Wronging a Wright? : Ennis-Brown House Directors Would Sell Art to Fund Repairs

The board of directors of Frank Lloyd Wright’s historic Ennis-Brown House has decided to strip the landmark of artwork designed by the architect if it cannot obtain funds elsewhere to make needed repairs.

The board of the nonprofit Trust for Preservation of Cultural Heritage, which owns the house, said it hopes it will not come to that, but it has run out of options after years of frustration in trying to raise funds.

The last and largest of Wright’s experimental mock Mesoamerican block structures, the monumental house on Glendower Avenue on a hillside in Los Feliz was built in 1924. It is considered one of his more brooding and singular creations and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The board estimates that the structure is in dire need of at least $1 million in repairs. These include reconstruction of retaining walls and the courtyard, which have in part collapsed, and a new roof. No particular piece has been earmarked for sale at this time, according to Robert Kahan, president of the board.

“We do not wish to cannibalize the house by selling some of its most precious art,” the board declared in its resolution. “We do not want to become a Blacker House, but we are at the end of our rope.”

Historic Mansion Stripped

A few years ago the historic Blacker House, a Craftsman mansion in Pasadena designed by the Greene brothers, was privately purchased and stripped despite protests by preservationists across the country. The Arts and Crafts-styled furnishings eventually were sold for prices estimated to total in the millions.

Wright’s furnishings, such as his distinctive art glass of the style gracing the Ennis-Brown House, have been attracting similar sums. For example, a lamp designed by the architect recently sold for $740,000.

The board noted that repeated appeals and applications to private foundations and public agencies for funds have met with protracted reviews ending in polite rejections. Cited in the resolution were recent rejections by the state Office of Historic Preservation, the Getty Grant Program and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Another application is pending at the Getty.

Also cited by the board was the loss of income from tours and use of the house for private gatherings, because of a ruling by the city’s Department of Building and Safety in response to complaints of neighbors that the area’s residential zoning code was being violated. As a result the board has been threatened by the city attorney’s office with a criminal complaint. Such events brought in about $100,000 a year, which helped to pay for operations and maintenance.

“These rejections of support and the pending legal actions against us may spell the death knell for the Ennis-Brown house as it now exists, unless they are reversed,” the board stated. Its resolution was approved unanimously a few weeks ago after a heated meeting.

The resolution, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, called for “a final, desperate appeal to the public for help,” in particular from construction companies, building trade unions, architects, craftsman and “lovers of the beautiful everywhere.”

It concluded that if the appeal is not answered, “we will very sadly be compelled to sell the art glass, the fixtures, the beautiful mosaics and other art as needed, in order to do the critical construction work demanded to save the structure.”

Kahan stressed that he hopes this will not happen, but added, “At this point we don’t know what else to do.” Similar appeals in the past have drawn little response.

Equally distraught was August Brown, the unsalaried curator and executive director of the house, and its former owner. “I have put my heart and soul into this house, only to be frustrated by elitist preservationists more interested in shuffling papers than preserving landmarks,” said Brown, a retired union executive.

Donated to Trust

The landmark, which was designed for clothier Charles Ennis, was in dilapidated condition and considered a white elephant when Brown purchased it in 1968 for $119,000. Although he restored it at great expense, Brown felt he could not maintain it, so in 1980 he helped organize the trust and donated the house to it, with the agreement that he could continue living there.

The local preservation community reacted to the board’s action with consternation. Noting that the house is “one of the greatest architectural treasures of Los Angeles,” Jay Rounds, executive director of the Los Angeles Conservancy, declared, “We can’t start selling off pieces of it in the name of preservation. That is not solving the problem; it is just compounding it.”

Other preservationists who did not wish to be identified noted that the trust for some time has had financial problems, and that perhaps grant applications would be more favorably reviewed if a more established institution acquired the house. Some mentioned USC, which owns the Greene and Greene Gamble House in Pasadena and Wright’s Freeman House in Hollywood Heights. The latter, an earlier block structure with similar structural problems as the Ennis-Brown, recently received a $35,000 grant from the Getty to plan needed repairs.