Samuel Freeman House

The Freeman House is located at 1962 Glencoe Way, a dead-end street{{cite news |last=Kanner |first=Diane |date=March 25, 1984 |title=Freeman House Deeded to USC: Hollywood House Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-freeman-house-deed/173489028/ |access-date=May 30, 2025 |work=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |pages=I25, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-freeman-house-deed/173489455/ I34] |id={{ProQuest|153761598}}}} in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California, United States.{{cite web |last=Beyette |first=Beverly |date=November 26, 2000 |title=A Hollywood Legend |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-nov-26-cl-57193-story.html |access-date=May 25, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |id={{pq|421581429}}}}{{cite book |last=Winter |first=Robert |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/An_Architectural_Guidebook_to_Los_Angele/WWl29hn0C9gC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=1962+Glencoe+Way+los+angeles&pg=PA177&printsec=frontcover |title=An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles |date=2009 |publisher=Gibbs Smith |isbn=978-1-4236-0893-6 |page= |access-date=May 26, 2025}} Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the house is placed on the side of a hill.{{harvnb|Gill|1987|ps=.|pages=281–282}} It occupies an irregular land lot sloping south toward the intersection of Franklin and Highland avenues, near Hollywood Boulevard.{{Harvnb|Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey|2017|ps=.|page=5}} Wright's nearly-contemporary John Storer House and Ennis House were also built on hilltop sites; the writer Robert C. Twombly wrote that this made the houses look "seemingly impenetrable" from the street.{{cite book |last=Twombly |first=Robert C. |url=https://archive.org/details/franklloydwright0000twom |title=Frank Lloyd Wright: His Life and His Architecture |date=1979 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-471-85797-6 |page=195 |url-access=subscription}} The lot covers a total of {{Convert|6802|ft2}};{{cite web |last=Simms |first=Demetrius |date=July 29, 2021 |title=This Historic Frank Lloyd Wright Home in LA Is a Designated Cultural Monument. It Can Be Yours for $4.25 Million. |url=https://robbreport.com/shelter/homes-for-sale/frank-lloyd-wright-freeman-house-la-1234627212/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=Robb Report}} the house occupies the northern corner of the lot.{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|page=68}}

Immediately to the south is the Hollywood United Methodist Church and the Villa Bonita apartment building. Additionally, Magic Castle and the Yamashiro Villa are located slightly farther to the west, and the Highland Towers Apartments is located to the east across Highland Avenue.{{cite web |title=Map Gallery Citywide |url=https://ladcp.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=bb34a3ae0beb4574aa6051c928899e01 |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=Los Angeles City Planning Department}} The surrounding neighborhood also has houses designed by architects such as Lloyd Wright and Rudolph Schindler (both proteges of Frank Lloyd Wright).{{cite web |last=Haithman |first=Diane |date=February 18, 1996 |title=Lost L.A. : Can It Be Made Wright Again?: The Sad State of Frank Lloyd Wright's '20s Hollywood Classic |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-02-18-tm-39367-story.html |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |id={{Pq|293204960}} |archive-date=July 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240712150152/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-02-18-tm-39367-story.html |url-status=live }} The segment of Glencoe Way abutting the house was established in 1922, several years after the neighborhood was subdivided and just before the house was built. The street had not been paved when construction started.{{Harvnb|Marks|2006|page=13|ps=.}}

