Joseph J. Blick

About Joseph J. Blick.

Pasadena resident from 1887, practiced from Pasadena offices c. 1900 through 1937 retirement, designed residences and civic works across Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Marino, and Altadena, listed as one of five architects in the 1902 Pasadena city directory alongside Greene and Greene.

Joseph J. Blick (1867 to 1947; Wikidata Q17626500) was the Pasadena architect whose residential and commercial work threaded through the city’s transformation from Victorian-era resort town into the West Coast’s foremost Arts and Crafts center. Across a forty-five-year practice that began in 1892 as a draftsman and ended with his 1937 retirement, Blick designed residences in Pasadena, South Pasadena, Altadena, San Marino, and Hollywood across the full stylistic arc of California residential architecture, moving from Colonial Revival and Shingle through Folk Victorian, Craftsman, Mission Revival, Mediterranean Revival, Italianate, Tudor-Craftsman, Period Revival, and finally Streamline Moderne. In 1902, when the Pasadena city directory listed only five architects in the city, Blick was one of them, alongside Greene and Greene. His documented works include the Hiram Wadsworth residence in Altadena (1912), the George S. Patton family residence in San Marino (1910), the A. Kingsley Macomber-Lunkenheimer residence at 1215 Wentworth Avenue in Oak Knoll (1906), and the Scottish Rite Cathedral on N. Madison Avenue (1924). Owners and prospective buyers of a Blick house doing architectural due diligence are looking at a building shaped by an architect trained in the classical apprenticeship tradition under a Royal Institute of British Architects member, who moved with the stylistic currents of his era and built across the full economic range of Pasadena’s pre-war housing stock.

Pasadena arrival and the apprenticeship route into architecture

Blick was born September 20, 1867 in Clinton, Iowa, the son of building contractor James Shannon Blick. The family’s path to Pasadena ran through the American scout and adventurer Frederick Russell Burnham, who married Blick’s elder sister Blanche in 1884. Burnham had been raised in California, and after their marriage Blanche returned with him. The rest of the Blick family followed; James Shannon Blick registered to vote in Los Angeles in June 1888 and had relocated to Pasadena by August 1892. Joseph Blick, then twenty, arrived in Pasadena in 1887 and began working as a contractor alongside his father.

In 1889, Blick entered a formal architectural apprenticeship under T. William Parkes, a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. The apprenticeship route was the older path into architecture, distinct from the university-trained architects of his generation, and it grounded Blick in the traditional drafting and construction discipline of the late-nineteenth-century British professional model. By 1892 he was practicing as a draftsman in Pasadena. In 1891 he married Daisy Russell, a first cousin of his brother-in-law Frederick Russell Burnham. The double family tie surfaced periodically throughout his practice. Blick designed at least three residences for Burnham across three decades, including the 1904 Burnham residence at 500 South San Rafael Avenue in Pasadena’s San Rafael Heights.

In 1896, Blick partnered with Lester S. Moore to found Blick, Moore and Price, Architects, in Los Angeles, with offices in the Byrne Building at 253 South Broadway downtown. The firm reorganized in 1897 as Blick and Moore and continued through 1899. Blick’s individual SGV catalog began before the firm and continued after it. The 1892 Colonial Revival residence at 268 S. Orange Grove Boulevard (now a contributing structure to Pasadena’s Ross Grove Landmark District) is the earliest documented Blick design, the 1894 Henry T. Fuller residence at 268 Bellefontaine Street is his first known Shingle and English Cottage revival work, and the 1895 Adams & Turner Funeral Home at 95-97 N. Raymond Avenue is one of his earliest documented Pasadena commercial structures.

Pasadena solo practice and style range

By 1902, with the Pasadena city directory listing him as one of five architects in the city, alongside Charles Wesley Buchanan, C.F. Driscoll, William B. Edwards, and Greene and Greene, Blick was working from rooms #413 and #414 in the Dodworth Block. He built his own residence at 275 Madeline Drive in 1901 and lived there until his death in 1947. By 1924 his office had moved to 17 South Fair Oaks Avenue, Room #314.

Blick’s solo Pasadena practice from roughly 1900 through 1930 defines his SGV catalog. He designed residences across the Craftsman peak of the 1900s and 1910s, the Mediterranean and Italianate sidebar of the same period, the Period Revival 1920s, and finally the Streamline Moderne and Tudor strands of the late 1920s and 1930s. The standard reference summary, that Blick is “best known for diverse residences in Southern California ranging from Mission to Modern styles,” captures the breadth. His catalog covers a longer continuous arc than most of his Pasadena contemporaries, including Frederick L. Roehrig, Myron Hunt, and Sylvanus Marston, all of whom practiced more narrowly within specific style periods.

