Culbertson House, Charles & Henry Greene 1911

Culbertson House, Charles & Henry Greene 1911
Originally uploaded by Michael Locke

Designed by Charles and Henry Greene in 1911 for Cordelia, Kate, and Margaret Culbertson, three unmarried sisters with money to spend and very specific ideas on what they wanted in a house. The house is one of the Greene Brothers’ most interesting designs, with a green tile roof and fireplace of Numibian marble. The sisters wanted all the rooms on one level but objected to ground-floor bedrooms. The Greenes solved this by designing a U-shaped residence wrapped around a central courtyard with the bedroom wing on the brink of a small canyon overlooking a wooded slope in back, thus achieving the look and feel of a second floor.

Located at 1188 Hillcrest Avenue in the Oak Knoll neighborhood of Pasadena.