Arthur Burnett Benton

About Arthur Burnett Benton.

Arthur Burnett Benton (1858 to 1927) was a Los Angeles-based architect and one of the central advocates of California Mission Revival architecture, alongside Charles Fletcher Lummis and Sumner P. Hunt. His only major work in the San Gabriel Valley is the Mission Playhouse at 320 South Mission Drive in San Gabriel, designed and built between 1923 and 1927 and now operated as the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium under City of San Gabriel ownership. The Playhouse facade emulates Mission San Antonio de Padua and represents Benton's late-career transition from Mission Revival toward more archaeologically authentic Spanish Colonial Revival. Benton was a founding member of the California Landmarks Club (1895) and supervised the restoration of San Juan Capistrano and San Diego missions. His vocabulary set the standard for how authentic Mission Revival reads at residential scale across SGV cities.

Arthur Burnett Benton was an American architect who practiced in Los Angeles from 1892 until his death in 1927 and who, along with Charles Fletcher Lummis and Sumner P. Hunt, became one of the central advocates of California Mission Revival architecture. He wrote about the style in Lummis’s magazine Land of Sunshine. He supervised the restoration of the San Juan Capistrano and San Diego mission buildings as a founding member of the California Landmarks Club in 1895. He served multiple terms as president of the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He held founding-member roles in the Engineers and Architects Association of Southern California and the California Society of Sons of the Revolution. His architectural papers are held at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

His best-known work outside the San Gabriel Valley is the Mission Inn in Riverside (National Historic Landmark; California Historical Landmark No. 761), begun in 1902 on commission from Frank Augustus Miller, with multiple additions including the Cloister Wing over the next two decades. Other major commissions include the Mary Andrews Clark Memorial YWCA Home in Los Angeles (1912, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 158; NRHP 95001152), the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Riverside (1900, NRHP-listed 1992), the Arlington Hotel rebuild in Santa Barbara (1911, destroyed in the 1925 Santa Barbara earthquake), and the San Marcos Hotel in Chandler, Arizona (1913, his only project outside California). His final design commission was the Riverside Municipal Auditorium (NRHP-listed 1978), on which construction began in 1927; he died in September 1927 before completion, and the building was finished by G. Stanley Wilson and dedicated on November 12, 1928.

In the San Gabriel Valley, Benton’s anchor work is the Mission Playhouse at 320 South Mission Drive in San Gabriel (NRHP-listed 2019), designed and built between 1923 and 1927. The building was commissioned by John Steven McGroarty as the permanent home for his “Mission Play,” a long-running theatrical piece on California mission history. The building today is the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium and is owned by the City of San Gabriel. It is the single most important Benton building in the SGV and is the local anchor for the Mission Revival and early Spanish Colonial Revival vocabulary in the region.

For a buyer evaluating a Mission Revival or early Spanish Colonial Revival home in the SGV, Benton matters because his published vocabulary set the standard for how the style should read. Smooth white or off-white stucco walls with no decorative breakup. Low-pitched clay tile roofs in red or terra-cotta, typically with mission-pan or two-piece tile. Arched openings at primary entries and at colonnaded loggias or arcades. Espadañas, the curved or stepped parapet gables borrowed from the missions themselves. Quatrefoil windows. Bell towers on civic and institutional buildings, scaled down or omitted on residential work. Exposed roof beams and rafter tails. Thick wall reveals at windows, suggesting adobe construction even when the wall is framed and stuccoed. A homeowner who can match those elements to an existing house has reasonable evidence the house is genuine to the Mission Revival period. A homeowner whose house carries arched openings and red tile but lacks the other vocabulary may have a later builder interpretation rather than a Mission Revival original.

How to identify a Mission Revival building shaped by Benton’s vocabulary

Look for smooth stucco walls, low-pitched red clay tile roofs with exposed rafter tails, arched primary openings, curved or stepped espadaña gables, and deep window reveals. Benton’s late work, including the Mission Playhouse in San Gabriel, also shows a transition toward more archaeologically accurate Spanish Colonial Revival detailing. The vocabulary is most legible on civic and institutional buildings, but residential work in the same period followed many of the same rules.

The Mission Playhouse facade is the local reference point. Benton modeled its front elevation on Mission San Antonio de Padua, a Franciscan mission near Jolon in Monterey County, and pursued a closer archaeological reading of the original mission than was typical of earlier Mission Revival work. The Pacific Coast Architecture Database classifies the Playhouse as Spanish Colonial Revival rather than Mission Revival, reflecting how Benton’s late vocabulary evolved beyond the looser, more interpretive Mission Revival of the 1890s and 1900s toward the more historically accurate Spanish Colonial Revival that would dominate the 1920s. Both styles share core elements, and the distinction matters mainly for accurate dating and stylistic attribution.

