Architect

Garrett Van Pelt

1879–1972

Profile

About Garrett Van Pelt.

Pasadena-based partner architect from 1913 to 1955, first as draftsman then partner with Sylvanus Marston, later with Edgar Maybury in Marston, Van Pelt and Maybury (1922 to 1927), then independent practice from June 1927, then partnership with George Lind (Van Pelt and Lind) developing Santa Anita Oaks in Arcadia. Designed or co-designed hundreds of custom homes across Pasadena, San Marino, Altadena, Arcadia, and the surrounding San Gabriel Valley over a four-decade career anchored in Pasadena.

Identifying a Van Pelt home in the San Gabriel Valley

Garrett Van Pelt designed or co-designed several hundred custom homes across the San Gabriel Valley between 1913 and 1955, working first as draftsman then partner to Sylvanus Marston, later with Edgar Maybury in the firm Marston, Van Pelt and Maybury, then independently from June 1927 forward, then with George Lind in the firm Van Pelt and Lind through the 1930s. A Van Pelt home in Pasadena, San Marino, Altadena, or Arcadia carries period revival design lineage rooted in European archival study, Mexican vernacular research, and the disciplined draftsmanship that took Van Pelt from his Chicago Art Institute training in architecture into one of Pasadena’s longest-running architectural practices.

The firm’s residential signature reads as period revival across multiple traditions. Spanish Colonial Revival and Mediterranean Revival massing with low-pitched red tile roofs, white or warm stucco walls, and arcaded loggias. Italian Renaissance Revival in the symmetrical formal compositions reserved for civic and institutional commissions. Tudor Revival in steep gables, half-timbered upper stories, and tall brick chimneys for the firm’s English tradition residences, including Van Pelt’s own 1929 Altadena home at 1585 East Altadena Drive. Interiors run to hand-troweled plaster walls, wrought iron stair rails and balcony brackets, Spanish or Mexican tile risers, beamed ceilings in the principal rooms, and casement windows with leaded glass at the formal openings. Van Pelt traveled extensively in Mexico through the early 1920s and published Old Architecture of Southern Mexico in 1926, a book of his own photographs that influenced his subsequent residential work.

Authentication starts at the public record. Pasadena building permits from 1913 through the late 1920s carry the firm name through three iterations: Marston and Van Pelt (roughly 1914 to 1922), Marston, Van Pelt and Maybury (October 1922 to 1927), and Garrett Van Pelt, Architect (1927 forward). After 1928 the Van Pelt and Lind partnership covers most of Van Pelt’s later residential work, including the Santa Anita Oaks development in Arcadia through the 1930s and the Owsley House (1935) and Robert Bassett House (1937) within it. The Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD) entry at pcad.lib.washington.edu/person/173/ is the most comprehensive bibliographic resource for the architect’s career. UC Santa Barbara holds the Garrett Van Pelt drawings collection (Architecture and Design Collection, finding aid 0000189), seven linear feet of architectural drawings dated circa 1927 to circa 1967.

The buyer-side reality is that period authenticity in a Van Pelt home depends on what has survived sixty to a hundred years of alteration. Original casement window hardware, original tile risers, original wrought iron stair work, original plaster finishes carry the design weight. The construction-side assessment looks at the structural bones: terra cotta tile roofs that need decade-scale maintenance not replacement, lath-and-plaster walls that telegraph any foundation movement clearly, mortise locks and brass hardware that can be rebuilt rather than replaced. A correctly maintained Van Pelt residence from the 1920s sits on its original foundation with structural systems still doing the work they were designed to do.

Career arc and partnership history

Van Pelt was born in Wisconsin in 1879 and trained in architecture at the Chicago Art Institute’s School of Architecture. He arrived in Pasadena around 1913 and was hired as a draftsman in the office of Sylvanus Marston, whose Pasadena practice had been established in 1908 after Marston’s own Cornell architectural training and apprenticeship under Myron Hunt. Within roughly a year Van Pelt was a partner, and the firm operated as Marston and Van Pelt through the late 1910s and into the early 1920s.

Van Pelt joined the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1916. In April 1920 the firm received Southern California Chapter AIA Awards for two projects: the Arcade Building in Pasadena and the Garford House (1919), a Pasadena residence still standing and cataloged by David Gebhard and Robert Winter in Architecture in Los Angeles A Compleat Guide. The partnership’s Pasadena residential catalog through this period ran into the high dozens. The NRHP-listed (September 5, 1985) Fenyes Estate at 470 W. Walnut Street and 160 N. Orange Grove Boulevard (originally 1905, completed 1907; with Marston’s 1911 conservatory, studio, and laboratory addition) anchored the firm’s relationship with Pasadena’s civic establishment.

In October 1922 Edgar W. Maybury joined the partnership, and the firm became Marston, Van Pelt and Maybury. The partnership lasted through 1927. During those five years the firm shipped the bulk of its civic and institutional commissions: the USC Pacific Asia Museum at 46 N. Los Robles Avenue, originally the Grace Nicholson Treasure House of Oriental Art (1924, NRHP 77000300; California Historical Landmark No. 988); Villa Verde at 800 S. San Rafael Avenue (1927, NRHP 84000896); Home Laundry at 432 S. Arroyo Parkway (NRHP-listed June 18, 1987); the American Legion Hall in Pasadena (1923 to 1924); United Presbyterian Church Pasadena (1924 to 1925); First Presbyterian Church Alhambra (1924); and Westminster Presbyterian Church Pasadena (1928). Architectural Digest published a Westminster Presbyterian Church feature in its 1929 Volume 7 Issue 3.

