Structure Type: built works - dwellings - houses

Designers: Harris, Harwell H., Architect (firm); Harwell Hamilton Harris (architect)

Dates: constructed 1934

1 story

596 East Punahou Street
Altadena, CA 91001-1657

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Pauline Lowe was a friend of Harwell H. Harris's who worked as a merchandise buyer for the Bullock's Wilshire Department Store. The Lowe House, with its mix of Japanese characteristics and ranch house plan, bewitched contemporary magazine editors until about 1940. The Lowe House was reproduced in many magazines and even sparked a controversy. In 1935, the Chicago firm of Schweikher and Lamb produced a design very similar to that of the Lowe House, that won the General Electric Small House Competition. Some in the professional press excoriated Paul Schweikher and Theodore W. Lamb for plagiarism, but Harris received a significant amount of positive publicity from the incident.

The Lowe House cost less than $4,000 to erect in 1933-1934.

House greatly altered;

PCAD id: 21