“I Cannot Do My Best For One Who Does Not Appreciate And Believe In My Ability And My Sincerity”: Reading Between the Lines in a Letter from Roy Seldon Price to Thomas W. Temple II, 27 November 1924

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

As we continue our lengthy commemoration of the centennial of the construction of La Casa Nueva, we do so became the remarkable Spanish Colonial Revival house took five years to build. There were several principal reasons for this, including the use of adobe bricks, which could only be built at certain times of the year by a crew from Guadalajara, Jalisco, México; the death of Laura González Temple during the early phase of the project; and the 1924 hiring of Beverly Hills architect Roy Seldon Price, whose brilliant and eccentric ideas transformed the house but which consequently added considerable time and expense.

In fact, the Temples took to joking that the result was that the architect’s invoices matched his surname, but there is no doubt that, without Price’s changes and additions, La Casa Nueva simply would not be as unique, distinctive and impressive. There is much to be thankful for regarding the way in which he made this building the showpiece that it is now and it is a shame that we lack more documentation from and by him. Some of his blueprints and drawings and just a couple of letters have survived, including a prior missive, from 14 September 1924 featured on this blog.

For this post, we highlight an important letter, written by the architect on Thanksgiving Day (27 November) 1924 to Thomas W. Temple II and including a drawing of the library, that gives us some great information as to progress on the dwelling, but also clear tensions between Price and Temple’s father, Walter. The 20-year-old Thomas was in his junior year at the University of Santa Clara and it is possible that he was the reason that Price was hired, given the renown that was received in the architect’s recent project, Dias Dorados, the Beverly Hills house of film studio owner Thomas Ince—notably, he died in his residence just eight days before Price’s letter was written.

Evidently, Thomas replied to the architect’s mid-September correspondence as Ince acknowledged receipt of a letter and then apologized for not replying more often as “I have been ‘snowed under’ with work,” including the construction of a studio, following this with a reminder, as expressed in his last missive, that “I cannot make any speed on your house” but that he was “resigned now to this, because I want the manner of building, as well as the result, to please.”

Part of the delay including the fact that indoor plastering was not initiated, which the architect thought would surprise his correspondent, but this was explained as because “there is still much little carpenter work to do” as Walter Temple fired all but two men handling this aspect. Workers were, though, engaged in applying plaster to the outside of La Casa Nueva, while lathing, the horizontal application of thin strips of wood on walls before the application of plaster, was to be undertaken inside the following Tuesday.

A recent addition to the construction crew was Juan Burgos, who, apparently, walked to the site on seeing building going on and asked for a job and Price told Thomas, “the Mexican carver is great” and then added “wish we had had him sooner as we must hold up work in several places, while waiting for carving” to be finished. It should not be surprising that Burgos, nor other workers, were mentioned by name and a post coming in late February will focus on a Los Angeles Times article from 1925 about how “Mexicans Show Artistic Skill” in the architect’s projects, as if this was somehow unexpected.

Price then listed fifteen completed items, some fairly mundane and others not just major elements, but also a few representing significant changes. For example, the architect noted that, in the Main Hall, the “main stair[s] [were] all corrected,” meaning that the alignment was shifted from a bifurcated one with a central main section and then sections branching to the sides to a wraparound arrangement. This had the important effect of opening up the space as well as having direct access to and views through the door to the courtyard and what would be its lush garden and fountain. Moreover, the architect observed that the “bridge [is] out,” this being a connection between east and west sections of the second floor and the removal of which further opened the hall and allowed for a dramatic chandelier hung from the ceiling some twenty-eight feet tall.

Also of note was that the “front outside balcony [is] rebuilt with steel beam supports and carved brackets below about completed.” This is the wraparound balcony outside the master bedroom, which, evidently, was not properly constructed, lacking those beams, and with the added beauty of the “carved brackets,” another impressive Price(y) touch. The tile roof was done and “looks fine—and is a perfect job, mechanically,” while the roofing for the patio, this apparently meaning the porticos in the courtyard, was also completed. Another important section changed at the behest of the architect concerned the southward single-story wings projecting from the two-story main block of the dwelling.

