A 1926 textile-block house in Chevy Chase Canyon, and the clearest proof that Lloyd Wright was his own architect, not his father's deputy.
What is the Derby House?
The Derby House at 2535 East Chevy Chase Drive is a 1926 home designed by Lloyd Wright, born Frank Lloyd Wright Jr., and one of the finest examples of Lloyd Wright's Mayan Revival work. Built from hand-cast concrete textile blocks, it is a Glendale Historical Landmark, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and Mills Act designated.
Above the bend of Chevy Chase Drive, fifteen minutes east of Glendower Avenue, a small concrete temple steps down into the canyon. It sits in Glendale, not Los Feliz proper, and it carries no Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument number. It belongs in this record anyway, because its architecture is pure eastside Los Feliz, and because it is the house Debbie Pisaro sends design-forward buyers to when they want to feel what textile-block architecture actually is at a livable scale.
When buyers come to a Los Feliz real estate agent asking for a design-forward home, the Wright family lineage is almost always part of the conversation. The Ennis House on Glendower, the Sowden House on Franklin, the Hollyhock just above. And then, a short drive northeast in Chevy Chase Canyon, the Derby House. Debbie Pisaro has spent 24 years around these homes, and she will tell you the Derby is the one that teaches the lesson fastest.
Built in 1926 for the businessman James Daniel Derby, the house is a small but powerful expression of the Mayan Revival movement, the same architectural language that produced the Ennis House and the Sowden House a few miles south. Homes like this one shape what buyers expect from Los Feliz, even when they end up buying in The Oaks or Franklin Hills instead.
Lloyd Wright, in his own voice
Lloyd Wright, born Frank Lloyd Wright Jr., spent the early 1920s as construction supervisor on his father's most ambitious Los Angeles projects, the Hollyhock House alongside Rudolph Schindler, then the Ennis, Storer, and Freeman houses. By the time he designed the Derby House in 1926, he had absorbed the textile-block technique deeply enough to reinterpret it on his own terms.
Where Frank Lloyd Wright tended to stack textile blocks structurally, creating dense, fortress-like walls of concrete, Lloyd Wright used them with a lighter hand. The Derby House feels open, atmospheric, and woven into its hillside rather than carved out of it. It is one of the clearest demonstrations anywhere that Lloyd Wright was a master designer in his own right, and Debbie Pisaro points buyers to it for exactly that reason.
The textile block, and what it does here
The home is built from custom patterned concrete textile blocks, hand-cast on site using sand drawn from the surrounding Chevy Chase Canyon. The ornamental motifs, on the garage gates, the fireplace grates, the French door grills, and the closet details, are abstract renderings of the yucca growing on the nearby hillsides. The pre-cast ornament draws on Mayan temple iconography, and the custom stonework references Navajo textile patterns.
The signature moves are consistent throughout the house: a double-height living room anchored by a towering fireplace with eight-foot wrought iron grates, wood-framed cathedral windows that pull height and light into every room, original wrought iron railings shaped like the agave plant, deep overhangs and recessed windows that throw dramatic shadow across the facade, and stepped massing that follows the slope of the canyon. The result is a home that feels both ancient and modern at once, which is the exact tension Lloyd Wright chased across his whole career.
How the Derby House connects to Los Feliz
While the Derby House sits in Glendale, its architectural lineage is pure Los Feliz eastside. The two most famous textile-block homes in Los Angeles, Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House on Glendower Avenue and Lloyd Wright's own Sowden House on Franklin Avenue, are both a short drive away. Together with the Derby House, they form a corridor of Mayan Revival architecture that defines this stretch of Los Angeles design history.
When buyers tell Debbie Pisaro they want a design-forward home in Los Feliz, this lineage is usually what they mean. The textile-block aesthetic, heavy, geometric, and deeply textured, has shaped contemporary remodels across Silver Lake, Franklin Hills, and the Hollywood Hills. The same instinct runs through the eastside's modern canon, from Lautner's Silvertop in Silver Lake to the design-forward houses in the Silver Lake architecture guide. Coastline 840 was built to represent exactly these homes, which is the story behind why we built Coastline 840 and why boutique teams outperform big-box brokerages.
What buyers of historic homes need to know
This is the part Debbie Pisaro wishes more buyers heard before they fell in love with a Wright family home or any historic textile-block property. The architecture is the easy part. The ownership is where the real homework lives, and it starts with the designations.
Landmark status creates both protection and obligation. The Derby House carries three layers: Glendale Historical Landmark, designated in 1977; National Register of Historic Places, listed in 1978; and Mills Act. The Mills Act is the one worth understanding first, because it offers meaningful property tax relief, often 40 to 60 percent, in exchange for a 10-year preservation contract that obligates the owner to maintain and restore the home to historic standards. The math on that trade is the heart of selling a Mills Act or HCM home, and it changes what a buyer should offer.
Lenders and insurers treat textile-block homes differently. Conventional appraisals struggle with hand-cast ornament and Mills Act contracts, some carriers will not write these homes at all, and replacement-cost math is nothing like a stucco bungalow. Have the financing and insurance conversations in parallel with the offer, never after.
