Swedish Sconce vs. Greene and Greene ("Rape of the Blacker House")

But oh ain't the nighttime so lovely to see?

Don't all the nightbirds sing sweetly?

You'll never know how happy I'll be

When the sun's going down.


- Gillian Welch








Swedish Sconce vs. Greene and Greene.

But oh ain't the nighttime so lovely to see?

Don't all the nightbirds sing sweetly?

You'll never know how happy I'll be

When the sun's going down.


- Gillian Welch




"The Robert R. Blacker House house was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Max Hill in the 1950s. In 1985, recently widowed, Mrs. Hill sold the property to Barton English, a Princeton graduate and rancher from Texas, and Michael Carey, a prominent dealer of Arts and Crafts era antiques from New york City. Shortly after close of escrow, Mr. English hired a well known local antique dealer to remove more than forty eight original lighting fixtures for him. Later he also removed some of the leaded art glass doors, windows, and transom panels; only after commissioning a well known local studio to produce exact reproductions of the doors and windows that were to be removed.

Many of the original pieces were sold on the art market. This incident has been referred to as the "Rape of the Blacker House". National media attention to this sad sequence of events was facilitated through the efforts of Pasadena Heritage executive director Claire Bogaard. Articles appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and New York Times. Pasadena enacted an emergency ordinance, known as the Blacker Ordinance, which attempted to limit the ability of people owning homes designed by Greene and Greene to dismantle or otherwise destroy artifacts therein. Although not a direct prohibition, the ordinance delayed for up to one year any changes or alterations, subject to review of a committee of the Planning Commission. Conservation-minded citizens guarded the Blacker house day and night to keep further fixtures from being removed." (from here)


S A D N E S S (via here)