While he’s best known as the founder of Venice, real estate developer Abbott Kinney also made a significant impact on the landscape of the San Gabriel Valley. A dedicated conservationist and tree expert, Kinney served three years as chairman of the California Board of Forestry, and in 1892, with the help of the famed naturalist John Muir, established the San Gabriel Timberland Reserve, now known as the Angeles National Forest.
Kinney’s initial foray into California real estate investment was the purchase of a 550-acre parcel at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, on which he constructed an expansive ranch dubbed Kinneloa. After Kinney’s death in 1920, his estate was sold and subdivided into four tracts — Kinneloa Ranch, Kinneloa Estates, Kinneloa Canyon, and Kinneloa Mesa, the last of which being where you’ll find this nifty ’50s modern designed by architect Howard H. Morgridge for himself and his family, now on the market for the first time in half a century.
Sited atop a bluff on a generous lot of just over an acre, the Morgridge residence is a striking assemblage of textures, shapes, and angles. Completed in 1957, the home disperses five bedrooms, three baths, a sunken living room, an open-plan kitchen/dining area, and an office/den between its 3,750 square feet of living space.
A comparison of current listing photos with pictures taken by the legendary Julius Shulman in 1959, as well as a 1959 feature on the home in the Independent Star News reveals that it’s seen a fair amount of alterations, with the most obvious tells being its extensive terra-cotta floor tiling and teal/turquoise-heavy color palette. A room divider screen also appears to have been removed, along with an extended fireplace hearth and a courtyard reflecting pool. But there’s still plenty of original elements left to savor, including Bouquet Canyon stone walls, a mosaic-tiled fireplace, aggregated concrete flooring, open-beam ceilings, built-in dressers and…