The Craftsman residences dominate the middle of his catalog. Documented Pasadena Craftsman works include the 1904 residences at 144 N. Grand Avenue and 280 S. Grand Avenue, the 1906 Marie Fisk residence at 510 W. California Boulevard, the 1906 residence at 260 S. Orange Grove Boulevard (also a contributing structure to Pasadena’s Ross Grove Landmark District), the 1909 residence at 515 W. California Boulevard, and the 1910 Holloway Stuart residence at 875 La Loma Road. These sit within the broader Pasadena Craftsman context anchored by Bungalow Heaven, the city’s earliest designated landmark district. Blick’s Craftsman houses do not concentrate in Bungalow Heaven the way many speculative bungalow-builder catalogs do. They cluster instead along the higher streets of Grand Avenue, California Boulevard, Bellefontaine, and Madison and reflect the Craftsman style at its larger residential scale rather than its smaller bungalow form.

The stylistic breadth shows in the variations sitting alongside the Craftsman line. The 1903 George B. Post residence at 360 South Grand Avenue is a Shingle-style home with Arts and Crafts interior, distinguished by curved walls flanking a row of third-floor windows in its front gable. The 1903 Benjamin Folsom residence at 445 Bellefontaine Street is a Folk Victorian. The 1911 M.H. Reed residence at 450 Bellefontaine is Italianate with Arts and Crafts period detailing. The 1911 Albert H. Gates residence at 499 Monterey Road is described as a Tudor-Craftsman chalet with Mission touches, a hybrid that captures Blick’s willingness to blend revival vocabularies within a single house.

Marquee residences

The 1906 A. Kingsley Macomber-Lunkenheimer residence at 1215 Wentworth Avenue (PCAD building/5926) is the oldest house in Pasadena’s Oak Knoll neighborhood. Built in Mission Revival with Arts and Crafts period detailing, it sits within the residential pocket south of California Boulevard that would, over the next three decades, develop into one of the architecturally dense neighborhoods in the city. David Gebhard and Robert Winter included it in Architecture in Los Angeles: A Compleat Guide (1985) under the entry “Lunkenheimer House, 1906.”

The 1910 George S. Patton residence at 1220 Patton Court in San Marino was built for the family of the man who would become General George S. Patton Jr., the World War II tank commander. The Patton family had ranched and developed property in the San Gabriel Valley since the late nineteenth century, and the Patton Court address sits in the heart of historic San Marino.

The 1912 Hiram Wadsworth residence at 1090 Rubio Street in Altadena was designed for the man who became the first mayor of Pasadena. The house has served as a film location for Risky Business, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, The Baby-Sitters Club, Can’t Hardly Wait, and the pilot of 7th Heaven. Its consistent on-screen use reflects Blick’s residential proportions and detailing translating well to camera nearly a century after construction.

The 1900 Robincroft Castle, designed for Col. W.H. Harrison at 275 Robincroft Drive in Pasadena, and the 1906 Henderson residence at 795 Oak Knoll Circle round out a cluster of Blick’s earlier estate-scale residential commissions in Pasadena’s older money neighborhoods.

Civic and commercial Pasadena

Blick’s commercial work concentrates in Pasadena’s older downtown core. The Vernacular Masonry brick commercial buildings at 60-64 N. Raymond Avenue (1905), 24 E. Union (1904), 109-121 E. Union (the 1911 Union Building, home of Pasadena Hardware Company since 1924 and the city’s oldest hardware store), 39 Mills Place (1910), and 42 S. De Lacey Avenue (1927) form a small set of surviving turn-of-the-century commercial structures along the original downtown grid. The Bekins Co. / Standard Fireproof Storage Company rooftop sign on the building at 511 S. Fair Oaks Avenue (1906) is an industrial-era survival from a narrower commercial era.

In civic work, Blick designed two Pasadena fire stations: Fire Station 5 at 900 S. Pasadena Avenue (1909), now converted to residential use, and Engine Company #34 / Fire Station 4 at 541 S. Oak Knoll Avenue (1917), a Mediterranean Revival station that closed in 1989 and was rehabilitated as a single-family residence in 2000. He also designed the Pasadena Hall of Justice at 131 E. Holly Street (1930) and the Pasadena city jail (1930).

