California Garden Suburbs: St. Francis Wood and Palos Verdes Estates

Abstract

From the late 19th century to the early 20th century in the US, a number of garden suburbs were developed along streetcar lines and highways. This suburban expansion provided developers and designers with opportunities for experimentation. Real estate developers in California demonstrated innovative examples in the development of garden suburbs. This paper focuses on St. Francis Wood in San Francisco and Palos Verdes Estates in Los Angeles County and analyzes how the developers, landscape architects, city planners and other professionals formulated the designs and protective restrictions for these suburbs. In addition, it examines the influence of the ‘City Beautiful’ movement and shows the innovations these two garden suburbs made in the history of American garden suburbs.

Notes

 1. Duncan McDuffie to J. F. Dawson, 7 July 1913.

 2. The Olmsted Archives in Brookline, Massachusetts, stores the plans and drawings of St. Francis Wood that date from September 1912 to May 1917. The Olmsted Associates Records, at the Library of Congress, includes the correspondence for St. Francis Wood that date from August 1912 to June 1917.

 3. Modern traffic conditions eliminated this circle (McDuffie & Rowell, 1932).

 4. Later in 1937, Duncan McDuffie confessed that “it is preferable to have no building cost minimum requirements” in the protective restrictions and “to control the development of the property through adequate architectural supervision” (Duncan McDuffie to J. F. Dawson, 2 February 1937).

 5. In Forest Hills Gardens, all of these roles were duties of the development company. Although it is not difficult for the company to fulfill these duties when it owns all the land, its interest in the property decreases with the sale of each lot and disappears completely when the last lot is sold (Burgess, 1994).

 6. The 1948 US Supreme Court decision Shelly v. Kraemer, 344 US1 (1948) ruled that racially restrictive covenants were not legally enforceable.

 7. J. F. Dawson to the Homes Association, 16 May 1930.

 8. The Olmstead Archives houses the plans and drawings of Palos Verdes Estates that date from February 1914 to October 1917, May 1916 to February 1917, and November 1922 to March 1933. The Olmsted Associates Records include the correspondence for Palos Verdes Estates that date from December 1913 to August 1919, and October 1921 to February 1948. However, the whereabouts of drawings and documents stored at the Western Office of the Olmsted Brothers are still unknown.

 9. The Olmsted Brothers to W. H. Kiernan, 9 October 1914.

10. The Olmsted Brothers to W. H. Kiernan, 9 October 1914

11. The Olmsted Brothers to W. H. Kiernan, 9 October 1914

12. Worley wrote that the Palos Verdes Homes Association reflects the homes company in the Country Club District. However, McDuffie incorporated a homes association in St. Francis Wood earlier than Nichols in the Country Club district (Worley, 1990).

13. Myron Hunt to the Olmsted Brothers, 11 January 1922.

14. Lewis offered the University of California $1 million and a grant of 1000 acres to relocate the southern branch of the university. However, the Board of Regents selected Westwood, where UCLA is now located, in March 1925.

15. John Nolen to Charles H. Cheney, 23 June 1922.

16. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. moved to Palos Verdes Estates in 1921 and lived there until he returned to Brookline in 1931. The pull of the West was so strong that in 1950 he settled in his final home in Palo Alto, California.

17. The drafts of local protective restrictions for more than 40 tracts are included in the Charles H. Cheney papers at the Bancroft Library, University of California.

18. The Commonwealth Trust Company merged with the Bank of America on 28 September 1923.

19. Dawson to Olmsted, 19 January 1923.