The Cultural Environment: Artists and Other Luminaries

by Bonnie Freeman

Mt. Washington has a decidedly bohemian flavor. Stretching back to the turn of the last century, the atmosphere has always been open, liberal and creative, and has allowed those living there the space to pursue their interests, whether by banding together or by simply living side by side in relative anonymity. As a result, a diverse group of people with wide-ranging passions and professions, incomes and lifestyles, has settled there. Artists and professionals of all stripes have lived there, or now live there, as well as politicos and other luminaries, - some more renowned than others. The following few short sketches should best convey the richness of the people, their connection to each other and to the community, as well as to the landscape.

The Mt. Washington Salon: In the 1910’s, the Mt. Washington Salon was formed by a group of people involved in the fine arts. They felt the need to find a voice on the hill, a creative voice that would be distinct from that of the Eastern establishment. Regrettably, not much information is available with respect to the Salon. However, in 2002, the Mt. Washington Salon was resurrected. This time writers, poets, composers, musicians, dancers, choreographers, actors, filmmakers, set designers, painters, sculptors, graphic designers, gallery owners, fabric artists, jewelry makers, weavers, architects and academic professionals participated.

The salon eventually grew to about 45 people. They met once a month, often in architecturally interesting homes, and engaged in a lively exchange of ideas and a showcasing of their talents. Often guest speakers would be brought in. The Salon provided an opportunity for neighbors to make significant contacts with folks they may have never met before, or with those they may have just had a nodding acquaintance, perhaps while walking the dog. Unfortunately, the Salon was disbanded in 2005, when Roy Johnston, a musician and a poet and the driving force behind the Salon, left the area. Notwithstanding the demise of the two Salons, an artistic and rich environment has continued to thrive.

Painters: The beginnings of the California landscape movement can be traced to the Wachtels, Marion Kavanagh Wachtel (1870-1954) and Elmer Wachtel (1864-1929); both of whom were associated with the Arroyo Arts Movement that flourished in the early 20th century. Elmer was one of the first professional artists to live in Los Angeles, arriving in 1882. He supplemented his income from painting as first violinist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Marion came to Southern California and began to study with Elmer in 1904. It was apparently love at first sight, and they were married that same year. By 1906, they had built a studio- home on Avenue 43 that also served as a gallery. The house was designed by Elmer in the Craftsman style and today is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

Elmer worked mostly in oils, using impressionist brushstrokes. He specialized in panoramic desert and mountain landscapes and was one of the first artists to discover the beauty of the dry arroyo. Marion was a watercolorist whose technique involved slowly building transparent washes of color. Her legacy was the creation of delicate and lyrical interpretations of the landscape. The two were inseparable painting companions for 25 years who traveled together throughout Southern California and the Southwest seeking out the landscapes and the unique natural light. Together, for 15 years, they lived and painted and displayed their work on Mt. Washington.

The plein aire tradition continues to this day. There are a group of about six painters who, for the past five years, have been getting together regularly to paint at different locations on the hill. Their approaches vary. Some focus on capturing the natural landscape, others the life and rhythms of the street or a front yard, while others capture the beauty in the urban landscape. They have exhibited and sold their works in some of the local galleries, as well as during the Arroyo Arts Collective’s Annual Discovery Tour. Although only one of the members of the group is a professional painter, most of them are involved in the arts. They have, however, always wanted to paint and now, inspired as were the Wachtels by the possibilities on Mt Washington, they are continuing the tradition.

Architectural Designers: Many of the architecturally significant homes on Mt. Washington were designed by artists who live, or have lived, on the hill. James De Long is an architect that lived on Mt. Washington for more than 50 years, on Canyon Vista, and designed and remodeled more than 14 of the homes there. Following World War II, he went, uninvited, to visit Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin and was, by a stroke of good fortune, taken on as a Taliesin Fellow. He lived, studied and worked with Wright for a year.

Several of the homes De Long designed on the hill, including the Scholfield House and the Wolford House, both of which have been designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments, incorporate Wright's Usonian principles. The two houses are on Sea View Lane and, on a clear day, you actually can see the ocean and Catalina!! The Scholfield House is a 779 square foot house that uses glass to give it a feeling of openness and spaciousness, as if suspended among the trees. House Beautiful magazine (of which De Long later became the editor), in October 1959, commented that the “magic” of this house was a product of a “sensitivity to, and a deep, almost affectionate regard for, landscape and its beautifies…from a mind that sees man in inter-dependent and interactive relations with nature.”

Jorge Pardo is a sculptor who also lives on the hill. His work has been exhibited in major museums internationally. Often, though, his large scale architectural works cannot be viewed in traditional museum spaces. In 1998, he designed his own home on Sea View Lane with the intention that it be viewed and exhibited as sculpture. It was designed to reflect the natural environment and preserve the hillside topography. Constructed of redwood, it is a one story structure with floor to ceiling windows. All the rooms, which are of varying elevations, wind around in a semi-circle and open up onto a sloping interior courtyard. In 1998, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) presented the house as a work of art (along with an exhibition of his hand blown glass lights), as part of a five week satellite exhibition of Pardo’s work.

Politicos: As a natural outgrowth of the open and liberal spirit on the hill, there has always been a strong civic minded and activist tradition. It seems, however, it was not until recently that elected officials began to call Mt Washington home (not including the Nevada governor who built his summer home here in 1910). Antonio Villaraigosa, the Mayor of Los Angeles and the City’s first Latino mayor since 1872, lives on Mt Washington; as does Gloria Molina. Molina, who is on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, was the first Latina in history to be elected to the California State Legislature, the Los Angeles City Council and the County Board of Supervisors.

Both are progressive democrats with a long history of civic activism. Villaraigosa is a coalition builder who previously worked as a labor activist and civil libertarian (He was past President of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union). He is a rising star within the Democratic Party, both on the State and National level, and was featured on the cover of Newsweek. Molina, who was first elected to the legislature in 1982, began working with the Chicano movement in the 1970’s as a women’s health advocate. In 2006, she was honored by Hispanic Business magazine as the Hispanic Business Woman of the Year. It is notable that both are Mexican-Americans with roots in the neighborhoods of “Greater” East LA - Villaraigosa grew up in Boyle Heights and Molina in Pico Rivera; and both have elected to live on Mt Washington, an urban oasis that straddles the urban core of Los Angeles and the open spaces of Northeast LA.

Other Luminaries: There are other folks that have made a contribution to the rhythm of the hill, though, perhaps in a less public way. Bob Scholfield was a real estate broker who later went to work for the State, where he was instrumental in drafting and enforcing the laws related to land sales fraud. Scholfield fell in love with Mt Washington and was responsible for selling many of the lots on the hill - although only to those he felt would properly honor the land. For instance, there is the Scholfield House, and then, next door, there is the Wolford House, as well as the Birtcher-Share House, which was designed by Harwell H. Harris and is also a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

Scholfield was a person of integrity and old fashioned values who looked out for his neighbors and friends, as well as their homes. He loved trees and was responsible not only for planting and tending the trees on his property, but also his neighbors’. At some point, when the land just below his, on the Sea View Trail, was threatened with development, two of his friends and neighbors purchased the land and deeded it to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. Then, with permission of the Conservancy, they turned it into a park. Bob Scholfield Park was dedicated to Scholfield in 2001, just a few days before he died, at the age of 89. He was too ill to attend, but the 100 or so friends that did, all of whom had been touched by him in some way, feted him as they gathered below and he toasted from his aerie house above