42 DIGS.NET | 4.26.2019
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rose in the ranks socially, their ambition widened
as well. In Wright, the Ennises had an architect to
design a house to meet the moment, a place where
they could entertain.
Wright's vision for the three-bedroom, three-
and-a-half bath home, which is composed of
roughly 27,000 blocks, each one hand-cast in
a custom mold, is equal to its expansive view of
Los Angeles. e property also features a self-
contained, one-bedroom guest house. Later, as
part of a 1940 remodel, Frank Lloyd Wright
designed the pool. e home's living spaces are
more intimate than its public spaces, which are
quite grand, even a bit showy.
"e way it's perched on the hill is on stage.
ere is definitely a theatrical component to
the house," says John Waters, AIA, LEED AP,
preservations programs manager of the Frank
Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, pointing
to such aspects as the architect's beautiful glass
mosaic fireplace, columned corridors, and custom
art-glass windows. "While it is not unusual for
Wright to dramatically reveal once space after
another, the visceral effect of movement through
the house is particularly theatrical here," Waters
adds. "e various spaces create a stage-like
feeling inside. e Storer and Freeman [Houses]
are more intimate in scale and the way the spaces
work. Ennis is theatrical."
While it is certainly true that the Ennis House
has the flavor of the Mayan Revival style, it is
more accurately perceived less aesthetically and
more about Wright's attempt to create a useable
system of building. "Because it's conceptual, it
took more than he anticipated," says Waters of
Wright's experimentation with the system. "But
it wasn't a willful attempt to spend a lot of the
Ennises' money, but about his curiosity to see if
the system would work." Still, the Ennis House
is highly ornamented, as was Wright's way. "He
loved to get his T-square and triangle working,"
Waters notes. "e patterns are not always
directly related to the work at hand. His work can
be extremely decorative, a lot more than people
really think about it being."
e Ennis House is a testament to Frank
Lloyd Wright's remarkable ability to see three-
dimensionally, but also his affinity for California.
He did return to the Midwest eventually, but
presumably he was attracted to the energy of a
Los Angeles as well as its regional characteristics,
like natural light, which played well into his ideas
of organic architecture. It also fit with Wright's
flair for presentation; he did, after all, dub the
Hollyhock House his "California Romanza" and
in a letter to the Ennises, he wrote, prophetically
in fact: "You see, the final result is going to stand
on that hill a hundred years or more. Long after
we are all gone it will be pointed out as the Ennis
House and pilgrimages will be made to it by lovers
of the beautiful—from everywhere."
theennishouse.com
