Nestled among LA's craftsman homes and iconic abodes, 412 Glen Holly Drive offers more than three bedrooms and three bathrooms. Depending on what you believe, it comes with a movie-worthy origin story.
Built in Pasadena’s Poppy Peak Hills neighborhood, the 2,106-square-foot residence was designed by architect William Kesling, and he might have arranged for its completion while he was behind bars.
Kesling, whose family moved to the Golden State when he was a teenager, began his career as a carpenter and general contractor, before opening his firm, Kesling Modern Structures, in the 1930s. Kesling claimed to have designed and developed hundreds of homes and other projects throughout his decades-long career. He favored the streamline moderne style, an aesthetic that sprang from art deco's ornate curves, differentiating itself with a pared-back sensibility that focused on function and cost.
“Affordable and well-designed, these homes filled the need for post-war housing in La Jolla,” states a historical survey from the planning department in San Diego, a city peppered with Kesling projects.
But the architect faced financial difficulties during the Great Depression and, in 1937, found himself serving time for fraud in San Quentin State Prison. And, during that window, Kesling allegedly oversaw the construction of 412 Glen Holly Drive from behind bars. Maybe.
“[Kesling] didn’t sign off on the construction documents,” explained listing agent George Penner, those were inked by John L. Hudson Construction Co. “The rumor … is that he would review documents in prison and then give changes et cetera and have this construction company sign off on the finished documents.”
Either way, the project, also called the Thomas J. Atol Residence, was completed in 1938. Its reverse-floorplan design — which welcomes visitors from the home’s highest point — cascades down a hillside for three stories. Living spaces and a kitchen rest on the uppermost floor, while the home’s bedrooms and outdoor deck branch off the two lower levels.
The “graceful” streamline modern building is “very much in the vein of what Hollywood celebrities and producers and directors of that time were interested in,” Penner said. “It had an elegance and Bauhaus-influenced vocabulary,” as well as offering a snapshot of design preferences for a group of people embracing California’s “incredibly 12-month climate.”
“It had a romanticism but there was this yearning to create architecture where you could get outside,” Penner said.
As the residence traded hands over the years, its owners updated the home, renovating and adding in efficient window systems and solar panels, but maintained its Kesling bones.
“I think they leaned into the architectural significance, making sure that its integrity was left intact,” Penner said of Thomas J. Atol Residence’s current owners, a couple relocating for work.
The Pasadena home, which last sold for $849,000 in 2014. It's garnering interest on today's market, Penner said, including from some victims of LA’s recent wildfires.
“There’s still contemplation amongst homeowners in that area who had devastating circumstances regarding their housing, but some are starting to come out,” he explained. “And we are absolutely seeing a greater influx of buyers in the Pasadena area.”