Los Feliz · Architecture
Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright, left two textile-block landmarks in Los Feliz. Here is who he was, what he built, and why it still shapes the neighborhood.
Who was Lloyd Wright, and which houses did he design in Los Feliz?
Lloyd Wright, born Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. in 1890, was a Los Angeles architect and landscape architect, and the eldest son of Frank Lloyd Wright. In Los Feliz he designed two textile-block houses: the Sowden House of 1926 on Franklin Avenue, a designated landmark, and the Samuel-Novarro House of 1928 in the hills. Both are distinct from his father's nearby Ennis House.
Most people who admire the dramatic concrete houses of Los Feliz assume they are all Frank Lloyd Wright. They are not. The single most useful thing Debbie can tell a buyer drawn to this architecture is that the father and the son are two different architects, and that Los Feliz is one of the few neighborhoods where the work of both stands within a short drive of each other.
That distinction is not trivia. It changes how a home is valued, how it is marketed, and how its provenance is described in a listing. Lloyd Wright, the son, designed some of the most recognizable houses in Los Feliz, and his name carries its own weight, separate from his father's. This guide is the plain version of what Debbie walks clients through when an interesting concrete house comes up in conversation.
How is Lloyd Wright different from Frank Lloyd Wright?
Lloyd Wright was the eldest son of Frank Lloyd Wright, and a significant architect in his own right. He supervised construction of his father's Los Angeles textile-block houses, then developed the system into his own work, including the Sowden House. He also practiced as a landscape architect and designed the second and third Hollywood Bowl band shells. Same family, two separate bodies of work.
The confusion is understandable. Lloyd Wright spent the early 1920s as the building supervisor on his father's Los Angeles textile-block houses, the group that includes the Ennis House, the Storer House, the Freeman House, and La Miniatura in Pasadena. He learned the concrete-block system from the inside, then carried it forward in his own commissions with a heavier hand for ornament and a landscape architect's instinct for how a building meets its site. His career ran from the 1920s into the 1970s, and it included the Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes and the Institute of Mentalphysics campus in Joshua Tree. His own son, Eric Lloyd Wright, carried the practice into a third generation.
The Sowden House: Lloyd Wright's Los Feliz landmark
The Sowden House at 5121 Franklin Avenue is Lloyd Wright's best-known Los Feliz work, built in 1926 for the painter and photographer John Sowden. Its stepped, ornamented concrete facade reads as a Mayan temple or, to many Angelenos, the open jaws of a shark, which earned it the nickname the Jaws House. It is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #762.
Behind that facade, the plan is pure Lloyd Wright. Rooms open onto a long central courtyard rather than onto the street, an arrangement that gives the house its sense of privacy and its quiet interior light. The original courtyard held a pool and fountain, and the whole composition treats the garden as part of the architecture rather than a leftover around it. A major restoration in the 2000s adapted the house for modern living while preserving the textile-block work. The Sowden House later took on a darker public notoriety through a former owner connected to the unsolved 1947 Black Dahlia case, but its lasting significance is architectural. For the full landmark record, see the Los Feliz Historic-Cultural Monument guide.
Architectural homes in Los Feliz
Houses with this kind of provenance rarely reach the open market, and the best of them trade quietly. Debbie keeps a private watch list and can tell you what is moving off-market in Los Feliz.
Ask about off-market Los Feliz homesThe Samuel-Novarro House, Lloyd Wright's other Los Feliz work
The Samuel-Novarro House of 1928 is the second Lloyd Wright house in Los Feliz, tucked into the hills above the flats. Where the Sowden House is heavy and inward-looking, the Samuel-Novarro House is lighter and more decorative, with ornamental copper and silver-toned detailing. It shows the same architect working in a very different register on a hillside site.
Taken together, the two houses are a short course in Lloyd Wright's range. One reads as a fortress on a busy avenue, the other as a refined hillside retreat, and both treat the landscape as part of the design. For buyers, that range is the point: a Lloyd Wright house is not a single look but a way of thinking about light, privacy, and site. The neighborhood's broader story sits in the guide to Los Feliz architecture, and the houses can be located on the Los Feliz architectural map.
The Ennis House and the wider Wright map
The Ennis House, on its hill above Los Feliz Boulevard, is the one most people picture, and it is by Frank Lloyd Wright, the father, completed in 1925 as the largest of his four Los Angeles textile-block houses. It is Historic-Cultural Monument #149. The Sowden and Samuel-Novarro houses are by the son. Knowing which is which is the whole game.
