: Canon Drive Historic District
District: Canon Drive Historic District (surveyed)
 Property Status: Designated
Contributing Status: C    
Resource Description:
The Site
The site includes the one-story main house, which is attached to a lath house designed by Greene & Greene, a freestanding potting shed, also designed by Greene & Greene, both built in 1911, and a carport (attached to the foundation of the house, at a lower grade, but providing no interior access to the house). The remainder of the site has landscape and hardscape features.

The main house is slightly angled relative to the street and, therefore, has a front setback ranging from 20 to 30 feet deep. The setting of the house and the others on Cañon Drive is uniquely wooded and lush, giving a feeling of seclusion and connection to nature within a developed urban area. The site slopes upward from south to north and has terraced front and rear yards

Exterior Features of the Building
The one-story house is rectangular in plan, with the longer end oriented roughly parallel to the street, although at a slight receding angle from west to east, as noted above. It has a flat roof with no parapet and a shallow overhang, except at the recessed entry. Two portions of the roof extend upward toward the rear in a shallow shed form to create clerestories. The house has a very high level of glazing on the exterior walls, with fixed metal-framed window walls above a base of vertically and horizontally oriented wood tongue-and-groove siding. The recessed entry has a single unpainted solid-wood door with wide fluted-glass sidelights. The stone flooring in the recessed entry continues to the interior of the house, as was common in buildings from this period. Adjacent to the entry is a wide running-course brick chimney, which, above the roofline, narrows to half of the width of the portion below.

Upon entry into the house, the line of sight is immediately directed to the attached Green & Greene lath house behind a wall of glass windows and doors. The lath house maintains its openness except that a portion extends into the interior of the house where two small closets were created. The wood slats of the lath house remain evident on the exterior of these closets.

Carport & Site Features
The carport is at a lower grade than the house and is attached to the house’s foundation. It is a simple design, built into the hillside, with a flat roof and slender wood support posts.

The terraced front yard is supported by split-face stone retaining walls with piers of concrete-capped soldier course stone, one along the entire front property line (ending at the driveway). There is another, shorter wall midway between the street and the house along a pathway leading to the main entrance. The entry pathway is marked by a freestanding fountain of the same soldier-course stone. The rear yard is also terraced and has a gunite retaining wall and steps designed by Greene & Greene.

Structures designed by Greene & Greene were part of the Cordelia Culbertson estate at 1188 Hillcrest Avenue. Property address was originally 920 Fairfield Circle.
Legal Description:
That portion of Lot 3 of Tract 1652 as per map recorded in Book 22 at Pages 150 and 151 of Maps in the office of the County Recorder of the County of Los Angeles, State of California, lying Easterly of a line beginning at a point 180 feet Easterly along the southerly to a point in the northerly line of Canon drive, 272 feet easterly along said line from the southwesterly corner of said lot 3.
RESOURCE DETAILS
Primary Architectural Style: International /Modern Style
Secondary Architectural Style: Craftsman (Arts and Crafts)
Architect: Greene & Greene; Smith & Williams
Builder: Peter Hall (1911); Unknown (1952)
Contractor:
Context: Recent Past 
Original Owner: Gordon & Helen Spencer
Original Use: SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENCE
Original Location:
Demolished: no
Notes:
Moved: no
Date Moved: n/a
Designation Date: 09/19/2011
Mills Act: A contract and work program
was recorded in 12/31/2011

* This is a simplified statement of the property's status. Please review the NRHP Status Code field on the search screen for official, adopted status language.