Mild

[rejectomorph]

The apple orchard is frosted with its first faint white blossoms of the year, and a pink haze hovers around the dense twigs of the dogwood. Beyond the dogwood, I catch a glimpse of a tree filled with mauve flowers- I've never learned what type of tree that is. Almost all the lilies are open now, rising in a white clump above the spiky green leaves. Azaleas are coming out, as well, and it won't be long before the rhododendrons add their great clouds of blossoms. All the flowering plants grow bright, while the day remained gray and moody. I find the contrast pleasing, and it's enjoyable to sit outside while the air is yet cool and the landscape is softened by muted light. It's good weather in which to neglect un-imperative tasks and simply absorb the days. That's what I intend to be doing as much as possible while it lasts.

Comments

[whiteboyhalf.livejournal.com]

Paradise sounds untouched. Like San Luis Obispo. Beautiful.

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I'm talking with the MKHS Alliance President via email.
I could probably use some more info from you. Unless you mind, I would like to quote you when I present my plan, and the history of MKHS to the Alliance, and maybe school board. I could use your name, grad year, thoughts on the school as it is--or was.
my email: ephraimtheretardedrabbit@gmail.

A letter writing campaign by alumni sounds good pretty soon--but not yet. Foster Hirsch sounds like a good proponent. Please start spreading the news unless you already have. Get the Keppel Alumns in on the project.

I can't let this happen.
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Cal Poly has suddenly taken on a whole new level of urgency.



And just FYI, if you're going to be in the Alhambra/Montery Park/Los Angeles area this coming Friday, we've got a pretty killer band concert coming up... admission will be $7.00 at the door, $5.00 presale...

[rejectomorph]

I've been looking for more information on the school, and particularly on the building itself, but so far no luck. I'd particularly like to find the name of the architect, or architects. I have written an e-mail to Preserve L.A., asking for advice about how to go about searching for information, and about the possibility of getting the building onto one or another of the historic registers, but I've not had a reply yet. I think that the process of getting a building registered takes quite a while, so it might be getting a bit late for that. Also, the people who own a building (meaning the notorious Alhambra High School District in this case) often oppose registration, as it limits their control. Still, it might be worth the attempt.

I'd be fine with being named and quoted in your presentation, but I'm not sure just what sort of information you'd find useful. I don't have much to tell other than my personal experience with the place, and my entirely subjective feelings about it- along with my appreciation for the architecture of the period, of course, though I certainly have no recognition as an authority on it. (It would be good if an architect or architectural historian could be found who would give an evaluation of the historic value of the building. A professional's authoritative judgement would certainly carry more weight than mine.)

I'll be making posts about the issue on the message boards, and e-mailing the few alumni whose addresses I have, and I hope at least a few of them will get involved. So far, I've not been able to find anyone who is in touch with Foster (Keppel grads of my era were more likely to end up in small towns and suburbs than in the heady atmosphere of New York City as Foster did), but I'll keep working on it.

Good luck with the concert. Though I won't be in the area, I'd like to be (and sitting in one of the maroon seats- that's the original color they all were, and I'll bet that those that still are maroon have the original 1939 upholstery, since I'm surprised that the school district was willing to pay to have the rest of them reupholstered at all.)

Incidentally, I just checked the MKHS Alliance web site, and none of its page links at the bottom are opening (I was able to find some of them in Google's cache, though.)

[whiteboyhalf.livejournal.com]

Oh, the architects?
The names are on all of the historic plaques in the school that state it was built by the PWA in 1939.

Marston & Maybury: the architects.
David J. Reed: contractor.

the only info on Marston & Maybury was that they built a few buildings in Pasadena (i think bungalows) and that it's "Marston Van Pelt."

and yeah, the overseeing organizations like school districts don't like historic status labels i learned. that's why the AUSD didn't file a CEQA report, which investigates the environmental impact of any given project. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEQA

I was getting info from Ken Bernstein from the LA Conservancy a few months ago about how to get this project going; that's how i found out the school is in the Streamline Moderne in the first place. I think I'll get back in touch with him.

Thanks for things. At the least, I know somebody else cares.

[rejectomorph]

As the school was designed by Marston & Maybury, it's in good company. They were the successor firm to Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury (dissolved 1927 when Garrett Van Pelt went off on his own.) Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury have several Pasadena buildings already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Turner & Stevens Mortuary at Marengo and Holly (now a restaurant, I believe), the American Legion Building just north of that, and the Pasadena YMCA across Marengo (a 1925 remodeling of an earlier building.) That little neighborhood is almost a museum of their work.

And they also designed the Grace Nicholson Building, now the Pacific Asia Museum, on Los Robles Avenue. It's registered, too, as are two bungalows they designed for the former Vista del Arroyo Hotel, now the headquarters of the 9th District Federal Court of Appeals. Formerly listed, but demolished in 1977 (listing doesn't guarantee protection, unfortunately) was their Pasadena Athletic Club at Los Robles and Green. Listed and still surviving is the Villa Verde, a house at 800 S. San Rafael Avenue.

I found one claim on-line that Marston & Maybury designed the listed Padua Hills Theatre in Claremont, but I've been unable to confirm this. The National Register's own web site doesn't name the architects of the building. I found one listed building of theirs in Los Angeles- the Wilmington branch of the L.A. Public Library. There could be more, but I haven't had time to dig through the National Register's web site (not searchable by architect, unfortunately.) But their large number of listed buildings does show that these guys were important Southern California architects. That might brighten the prospects for getting Mark Keppel listed considerably.

All their currently listed buildings were designed in various period or exotic styles, as far as I know, and Keppel could well be their only surviving building in a modern style. Sylvanus Marston died in 1946, so Keppel might also have been one of his last projects. I haven't been able to find birth or death dates for Edgar Maybury.