Just over the city line, Lloyd Wright's Derby House of 1926 brings the same Mayan Revival textile-block language to Chevy Chase Canyon in Glendale, and is worth knowing as part of the same body of work, covered in the Derby House profile. The father's Los Feliz landmark has its own dedicated history in the Ennis House profile. Wright's contemporaries shaped the same hills, and the broader Los Angeles story of organic and modern architecture, including figures like R.M. Schindler, runs through the architect profiles on Debbie's main site.
What a Lloyd Wright house means for a buyer or seller today
For value, a documented Lloyd Wright house behaves like any significant architectural property: it trades on provenance, condition, and a narrow pool of the right buyers, not on price-per-square-foot. Naming the architect correctly, documenting the landmark status, and marketing to people who already want this work is what separates a strong sale from a slow one.
Debbie has watched architectural provenance swing a sale more than once, where the right buyer paid a real premium because the house was the genuine article and the story was told accurately. The mistake she sees most often is a listing that misattributes the architect, or buries the landmark status, or prices a one-of-a-kind house against ordinary comps. Pricing a house like this is its own discipline, closer to valuing a work than a commodity, which is why it helps to understand how to price a one-of-a-kind architectural home. A good Los Feliz realtor starts from the architecture and works outward.
Ennis is the father. Sowden and Samuel-Novarro are the son. In Los Feliz, the architecture is the asset, and naming it correctly is the first step in valuing it.
Frequently asked questions
Lloyd Wright, born Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. in 1890, was a Los Angeles architect and landscape architect and the eldest son of Frank Lloyd Wright. He developed his father's textile-block system into his own work, designed the Hollywood Bowl band shells and the Wayfarers Chapel, and practiced until his death in 1978.
No. Frank Lloyd Wright was the father; Lloyd Wright, born Frank Lloyd Wright Jr., was his eldest son and a separate architect. The son supervised his father's Los Angeles houses, then built his own, including the Sowden House. In Los Feliz, the Ennis House is the father's work and the Sowden House is the son's.
Lloyd Wright designed two houses in Los Feliz: the Sowden House of 1926 at 5121 Franklin Avenue, a designated Historic-Cultural Monument, and the Samuel-Novarro House of 1928 in the hills above the flats. Both use his textile-block system, in very different registers, one heavy and inward, the other lighter and more decorative.
The Ennis House, completed in 1925, is by Frank Lloyd Wright and is the largest of his four Los Angeles textile-block houses. The Sowden House, built in 1926, is by his son Lloyd Wright. Both sit in Los Feliz and both use ornamented concrete block, which is why they are so often confused, but they are by two different architects.
The Sowden House earned the nickname the Jaws House because its stepped, ornamented concrete facade resembles the open mouth of a shark when seen from Franklin Avenue. The same facade also reads as a Mayan temple, which is why the house is described as Mayan Revival. It is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #762.
The Sowden House is a private residence and has also been used as an events venue, so it is not open for regular public tours. The exterior is visible from Franklin Avenue, and the house appears in architectural surveys and occasional special events. For other Los Feliz landmarks you can learn about in depth, see the neighborhood Historic-Cultural Monument guide.
Significant architectural houses trade on provenance, condition, and a narrow pool of motivated buyers rather than on price-per-square-foot. A well-documented, well-preserved Lloyd Wright house can command a premium from the right buyer, but it requires accurate attribution, clear landmark documentation, and marketing aimed at people who specifically want this architecture.
Beyond the Sowden and Samuel-Novarro houses in Los Feliz, Lloyd Wright designed the second and third Hollywood Bowl band shells, the Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, and the Derby House in Glendale, among others. His Los Feliz work is the easiest to take in on a single drive through the neighborhood.
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran of the Los Angeles market and founder of Coastline 840, specializing in architectural and historic homes across Los Feliz, the Oaks, Franklin Hills, and Laughlin Park. A good Los Feliz realtor for this kind of home starts from the architecture, names the provenance correctly, and markets to the right buyers. See the guide to the best real estate agent in Los Feliz.
About Debbie Pisaro. Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran of the Los Angeles market and the founder of Coastline 840, an independent California real estate brokerage, representing buyers and sellers across Los Feliz and the surrounding neighborhoods. She specializes in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes across Los Feliz, the Eastside, and the broader Los Angeles basin, and lives in a 1907 Craftsman in Silver Lake with her dog, Lennon.
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