The Freeman House is one of eight buildings that Frank Lloyd Wright designed in Greater Los Angeles,{{cite news |last=Enriquez |first=Sam |date=November 7, 1985 |title=Trustees Appeal L.A.'s Ban on Parties at Ennis-Brown House |work=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |page=5 |id={{ProQuest|292225199}}}}{{Cite news |date=1954-06-02 |title=Municipal Art Center in Barnsdall Park Opened |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-evening-citizen-news-municip/174556783/ |access-date=2025-06-15 |work=Los Angeles Evening Citizen News |pages=11}} alongside houses like the Millard House (La Miniatura), the Hollyhock House, the Storer House, and the Ennis House.{{cite web |last=Hart |first=Hugh |date=September 26, 2004 |title=When the answers just aren't concrete |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-sep-26-ca-hart26-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240705072814/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-sep-26-ca-hart26-story.html |archive-date=July 5, 2024 |access-date=May 17, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 }}{{Efn|Besides these houses, Wright's three other works in Greater Los Angeles are the Anderton Court Building in Beverly Hills, the Sturges House in Brentwood, and the Arch Oboler House's gatehouse on Mulholland Drive.}} The Ennis, Freeman, Millard, and Storer houses were the only textile block houses he designed in Los Angeles.{{Cite news |last=Ross |first=Kenneth |date=May 5, 1959 |title=Frank Lloyd Wright Left an L.A. Legacy |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-frank-lloyd-wright/162804604/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |work=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |pages=52}}{{Cite news |last=Giovannini |first=Joseph |date=April 24, 2005 |title=Falling Because of Water |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/arts/design/falling-because-of-water.html |access-date=May 16, 2025 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} According to the writer Hugh Hart, "Wright saw his Textile Block Method approach as an utterly modern, and democratic, expression of his organic architecture ideal." Few of his clients ended up commissioning textile-block designs, given the novelty of the construction method.{{Cite news |last=Lathe |first=Roger |date=1986-03-08 |title=Classic Restoration |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sacramento-bee-classic-restorationr/173701549/ |access-date=2025-06-02 |work=The Sacramento Bee |pages=CL6, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sacramento-bee-classic-restoration/173701998/ CL7], [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sacramento-bee-classic-restoration/173702029/ CL8]}} As The New York Times later said: "Aside from the free-spirited oil heiress Aline Barnsdall, whom he fought with constantly, his motley clients included a jewelry salesman [Samuel Freeman], a rare-book dealing widow [Alice Millard] and a failed doctor [John Storer]."

The Freeman House's style has been characterized as a blend of Islamic and Maya architecture.{{Cite news |date=March 27, 1984 |title=Preserving a Tradition |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-preserving-a-tradi/173189284/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |work=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |pages=24}} After designing the four textile-block houses, Wright went on to design various concrete-block buildings across the U.S.,{{cite web |last=Haithman |first=Diane |date=February 18, 1996 |title=Lost L.A.: Can It Be Made Wright Again? : The Sad State of Frank Lloyd Wright's '20s Hollywood Classic |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-02-18-tm-39367-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240712150152/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-02-18-tm-39367-story.html |archive-date=July 12, 2024 |access-date=May 22, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 }} including Usonian houses made of "Usonian Automatic" blocks.{{cite book |last=Heinz |first=Thomas A. |url=https://archive.org/details/franklloydwright00hein/page/24 |title=Frank Lloyd Wright |date=1994 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-85490-110-1 |page=30 |url-access=subscription}} The architect Jeffrey Chusid stated that the house's design had to encapsulate "the clearest, most efficient expression of [Wright's] ideas" due to the limited space available.

