The architectural styles of Southern California homes, as seen in vintage postcards

Red-tile roof, white stucco, palm trees. This Beverly Hills home, depicted on a vintage postcard, has it all.  (Patt Morrison / Los Angeles Times)

The Beverly Hills storybook home of Ward Lascelle is also known as the “Witch’s Cottage.”  (Patt Morrison / Los Angeles Times)

Dolores del Rio — an actor, singer and dancer with successful careers in Hollywood and Mexico — in front of her Spanish-style home.  (Patt Morrison / Los Angeles Times)

The Stimson “castle” near USC has seen it all: a dynamite attack, a fraternity, Catholic nuns.  (Patt Morrison / Los Angeles Times)

Eddie “Rochester” Anderson was widely known for his role on “The Jack Benny Program” on radio and TV. This postcard shows his decidedly East Coast-style home in L.A.  (Patt Morrison / Los Angeles Times)

Tudor was perhaps an unlikely architectural style for a home in Southern California.  (Patt Morrison / Los Angeles Times)

Sessue Hayakawa was a film star of the silent and talkie eras. You could be forgiven for mistaking his home for a Spanish mission.  (Patt Morrison / Los Angeles Times)

James Kirkwood and Lila Lee, a Hollywood couple of the 1920s, lived in this canyon estate in Beverly Hills.  (Patt Morrison / Los Angeles Times)