Construction and Architecture
The two-story, ten-room Adamson House was designed by Stiles O. Clements and built of steel-reinforced concrete. Completed in 1930, Stiles called the house an outstanding example of modified Mediterranean Revival-style architecture. Architectural historians refer to the style as a synthesis of Spanish Colonial Revival and Moorish Revival architecture.
The house features teak woodworking, fireplaces in several interior and outdoor patio rooms, handpainted ceilings, lead-framed bottle glass windows, and "wrought-iron filigrees fitting over the windows like intricate jewelery." The main floor is dominated by a large living room with windows on three sides. The room is still furnished as it was when the Adamsons lived there, including the large radio on which the family received news of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Other rooms on the main floor include a guest bedroom with a bathroom that is tiled literally from floor to ceiling, a dining room with an old convent table overlooking the ocean, a kitchen with an early version of a dishwasher and a colorful tiled clock, and the main entrance with its imposing wood door and tiled entrance table.
There are four bedrooms and a small kitchenette upstairs. The master bedroom, where Mr. and Mrs. Adamson slept, is on the southwest corner of the house. It has a large tiled bathroom, and Mrs. Adamson's clothes and hat collection remain in her closet. Next to the master bedroom is the one designed for the Adamsons' son; its bathroom has detailed tiles depicting ships and nautical scenes. The girls' bedroom in the center facing the ocean has a tremendous view of the ocean and coast. These three bedrooms open onto a large upstairs patio with the home's most spectacular panoramic view of the ocean, the Malibu lagoon and the coast in both directions. The fourth bedroom upstairs is at the eastern end of the second floor and looks out of a large Dombeya tree that blooms with spectacular bright red flowers in the spring.
Another striking feature of the house is the tiled swimming pool set into the sand that was equipped with a special filtering and heating apparatus that permitted the pool to be filled with either salt or freshwater. The Los Angeles Times in 1930 noted that the unusual features made the "plunge one of the finest in the southland."
Read more about this topic: Adamson House, History
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