The house's massing consists of a detached garage and an L-shaped house,{{cite web |last=Ouroussoff |first=Nicolai |date=March 14, 1998 |title=Wright, Done Wrong |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-mar-14-ca-28653-story.html |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |id={{pq|421261772}}}} the latter of which has a largely cubic form with mostly-square floor slabs.{{harvnb|McCarter|1997|ps=.|page=179}} An open-air loggia originally connected the house and garage,{{harvnb|National Park Service|1971|ps=.|page=2}} though it was enclosed in the late 1920s or early 1930s.{{Harvnb|Marks|2006|page=25|ps=.}}{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|page=79}} The exterior is made of 12,000 concrete textile blocks.{{cite web |last=Lewis |first=Darcy |date=March 6, 2018 |title=Frank Lloyd Wright's Textile Block Houses Weave an Enduring Legacy |url=https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/artbound/the-warp-and-the-weft-frank-lloyd-wrights-textile-block-houses-weave-an-enduring-legacy |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=PBS SoCal}}{{cite web |date=June 16, 2017 |title=Samuel Freeman House |url=https://franklloydwright.org/site/samuel-freeman-house/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation}}{{Efn|Other sources give a figure of at least 11,000 blocks.}} The blocks are made of materials taken from the site, such as sand, which may have been the source of the blocks' buff-colored tint.{{Harvnb|Losch|2011|page=8|ps=.}}{{Harvnb|Chusid|1989|page=224|ps=.}} The typical block has square faces measuring {{Convert|16|x|16|in}} across.{{cite web |last=Betsky |first=Aaron |date=April 2, 1992 |title=Architecture: Freeman House Is a Victim of Its Own Splendid Daring |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-04-02-we-481-story.html |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035}}{{harvnb|McCarter|1997|ps=.|page=176}} Although each block is {{Convert|4|in}} deep, the interiors of the blocks are hollow, meaning that the layer of concrete in each block is at most {{Convert|2|in}} thick. Mortar joints are placed between the blocks, which are fastened to each other using loops of steel; the blocks also contain steel rods.{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|pages=43, 45}}{{Harvnb|Losch|2011|page=14|ps=.}} The "textile block" name is derived by the fact that the steel rods are integrated with the blocks to give the facade a knitted-together appearance.{{Cite news |last=O'Neill |first=Ruth |date=January 25, 2003 |title=An architectural star with true staying power |work=Financial Times |page=4 |id={{pq|248220218}}}}{{cite news |last=Head |first=Jeffrey |date=February 26, 2011 |title=Landmark Houses: Ennis house |work=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |page=E3 |id={{ProQuest|853804113}}}}

Some of the textile blocks are plain, while others are engraved with motifs.{{Harvnb|Marks|2006|page=16|ps=.}}{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|page=76}} The juxtaposition of plain and engraved blocks is the only ornamentation used on the house's facade. Since only one face of each engraved block contains decorations, the outer walls are made of two layers of blocks, with an air gap between them; this allowed both the interior and exterior faces of the walls to have engraved patterns.{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|page=45}}{{harvnb|McCarter|1997|ps=.|pages=176, 179}} The engraved blocks' decorations are variously cited as depicting the site layout,{{Harvnb|Marks|2006|page=17|ps=.}}{{Harvnb|Chusid|1989|page=144|ps=.}} an overlaid square and chevron, or a combination of the site plan and a eucalyptus tree.{{cite book |last=Dunham |first=Judith |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Details_of_Frank_Lloyd_Wright.html?id=-4CFQgAACAAJ&source=kp_book_description |title=Details of Frank Lloyd Wright: The California Work, 1909–1974 |last2=Wright |first2=Frank Lloyd |date=1994 |publisher=Thames and Hudson |isbn=978-0-500-34134-6 |page=59}}{{efn|{{harvnb|ps=|Sweeney|1994|page=76}}, denies that there is any evidence that the blocks were intended to depict an organic pattern like a eucalyptus tree.}} Sources disagree on how many types of blocks were used, although at least three types (a plain block and two variants of the engraved block) have been identified. The blocks on the southern facade are alternately protruded or recessed,{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|page=227}} and the blocks are laid in a more complex pattern as the facade ascends.{{Harvnb|Marks|2006|page=15|ps=.}} The facade also includes vertical piers with alternating plain and engraved concrete blocks. Other parts of the facade contain perforated concrete blocks. The textile blocks absorbed moisture easily and were prone to decay because of impurities that existed when the blocks were cast.{{harvnb|Secrest|1998|ps=.|page=291}}

