The house by the Malaga Cove Library
The Realtor thought the location of the old Brashear residence was the reason it remained vacant for so many years. John and Jan Cartwright thought of the library as an asset
by Stephanie Cartozian
photos by Tony Labruno
When John and Jan Cartwright purchased the storied Malaga Cove “Brashears’ Residence” in November, 1972 for $92,500, the Mediterranean Revival style house had been vacant for several years. But it was exactly what the Cartwright’s had been looking for, a fixer-upper.
Front row, L to R: Jan Cartwright, John Cartwright, Izzy Carr, Beth Carr, Kurt Ehmann, Henry Carr, Sarah Ehmann, Jack Eckenrode, Kate Eckenrode, Will Eckenrode, Marshall Carr, Maddy Carr, Owen Ehmann, Pam Eckenrode, and Todd Eckenrode.
Their daughter, Beth Carr, then six years old, now is the homeowner with her husband Marshall.
Beth remembers the faucet water running brown and critters roaming around the house when they first moved in. While the Realtor was hesitant to show them the property because of its close proximity to the Malaga Cove Library, Beth’s mother, Jan saw its location as an asset. Being adjacent to the manicured and verdant grounds of the library added to the play space for the kids; and from the upstairs sunroom balcony, they could see couples exchanging nuptials at wedding ceremonies held on the library lawn.
“It is magical to live in a place where people are commemorating the greatest events of their life,” Beth said.
A birdseye view of the entry and living areas of the Carr home.
“I spent millions of hours at the library. I was a bookish little girl. The librarians sort of adopted me,” Beth said. “We used to climb the trees there. It was the ‘70s. Mom would let us go to the bakeries and stores at Malaga Cove Plaza. Let us know when you’ll be home, mom would say.” At Easter time the library did a community egg hunt. From their upstairs sunroom, the sisters were able to watch where all the eggs were hidden, including the locations of the coveted golden eggs. One year, their mother saw what was happening and scolded them for spying. Beth remembers the sound of the Farnham-Martin fountain coupled with their own courtyard fountain. “Bookends of water features,” she called it.
The firetrails behind the house were also an endless source of fun and amusement for the three children. Beth was the oldest, followed by sisters Pam and Sarah.
Pictures of the Malaga Cove area and the home in 1924 when the 100 year old house was first built.
The residence was built in 1924, the seventh home built in Palos Verdes Estates. The Cartwrights, along with their extended family, paid homage to the home’s legacy by celebrating its recent 100th birthday with a party at the home on August 4.
The home has a winding, stone pathway that leads to the front door, and to a lush and expansive, Palos Verdes stone upper and lower courtyard, where everybody gathered for the celebration. A twin dolphin gargoyles fountain serves the courtyard’s backdrop, adorned with colorful mosaic tiles that frame the sea creatures under a cement arch, flanked with PV stone columns.
The sunroom where the girls could peer out and watch the Easter eggs being hidden.
Although it is uncertain who designed the fountain, it is possible that it was Irving J. Gill, a prominent landscape architect who worked on the home. He married the homeowner, Marion J. Brashears, who was said to have lived a life of mystery and intrigue, according to the Histories and Mysteries blog published by K. Hawthorne. Hawthorne states in her blog, “Marion Brashears has long been relegated to a footnote in the history of her famous husband, acclaimed California architect Irving J. Gill. I sought to find all I could about this woman who captivated Irving’s heart, his one and only marriage in the later years of his life. Although I have spent over a year and gathered nearly 1,000 pages of documents about her life, her marriages, and varied occupations, Marion remains mysterious.” Brashears occupations included owning a hair salon, being a personal assistant, a psychologist, a vocational analyst and publicity chairperson of the Beachwood Property Owners Association. She was also a participant in the New Era Expression Society, a popular movement in the 1920s. Americans referred to “this time” as the “new era” or “modern,” to describe the fundamental differences between it and the Victorian era that came before it.
The inlaid tile floors in the livingroom has Mediterranean Revival handmade tile inlays.
Brashears was known to be flirtatious, a temptress. She was accused of having scandalous relations with a minister in 1914, the Reverend Nehemiah Baker, who was many years younger than herself and whom she visited often in late night hours at the Denny Boarding House in Oregon. She moved to the Palos Verdes residence in 1924 as a single woman and was married to Gill in May of 1928. She had three large receptions to commemorate the union. Although she had previously been divorced, she claimed to be a widow, most likely to avoid the stigma associated with divorce at that time.
David J. Witmer and Loyall Watson of the firm Witmer and Watson, located in downtown Los Angeles, were the architects. Witmer was a Harvard graduate and admirer of Myron Hunt, a prolific architect on the Peninsula. He was the architect for the Malaga Cove Library, completed in 1930, six years after Brashears purchased her home. In 1919, he formed a partnership with Loyall F. Watson. Some of their most famous works include Belmont Square in Santa Monica, the Estrada Courts consisting of thirty-one residential buildings and a common building, as well as Ramona School in San Bernardino.
The home is sprawling, with lots of unexpected rooms. There were hot and cold faucets, but they did not “join pipes” in 1924, so there is only very hot and very cold water. Beth has kept the plumbing, she said, out of nostalgia for her years growing up in the house.
Antique fountain of twin dolphin gargoyles.
There is a detached apartment with a beautiful view of the ocean and the South Bay. Beth uses the apartment as an office. The apartment kitchen has an old-fashioned “ice box.” The “iceman” used to slip a block of ice directly through a slat in a side door into the “ice box.”
Though there was electricity when the house was built, they did not “electrify” the whole house. The home still has the original gravity furnace. Hot air rises to vents in the house from the basement. Other than having to relight the pilot light once in a great while, Beth says, the old system works well and is as-effective as many forced air heating units.
A section of the main house used to be a doctor’s office. The doctor lived in the main house.
When Beth was growing up, she felt there were so many hiding places in this old house, she wondered if there was something else….like a bookcase that might revolve and open up to a secret room or a hollow panel beneath a floorboard that might open up to something pleasantly unexpected like a Prohibition Speakeasy. PEN