{"nrhp_refnum":"78000682","name":"Derby, James Daniel, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2535 E. Chevy Chase Dr.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Glendale","county":"Los Angeles County","state":"CA","lat":34.16141697300003,"lon":-118.21139833999996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-12-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A private residence at 2535 East Chevy Chase Drive in Glendale, Los Angeles County, California, built in 1926 and designed by Lloyd Wright. It is a four-story concrete block house built into a decomposed granite hillside.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is one of six houses designed by Lloyd Wright or Frank Lloyd Wright using the Knit-Block system. It is an early example of concrete block sunscreens (brise-soleil), used years before Le Corbusier and Edward D. Stone. Its diagonal balcony/library is described as a prototype for Frank Lloyd Wright's unbuilt Saint Mark's Tower, and it is called a landmark of modern architecture in Southern California.","narrative":"Built in 1926 on a steep hillside lot in Glendale, this private residence was designed by Lloyd Wright and combines a four-story tower with a long rectangular wing whose roofs serve as garden decks. Its walls use pre-cast concrete and Knit-Block construction, with blocks cast in abstract designs drawn from nature and tied together with steel rods. Pierced block sunscreens cover much of the south and east sides, and twenty-two exterior doors double as windows, many with wrought iron screens inspired by the yucca plant. Inside, a two-story living room has a walk-in fireplace and a diagonal balcony library. The nomination holds the house to be among six built in the Knit-Block system by Lloyd Wright or his father, Frank Lloyd Wright. It credits the sunscreens as preceding well-known later uses by other architects. The house remains largely original, with a pierced block bridge, stone walls and terraces on the grounds.","period_of_significance":"1900- (specific date 1926)","architect_builder":"Lloyd Wright","architectural_style":"American Modernistic with Mayan-inspired ornamentation","criteria":[],"status_note":"Private residence, occupied, in excellent condition and basically unaltered from the original.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:32.252111-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/78000682.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000682/f578088613-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000682/f578088613-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Floatjon","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Derby_House.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Floatjon</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Derby_House.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123859059","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Daniel_Derby_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q38250945"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/los-angeles-county/derby-james-daniel-house-78000682/"}