A gate to the past in Palos Verdes Estates
The building was originally constructed to be a gate tower and a gatekeeper lodge for the easterly entrance into Palos Verdes Estates. Photos by Erik Jay Nine years after designing the reflecting pool for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1917, architect Clarence E. Howard finished plans for the Valmonte neighborhood Mirlo Gate Lodge, at 4420 Via Valmonte in Palos Verdes Estates. Howard was employed by the Olmsted Brothers, who are best known for designing New York’s Central Park. The leaded glass windows casements are deeply recessed into eighteen inch thick walls with both smooth and undulating plaster edges. The Mirlo Gate Lodge was one of the first buildings built for the Palos Verdes Project dating back to the Roaring 20s and Frank Vanderlip’s vision for the Peninsula. Howard had a long and distinguished career following graduation from Syracuse University’s architecture program. He lived to be 93. He attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and in 1910 became qualified as a city planner and architect. His time spent in France before and after World War I left him with an appreciation for the ancient art of stone masonry and inspired the conical stone design of…
Read this story on easyreadernews.com