Pasadena Heritage Wallace Neff House Tour - Buy your tickets now!

Come on out to support Pasadena Heritage and take the fabulous tour of Wallace Neff designed homes.  The tour is sponsored by deasy/penner & partners so make sure to stop by our table and say helloooo to yours truly.

Pasadena Heritage presents its annual Spring Home Tour, The Legacy of Wallace Neff sponsored by deasy/penner&partners, on Sunday, March 27, 2011 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. This tour of six privately owned homes plus two additional Neff-designed buildings, showcases the breadth of work by renowned Southern California architect Wallace Neff.  Known for his spectacular Mediterranean Revival residences built for elite clients, Neff created what he called “California houses” that were based on European traditions adapted to the unique climate and landscape of Southern California. Tickets on sale! Purchase Now Scroll down for additional tour details.
In the 1920’s Pasadena boasted the highest per capita income of any city its size in the country. This period of great prosperity was a boon for architecture, resulting in a series of designs by many of the most well-known architects of the period, including Myron Hunt, Gordon Kaufman, Roland Coate, George Washington Smith, and of course Wallace Neff.  Wallace Neff’s “flair for originality” and attention to detail puts his work in a category all its own. Featured on the Pasadena Heritage Spring Home Tour will be the Paul Richter House, a 1929 Classical French Chateau style home. Its elegant feeling is enhanced by a gracious center courtyard fountain and exquisitely intricate wrought iron details. The interior of the home has many classic Neff features including marble floors, cathedral ceiling, circular room and spiral staircase. It also has a Gothic music room and medieval fireplace with a stone mantle. This home represents Neff’s work for elite clients as the home is over 14,000 square feet and has over 30 rooms. The Richter House is located in neighboring San Marino, designed by its founders to be a uniquely residential community with wide streets, expansive properties, and beautiful gardens.
The Collins House (pictured above, left) dates from 1927. Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Collins hired Neff to design their home, and they lived there for almost fifty years. Their home was, as their daughter Mary put it, “a labor of love.” It was featured in Architectural Digest soon after it was built. This beautiful Italianate home has wing walls on either side of the façade which extend the mass visually across the entire property.
The Morse and Gates (Ethel Guthrie) House, designed in 1925 is a beautifully simple Spanish Colonial Revival home typical of Neff’s designs.
The Thaddeus L. Up de Graff (Shirley C. Ward) House (pictured, left) is a beautifully landscaped 1927 Italian Renaissance Revival Neff-designed home. T.L. Up de Graff was Neff’s brother-in-law and worked with Neff on several speculative houses in Pasadena. Three of those houses are located together in the historic Lombardy Road District. Even during the prosperous middle twenties when Neff was deluged with high-paying clients, he did not turn down commissions for speculative houses. In affluent communities such as Pasadena the fact that a house was a Wallace Neff design helped sales, so developers were eager clients and 10 speculative houses were built in 1924 by the Lincoln Mortgage Company along a single block. These modest houses were interesting and unique, designed with the same care as Neff exerted for a wealthy client. This is the only known tract designed by Neff. Neff’s designs were embraced by other speculative builders, resulting in numerous copyists designing Spanish style tract houses all over Southern California, prompting one historian to note that “tract house architecture from the 20s in Los Angeles looks the way it does because of Neff.” Two houses along this picturesque block will be open for tours.
Other stops on the tour include the Barlow House and St. Elizabeth’s Church.
Except for St. Elizabeth Church, all tour locations will be open from 9:00 a.m.  to 4:00 p.m.  Visitors drive themselves to the homes where trained docents will describe the history and architectural features as guests tour through each location. Allow at least four hours for the entire tour.
Order your advance tickets to The Legacy of Wallace Neff
Tickets on sale March 1.
Join Pasadena Heritage and take advantage of member discounts!
Advance Ticket Prices: Pasadena Heritage Member Price: $34 Non Member Price: $37 Day of the Event: $40