Myron Hunt
Encyclopedia
Myron Hunt was an American architect whose numerous projects include many noted landmarks in Southern California
. Hunt was elected a Fellow
in the American Institute of Architects
in 1908.
but his family later moved to Chicago
where he graduated from Lake View High School in the city's Lakeview
district. From 1888 to 1890 he attended Northwestern University
, and then returned to Massachusetts to study at MIT between 1890 and 1893. After spending three years in Europe, he returned to Chicago where he obtained a position as draftsman in the local office of the Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
.http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?artist=130149
and other Chicago architects of the era as an early member of the group which came to be known as the Prairie School
, but in 1903 he moved to Los Angeles
, where he entered into a partnership with architect Elmer Grey
(1871–1963). Opening an office in Pasadena
, the firm of Hunt and Grey soon became popular with the well-to-do denizens of that city, who were building many costly houses during that period. Some of the firm's Pasadena work was featured in the national magazine Architectural Record
as early as the issue of October, 1906.http://dbase1.lapl.org/webpics/calindex/cards/033/0828015-010.jpg They were soon designing large houses in communities throughout Southern California including the summer ranch home for cereal magnet Will Keith Kellogg
at the present day campus of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
(Cal Poly Pomona).
They also began receiving commissions to design larger projects, including hospitals, schools, churches and hotels. This included work for Throop Institute in Pasadena, the school which would soon become California Institute of Technology
. In 1911, they began plans for the new campus of Occidental College
in the Eagle Rock
district of Los Angeles. (Hunt would be the principal architect of all of Occidental's buildings through 1940.) Another school with which the firm had an association was Pomona College
, for which Hunt and Grey designed a master plan of expansion in 1908, and where Hunt designed an auditorium, Bridges Hall of Music, in 1915.http://www.claremontheritage.org/ps.toursevents.cfm?ID=1299
In 1913, Hunt and Grey designed a new wing for the Mission Inn
in Riverside, California
. They provided designs for the remodeling, expansion, or construction of a number of hotels during the next decade, culminating with the plans for their largest such project, the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, which opened in 1921. Hunt also redesigned Pasadena's Wentworth Hotel
, a failed resort hotel in the city's Oak Knoll residential district purchased by Henry E. Huntington
in 1911. Rebuilt to Hunt's design, the hotel reopened as the Huntington Hotel in 1914 and was Pasadena's leading hotel for decades thereafter. In 1921, he transformed the Vista Hotel into one of the premier resorts in Pasadena, designing several of the hotel's original bungalows.
Hunt and Grey's association with Henry Huntington had been established a few years earlier when, in 1909, they designed his house in San Marino
. With a large addition built in 1934, the house was to become the main art gallery of the cultural center built around the Huntington Library.
Another Pasadena landmark designed by Hunt is the Rose Bowl
. In 1927 Hunt designed a hotel for Senator Frank P. Flint, which was quickly sold to the Biltmore chain of hotels. Due to the Great Depression, the hotel was sold in 1931 to the Dominican Sister of Mission San Jose, who founded Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, an all-girls' day and boarding high school.
By 1912, Hunt was no longer in partnership with Elmer Grey
, but had established a new firm with Los Angeles architect Harold C. Chambers. In this partnership Hunt designed a number of libraries, including those in Redlands, California
, Palos Verdes Estates, California
, Santa Barbara, California
, and most notably the main library of Pasadena, one of the three major civic buildings making up the Pasadena Civic Center.
Hunt retired to Port Hueneme, California
where he died in 1952.
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. Hunt was elected a Fellow
FAIA
Fellow of the American Institute of Architects is a postnomial, designating an individual who has been named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects...
in the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
in 1908.
