3- HEMA2019-03_2117 N VICTORIA AVENUE

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2117 N. Victoria Drive, Santa Ana, California Page 9 Spanish Colonial Revival Architecture The 1890s–1930s was a period in which historic eclecticism became the dominant mode of architectural expression. Education of high style architects in the late nineteenth century shifted from training under apprentices to attendance at the École de Beaux Arts in Paris. This academic training resulted in more faithful representations of historical styles, a trend that reached broad attention and widespread use after the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893. With the emphasis on faithful replication, specific historic styles were used to connote particular meanings. What is now called Spanish Colonial Revival style is really the second phase of a larger, more encompassing style that began in the 1890s and 1900s and can more broadly be referred to as Mediterranean Revival. Developing alongside a national trend of high style, with academic architects employing historic eclectic styles, Spanish Colonial Revival style was an attempt to create and define a prototypical Californian expression of architecture. The earlier phase of Spanish Colonial Revival style was based on designs for the California Missions, now called Mission Revival style, and was aimed at transmitting a romantic myth of California’s European origins. Borrowing typical forms freely from its colonial past, Mission Revival style is characterized by symmetrical facades and compact rectangular or square plan. Like later manifestations of Spanish Colonial Revival Style, roofs were made of red clay tiles and wall surfaces clad in smooth stucco. However, in contrast with later Spanish Colonial Revival style, the eaves of Mission Revival style buildings are widely overhanging. Other defining characteristics are Mission-like bell towers, quatrefoil windows, and shaped parapets. The academic, high style expression of Spanish Colonial Revival style was popularized by the Panama- California Exposition of 1915 in San Diego.42 By commemorating the opening of the Panama Canal a year earlier, the exposition served to boost San Diego as the closest American port to the canal. The Exposition, with Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue as chief architect, was a “statement of local industry clothed in a Southern California architecture,”43 and had as much influence on subsequent use of Spanish Colonial Revival style as the Chicago Columbian Exposition did for historic revival styles in general and Classical Revival style in particular.44 Use of the Spanish Colonial Revival style at the Panama-California Exposition represented Spanish historical antecedents more faithfully than the Mission Revival style and “emphasize[d] the richness of Spanish precedents found throughout Latin America.”45 Character-defining features of the Spanish Colonial Revival style generally include:46 • Complex massing, resulting from turrets, towers, corbelled overhangs, multiple and often asymmetrically organized wings, exterior staircases • Distinctively shaped and capped chimneys • Gable, hipped, and/or flat roof, typically with clay tile roof or roof trim • One or two stories in height • Patios, courtyards, loggias or covered porches and/or balconies • Single and multi-paned windows, predominantly casement in type • Stuccoed exteriors; secondary materials may include wrought iron, wood, cast stone, terra cotta, and polychromatic tile 42 David Gebhard, “The Spanish Colonial Revival in Southern California (1895-1930),” The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 26, No. 2, May 1967: 136. 43 Paul Gleye, The Architecture of Los Angeles, Los Angeles: Rosebud Books, 1981: 87. 44 Gebhard, 136. 45 Virginia and Lee McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998: 418. 46 City of Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources, “Context: Architecture and Engineering: 1850-1930; Theme: Mediterranean and Indigenous Revival Architecture, 1887-1952; Sub-Theme: Spanish Colonial Revival, 1915-1942; Property Type: Residential; Sub-Type: Single- Family Residence,” SurveyLA Historic Context Outline and Summary Table, May 6, 2014, http://preservation.lacity.org/news/surveyla- historiccontext-outline-and-summary-tables-published. 3-55