OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Google Streetview (new tab)

Designed for the flamboyant journalist, amateur archaeologist, and Southern California booster, Charles Fletcher Lummis (1859-1928); Lummis gained fame for having walked across the United States from Cincinnati, OH, to Los Angeles, CA, in 143 days, writing newspaper accounts for the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers as he went; Lummis was a graduate of Harvard University and later became City Editor of the Times. To build his house, Lummis utilized the assistance of Isleta Indians to transport boulders from the nearby Arroyo Seco for the walls of his dwelling, El Alisal. He became probably the leading booster of Southern California at the turn of the century, founding the California Landmarks Club, the Southwest Museum, and Land of Sunshine magazine.

Placed on the National Register of Historic Places; also listed as L.A. Historic Cultural Monument #283; metal work for the house was, according to architectural historian, Robert Winter, designed by the renowned painter, Maynard Dixon, a friend of Lummis's.

Lummis began construction of his house in 1895, but made frequent additions to it; some sources erroneously list its date of construction as 1912-1914;