Wrapping around the house's corners are two-story windows. The windows lack vertical mullions or other visible means of support at the corners,{{cite web |last=Miranda |first=Carolina A. |date=February 25, 2022 |title=USC sells Frank Lloyd Wright's Freeman House to private buyer |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-02-25/usc-sells-frank-lloyd-wrights-freeman-house-to-private-buyer |access-date=May 25, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |archive-date=November 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241128054620/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-02-25/usc-sells-frank-lloyd-wrights-freeman-house-to-private-buyer |url-status=live }}{{Harvnb|Milao et al.|2024|ps=.|page=10}}{{Cite journal |last=Serra Soriano |first=B. |last2=Díaz Segura |first2=A. |last3=Merí de la Maza |first3=R. |date=June 30, 2017 |title=Estudio y aplicación del sistema balloon frame a la industrialización de la vivienda: el caso de las American System-Built Houses de Frank Lloyd Wright |trans-title=Study and application of the balloon frame system to the industrialization of housing: the case of Frank Lloyd Wright's American System-Built Houses |url=https://informesdelaconstruccion.revistas.csic.es/index.php/informesdelaconstruccion/article/view/5839 |journal=Informes de la Construcción |language=es-ES |volume=69 |issue=546 |pages=e190 |doi=10.3989/ic.15.023 |issn=1988-3234}} and the glass panes on each side of the corner are instead joined to each other directly. Mullions do exist elsewhere within these windows and are placed {{Convert|16|in}} apart. The windows, which extend from the lower level's floor slab to the soffit beneath the roof,{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|page=72}} were intended to create an open effect, giving the illusion that there are no corners.{{Cite news |last=Graves |first=Pauline Berg |date=September 28, 1947 |title=This Is the Way The Story Began |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-this-is-the-waypa/173470891/ |access-date=May 30, 2025 |work=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |pages=8, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-this-is-the-way-th/173471072/ 9], [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-this-is-the-way/173471784/ 24]}} The Freeman House was one of Wright's first buildings to use such windows.{{harvnb|Gill|1987|ps=.|page=282}} The windows are interspersed between the concrete-block walls, which contain additional reinforcement. The primary facade along Glencoe Way generally lacks windows or other openings, which are instead clustered along the other facades.{{Harvnb|Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey|2017|ps=.|page=6}} The main entrance is hidden away behind a wall that surrounds the house's garden.

The Freeman House lacks a traditional foundation because Wright wanted the house to appear to grow from the site. Instead, it has textile-block retaining walls and interior walls. The house is susceptible to earthquake damage due to its hillside location and the loose soil underneath; the southern end of the house is especially vulnerable.

In the rear are balconies overlooking Highland Avenue and the Hollywood neighborhood. According to one source, the balconies were intended to "extend and enhance the openness of interior spaces".{{Harvnb|Milao et al.|2024|ps=.|page=11}} South of the house, a retaining wall encloses a terrace, which stands on a layer of fill. Wright's initial plans called for several rectangular terraces and a semicircular retaining wall, but these were not built.{{Harvnb|Chusid|1989|page=48|ps=.}} These plans also called for an interior partition wall on the lower level to be extended outside of the house, down a flight of stairs, and into the terraces. Due to a scarcity of open space, the roof was originally designed as a terrace, but it seems to have been sparsely used by the Freeman family.{{Harvnb|Marks|2006|page=14|ps=.}}{{Harvnb|Chusid|1989|page=21|ps=.}} The roof protrudes over the southern part of the house.{{Harvnb|Losch|2011|page=10|ps=.}} The roof originally leaked because it lacked a flashing, which was added shortly after the house's completion.

File:Samuel Freeman House, 1962 Glencoe Way, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA HABS CAL,19-LOSAN,62- (sheet 3 of 7).png

The house is variously cited as having {{Convert|2500|ft2}}{{Harvnb|Chusid|1989|page=9|ps=.}} or {{Convert|2884|ft2}},{{cite web |last=Hilburg |first=Jonathan |date=February 28, 2022 |title=Frank Lloyd Wright's Freeman House is sold to a preservation-minded developer |url=https://www.archpaper.com/2022/02/frank-lloyd-wright-la-freeman-house-sold-to-developer/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=The Architect's Newspaper}}{{Efn|Other sources give a significantly different figure of {{Convert|1200|ft2}} or {{convert|1500|ft2}}.}} which is split across two levels.{{Efn|One source cites a figure of three levels.}} The house has two bedrooms{{cite web |last=Nichols |first=Chris |date=July 29, 2021 |title=The Freeman House, One of L.A.'s Most Iconic Homes, Is for Sale |url=https://lamag.com/featured/freeman-house-for-sale |access-date=May 25, 2025 |website=LAmag – Culture, Food, Fashion, News & Los Angeles}} and was originally built with one bathroom; a second bathroom was added later on but was removed in a 2000 renovation. The interior is decorated with textile blocks bearing geometric motifs. Wright designed a small amount of furniture for the house, including two benches, shelves, and a dining table.{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|page=78}} The house mainly includes furniture designed by Wright apprentice Rudolph Schindler,{{Cite news |date=May 13, 1984 |title=Historic Frank Lloyd Wright house deeded to USC for study, restoration |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-breeze-historic-frank-lloyd-wr/173176849/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |work=The Daily Breeze |pages=28}} who created either 35{{Harvnb|Marks|2006|page=27|ps=.}}{{Harvnb|Chusid|1989|page=215|ps=.}} or 60 pieces for the house. Although some original furnishings such as lamps remained in the 1990s, other pieces such as bookcases and chairs have been removed.

