Ennis House

Wright's four Los Angeles textile-block houses were an experiment in cheap construction, and this one, built in 1924 for Charles and Mabel Ennis, is the largest and least cheap of them. Some 27,000 concrete blocks were cast on site from granite dug out of the hill, then threaded together with steel rod. The steel rusted and the blocks cracked. The Northridge earthquake and the rains of 2005 nearly finished the house, and the restoration cost many times what building it did.

What the plaque says

Ennis Brown House - 1924. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. A master work by America's foremost architect. Declared Historic-Cultural Monument No. 149 by the Cultural Heritage Commission, Cultural Affairs Department, City of Los Angeles.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado Street Bridge — 7.7 mi
  Beaux-Arts concrete arches curving 150 feet above the Arroyo Seco, opened in 1913 and later a link in Route 66.
• Mission San Gabriel Arcangel — 11 mi
  The fourth Alta California mission, built on Tongva land with Tongva labor, rebuilt after arson and now telling that story straight.
• Santa Monica Pier — 14 mi
  Where the Mother Road runs out of continent, and where the End of the Trail sign gives the drive somewhere to finish.

More markers nearby

• Black Cat Tavern — 1.8 mi
• Freeman House — 2.7 mi
• Casa Adobe de San Rafael — 3.8 mi
• Campo de Cahuenga — 4.3 mi