PASADENA
THE BLACKER HOUSE
P
asadena boasts the first house Greene and Greene ever designed. Built for a retired
Michigan lumberman, the 1907 Blacker House has since had its share of drama.
In 1985, it was sold to Texas rancher Barton English, who promptly stripped out 48
original lighting fixtures, along with art glass windows, and sold them. Chandeliers
by Greene and Greene went for $250,000. The owner quickly made back
his $1 million investment in the house, then sold it for $200,000 more. He
never even lived there. In response to this calamity, Pasadena passed an
emergency ordinance protecting Greene
and Greene houses. Local
residents stood guard out front day and night to prevent more
fixtures from being hauled off, giving a
warm new meaning to the term
“neighborhood watch.”
Above my head, the ceiling was so low that I had to crouch.
As one Wright commentator observed: “He designed
everything to human scale. That would be 5 foot 7, like
him.”
But the view over the living room made all else fade
away. Perforations in the upper blocks allowed soft
sunlight to pass through. Below, a serried row of tall glass
doors opened onto a balcony overlooking the pond. No
wonder
La Miniatura
is considered a masterpiece of siting
and design.
Sure, the house leaked, like many of Wright’s
creations, and one evening Millard’s guests had to slosh
through six inches of water in the dining room. It also had
a serious shortage of closets. Yet
La Miniatura
seems to
float above care, in a world and time apart. Said an
always self-satisfied Wright, “I would rather have built this
little house than St. Peter’s in Rome.”
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