Historic Photographs

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Item Title


Location
Death Valley Junction vicinity, CA

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Created/Published
Documentation compiled after 1933.

Notes
Survey number HABS CA-2257
Unprocessed field note material exists for this structure (FN-150).
Building/structure dates: 1922
Building/structure dates: 1931 subsequent work
Significance: Death Valley Ranch was built as the vacation retreat for Chicago millionaire Albert M. Johnson. Although lavishly decorated and handsomely appointed, its extremely isolated location near Death Valley is wildly eccentric and was the primary reason it attracted the degree of notoriety it has received since construction began. Construction began modestly in 1922 but expanded in increments over a ten-year period. Questions of land ownership and crippling financial difficulties halted construction in 1931, leaving many projects only partially completed. Evidence of plans unfulfilled are interspersed among the otherwise luxurious estate. The buildings, furnishings, and ornament were designed in the studio of Charles Alexander MacNeilledge. The entire complex in unified by the consistent use of a Spanish Mediterranean motif, and the recurrence of certain materials: redwood, ceramic tile, stucco finishes and hand-wrought metalwork. The furnishings establish a secondary theme -- the Desert -- by incorporating images of animals and plants associated with the local terrain into their design.

Subjects
Ranches


Related Names
Johnson, Albert Mussey
Scott, Walter
Johnson, Bessie
MacNeilledge, Charles Alexander
Kropf, F. W.
Thompson, M. Roy
Boucher, Jack, Photographer


Collection
Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Contents
Photograph caption(s): 
1. GENERAL VIEW LOOKING EAST
2. GENERAL VIEW FROM EAST, MAIN HOUSE IN FOREGROUND
3. HOUSE AND ANNEX LOOKING SOUTHWEST, SERVICE STATION TO LEFT
4. GENERAL VIEW LOOKING NORTHWEST
5. GENERAL VIEW LOOKING NORTH, GRAVEL SEPARATOR TO LEFT, ENTRANCE GATES IN RIGHT FOREGROUND
General view looking from the southeast
General view looking from the northeast


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