In June 1927 Van Pelt left the Marston firm and opened independent practice in Pasadena. The following year he partnered with George Lind, forming Van Pelt and Lind, which carried most of his residential output through the 1930s. Van Pelt and Lind designed the Santa Anita Oaks residential development in Arcadia, low-cost housing in Palm Springs, the Owsley House (1935), the Robert Bassett House (1937), and the former Jurgensens Market on California Boulevard in Pasadena.

John Porter Clark, later one of the pioneers of Desert Modernism in Palm Springs, apprenticed in Van Pelt’s Pasadena office after his Cornell architectural training. Around 1955 Van Pelt relocated to Santa Barbara, where his later residential work (Mathers residence, Mayo residence on Pepper Hill in Montecito, El Paseo El Presidio restaurant additions) carried through into the mid-1960s. Van Pelt died in 1972 at age 93. He was elected Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA).

Major works in the San Gabriel Valley

USC Pacific Asia Museum (Grace Nicholson Building), 46 N. Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, 1924. Designed by Marston, Van Pelt and Maybury as the Grace Nicholson Treasure House of Oriental Art for the Asian art collector Grace Nicholson, the building uses a Chinese Imperial Palace formal vocabulary with an interior courtyard garden. NRHP 77000300 (listed July 21, 1977); California Historical Landmark No. 988 (designated November 20, 1989). Now the USC Pacific Asia Museum.

Vista del Arroyo Hotel and Bungalows, 125 S. Grand Avenue, Pasadena, 1920. Marston and Van Pelt designed the original two-story Spanish Colonial Revival hotel addition. Sylvanus Marston, Van Pelt, and Myron Hunt designed the surrounding bungalows as separate architects between 1921 and 1938. The 1930 six-story tower addition was by George H. Wiemeyer. NRHP-listed 1981. Now the Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals.

Villa Verde, 800 S. San Rafael Avenue, Pasadena, 1927. Marston, Van Pelt and Maybury Mediterranean Revival estate. NRHP 84000896 (listed September 13, 1984).

Garford House, Pasadena, 1919. Marston and Van Pelt. Won the Southern California Chapter AIA Award in April 1920 alongside the firm’s Arcade Building. A Mediterranean Revival residence cataloged in Gebhard and Winter at p. 362 of the 1985 edition.

Van Pelt House, Pasadena, 1926. Van Pelt’s own residence, a Mexican colonial inspired design that reflected his 1920s travel and study of Mexican vernacular architecture. Cataloged in Gebhard and Winter at p. 361 of the 1985 edition.

1585 East Altadena Drive, Altadena, 1929. English Tudor Revival residence designed and built by Van Pelt in independent practice for his own family. 3,720 square feet with a circular entry hall and curved staircase. Sold through Sotheby’s International Realty in 2020.

Casa del Cielo, Pasadena, 1923. Marston, Van Pelt and Maybury residential commission.

American Legion Hall, Pasadena, 1923 to 1924. Marston, Van Pelt and Maybury civic commission.

Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, 1928. Marston, Van Pelt and Maybury.

First Presbyterian Church, Alhambra, 1924. Marston, Van Pelt and Maybury.

Santa Anita Oaks residential development, Arcadia, 1930s. Van Pelt and Lind. The Owsley House (1935) and Robert Bassett House (1937) are the most documented residences within this development.

Style range and identification

The Van Pelt body of work runs across the period revival styles that defined Pasadena’s pre-war residential boom. Spanish Colonial Revival and Mediterranean Revival anchor the bulk of the firm’s residential output, with Italian Renaissance Revival reserved for select formal commissions. The firm worked competently in Tudor Revival as well, particularly in Van Pelt’s later independent residential work, and the Mexican colonial influence from Van Pelt’s 1920s travel and his 1926 book Old Architecture of Southern Mexico distinguished his independent residential work from contemporaries who drew strictly from European sources.

For SGV identification the canonical references are the Spanish Colonial Revival, Mediterranean Revival, Italian Renaissance Revival, and Tudor Revival style entity pages, each of which catalogs the silhouette, openings, materials, and interior finishes characteristic of the style.

Archive and recognition

The Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD) catalog entry for Van Pelt is the most comprehensive bibliographic resource for the architect’s career. The Garrett Van Pelt drawings collection at the UC Santa Barbara Art, Design and Architecture Museum (finding aid 0000189) holds seven linear feet of architectural drawings and photographs dated circa 1927 to circa 1967, covering the independent and Van Pelt and Lind years and the later Santa Barbara residential work. The Wikipedia entry on Marston, Van Pelt and Maybury catalogs the firm’s NRHP-listed buildings.

Period coverage of the firm’s work appears in Architectural Record (1916, 1930, 1936), Architectural Digest (1929), Southwest Builder and Contractor (multiple notices 1914 through 1928), the Pasadena Star-News, and Architecture in Los Angeles A Compleat Guide by David Gebhard and Robert Winter (Garford House 1919 entry at p. 362; Van Pelt House 1926 entry at p. 361 in the 1985 edition; Los Angeles An Architectural Guide 1994 edition at p. 390). The American Architects Directory entered Van Pelt in its 1956 edition.

Styles

Associated Styles.

Works

Notable Works in the SGV.

Sources

Sources and references.

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