Excerpted from

Famous Architects of Glendale

By Beth Sullebarger

Historic Preservation Consultant

Presented to at the First Presbyterian Church of Glendale

April 22, 2010

From its very beginning to the present, Glendale has been a magnet for excellent architects. An uncanny number of them have found Glendale a desirable place to live and made it their home. In the 19th century, these included James K. Wilson, who married into the prominent Keys family and designed Plum Street Temple; his son H. Neill Wilson, and Alfred B. Mullett, who in 1860 became Supervising Architect of the Treasury, responsible for all federal buildings. In the first half of the 20th century architects Frederick Garber, Harry Hake, Jr., Stanley Matthews, and Archibald Denison lived here. In the mid-to-late 20th century there was Woodie Garber, a leading Modernist.

In Glendale, we are so fortunate to have an unusually rich legacy of architects who lived here. What attracted them here? Several of them had family ties, such as James K. Wilson, Stanley Matthews, and Frederick and Woodie Garber. Architects depend on social connections to people with the means to build and are attracted to places that are developing. For example, architects flocked to Chicago after the famous fire and to San Francisco after the earthquake because of vast opportunities offered by rebuilding. Ultimately, however, Glendale’s famous architects enjoyed the same things that still attract residents today: the picturesque streets, the pleasing integration of the houses with the landscape, and the quality of the architecture.