Early life and education
Hunt was born in Sunderland, MassachusettsSunderland, Massachusetts
Sunderland is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, part of the Pioneer Valley. The population was 3,777 as of the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area....
but his family later moved to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
where he graduated from Lake View High School in the city's Lakeview
Lakeview, Chicago
Lake View, or Lakeview, is one of the 77 community area of the Chicago, Illinois, located in the city's North Side. It is bordered by West Diversey Parkway on the south, West Irving Park Road on the north, North Ravenswood Avenue on the west, and the shore of Lake Michigan on the east...
district. From 1888 to 1890 he attended Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, and then returned to Massachusetts to study at MIT between 1890 and 1893. After spending three years in Europe, he returned to Chicago where he obtained a position as draftsman in the local office of the Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge was a successful architecture firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, operating between 1886 and 1915, with extensive commissions in monumental civic and collegiate architecture in the spirit and style of Henry Hobson Richardson....
.http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?artist=130149
Career
Hunt is mentioned in the writings of Frank Lloyd WrightFrank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
and other Chicago architects of the era as an early member of the group which came to be known as the Prairie School
Prairie School
Prairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...
, but in 1903 he moved to Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, where he entered into a partnership with architect Elmer Grey
Elmer Grey
Elmer Grey, FAIA was an American architect and artist based in Pasadena, California. Grey designed many noted landmarks in Southern California, including the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Huntington Art Gallery, the Pasadena Playhouse and Wattles Mansion...
(1871–1963). Opening an office in Pasadena
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
, the firm of Hunt and Grey soon became popular with the well-to-do denizens of that city, who were building many costly houses during that period. Some of the firm's Pasadena work was featured in the national magazine Architectural Record
Architectural Record
Architectural Record is an American monthly magazine dedicated to architecture and interior design, published by McGraw-Hill Construction in New York City. It is over 110 years old...
as early as the issue of October, 1906.http://dbase1.lapl.org/webpics/calindex/cards/033/0828015-010.jpg They were soon designing large houses in communities throughout Southern California including the summer ranch home for cereal magnet Will Keith Kellogg
Will Keith Kellogg
Will Keith Kellogg, generally referred to as W.K. Kellogg was an American industrialist in food manufacturing, best known as the founder of the Kellogg Company, which to this day produces a wide variety of popular breakfast cereals...
at the present day campus of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, or Cal Poly Pomona, is a public university located in Pomona, California, United States...
(Cal Poly Pomona).
They also began receiving commissions to design larger projects, including hospitals, schools, churches and hotels. This included work for Throop Institute in Pasadena, the school which would soon become California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
. In 1911, they began plans for the new campus of Occidental College
Occidental College
Occidental College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887, Occidental College, or "Oxy" as it is called by students and alumni, is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast...
in the Eagle Rock
Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California
In 1909, Hill Avenue, now Hill Drive, was one of Eagle Rock's most beautiful streets. Other streets were Royal Drive , Acacia Street , Kenilworth Avenue , Highland Avenue , and Fairmont Avenue...
district of Los Angeles. (Hunt would be the principal architect of all of Occidental's buildings through 1940.) Another school with which the firm had an association was Pomona College
Pomona College
Pomona College is a private, residential, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. Founded in 1887 in Pomona, California by a group of Congregationalists, the college moved to Claremont in 1889 to the site of a hotel, retaining its name. The school enrolls 1,548 students.The founding member...
, for which Hunt and Grey designed a master plan of expansion in 1908, and where Hunt designed an auditorium, Bridges Hall of Music, in 1915.http://www.claremontheritage.org/ps.toursevents.cfm?ID=1299
In 1913, Hunt and Grey designed a new wing for the Mission Inn
Mission Inn
The Mission Inn, now known as The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, is a historic landmark hotel in downtown Riverside, California. Although a composite of many architectural styles, it is generally considered the largest Mission Revival Style building in the United States.-History:The property began as a...
in Riverside, California
Riverside, California
Riverside is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, and the county seat of the eponymous county. Named for its location beside the Santa Ana River, it is the largest city in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area of Southern California, 4th largest inland California...
. They provided designs for the remodeling, expansion, or construction of a number of hotels during the next decade, culminating with the plans for their largest such project, the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, which opened in 1921. Hunt also redesigned Pasadena's Wentworth Hotel
Hotel Wentworth (Pasadena)
The Langham Huntington, Pasadena, originally named Hotel Wentworth, is a hotel located at 1401 South Oak Knoll Avenue, Pasadena, California 91106.-History:...