The 1924 Scottish Rite Cathedral at 150 N. Madison Avenue (determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 as NRIS 84003894; listing cancelled at the owner’s objection) is the largest of Blick’s civic commissions to survive. Built in Streamline Moderne, the cathedral is one of the earliest Streamline Moderne buildings in the San Gabriel Valley and reflects Blick’s late-career engagement with the emerging Moderne vocabulary roughly a decade before it became broadly adopted on the West Coast. The 1924 Pasadena Star-News building at 525 E. Colorado Boulevard, designed in the same year, sits within the original Colorado Boulevard commercial spine.

What survives today

A buyer or seller of a Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Marino, or Altadena residence built between roughly 1892 and 1937 may be looking at a Blick. The forty-five-year practice produced enough residences that Blick’s name appears in chain of title and Pasadena building department records across a wide arc of the city’s mature pre-war residential stock. Several Blick residences carry public designations. The residence at 657 S. Grand Avenue (1903) is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places under the Multiple Property Documentation Form “Late 19th/Early 20th Century Development and Architecture in Pasadena.” The 1903 George B. Post House at 360 S. Grand Avenue has a National Register nomination on file at the City of Pasadena Planning Department under the same Multiple Property Documentation Form. The 1912 house at 895 S. Madison Avenue is a designated Pasadena Local Landmark (September 26, 2016). His 1906 residence at 260 S. Orange Grove Boulevard and 1892 residence at 268 S. Orange Grove Boulevard (the latter co-credited with Edward C. Kent) are contributing structures to the Ross Grove Landmark District. The Lower Arroyo Seco Historic District (NRHP 04000331, listed July 12, 2005, under the Multiple Property Documentation Form “Residential Architecture of Pasadena, CA 1895-1918: Influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement”) covers a portion of South Grand Avenue within Blick’s documented residential catalog area. Owners considering Mills Act tax abatement, sale to a preservation-minded buyer, or any architectural-significance positioning of their property should expect Blick’s name to surface as a documented architect-of-record if the house has been formally surveyed.

For the period 1892 through about 1910, Blick’s residential work overlaps the early Pasadena careers of Greene and Greene and the speculative bungalow builders who shaped Bungalow Heaven. For 1910 through 1925, his catalog runs in parallel with Marston, Roehrig, Hunt, and Grey. For the late 1920s through 1937, his work shades into the Period Revival and early Modern era that defined Pasadena’s last great pre-war residential push. The architect-of-record question on any historic Pasadena house, when answered with Joseph J. Blick, places the house within a cataloged body of work that is uniquely broad in stylistic range and uniquely sustained in geographic concentration on a single SGV city.

Associated Styles.

• Folk Victorian — Modest vernacular counterpart to the elaborate Queen Anne, produced widely by builders working from pattern books and trade publications. Folk Victorian homes survive in the oldest neighborhoods of Pasadena, Monrovia, Sierra Madre, and the older parts of other SGV cities. Many examples have been heavily remodeled or replaced, and well-preserved examples in designated districts are increasingly rare.
• Craftsman — American architectural style that flourished roughly 1900–1930 in reaction to Victorian ornament and industrial mass production. Southern California Craftsman bungalows define the SGV's earliest residential character, with the largest intact concentration in Pasadena's Bungalow Heaven Landmark District.
• 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.
• Mediterranean Revival — Closely related to Spanish Colonial Revival but drawing more directly from Italian and broader Mediterranean precedents. Common in SGV estate construction of the 1920s, particularly San Marino.

Notable Works in the SGV.

• Joseph J. Blick residence (1901), 275 Madeline Drive, Pasadena
• A. Kingsley Macomber-Lunkenheimer residence (1906), 1215 Wentworth Avenue, Oak Knoll, Pasadena
• George S. Patton residence (1910), 1220 Patton Court, San Marino
• Hiram Wadsworth residence (1912), 1090 Rubio Street, Altadena
• Scottish Rite Cathedral (1924), 150 N. Madison Avenue, Pasadena
• Pasadena Star-News building (1924), 525 E. Colorado Boulevard
• Engine Company #34 / Fire Station 4 (1917), 541 S. Oak Knoll Avenue, Pasadena
• Union Building (1911), 109-121 E. Union, Pasadena
• Robincroft Castle (1900), 275 Robincroft Drive, Pasadena
• Hall of Justice (1930), 131 E. Holly Street, Pasadena

Sources and references.

