Wallace House Reminiscent of 'Old World' Charm

by Jim Aten, Story Resident at 1134 West Culver

It all started with a knock on the door. My wife, Luz Marina was in the house working on its restoration. We had purchased the house 2 months prior, and we were already thinking maybe we had bit off more than we could chew. The man at the door was tall and slender, perhaps seventy, silver-haired and holding a muddled xerox copy in his hand. He explained he was the youngest son of the builder of our house, Frank B. Wallace. He had brought his research from Phoenix Public Library that showed the Arizona Republic newspaper article that appeared January 25, 1931, discussing the house in great detail. At that time, you build a house and move into it was newsworthy. She thanked him for his efforts and that evening my wife and I sat down and viewed this gem of information. The first step in treating a historic building is to identify those architectural features that give a building its visual character. We now had our blueprint to preserve and protect.

Frank B. Wallace (1888-1969) was an engineer who held several degrees from Syracuse University. Lucille Wallace (1897-1980) moved to Phoenix from Redlands California during WW I working for Western Union and Valley Bank until marrying Frank in 1930. Our house was built for his new wife and together they would raise a family of 3 boys. Blake, whom we already met and the twins Bill and Dick. They would reside at 1134 West Culver until 1942 when Frank, age 53, re-enlisted in the spirit of patriotism after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Lucille Wallace was an operatic soprano, giving many concerts in Phoenix and active in music circles, including the Music Club and Symphony Guild. She frequently entertained visiting musical performers and Frank had a baby grand piano installed in the living room near the curved window south side of the house for her and her singing performances.

Frank B. Wallace was responsible for Villa Verde's neighborhood development of ninety-one homes. Villa Verde historic district is just west of the State Fairgrounds. Wallace was entirely responsible for Villa Verde's vision, design, and execution.

Villa Verde is unique in that the original developer (Wallace) designed, built, and sold every house in the district. Lucille helped in the design and details inside and out as well. The Wallace's specialty were "artistic small homes" that were not just unique in appearance but also affordable. They were not just replicas of popular styles of the time, but variations on Bungalow, Ranch, and Revival themes. I believe he held a special place in his heart for the Cotswold Cottage. Frank had never stepped foot in England or the Cotswold region that evokes its name. He did love the unique nature of a roof that simulated the straw thatch roof of this English countryside. The first Cotswold Cottage was built in the Cotswold Hills of Gouchester, England in 1066. Our house of course is not that old, but you can see it comes from a long heritage. Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's mistress had one. The witch in Grimm's fairytale (1812) "Hansel and Gretel" lived in a Cotswold style house made of bread, cake, and sugar. No witch in our house, but it is a good fairy tale. The name is derived from "cot" meaning cottage and "wold" meaning wood, hence cottage in the wood. Well, no woods around here either, but for the Sonoran Desert it is a rare breed of architecture. Thus, our home at 1134 is one of maybe 10 "true" Cotswold Cottages in Metropolitan Phoenix and Frank B. Wallace built over half of them including the house he would reside with his new wife and family of 3 boys. In the textbook, "Historic Homes of Phoenix" ten features of a Cotswold Cottage are listed. 1134 W. Culver checks the box for each of those 10 features.

Six years passed when Blake reached out again with an unassuming request to tour the house with his brothers. Restoration now complete, the "house" had now become our "home". "Yes, of course, please come see your home." With them, they had the company of the girl next door, Dorothy. Dick and Dorothy had always liked one another growing up in the 1930's. Their lives went different directions, marriages came and went, families were raised. Now life comes full circle and 50+ years later they are together once again. During the tour I caught Dorothy more than once glancing, staring at the house next door. The afternoon passed quickly as stories and memories flooded the house.

The group gathered around the table in the kitchen breakfast nook we heard how Frank Wallace always the stickler for gun safety and management was showing the boys how to clean a 45 caliber handgun when suddenly the gun discharged and luckily sending the bullet skyward into the ceiling. Frank had forgotten two Golden Rules of cleaning a gun: 1. Never loaded and 2. Safety always on. As the story was told, all eyes slowing looked upwards. A small divot in the plaster ceiling, maybe an exit? I retrieved a spent bullet I had found in one of the flower beds. Could this be that bullet from long past? "No, wrong caliber" said Blake.

Bill and Dick are identical twins born in 1931. Bill is a West Point graduate, retiring from the Engineering Corps as a Captain after 10 years. He subsequently spent his career in Engineering at Garrett (now Honeywell) in Phoenix. Dick is an MIT graduate who spent his entire career in electronics at Sperry (now Honeywell), retiring as VP of Engineering in Albuquerque. Blake was born in 1933 and spent his career in the jet engine field after graduating from Caltech. He was VP of General Motors and retired as Chairman and CEO of Allison Engine Company, a Fortune 500 company. The boys recollect the first house built on the block was 1118 West Culver and they had nicknamed that house as the "Farmhouse" for some unknown reason. 1134 West Culver, built in 1930, became the second house established on this block of F.Q. Story.

Central Air conditioning did not arrive in Arizona until 1929 (Westward Ho Hotel) and 1931 (Fox Theatre), but size and cost kept homeowners from using it until the latter 1940s when a local company Goettl introduced central air conditioning for residential homes. Evaporative coolers became popular after WWII and by 1952, nearly 90% of Phoenix homes had an evaporative cooler.

Frank Wallace, however, preceded that era with his new home in Phoenix. Ever the clever engineer, he made the most with what he had. He designed the house at 1134 West Culver, and one of his design aspects was for those windows facing the west. Double hung windows on that side of the house only. He designed and built two large pockets below the sill of each window.

Lift the sill up and both sashes of the window could slide into the pockets. Why? More open window space, because the family would hang wet linen sheets outside each window on that side of the house during the unbearably hot summer nights to allow its evaporative qualities cool the home inside. We could not figure out what these pockets built into the wall below the sill were for until neighbor and window expert, David Stanton, figured out their design purpose. Frank's engineering background (note all three sons went into engineering fields for their careers) attempted to pioneer efforts into central air conditioning for the home. In the early 1930s, he tried a cooled water system, installing a large, wooden cooling tower on the west side of the house in which the water was cooled, essentially by evaporation, and circulated through the house. Another time, he created an ice cooled system in which air was blown over large blocks of ice in the basement and routed into the house. This was the time of ice boxes and milk men who delivered their wares to the houses. In any case, these systems didn't last long. The cooled water system leaked badly and probably was not very effective. The ice system was very effective, but prohibitively expensive.

The greatest satisfaction and compliment of this afternoon spent with Blake, Dick, Bill and Dorothy were delivered when all were saying their goodbyes. Blake pulled us aside and told us our restoration and preservation, was nothing short of miraculous. As a 9-year old he had not appreciated the fine details of the house. Restored were the cedar shingle curved roof, windows and hardware, mahogany doors and hardware, the original flooring (Louisiana oak, California redwood, multi-colored scored concrete flooring), and all the light fixtures and sconces in each room. Now, 22 years later, acknowledgments for our efforts of restoration-preservation include Cool Homes of Phoenix in Arizona Republic (2004), a short segment by Channel 12 News at Noon (2004), and an episode on HGTV, "Renovation Generation" (2005) and 5 Neighborhood Visual awards.

It all started with a knock on the door.