Previous plans were to simply place tar paper on the roof with parapet walls tiled at the tops, but Price protested that this was not only aesthetically alarming, but a waste of much usable space. He suggested creating sun decks and wrote Thomas that “piers [were] run up and [the] cement tile floor ordered for terraces (with jasmine vine roofs), for both flat roof decks.” Moreover, the architect replaced the flashing with copper and concealed in the walls down spouts tied to drains. The same type of tile was being made for the Barbershop and adjoining bathroom off the west side of the courtyard as well as the Breakfast Room next to the kitchen on the east side of the house.

Interior partitions and dressing rooms in the Master Bedroom and Agnes’ Bedroom were “changed to a nicety thruout,” indicating that previous versions were too plain, while the second-floor windows were installed on the outside of the openings to “give deep inside reveals” which were then covered in colorful tile. Price added that “all window frames [are] caulked up tight with oakum (rope strands dipped in pine tar) and trimmed with moulding inside and out.” The outside-facing sash windows and doors were also in process, while the “electric automatic refrigerators,” built into a cold storage room next to the kitchen, another very modern addition to La Casa Nueva, “will be signed up for on Tuesday. Price added that Walter Temple wanted to buy “a dangerous ammonia machine,” a common appliance at the time, but one that could leak and cause death. It took six weeks of pressure, but the architect noted that Temple “is strong for the frigidaire now,” Frigidaire being the model utilized.

The architect also informed Thomas that the “wall safes are in,” though the only surviving indication, long “walled up,” is in the closet of Walter, Jr.’s Bedroom. It is intriguing to read that there was more than one, including, presumably, in Thomas’ Bedroom as Price added that “I have found for your shrine a wonderful Madonna on Mexican tile—the most lovely one I have ever seen.” This panel, rendered by Pedro Sánchez, is one of three extraordinary ones by the artist, based in Puebla, the tile-making center north of Mexico City, and it is notable that the architect called the niche a “shrine,” presumably a general one for the devoutly Roman Catholic young man.

Two other items of interest relate to proposed items that were never incorporated into the construction of La Casa Nueva. Price wrote Thomas that “I tried hard to have your father install intercommunicating telephones (before plastering) between principal rooms of [the] house, garage, pool, old house [Workman House], laundry [a 19th century adobe structure], etc.” Unfortunately, the architect continued, “he would not [agree,] so I finally persuaded him to have the conduit put into the walls, so when you come home you may get him to order the instruments, as they will save so many, many steps.” In the September letter, Price informed Thomas that he’d had an outlet installed in the Living Room and conduit run to the ceilings of the bedrooms upstairs so that a radio in the former could be heard in the latter. In both cases, however, the intercom and radio projection systems were never implemented, though, presumably, the conduit for each remains in the walls.

Thomas conveyed an idea to Price about “various coats of arms,” presumably the English one of the Temple and the royal Spanish one, “in the hall railing” on the second floor of the Main Hall and the architect pronounced this “fine and delighted us all.” It would, he observed, add just $125 to the price, with a $1,050 bid for the railing recently received, “but your father has not accepted this contract yet.” Price continued that “the flues and control wiring for the gas heating system,” which involved four units in the basement, two on each side, operating by gravity flow through the flues to the rooms on both levels, “are all in.”

Returning to the sun decks, the architect intoned that “the only thing I dislike about the house now is the heavy roofing tile coping on top of the parapet wall of [the] one-story wings, between the new posts [piers] we have run up.” Adding that “they will look ugly and will be such a nuisance in the use of [the] roof as a terrace,” Price implored Thomas that “I recommend strongly taking them off and having [a] smooth cement seat on top of [the] wall, but your father won’t consent.” The tops of these low walls were eventually rounded with plaster with roof tile on the outer edges facing the courtyard.