• 657 S. Grand Avenue (NRI, 1903, Blick), Joseph J. Blick 1903 NRHP individually-listed (NRI) per Pasadena Combined Designations PDF, under the Late 19th/Early 20th Century Development and Architecture in Pasadena MPDF, City of Pasadena Planning Department (https://www.cityofpasadena.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/Combined-Designations.pdf)
• Lower Arroyo Seco Residential Historic District (NRHP 04000331), NRHP district listed July 12, 2005, Criterion C, under the Residential Architecture of Pasadena 1895-1918 Arts and Crafts Movement MPDF; refnum verified via Wikidata Q17019119 plus NPGallery direct document URL, US Department of the Interior, National Park Service (https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/04000331.pdf)
• Ross Grove Landmark District (Pasadena LD), Pasadena Local Landmark District; Blick contributing structures at 260 S. Orange Grove (1906) and 268 S. Orange Grove (1892, with Edward C. Kent); designation date deferred per Section 20 after three documented searches, City of Pasadena Planning Department (https://www.cityofpasadena.net/planning/planning-division/design-and-historic-preservation/historic-preservation/historic-walking-and-driving-tours/victorian-era-grandeur-walking-tour/)
• House at 895 S. Madison Avenue (Pasadena Local Landmark, 9/26/2016), 1912 Joseph J. Blick residence, Pasadena Local Landmark designated September 26, 2016, City of Pasadena Planning Department (https://www.cityofpasadena.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/Combined-Designations.pdf)
• Late 19th and Early 20th Century Development and Architecture in Pasadena NRHP MPDF, Multiple Property Documentation Form (Teresa Grimes, Laura Vanaskie) naming Blick as a principal architect of the period; framework for 657 S Grand and George B. Post House nominations, US Department of the Interior, National Park Service (via City of Pasadena Planning Department host) (https://pasadena.cfwebtools.com/images/other/Late19thEarly20th2ndDraft.pdf)
• Residential Architecture of Pasadena, CA 1895-1918: Influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement NRHP MPDF, NRHP Multiple Property Documentation Form referenced via CA OHP record N2290 for Lower Arroyo Seco; framework covering Blick's Arts and Crafts period Pasadena residences, California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation (https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/ListedResources/Detail/N2290)
• PCAD person/2913, Joseph James Blick primary archive record, Pacific Coast Architecture Database (https://pcad.lib.washington.edu/person/2913/)
• PCAD building/5926, Lunkenheimer House, 1215 Wentworth Avenue, Pasadena; cites Gebhard and Winter 1985 Lunkenheimer House entry bibliographically, Pacific Coast Architecture Database (https://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/5926/)
• Scottish Rite Cathedral NRHP eligibility determination (NRIS 84003894), Scottish Rite Cathedral determined eligible for NRHP listing in 1984; listing cancelled at the owner's objection, US Department of the Interior, National Park Service (https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP)
• George B. Post House (360 S. Grand Avenue) NPS Form 10-900 nomination, NRHP nomination prepared by Kevin Johnson, August 30, 2010, under the Late 19th/Early 20th Century Development MPDF; refnum and listing-confirmation deferred per Section 20 after three documented searches, City of Pasadena Planning Department (https://www.cityofpasadena.net/planning/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/George-B.-Post-House-360-S-Grand-Avenue.pdf)
• Joseph J. Blick (Q17626500), Joseph James Blick Wikidata entity; tier 2 per actual Roehrig file precedent (wikidata-roehrig Q5498654 also tier 2), Wikidata (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17626500)
• Architecture in Los Angeles: A Compleat Guide (1985) Lunkenheimer House 1906 entry, page 362, Institutional architectural reference cited at PCAD building/5926 bibliographic section; second Gebhard and Winter edition Los Angeles An Architectural Guide 1994 cited at PCAD person/2913, David Gebhard and Robert Winter, Gibbs Smith Publisher (https://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/5926/)
• Patton residence (1910) Entrance Hall photograph, Primary photographic archive of the George S. Patton family residence at 1220 Patton Court, San Marino; 1910 Blick design, Huntington Library Digital Collections (https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p15150coll2/id/6108/)
• Wadsworth residence (1090 Rubio Street, Altadena) 2023 Home Tour entry, Hiram Wadsworth residence, Joseph J. Blick architect attribution, 1912 build year, Federal Colonial Revival style, William Loesch builder $12,500 original cost, The Altadena Guild (https://altadenaguild.org/2023-home-tour-digital-program-home-1/)
• Scottish Rite Cathedral (Pasadena Architectural Jewels II), Scottish Rite Cathedral architect attribution to Blick (with W.C. Crowell co-attribution) and NRHP eligibility-cancellation framing, GPSmyCity (https://www.gpsmycity.com/tours/pasadena-architectural-jewels-ii-4636.html)