Stimson House
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Stimson House
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Stimson House, 2008
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| Location | Los Angeles, California |
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| Coordinates | 34°1′47″N 118°16′30″W / 34.02972°N 118.27500°WCoordinates: 34°1′47″N 118°16′30″W / 34.02972°N 118.27500°W |
| Built | 1891 |
| Architect | Brown,Carroll H.; Elliot,E.D. |
| Architectural style | Richardsonian Romanesque, Gothic Revival, O=other |
| NRHP Reference # | 78000690 |
| LAHCM # | 212 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | March 30, 1978 |
| Designated LAHCM | May 16, 1979 |
Stimson House is a Richardsonian Romanesque mansion in Los Angeles, California, on Figueroa Street north of West Adams. Built in 1891, it was the home of lumber and banking millionaire Thomas Douglas Stimson. During Stimson’s lifetime, the house survived a dynamite attack by a blackmailer in 1896. After Stimson’s death, the house has been occupied by a brewer who reportedly stored wines and other spirits in the basement, a fraternity house that conducted noisy parties (causing consternation among occupants of neighboring mansions), as student housing for Mount St. Mary's College, and as a convent for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.
When Stimson House was built in the 1890s, the Los Angeles Times described it as "the costliest and most beautiful private residence in Los Angeles," a building "admired by all who see it." More than a hundred years later, the Times said: “From the front, the 3 1⁄2-story house resembles a medieval castle, with brick chimneys standing guard like sentries along the roof and an ornate four-story crenelated tower on the northeast corner, a noble rook from a massive chess board." With its $150,000 cost, it was the most expensive house that had been built in Los Angeles at the time.
From the day it was built, the 30-room house was a Los Angeles landmark. Neighbors and occupants have referred to it over the years as "the Castle" or the "Red Castle" due to its turret-top walls, four-story tower, and red-stone exterior.
The original occupant, Thomas Douglas Stimson, hired architect H. Carroll Brown, then only 27 years old, to design his new home. Stimson designed the home principally in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, with rough-hewn stone, round headed arches, short columns, rows of arched or rectangular windows and an overall fortress quality. The Richardsonian style was popular in the Upper Midwest in the 1880s, though the style never became popular in Los Angeles. Stimson reportedly wanted his new home to resemble the brick-and-stone mansions of Chicago's Gold Coast, including the Palmer Mansion. A Los Angeles Times music critic reviewing a chamber music performance at the house in 1989 called its architecture "Midwestern Ivanhoe." With its Gothic tower and other features, the style of the house is not strictly Richardsonian. A Times writer in 1948 noted that the house presents a "puzzling" appearance: "Its architecture reflects the Mission influence, a bit of Byzantine, something Latin and a little Fort Ticonderoga."
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