Similar to other houses in Los Angeles with inverted floor plans, the kitchen and living–dining spaces are on the main floor, while the bedrooms are on the level below. The kitchen and bedrooms are small compared to contemporary houses. The house's entrance leads directly to a hallway that runs past the kitchen and living–dining space,{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|pages=75–76}} which in turn abuts the perforated blocks on the facade. Because the perforated blocks do not have lights, the corridor is dark at night. A stair leads from the entrance hall to the house's lower level.

There is a fireplace hearth on the living–dining room's northern wall, which is surrounded by textured blocks and flanked by benches with shelves. The southern wall leads to a balcony, and there are wrap-around windows at the room's corners; both of these features were later used in Wright's other structures. Due to the design of the windows, the corners of the upper-story floor slab are cantilevered.{{harvnb|McCarter|1997|ps=.|pages=179–180}} The center of the living–dining room has a hardwood floor, while the perimeter of the room's floor is made of concrete blocks. Two piers separate the southern part of the living–dining room from the rest of the space. The room's ceiling consists of wooden joists placed 16 inches apart, the same width as the window panes and the floorboards. Part of the room's ceiling is raised to create a clerestory, which is illuminated by perforated blocks. There are two large I-beams running north to south across the living–dining room's ceiling, dividing the room into thirds. The southern third of the room has a lower ceiling than the rest of the space.

Due to the site's steep slope, the northern half of the lower level is a below-grade basement, while the southern half is suspended above the hillside. The two bedrooms are on the south side of the house. The living–dining room's corner windows extend down into both of the lower-level bedrooms, which have concrete-block floors. There was originally a lounge connecting the bedrooms, which was removed by Schindler shortly after the house's completion. Aside from a fireplace on the north wall, the lounge was a narrow, dimly lit space. The lower level also includes closets for each bedroom, in addition to a bathroom. Under the garage was originally a storage room or laundry room, which has served as a guest suite since 1932. Beneath the southern half of the lower level is a mechanical crawl space surrounded by the house's foundation wall.

