Parry Residence

The property itself is an important component in the history of development of Pacific Palisades. Located in the Huntington Palisades, the original 226-acre parcel was owned and named for the Henry Huntington Family.  The land was purchased from the Huntington estate in 1926 by the Pacific Palisades Association and the Santa Monica Land and Water Company; and was one of the first tracts developed in the Palisades.  The layout of concentric curved streets, broad entry streets, landscaped central parkways, view lots to the Pacific Ocean and the mountains and preservation of the original flowering eucalyptus designed by Mark Daniels made the area highly unique, and continues to be so today. Although the neighborhood was marketed to an affluent society, the development was exceptional for the time and provides a glimpse into the initial visionary planning by the Pacific Palisades Association.*

 The Parry Residence designed by Gable and Wyant (George Elmore Gable and Stanley Wyant) and built in 1929, was one the early homes to be constructed in the Huntington Palisades development. Designed in the Monterey Revival architectural style it is an affirmation of a building type that celebrates a significant California heritage, a classic style, ageless and enduring to the California Dream.  The design embodies distinctive characteristics of the Monterey Revival style, with elegantly proportioned and stepped building form, an open running balcony, and distinctive Spanish-style roof tiles, and classic smooth stucco of the Spanish Provincial and Andalusian style so characteristic of buildings done by George Washington Smith, and which became an icon of Southern California architecture.

 It is interesting to note that the Parry family represents the American manufacturing era of the Industrial Revolution. The Parry Manufacturing Company, founded in Indiana in 1882 was a pioneering auto manufacturing company that was eventually sold to General Motors - Chevrolet for $900,000 at the height of the depression. The Parry’s move from Indiana to California, and to Pacific Palisades is about the American expansion from the industrial mid-west to the sunny and prosperous Pacific Coast of California. That migration of both the affluent and working class created the backbone of the California Dream. With them they brought a work ethic, skill and philanthropy to a sunny climate that nurtured prosperity and a culture of infinite possibility.

 In addition, the southwestern corner of the property is adorned with a 90-year old, aprox. 70 feet tall, specimen Deodar Cedar planted by the Parry family the year the house was built.

 * Historical references from Pacific Palisades, Where the Mountains Meet the Sea, Betty Lou Young and Thomas R. Young, 1983, Pacific Palisades Historical Society