Next, the architect wrote “I am sending [enclosing] a study sketch of [the] library wall,” meaning the southern one, “not final for detail, of course,” and asked Thomas what he thought of the concept, including that “shields between beams (as if carved, gilded and antiqued) might be just decorative shapes, or might carry old Spanish printer’s marks,—or, can be bas relief portraits of finest writers.” While the door to the courtyard shown at the left of the rendering, had four panels (not the six shown) with painted glass portraits of Cervantes, Longfellow, Milton and Shakespeare,” the plaster elements between the beams were left as “decorative shapes.”

At the right end of the drawing, Price conceived of a “free standing oak case & desk” with a “splayed plaster recess behind [the] furniture,” this meaning that the walls were angled in the opening, as with the courtyard door, but for what purpose the recess was considered was not stated or indicated. The architect also considered having drapes spanning across the recess and the door, as well as behind and around an ornate carved mirror over the fireplace with a candelabra on a mantel—while the fireplace was completed, it did not have a mantel nor the tile edging depicted. Still, the rendering is certainly very interesting as a conceptual framework for the room.

Having outlined the status of the project, Price turned to the challenges he was experiencing with Walter Temple, writing, “Tom, I sure wish you were here.” This was because

I enjoy making a home that will be an inspiration—that will breathe an atmosphere of simple beauty and fine feeling everywhere.

That said, however, the architect claimed that he “had no serious arguments with your dad” adding “I like him very much,” but he employed “much patience to please him” would continue to do so “to make the most of your home for you.” Price, though, went on to warn that “only one thing can prevent me from finishing the house” and “that thing is beginning to crop up and I am sorry.” He went on that his work involved love for the structures he created and “the big urge is to create a successful combination of utility and beauty.”

Disclaiming any notion of adding more money to the project, Price reminded Thomas that “I urge the installation of certain things and methods which will prove efficient and economical in the long run.” The potential problem was that the architect “cannot work with a fine spirit for a client who does not give me his entire trust and confidence” and added that Walter told him that, if the carpenters were lagging in their work, that would only mean more money for Price, but he insisted that, rather, this mean more time and money expended by him.

Moreover, Price continued that he was an architect, not a contractor and did not wish to be held accountable to the work of laborers and craftspeople. He told Thomas “there should be a competent man to run the job” and said that Paul P. Peters, who did fine woodworking, could handle it “if given Cook’s authority and more salary.” Sylvester Cook, a Whittier contractor who built the Walter P. Temple Memorial Mausoleum at El Campo Santo Cemetery is listed as the contractor for La Casa Nueva in a memorial plaque dedicated in late December 1923, before Price was hired, to Laura González Temple, but the architect seemed to infer that Cook was not acting in that capacity. What was needed was a supervisor also involved in the work.

Aggrieved by Walter’s insinuation that Price lined his pockets when laborers worked more slowly, Price reminded Thomas that “I have worked hard getting some ridiculously low bids for your dad, hunting men up at night, etc.” He noted that Milton Kauffman, Walter’s business manager, was going with him to meet with Walter “and I think we can clear up his wrong understanding of my position. Otherwise, the architect warned,

If we can’t I will have to quit, for I cannot do my best for one who does not appreciate and believe in my ability and sincerity.

If you know how to help your father understand my position, please do, Tom, for I am honestly enthusiastic and happy about finishing and furnishing your fine old house.

To that end, Price added that he was having “some splendid old peasant chairs” made for his office and would send Thomas photos as “you may want some” because they could be had directly from the manufacturers at far less than charged by stores like Barker Brothers. There was also the question of rugs, like those used in the Ince house, with Price visiting Walter with a manufacturer, but Walter said he could buy them in México, which the architect doubted. If these rugs were desired, he told Thomas, they took up to a half-year to make and a decision was needed soon.

Price ended by observing that “my mother, wife and I enjoyed a pleasant dinner and evening with your father and friends at your place a week ago” and that he looked forward to seeing Thomas at Thanksgiving, though he obviously meant Christmas, while hoping to hear from his correspondent soon. Unfortunately, we don’t have any other correspondence regarding Price, though, who knows if some may emerge in the future? We’d love to know what transpired in his efforts to get Thomas to intercede on his behalf as the building of La Casa Nueva dragged on for three more years!