Restoration costs are real, too. The blocks themselves require specialized work, the deep ornament makes weather sealing complex, and any buyer should budget for ongoing preservation with contractors who know concrete textile-block construction. And resale takes the right buyer, not the right price. Architectural homes sell to a smaller pool of design-literate buyers who understand what they are getting, which is why positioning and an off-market network matter more than aggressive pricing. It is also why a real valuation on a home like this looks nothing like a Zestimate. As a Los Feliz real estate agent, Debbie Pisaro walks buyers and sellers through all of it, and the wider picture lives across the Los Feliz Living record and the Los Feliz HCM guide.
Landmark status and preservation
The Derby House was designated a Glendale Historical Landmark in 1977, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, and more recently received Mills Act designation. Together, these layers mean the home cannot be altered from its original design or torn down without special permission, and that each owner commits to its long-term care. The house has changed hands only a handful of times across its first century.
If you are tracing the Mayan Revival lineage through Los Angeles, these are the homes worth seeing in person: the Ennis House by Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Feliz (1924), the Sowden House by Lloyd Wright in Los Feliz (1926), the Hollyhock House by Frank Lloyd Wright with Lloyd Wright and Rudolph Schindler (1921), the Millard House, La Miniatura, in Pasadena (1923), and the Storer and Freeman houses in the Hollywood Hills (1923). Together with the Derby House, they are the densest concentration of textile-block residential work anywhere, and most sit within a 15-minute drive of Los Feliz.
View the Los Feliz HCM guide and mapFrequently asked questions
What is the Derby House?
The Derby House at 2535 East Chevy Chase Drive is a 1926 Mayan Revival home designed by Lloyd Wright, born Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. Built from hand-cast concrete textile blocks, it is a Glendale Historical Landmark, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and Mills Act designated, sharing direct architectural lineage with the Los Feliz Wright family homes.
Who designed the Derby House?
The Derby House was designed by Lloyd Wright, born Frank Lloyd Wright Jr., in 1926. He had worked as construction supervisor on his father's Hollyhock, Ennis, Storer, and Freeman houses before designing the Derby House on his own, and it stands as one of the clearest statements of his independent architectural voice.
Where is the Derby House located?
The Derby House sits at 2535 East Chevy Chase Drive in Chevy Chase Canyon, Glendale, California. Though it is just outside Los Angeles city limits, it is only minutes from the Los Feliz hillside neighborhoods of The Oaks and Laughlin Park, and it shares their architectural lineage directly.
What style is the Derby House?
The Derby House is built in the Mayan Revival style, sometimes described as American Modernistic with Mayan features. It is characterized by custom patterned concrete textile blocks, stepped massing that follows the canyon, and geometric ornament drawn from pre-Columbian Mesoamerican architecture and Navajo textile patterns.
Is the Derby House a landmark?
Yes. The Derby House was designated a Glendale Historical Landmark in 1977 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, and it has more recently received Mills Act designation. Because it is in Glendale rather than the City of Los Angeles, it does not carry a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument number.
What is the Mills Act and how does it affect the Derby House?
The Mills Act is a California program that offers property tax relief to owners of historic properties in exchange for a 10-year contract to maintain and restore the home to historic standards. For a house like the Derby House, this can mean property tax reductions of 40 to 60 percent, balanced against a real, legal obligation to preserve the architecture.
How does the Derby House compare to the Ennis House and Sowden House?
All three share the textile-block technique the Wright family pioneered in the mid-1920s. The Ennis House is the largest and most theatrical, the Sowden House the most ornate, and the Derby House the most intimate and hillside-woven. Lloyd Wright designed both the Sowden and Derby houses in 1926, while Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Ennis House in 1924.
Can you tour the Derby House?
No. The Derby House is a private residence and is not open for public tours. Its stepped textile-block facade is partly visible from East Chevy Chase Drive, and the closely related Ennis and Sowden houses in Los Feliz are the more familiar public faces of the same Mayan Revival lineage in Los Angeles.
Who is a good real estate agent for historic homes in Los Feliz?
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader who represents buyers and sellers of architectural and historic homes across Los Feliz, Silver Lake, and the eastside. She knows the Mills Act math, the financing and insurance quirks, and the specific buyer pool these homes require.
Talk to Debbie Pisaro
Twenty-four years around Los Feliz architectural and historic homes, from the textile-block houses to the hillside moderns, with the Mills Act and preservation expertise these homes demand.
debbie@coastline840.com
DRE #01369110 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Debbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, is a 24-year veteran, the founder of Coastline 840, an independent California brokerage, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Los Feliz and the surrounding neighborhoods. She specializes in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes, and writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published July 2026.
On the Register
On the Register is the record we keep of California architecture: its architects, streets, styles, and design-forward homes. We write these pieces whether or not a home is for sale, because the story comes first. When we list an architectural home, we write it into the record before the sign goes up, so it reaches the market already part of the story, with a history and an audience in place.
© 2026 Debbie Pisaro, Coastline 840 · ontheregister.com
On the Register
On the Register is the record we keep of California architecture: its architects, streets, styles, and design-forward homes. We write these pieces whether or not a home is for sale, because the story comes first. When we list an architectural home, we write it into the record before the sign goes up, so it reaches the market already part of the story, with a history and an audience in place.
© 2026 Debbie Pisaro, Coastline 840 · ontheregister.com
