| Address: |
901 S San Rafael Ave |
APN: |
5717-023-001 |
This property is designated by the city as an individual historic resource (see "designation type" field for the specific city designation type). *
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| Address: |
901 S San Rafael Ave |
| City: |
Pasadena |
State: |
CA |
| Zip Code: |
91105 |
County: |
Los Angeles |
| County Code: |
37 |
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| Historic Name: |
Kencott |
Common Name: |
Kencott |
| APN: |
5717-023-001 |
Zoning: |
RSFR |
| Building Sq. Ft: |
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Site Size (Acres): |
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| Year Built: |
1928 Documented |
District: |
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| District: |
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Property Status: |
Designated |
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| Resource Description: |
The Site
The steeply sloping site includes the three-story (plus partially subterranean basement) main house, six-car garage/guest house building and a lath house. The remainder of the site has landscape and hardscape features organized into a formal composition, with the rear portion sloping substantially downward from the street in a terraced configuration.
Exterior Features of the Main House
The house has a roughly T-shaped plan with a steeply pitched cross-gabled roof oriented to face the apex of the acute-angled corner of Hillside Terrace and South San Rafael Avenue. The roof has no eaves, with the exception of the rear elevation which has a shallow eave with a cut-out barge board. The majority of the house is clad in a stone veneer with cut stone window headers and door surrounds; the upper portion of the rear elevation is coated in smooth-finish cement plaster with false half-timbering (a recent addition that is compatible with the style of the house). A major element of the primary façade is a wide stone-and-brick chimney with a tripartite decorative cap. The primary gable also has a dovecote at the peak and the primary entrance lintel has a relief scroll engraved with the word “Kencott” and an intersecting counter-relief shield with relief year 1928 above and letters “A.D.” below. Asymmetrical fenestration consists of multi-light wood casement windows, many with leaded glass. On the rear is a projecting oriel with carved wood brackets below.
Garage/Guest House/Accessory Structures
The current detached garage/guest house building was built at the same time as the house and was expanded in 1940 (also designed by Ogilvie). The building has a similar, but simplified roof form to the main house and is two, rather than three stories high. The existing stone veneer, although a close match to the main house, is not original. It was originally a more simple, plaster exterior, which would be more appropriate to its original subordinate use.
The property also has three small accessory structures: a potting shed, a lath house and a brick incinerator.
The Gardens
The Kenyon & Patricia Reynolds Garden is a private residential designed garden built in 1928 to a design Katherine Bashford. It is located on South San Rafael Avenue in the southwestern portion of the City of Pasadena. The property is a triangular-shaped lot within a single-family residential neighborhood and is 0.896 acres in size. There are two gardens on the property, a front yard garden and a much larger rear yard garden. The gardens are asymmetrical in plan and designed as English gardens to correspond to the Tudor Revival architecture of the house. The front yard garden is flat and consists of a large area of lawn with hedges, flowering shrubs and mature trees; stacked stone walls, brick and stone paving and a fountain. The rear yard garden has much of the same materials but is significantly larger and dramatically sloped downward from the house. The descending slopes are supported by extensive stacked stone retaining walls and a swimming pool sits at the base of the gorge. The rear garden also has a pond and stream, a potting shed and a lath house that were built during the period of significance.
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| Legal Description: |
| A portion of Lot 1 of Tract No. 61, in the City of Pasadena, County of Los Angeles, State of California, as per map recorded in Book 13 Page 13 of maps, in the office of the County Recorder of said County, and a portion of San Rafael Avenue vacated and adjoining said Lot on the East, All in the the City of Pasadena. |
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| Primary Architectural Style: |
Tudor |
| Secondary Architectural Style: |
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| Architect: |
David A. Ogilvie/Katherine Bashford (landscape arch.) |
| Builder: |
Peter Hall |
| Contractor: |
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| Context: |
Period Revival Architecture
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| Original Owner: |
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| Original Use: |
Single Family Residence |
| Original Location: |
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| Demolished: |
no |
| Notes: |
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| Moved: |
no |
| Date Moved: |
n/a |
| Designation Date: |
10/17/2011 |
| Mills Act: |
A contract and work program
was recorded in 12/31/2011
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* 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.
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