On residential properties, the same vocabulary should appear at a smaller scale. Arched entry. Tile roof with visible rafter tails. Smooth stucco. Espadaña or shaped parapet on a primary elevation. Quatrefoil or shaped accent window. If two or three of those elements are present but the rest of the house reads as generic stucco-and-tile, the house may be a later builder house drawing on the Mission Revival vocabulary without being built to the standards Benton and his contemporaries set.

Background and the Mission Revival movement

Benton was born in Peoria, Illinois, on April 17, 1858. He graduated from Peoria High School in 1877. He spent several years working as a farmer in Morris County, Kansas, where he met his future wife, Harriet Phillipina von Schilling. They married in the 1880s and had one daughter. Around 1887 he entered architecture as a draftsman in the chief engineer’s office of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in Topeka, where he also studied at the Topeka School of Art and Design. From 1890 to 1891 he worked under the engineer Virgil Gay Bogue in the Union Pacific Railroad chief engineer’s office in Omaha.

He relocated to Los Angeles in 1891 and 1892 and established his practice. He briefly worked at Caukin and Haas, then formed the partnership Aiken and Benton around 1891, then went solo as Arthur Burnett Benton, Architect, by approximately 1896. His Downtown Los Angeles office at 114 North Spring Street operated from at least 1902 through 1914.

In 1895 Benton, Lummis, and Hunt founded the California Landmarks Club to preserve and restore the Spanish missions. Benton served as the club’s secretary, and he supervised restorations at San Juan Capistrano and San Diego. The work gave him direct access to the original mission architecture at a time when most California architects working in the Mission Revival vocabulary were drawing on photographs and travel sketches rather than measured documentation. The combination of advocacy, scholarly preservation work, and original commissions positioned Benton as one of the small group who set the rules of the Mission Revival movement rather than one of the larger group who followed them.

The Mission Playhouse, San Gabriel: Benton’s SGV anchor

The Mission Playhouse at 320 South Mission Drive in San Gabriel is Benton’s only major work in the San Gabriel Valley. The building was commissioned by John Steven McGroarty as the permanent home for his “Mission Play,” a theatrical work on California mission history that ran for two decades and drew audiences from across the country. Construction ran from 1923 to 1927, late in Benton’s career, and the building was completed in the year of his death.

Benton modeled the front facade on Mission San Antonio de Padua. The choice was deliberate and signaled the late-period evolution in his vocabulary toward closer historical accuracy than the looser Mission Revival of the 1890s and 1900s. The Playhouse front carries the espadaña parapet, the arched openings, and the bell-tower silhouette of the original mission, scaled and arranged for use as a theater rather than as a religious building. The interior was designed for the staging requirements of the Mission Play and includes a large proscenium stage and a deep house.

The building today is owned by the City of San Gabriel and operates as the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium. It is open to the public for performances and civic events and is a contributing element to the architectural identity of San Gabriel as one of the historically mission-anchored cities of the SGV. For an SGV buyer or owner who wants to understand what authentic Mission Revival and early Spanish Colonial Revival vocabulary looks like at full scale, the Playhouse is the local reference standard.

The Mission Revival design vocabulary

The vocabulary Benton helped codify recurs across genuine Mission Revival residences in the SGV. Smooth stucco walls in white or off-white, without ornamental wood or stone breakup. Low-pitched roofs in red or terra-cotta clay tile, typically mission-pan or two-piece pattern. Arched openings at primary entries, often paired with arcaded loggias on side or rear elevations. Espadaña parapets, the curved or stepped gable forms borrowed from the mission churches themselves. Quatrefoil windows used as accent openings. Exposed roof beams and rafter tails at eaves. Thick window reveals suggesting adobe construction. Restrained ornament, with most decorative attention concentrated at the entry and at one or two signature openings.

On residential work, the vocabulary appears at smaller scale and with more freedom than on civic buildings. Bell towers are typically omitted or reduced to suggestion. Arcades may shrink to a single arched loggia at the rear. Espadaña parapets may appear at one elevation rather than all four. What remains constant is the discipline: a Mission Revival house in the SGV reads as a coordinated whole rather than as a collection of style cues stuck onto a generic frame.

Authenticity assessment from a builder’s perspective

I worked construction from 1978 through 1998, including period work in Southern California before my Colorado years. The cost discipline on a Mission Revival original is different from the cost discipline on a later builder interpretation, and the difference shows in three places.

The first is the stucco. Original Mission Revival stucco is typically a true three-coat lime or lime-cement system applied over wire lath, with hand-floated texture that varies subtly across the wall. Later one-coat stucco systems applied over foam board read flatter, harder, and more uniform. A genuine Mission Revival wall, examined at close range, has the irregular surface of hand work. A later stucco wall has the machine-finished consistency of modern product.

The second is the tile roof. Original mission-pan or two-piece clay tile sits on a wood deck with felt underlayment, and the tile pattern is somewhat irregular because the tiles were laid by hand to fit the actual roof rather than spaced to a precise grid. Later tile roofs may use concrete tile rather than clay, may sit on a more modern underlayment system, and may show a precise machine-laid pattern. From the ground, both look like red tile roofs. From a ladder, the difference is obvious.

