Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyingwedge
LAPL says this photo shows the Music Room in 1971, but it looks like the Sitting/Living Room:
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It's both the sitting room and the music room. It contained a grand piano (now there's an upright) and the keyboard console for the great
Murray Harris organ, whose chimes, pipes, bellows , etc, are contained in the walls throughout the house (
see photos). F.O. Engstrum & Co built the
Murray Harris organ factory in Van Nuys in 1913. The organ at Artemesia may have been part payment for that job.
(Murray Harris built the world's largest organ for the 1904 St Louis World's Fair. It was installed at
Wanamakers, Philadelphia in 1909 and later enlarged)
The console:
A detail:
artemesia
Thank you for the links.
Los Angeles magazine got one thing wrong though in this quote:
"Frederick Engstrum was a rich man by the time he built Artemesia. He wanted a house that would celebrate his success, from immigrant stonemason to construction magnate"
Frank Engstrum was the Swedish immigrant father. Fred Engstrum, his son and business partner, born in Houston, built Artemesia when he was 39. Folks are forever getting F.O. and F.E. mixed up (or, as in this case, combining them).
I liked this quote from the LA Magazine article:
"[Engstrum] also chose to implement the latest in environmental and technical developments. A rainwater collection system supplied the bathroom showers; the resulting gray water was recycled in the garden. A tankless water heater fired only upon use, an early energy saver. He installed a fancy new electric intercom and central vacuuming system..."
Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality
MUST find out this intriguing mystery t2.
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I know! F. E. shut everything down and then all three partners (Engstrum, father and son, & Hugh Bryson) died within three years of other, 1920-1923. WTF? (If anyone knows what's-the-what it's
Beaudry)
Beautiful Blanche Engstrum Bryson, daughter and sister, respectively, of Frank and Fred, and wife of Hugh Bryson, lived on until 1969.
They're all buried together at Inglewood Cemetery.
Artemesia is such a moose. I don't know who will buy it. It would make a terrific small, exclusive hotel, but the NIMBY neighbors would never go for that.
I just read in LA Curbed that Angelina Jolie may be buying the C.B. DeMille place in Laughlin Park, so maybe Brad Pitt, an apparent Craftsman aficionado, will buy Artemesia (my interest in celebrities only extends to their services to architecture). Each home (both built in 1913) is on approximately 2 acres and they are in adjoining neighborhoods.
Artemesia's asking price is less than half of what the owners want for the
DeMille estate.
Like Laughlin Park, Valley Oak Dr (once Artemesia's driveway) is also gated. Although there are many homes up there nowadays, one of Artemesia's lanterns still guards the entrance at Canyon Drive:
gsv
.