Image courtesy Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts website
Join the Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts (PSHA) for an interactive tour of one of the most beautiful houses in the Pasadena area.
The immersive experience, “Ultimate Viewpoints: 56,” is Pasadena Showcase’s new take on the annual Pasadena Showcase House of Design, a fundraiser event that in ordinary times draws thousands of visitors, most of them from around Southern California.
This time, by going virtual, the organizers hope to attract audiences from across the globe.
The event will take you virtually into the Locke House in Arcadia, a 1937 Federal-country estate designed by the acclaimed Gerard R. Colcord, who was known as “Hollywood society’s architect.”
“We’re so pleased to be back in Arcadia for the 56th Pasadena Showcase House of Design,” Vikki Sung, current president of Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts president, said. “This is a wonderful opportunity to highlight the beautiful Arcadia neighborhood, where music and the arts is a large part of the community.”
The Locke House, patterned after East Coast country homes, is nestled among mature oaks and sits on two park-like acres in the historic Santa Anita Oaks neighborhood of Arcadia. It appeared in the 1998 Academy Award winning film, “Gods and Monsters,” and was also featured prominently in Architectural Digest in 1939.
The approximately 6,700-square-foot, two-story home cost $30,000 to build, a tremendous sum for a new house during the Great Depression. It was built for Edmund Locke, Jr., who shared the house with his wife, Elizabeth, and their three young children. He had acquired the building site in 1936, purchasing five lots on both sides of Rancho Road from the Home for Women.
Born in 1903 in Los Angeles, Locke Jr. was the son of newspaper publisher Edmund Locke, Sr., and Elizabeth Carr Locke. By 1920, the family was living in Beverly Hills where Elizabeth was a founder of the Beverly Hills Women’s Club. The younger Locke attended Harvard, and in 1926 married Elizabeth Brown, the daughter of a developer of gold mines and oil wells.
The home also features an extraordinarily inviting pool and pool house, a barbecue room, bath and dressing room structure and a brick-floored screened porch at the rear of the house, added later.
An immersive experience, the virtual “Ultimate Viewpoints: 56” includes aerial video, drone-like perspectives, 360° “zoomable” interior views, video interviews with the designers and resources on the latest design trends.
The tour also includes the digital companion program, which includes some musical entertainment.
Tickets for the virtual tour are $17.50, which includes unlimited access for two weeks from the time of purchase. To purchase tickets, visit www.pasadenashowcase.org/
The Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts (PSHA) is an all-volunteer nonprofit founded in 1948, originally known as the Pasadena Junior Philharmonic Committee. The group adopted the Pasadena Showcase House of Design as its big benefit in 1965.
Now in its 56th year, the event is one of the oldest, largest and most successful house-and-garden tours in the nation. Showcase members donate the proceeds for art and music programs around Southern California.
