n the land. Unfortunately, many of their sightlines have been destroyed in recent years, when deed restrictions expired and allowed new buildings on the generously proportioned Murphey lots. The older houses are relatively modest by comparison to today’s palaces of conspicuous consumption, the notable exception being Joesler’s Grace Mansion, a 15,000-square-foot white-pillared fantasy made for a shipping heiress.
The architect also designed plenty of small homes, particularly in Sam Hughes, where he made two-bedroom, one-bath houses on spec, in what might be called Pueblo Bungalow style. And in addition to his churches, he tried his hand at a variety of public and commercial projects. The show has drawings for his 1941 Ghost Ranch on Miracle Mile, for a more modest motor court on South Stone Avenue, and for a proposed school for the Catalina foothills, all of them graced by attention to air and light.
There’s even a drawing of an exuberant gas station, apparently never constructed. It’s a tri-part building with a grand tile-topped central block flanked by side structures whose rooflines careen crazily downward like wings. More suited to an airport than an earthbound service station, this little gem seems ready to soar, into the sky and over the city that Joesler built.