Found original blueprints of the house on the internet. Started the research on USC's web site, since USC runs the Gamble House in Pasadena. Which has a link to the Greene and Greene Virtual Archives.
"The GGVA is made possible by a generous grant from the J. Paul Getty Trust under the Electronic Cataloguing Initiative of the Getty Grant Program. With the objective of creating a single, visual resource for Greene & Greene researchers, homeowners, students and the general public, the GGVA brings together selected material from the four major Greene & Greene collections: the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University in the City of New York; the Environmental Design Archives at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB); The Gamble House, University of Southern California (USC), in Pasadena, California; and the Greene and Greene Archives, USC at The Huntington Library in San Marino, California."
These old blueprints are housed in some musty drawer at the Avery Library in Columbia University in New York City. Digital versions hosted at Berkeley. This blueprint shows the garage (my house) as a single story. As the garage was built a year later than the main house, there should be drawings later than this one that depict it as a garage with an apartment above. But the first floor is mostly the same. The laundry area is now the kitchen, and the maid's room is now the guest room. Sink and toilet locations remain to this day. Nerdy Nerdy.
The main house shortly after it was built. See, no landscaping, and no neighbors behind. It may be the angle, but it's likely my house hasn't been built yet. (Recorded as built in 1917.) No sign of a driveway or short retaining wall on the northern edge of the property. This area was once poppy fields.
This photo was taken where it is now the deep part of the pool. I may attempt to recreate this angle from an inflatable raft sometime in the future. Hope I don't drown trying. If you look through the balcony and across the street, you can see part of the house the Vanderbuilts built for their doctor.
Aerial photo from March 29, 2004. I spent a half hour trying to figure out whether the dark smudge underneath the fire pit is Preston. Inconclusive. From the angle and depth of the shadows in this picture, it leads me to believe that it was taken around 2pm-ish. Hence my car wasn't in the driveway, as it was a Monday and I'd be at work. (Also wasn't on business travel that day.) Nerd.
Aerial photo from June 6, 2002. Might have been the day I closed on the house. Certainly my car wasn't there, as the previous owners rented back for another week or so. And the dark smudge in this picture would be my entire house.
Topographical map from July 1, 1976. Survey says, my house, or more precisely my pool, is exactly 1200 feet above sea level. Coincidentally, also the elevation of Art Center where I went to school only a stone's throw away. (I've taken into account the effect of the earthquakes on elevation since 1976.) So extremely nerdy I am.
longitude= -118.12722
lattitude= 34.18138
I am King of the Nerds.
No comments:
Post a Comment