The Freeman House was one of multiple high-profile projects that Wright completed in the 1920s, along with his other Los Angeles houses and Tokyo's Imperial Hotel.{{Cite news |last=Krug |first=Nora |date=April 30, 2009 |title=Frank Lloyd Wright, Cover to Cover |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2009/04/30/frank-lloyd-wright-cover-to-cover/8fd45a5d-6f21-4e4c-b5f2-9861828e8492/ |access-date=May 19, 2025 |work=The Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}} Wright had received the commissions for the Freeman, Ennis, and Storer houses nearly simultaneously, shortly after he had completed La Miniatura.{{harvnb|Gill|1987|ps=.|page=272}}{{cite web |last=Finkel |first=Jori |date=August 27, 2010 |title=Column One: Dramatic, historic and prices slashed, yet no buyers are biting |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-aug-27-la-et-0827-wright-houses-20100827-50-story.html |access-date=May 18, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |archive-date=January 15, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250115065246/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-aug-27-la-et-0827-wright-houses-20100827-50-story.html |url-status=live }} The order in which the three houses was constructed is disputed.{{Efn|The order is unclear because the Freeman House was completed before the entire Ennis House was ready, but after part of the Ennis House had been opened. The Freeman House was completed in March 1925. The Ennis House's garage was finished in December 1924,{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|pages=90–91}} but the main part of the Ennis House was not done until August 1925.{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|page=94}}}} Wright's grandson Eric Lloyd Wright and Los Angeles Times reporter Charles Lockwood stated that the Freeman House was built last,{{cite news |last=Lockwood |first=Charles |date=January 30, 1983 |title=L.A. Homes Mark Architect's Most Turbulent Period |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-la-homes-mark-ar/173179376/ |access-date=May 26, 2025 |work=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |pages=G1, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-wright/173179457/ G6], [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-wright/173179478/ G7], [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-wright/173179565/ G8], [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-wright/173179589/ G9], [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-wright/173179636/ G10] |id={{ProQuest|153337610}}}} while other sources described the Freeman House as having been built before the Ennis House and after the Storer House.{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|page=79}}{{Cite magazine |last=Frank |first=Scott |date=Fall 1997 |title=The Frame of Life: Mediating Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis-Brown Residence |url=https://cinema.usc.edu/assets/099/15943.pdf |work=The Spectator |pages=84 |volume=18 |issue=1 |id={{pq|1491098727}}}} Prior to constructing the textile-block houses, Wright had used pre-Columbian motifs in other structures such as Chicago's Midway Gardens and Richland Center, Wisconsin's German Warehouse.{{cite book |last=Gebhard |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/romanzacaliforni0000gebh |title=The California Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright |last2=Wright |first2=Frank Lloyd |date=1997 |publisher=Chronicle Books |isbn=978-0-8118-1495-9 |page=23 |url-access=subscription}}

File:Samuel Freeman House, 1962 Glencoe Way, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA HABS CAL,19-LOSAN,62- (sheet 2 of 7) (cropped).tif of the exterior|alt=Isometric view of the exterior as visualized from the southeast]]

The house was commissioned for the Freeman family, a Jewish family from Los Angeles.{{cite magazine |last=Goodwin |first=George M. |date=September 1, 1998 |title=Wright's Beth Sholom Synagogue |work=American Jewish History |page=325 |volume=86 |issue=3 |id={{pq|1296086124}}}} Its first owners were Sam Freeman, a jewelry salesman, and his wife Harriet, a performing artist who worked as a teacher. Sam's Hungarian-immigrant family had moved to California from New York City when he was a teenager, while Harriet had been born to Lithuanian immigrants in Omaha, Nebraska. They had married in 1921, when Sam was 32 and Harriet was 31. The historian Robert Sweeney described the Freemans as the least wealthy of the four clients for whom Wright had designed textile-block houses in Los Angeles. Both Sam and Harriet were actively involved with left-wing political causes,{{Harvnb|Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey|2017|ps=.|page=7}}{{Harvnb|Marks|2006|page=19|ps=.}} and they were sometimes described as communists.{{harvnb|Gill|1987|ps=.|page=281}} Despite their long marriage, the couple did things separately, and each spouse had their own friends.{{Harvnb|Marks|2006|page=20|ps=.}} The Los Angeles Times described Sam and Harriet as an "odd couple" who reportedly could spend years not talking to one another.

