Peninsula Mediterranean – Walter Swindell Davis was the Southern California apostle of Mediterranean architecture
Architect Walter Swindell Davis (second from right) with Vestry member Bob Allen, landscape architect Hammond Sadler, and Vicar Robert Tourigney at the groundbreaking of St. Francis Episcopal Church in December, 1951. Photo courtesy of St. Francis Episcopal Church archives by Stephanie Cartozian St. Francis Episcopal Church, as depicted on the cover of the November, 1974 Palos Verdes Social Review. A “quiet publicity hound” is how Charles Muncaster, himself an architect, described his grandfather Walter Swindell Davis, the brilliant, but ironically, lesser known of the Peninsula’s celebrated mid-20th century architects, who included Kirtland Cutter, Myron Hunt, and Lloyd Wright. Davis designed La Venta Inn, St. Francis Episcopal Church, the Point Vicente Lighthouse and Malaga Cove Plaza. La Venta Inn was originally named Clubhouse 764 after its address at 764 Via Del Monte. It was later renamed La Venta Inn (The Sale Inn) in 1924. A promotional booklet of the time called La Venta Inn a “scenic citadel of the California Riviera.” Davis designed La Venta Inn in 1923 as a place for real estate brokers to entertain prospective investors in the Palos Verdes Project. The Palos Verdes…
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