, a failed resort hotel in the city's Oak Knoll residential district purchased by Henry E. Huntington
Henry E. Huntington
Henry Edwards Huntington was a railroad magnate and collector of art and rare books. Born in Oneonta, New York, Huntington settled in Los Angeles, where he owned the Pacific Electric Railway as well as substantial real estate interests...
in 1911. Rebuilt to Hunt's design, the hotel reopened as the Huntington Hotel in 1914 and was Pasadena's leading hotel for decades thereafter. In 1921, he transformed the Vista Hotel into one of the premier resorts in Pasadena, designing several of the hotel's original bungalows.
Hunt and Grey's association with Henry Huntington had been established a few years earlier when, in 1909, they designed his house in San Marino
San Marino, California
San Marino is a small, affluent city in Los Angeles County, California. Incorporated in 1913, the City founders designed the community to be uniquely residential, with expansive properties surrounded by beautiful gardens, wide streets, and well maintained parkways...
. With a large addition built in 1934, the house was to become the main art gallery of the cultural center built around the Huntington Library.
Another Pasadena landmark designed by Hunt is the Rose Bowl
Rose Bowl (stadium)
The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pasadena, California, U.S., in Los Angeles County. The stadium is the site of the annual college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, held on New Year's Day. In 1982, it became the home field of the UCLA Bruins college football team of the Pac-12...
. In 1927 Hunt designed a hotel for Senator Frank P. Flint, which was quickly sold to the Biltmore chain of hotels. Due to the Great Depression, the hotel was sold in 1931 to the Dominican Sister of Mission San Jose, who founded Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, an all-girls' day and boarding high school.
By 1912, Hunt was no longer in partnership with Elmer Grey
Elmer Grey
Elmer Grey, FAIA was an American architect and artist based in Pasadena, California. Grey designed many noted landmarks in Southern California, including the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Huntington Art Gallery, the Pasadena Playhouse and Wattles Mansion...
, but had established a new firm with Los Angeles architect Harold C. Chambers. In this partnership Hunt designed a number of libraries, including those in Redlands, California
Redlands, California
Redlands is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 68,747, up from 63,591 at the 2000 census. The city is located east of downtown San Bernardino.- History :...
, Palos Verdes Estates, California
Palos Verdes Estates, California
Palos Verdes Estates is a city, incorporated in 1939, in Los Angeles County, California, USA on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The city was masterplanned by the noted American landscape architect and planner Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. The population was 13,438 at the 2010 census, up from 13,340 in the...
, Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
, and most notably the main library of Pasadena, one of the three major civic buildings making up the Pasadena Civic Center.
Hunt retired to Port Hueneme, California
Port Hueneme, California
Port Hueneme is a small beach city in Ventura County, California surrounded by the city of Oxnard and the Pacific Ocean. The name derives from the Spanish spelling of the Chumash wene me, meaning "Resting Place". The area was discovered by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in the mid 16th century...
where he died in 1952.
Myron Hunt's projects
- First Congregational Church of Riverside at 3504 Mission Inn Avenue in Riverside, CaliforniaRiverside, CaliforniaRiverside is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, and the county seat of the eponymous county. Named for its location beside the Santa Ana River, it is the largest city in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area of Southern California, 4th largest inland California...
Hunt, Myron Infobox/Commons First Congregational Church of Riverside
- Zane Grey EstateZane Grey EstateThe Zane Grey Estate is a National Register of Historic Places structure in Altadena, California. It was placed on the Register in 2002 for its association with author Zane Grey....
at 396 East Mariposa Street in Altadena, CaliforniaAltadena, CaliforniaAltadena is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California, United States, approximately from the downtown Los Angeles Civic Center, and directly north of the city of Pasadena, California...
- Pasadena Arroyo Parks and Recreation District Roughly bounded by the Foothill Freeway on the north, the city limits on the south, Arroyo Blvd on east, San Rafael Pasadena, CaliforniaPasadena, CaliforniaPasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
With Harold C. Chambers
- Malaga Cove Library/ Palos Verdes Public Library and Art Gallery (designed 1923, built 1928-1930) with Harold Chambers, at 2400 Via Campesina in Malaga Cove, California. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.