John Sowden House
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John Sowden House
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John Sowden House, 2008
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| Location | 5121 Franklin Avenue, Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California |
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| Coordinates | 34°6′20″N 118°18′4″W / 34.10556°N 118.30111°WCoordinates: 34°6′20″N 118°18′4″W / 34.10556°N 118.30111°W |
| Built | 1926 |
| Architect | Wright, Lloyd |
| Architectural style | Mayan revival, Other |
| NRHP Reference # | |
| LAHCM # | 762 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | July 14, 1971 |
| Designated LAHCM | August 13, 2003 |
John Sowden House, also known as the "Jaws House" or the "Franklin House", is a residence built in 1926 in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, California by Lloyd Wright. The house is noted for its use of ornamented textile blocks and for its striking facade, resembling (depending on the viewer's points of cultural reference) either a Mayan temple or the gaping open mouth of a great white shark.
The original owner, John Sowden, was a painter and photographer who hired his friend, Lloyd Wright (eldest son of Frank Lloyd Wright), to build his home on Franklin Ave in Los Feliz. The house is built using concrete textile blocks and Mayan themes, with decorative block-work along some of the interior walls. Upon approaching the "cave-like" front entrance, one passes through sculpted copper gates and then up "a narrow, tomb-like staircase" into the house. The building design follows a rectangular plan, with the rooms all opening into a 22' x 68' central courtyard by way of a narrow corridor. The courtyard originally contained a 32' long pool and fountain, which was removed sometime before 1940 and two textile-bock water organs which were destroyed by an earthquake in the 1930s, probably the 1933 Long Beach earthquake.
The building style of Sowden House is similar to Los Angeles area residences designed earlier in the 1920s by Frank Lloyd Wright, which include the Ennis House just to the northeast in the hills above Los Feliz Boulevard, the Hollyhock House in East Hollywood, the Storer House and Samuel Freeman House in the Hollywood Hills, and Millard House in Pasadena.
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