The Freemans may have heard about Wright from Harriet's sister Leah Lovell, an acquaintance of Aline Barnsdall, who owned the then-recently-completed Hollyhock House.{{Harvnb|Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey|2017|ps=.|pages=6–7}} According to the scholar Dean Harris, the Freemans may have liked Wright specifically for his polemical way of speaking. Wright completed a set of drawings during January 1924;{{Harvnb|Marks|2006|page=11|ps=.}} the initial plans called for a structure with cantilevered design elements, such as a roof and floor, extending outward from vertical concrete piers. The next month, Wright made technical modifications to the plans.{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|pages=68, 72}} The Freeman family initially intended to spend $10,000 on the house,{{cite web |last=Tuohy |first=Jennifer Pattison |date=March 13, 2019 |title=Thieves Stole $200k Worth of Pieces from Frank Lloyd Wright's Freeman House |url=https://www.dwell.com/article/freeman-house-frank-lloyd-wright-furniture-stolen-7e416ced |access-date=May 25, 2025 |website=Dwell}} and Sam Freeman and Wright signed a contract on January 26, 1924. The Freemans set aside $9,100 for construction,{{Harvnb|Chusid|1989|page=12|ps=.}} and another $900 went toward Wright's architectural commission. The Freemans hired H. J. Wolff as the house's contractor on January 29, but Wolff never did any work on the house. Instead, work was delegated to Frank's son Lloyd;{{harvnb|Secrest|1998|ps=.|page=313}}{{Cite magazine |last=Burns |first=E. Bradford |date=Nov 1981 |title=The Maya Imprint on Los Angeles |magazine=Americas |page=44 |volume=33 |issue=11–12 |id={{ProQuest|1797164712}}}} the Freemans claimed that there were various delays as a result of Lloyd's involvement.

Frank signed another contract on February 26, agreeing to pay for any cost overruns should the project exceed its $10,000 budget. The new-building permit was issued on April 8.{{cite web |date=April 8, 1924 |title=Document Report: Document Number(s) 1924LA17362 |url=https://ladbsdoc.lacity.org/IDISPublic_Records/idis/Report.aspx?Record_Id=7070252&Image=Hidden&ImageToOpen= |access-date=May 23, 2025 |website=City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety}} To create the textile blocks, workers mixed granite, sand, gravel, and water,{{cite web |last=Ayoubi |first=Ayda |date=July 2, 2018 |title=Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House is Back on the Market |url=https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/buildings/frank-lloyd-wrights-ennis-house-is-back-on-the-market_o |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221011204907/https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/buildings/frank-lloyd-wrights-ennis-house-is-back-on-the-market_o |archive-date=October 11, 2022 |access-date=May 19, 2025 |website=Architect}} and the resulting aggregate was then blended with Portland cement at a 4:1 ratio.{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|page=59}} The mixture was then blended with water and stirred until the mixture could stand up on its own. This material was then cast into aluminum molds, and the blocks were removed from the molds and left moist for weeks.{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|page=62}} Two molds, one a mirror image of the other, were used to produce the designs on the blocks; the molds measured {{convert|17+7/8|in}} square and {{convert|4+7/8|in}} thick.{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|page=73}} Byron Vandegrift manufactured many of the blocks on his own, sometimes constructing them by hand. Deliveries of materials were complicated by that fact that Glencoe Way was unpaved. Frank wrote to his son in September 1924, telling him that the land survey was flawed, and he asked Lloyd the next month to request more money from the Freemans. Lloyd responded that Sam Freeman did not have enough money, and by January 1925, work had stopped due to the Freemans' inability to pay.{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|pages=74–75}} Wright blamed delays in the construction of the Freeman House and his other textile-block houses for increasing his already-considerable debt.{{harvnb|Gill|1987|ps=.|page=283}}

Contractors ended up placing 16 liens on the building.{{harvnb|Sweeney|1994|ps=.|page=75}} Wright helped Sam settle some of the liens, and Harriet later said that Sam eventually paid off the other liens. On March 23, 1925, Wright filed a notice of completion to indicate that all major work was finished. As with Wright's other textile-block buildings, the construction cost significantly exceeded its original budget because of the unusual construction methods that were used. The final cost is variously cited as $23,000{{Cite news |date=September 13, 1992 |title=Wright-designed home envisions how the 'middle-class' should live |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-press-tribune-wright-designed-home-e/173469573/ |access-date=May 30, 2025 |work=The Press-Tribune |pages=19}} or $25,000, and the amount owed to Wright was quoted as $21,888.17. The quantity and cost of the blocks had both increased; although Wright had initially anticipated that the house would use 9,000 blocks each costing $0.30, it ended up using at least 11,000 blocks each costing $0.66.{{Harvnb|Losch|2011|page=4|ps=.}} Sam later recalled that their friends regarded the house as outlandish and that "several carpenters actually walked off the job, because they didn't like the look of it".{{Cite news |last=Lockwood |first=Charles |date=December 2, 1984 |title=Searching Out Wright's Imprint in Los Angeles |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/02/travel/searching-out-wright-s-imprint-in-los-angeles.html |access-date=May 23, 2025 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