The third is the carpentry at the eaves. Original exposed rafter tails are typically rough-sawn redwood or Douglas fir, cut to a profile that the builder selected and that recurs around the perimeter of the house. The tails carry weather staining and grain that read as solid wood. Later builder interpretations sometimes substitute applied trim that imitates rafter tails without doing the structural work. A ladder check at the eave confirms which is which.

Beyond those three, look at the entry. Original Mission Revival entry doors are heavy plank doors with iron hardware, often arched at the head. Later interpretations substitute hollow-core or composite doors with applied iron-look hardware. The original door weighs noticeably more than the substitute, and the original hinges carry the load.

Today: preservation status and where to see Benton’s SGV work

The Mission Playhouse in San Gabriel remains in active use as the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium under City of San Gabriel ownership. The building is open to the public for performances and civic events and is publicly accessible from South Mission Drive. For SGV residents and prospective buyers, a visit to the Playhouse is the most direct way to study Benton’s late Mission Revival and early Spanish Colonial Revival vocabulary at full scale.

Benton’s larger body of work is held outside the SGV. The Mission Inn in Riverside continues to operate as a hotel and is open to the public. The Mary Andrews Clark Memorial Home in Los Angeles is a designated historic property. The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Riverside is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Riverside Municipal Auditorium continues in use. For an SGV homeowner researching Mission Revival vocabulary, day trips to Riverside and Los Angeles to see Benton’s larger work complement the local study of the Mission Playhouse.

For a buyer evaluating a Mission Revival or Spanish Colonial Revival home in an SGV city, Benton’s vocabulary provides the assessment standard. Match the house against the elements documented above. A house that carries most of the vocabulary in coordinated form is a genuine period work and should be evaluated as such. A house that carries some elements but reads as a later builder interpretation should be priced and evaluated accordingly.

Associated Styles.

• Mission Revival — Earliest of the Spanish-influenced architectural styles in California, predating the Spanish Colonial Revival by roughly twenty years. The style draws from the architecture of the California missions themselves. California-originated and one of the only American architectural styles that diffused from west to east, used heavily for early train depots, schools, and civic buildings, and applied to residential work in early Pasadena, South Pasadena, and surrounding cities throughout its era. The SGV residential inventory is small but architecturally significant.
• Spanish Colonial Revival — Style popularized in California after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego. Spanish Colonial Revival dominated the SGV's interwar prestige residential market, especially in San Marino, San Gabriel, and Pasadena's Madison Heights and Oak Knoll districts.

Notable Works in the SGV.

• Mission Playhouse / San Gabriel Civic Auditorium (1923 to 1927), 320 South Mission Drive, San Gabriel

Sources and references.

• Mission Inn National Historic Landmark designation, designated May 5, 1977, US Department of the Interior, National Park Service (https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/ListedResources/Detail/761)
• Mission Inn NRHP listing, listed May 14, 1971, US Department of the Interior, National Park Service (https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/ListedResources/Detail/761)
• California Historical Landmark No. 761, registered April 28, 1961, Mission Inn, California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation (https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/ListedResources/Detail/761)
• First Church of Christ, Scientist Riverside NRHP listing, listed September 22, 1992, US Department of the Interior, National Park Service (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_Places_listings_in_Riverside_County,_California)
• San Gabriel Mission Playhouse NRHP listing, listed 2019, US Department of the Interior, National Park Service (https://www.sangabrielcity.com/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/1815)
• Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 158, Mary Andrews Clark Residence of the YWCA, declared July 7, 1976, City of Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission (https://waterandpower.org/museum/LA_Historic_Cultural_Monuments_Listing.pdf)
• NRHP 95001152, Mary Andrews Clark Memorial Home, listed 1995, US Department of the Interior, National Park Service (https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/95001152)
• Riverside Municipal Auditorium NRHP listing, listed 1978, US Department of the Interior, National Park Service (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_Places_listings_in_Riverside_County,_California)
• The Mission Inn (Q1920529), Wikidata (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1920529)
• Mary Andrews Clark Memorial Home (Q6778839), Wikidata (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6778839)
• San Gabriel Mission Playhouse (Q21016156), Wikidata (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21016156)
• Arthur Burnett Benton (Q24203374), Wikidata (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q24203374)
• Arthur Burnett Benton architectural papers, Benton architectural papers held at UCSB ADC, Architecture and Design Collection, UCSB Art Design and Architecture Museum, via Online Archive of California (https://oac.cdlib.org/)
• California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation Listed Resources, Riverside County California Historical Landmarks database, California State Parks (https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21452)
• San Gabriel Mission Playhouse entry, Los Angeles Conservancy (https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/san-gabriel-mission-playhouse/)
• Mission Inn in Riverside entry, SoCal Landmarks (https://socallandmarks.com/index.php/2020/02/29/mission-inn/)