Allen Siple

Allen Siple (1900-1973) was an American architect, working in Southern California from the 1930s to 1960s.

Allen Siple
BornJuly 9, 1900
Otsego, Michigan, U.S.
DiedJanuary 10, 1973
Los Angeles County, California, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Southern California
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts
OccupationArchitect
Parent(s)George H. Siple
Jessie Siple

Early life

Allen George Siple was born on July 9, 1900, in Otsego, Michigan.[1][2] His father, George H. Siple, was Canadian and his mother, Jessie, was from Michigan.[1] In 1924, his father retired to Southern California and they moved into a house located at 972 Arapahoe Street, Los Angeles, California.[1] He graduated from the University of Southern California and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France.[1]

Siple House in West Los Angeles (1930s).
A Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.
"Grove Bungalow Court" (1932) Santa Monica Boulevard, Westwood.

Career

In Los Angeles, Siple worked as an architect for the Janss Investment Company. They were developing the community of Westwood in western Los Angeles.[1]

1930s

In 1930, Siple designed the W. R. Balsom Jr., House in Westwood Hills.[1][3][4] In 1932, he designed "The Grove," also known as the "Grove Bungalow Court," located at 10669-10683 Santa Monica Boulevard in Westwood, Los Angeles.[1][5][6] In 1940, Edla Muir (1906-1971) added two rear cottages.[6][7] The property became a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1987. In 1935, he designed the residence of actress Jane Withers (b. 1926) in Westwood Hills.[1][8][9] He designed the private residence of actor and producer Jack Conway (1887-1952) and his wife Virginia at "All Hollows Farm" in Pacific Palisades, California.[10] The house was called All Hollows Farm.[10] After Jack Conway's death in 1952, Debbie Reynolds (born 1932) and Eddie Fisher (1928-2010) purchased the property.[10]

1940s

From 1940 to 1941, Siple designed the Minnezawa Bell House located on Linda Flora Drive Bel Air for Monnezawa Bell (1911-1983), daughter of Alphonzo Bell (1875-1947), who developed Bel Air, California.[1][11] It is a 10-room, Colonial Revival Style mansion.[11][12] Later in the 1940s, he designed the "Knot Garden House," a Regency Revival mansion with Colonial Revival architecture interiors.[1][13][14][15][16] The property came with front gardens designed by locally renowned landscape architect Edward Huntsman-Trout (1889-1974).[13][17] Also in the 1940s, he designed the "South Lanai House," a Monterey Colonial style house.[13][18][19]

During 1946 and 1947, Siple designed the model home for the Tahquitz River Estates, a new neighborhood development in Palm Springs, California, by real estate developer Paul Trousdale (1915-1990).[1][2][20][21] Siple went on to design houses in Westdale, Los Angeles, another neighborhood developed by Trousdale.[2]

1960s

By the 1960s, Siple was the supervising architect for Trousdale Estates in Beverly Hills, California, another new neighborhood developed by Trousdale, on the former Doheny Ranch on the east of Greystone Mansion.[2] He also designed Paul Trousdale's private residence in Palm Springs, California.[22]

Personal life

Siple resided at 2669 Mandeville Canyon Road in Mandeville Canyon, in western Brentwood, Los Angeles.[13][23]

Death

Siple died at the age of seventy-two, on 10 January 1973 in Los Angeles County.[1]

See also

References
  1. Pacific Coast Architecture Databse
  2. Alan Hess, Forgotten modern: California houses 1940-1970', Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2007, pp. 262-264
  3. Pacific Coast Architecture Database: W. R. Balsom, Jr., House
  4. 'Residence of Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Balsom, Jr., Westwood Hills: Allen G. Siple, architect.', Architectural Digest, 9: 4, 14, 1934-1935
  5. Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Grove Bungalow Court
  6. Robert Winter (ed.), An Architectural Guidebook to Los Ángeles, Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2003, p. 142
  7. Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Edla Muir
  8. Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Jane Withers House
  9. 'Residence of Miss Jane Withers, Westwood Hills, California.', Architectural Digest, 10: 1, 90-91, 1938-1940
  10. Pacific Coast Architecture Database: All Hollows Farm
  11. Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Minnezawa Bell House
  12. 'New Bell Residence Offers Innovation', Los Angeles Times, E7, February 2, 1941
  13. Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Knot Garden House
  14. 'Front Facade on cover', House Beautiful, front cover, July 1943
  15. 'Back facade on front cover', House Beautiful, front cover, June 1946
  16. Reuben Whitney, 'Twice a Cover House', House Beautiful, 89: 8, 41-47, August 1947
  17. Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Edward Huntsman-Trout
  18. Pacific Coast Architecture Database: South Lanai House
  19. Elizabeth Gordon, 'The idiom of traditionalism cloaks a relatively good floor plan and very good site plan', House Beautiful, 89:9, 09/1947, p. 108-109
  20. Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Trousdale Model Home
  21. Elizabeth Gordon, 'How to Get Twice as much Use of Your Land', House Beautiful, 89: 11, 166-176, 11/1947
  22. Huntington Digital Library
  23. Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Allen G. Siple House
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