Barnsdall Art Park

Oil heiress Aline Barnsdall was an artistic visionary, feminist, world traveler, political radical, and friend of Emma Goldman who pursued experimental theater, studied under Eleonora Duse, produced plays including Alice in Wonderland in Chicago, and dreamed of creating a theatrical and artistic community centered on her home like those she had encountered in Europe. In 1919, Barnsdall bought 36 acres on Olive Hill, a prominent East Hollywood site known for its 1,225 olive trees, Easter sunrise services, and use as the Mount of Olives in the filming of D.W. Griffith's Intolerance, and hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design her hilltop compound. Their relationship was highly contentious, but Wright designed many buildings for the site, including Hollyhock House, named for Barnsdall's favorite flower and conceived in a style he called California Romanza; construction was overseen by his son Lloyd, and Rudolph Schindler also helped refine the plans. Barnsdall was disappointed with Hollyhock House, yet she influenced Wright and Schindler and also Richard Neutra to come to California, helping alter the course of modernist architecture in Los Angeles. By the mid-1920s she had tired of the commune, and in 1926 deeded the land and buildings to the City of Los Angeles for use as an art center and public park. That same year the California Art Club moved into Hollyhock House and an outdoor children's theater was established on the grounds. Barnsdall continued trying to shape the property by placing billboards on nearby land she still owned to advocate progressive causes, including the freeing of labor leader Frank Mooney, and by fighting Los Angeles over land agreements. She died in 1946 in a small house on Olive Hill deeded to her by the city. In 1967 the Junior Arts Center opened there, followed in 1971 by the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre. Hollyhock House was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, and both the park and house are City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments. Today the site is a world-class artistic, cultural, and educational center, fulfilling Barnsdall's long-held vision for Olive Hill.

Los Angeles, California · United States