Despite their different social circles, and amid rumors that Harriet and Schindler were romantically involved, the Freemans occupied the house for five decades. Sam allegedly wanted to move out of the house but was loath to divorce Harriet.{{Harvnb|Chusid|1989|pages=19, 36|ps=.}} The house was used for avant-garde salons, hosting many meetings of the Freemans' friend group over the years. The Freemans hosted several events for their friends, such as a wedding reception for the dancer Bella Lewitzky and another reception for the dancer Martha Graham. Other individuals who spent significant periods of time there included Schindler, Rudi Gernreich, Jean Negulesco, Galka Scheyer, Edward Weston, and Fritz Zwicky.{{Harvnb|Marks|2006|page=23|ps=.}}{{Harvnb|Chusid|1989|page=13|ps=.}} During the 1950s, it hosted politically left-leaning individuals blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee.{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Donald Leslie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qzh2MGebNtcC&q=%22freeman+house%22+blacklisted&pg=PA35 |title=On Frank Lloyd Wright's Concrete Adobe |date=2013 |isbn=9781409428176 |access-date=March 15, 2014}} The house's guest apartment was rented out to figures such as the musician Xavier Cugat, in addition to unemployed actors (who reportedly included Clark Gable{{cite web |last=Walker |first=Alissa |date=June 8, 2017 |title=Frank Lloyd Wright's forgotten Hollywood sandcastle |url=https://archive.curbed.com/2017/6/8/15742110/samuel-freeman-house-frank-lloyd-wright-los-angeles |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=Curbed}}) and blacklisted individuals.

Almost immediately after moving in, the Freemans found that the roofs were leaking and that the rebar in the concrete blocks was rusting; the roof leaks were attributed in part to a lack of drains. After using various pots and pans to catch the leaks, the Freemans asked Schindler to help fix the house. The Freemans subsequently patched the leaking roof and added metal flashing on the roof. Further complicating matters, the facade decayed extensively due to moisture problems aggravated by defects in the original construction,{{Cite news |last=Seidenbaum |first=Art |date=December 5, 1965 |title=The Master Revisited |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/tampa-bay-times-the-master-revisitedart/173469415/ |access-date=May 30, 2025 |work=Tampa Bay Times |pages=1F, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/tampa-bay-times-the-master-revisited/173469364/ 4F] |archive-date=June 5, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250605171058/https://www.newspapers.com/article/tampa-bay-times-the-master-revisitedart/173469415/ |url-status=live }} as the blocks were inconsistent in quality. For several years, they lacked the money to buy real furniture, so they instead sat on cardboard boxes. Eventually, they hired Schindler to design the furniture. At one point, Wright drove by the house unannounced, saw the flashing, and angrily asked the Freemans "What have you done to my house?". The architect was reportedly even more aghast at seeing Schindler's furniture in the house. At other points, Wright had suggested several design changes such as a wooden ceiling and art-glass partition screens, but these were not implemented.{{Harvnb|Chusid|1989|pages=50, 142|ps=.}}

File:Samuel Freeman House (52088479987).jpg

Over the years, Schindler devised multiple ad hoc solutions for the house's issues. Schindler was rehired to combine the lower-level lounge with one of the bedrooms {{Circa}} 1928.{{Harvnb|Marks|2006|page=26|ps=.}} The guest bedroom became Sam's private apartment, with a kitchenette, while the bedroom originally used by both Freemans became Harriet's alone. An acacia tree and boulders were added outside the house for extra privacy.{{Harvnb|Chusid|1989|page=98|ps=.}} In 1932, Schindler remodeled the room behind the garage, converting that space into a guest apartment.{{Harvnb|Chusid|1989|page=93|ps=.}} Around this time, a bathroom was added on the east side of the lower level, and the outdoor loggia was also enclosed. Sam retired in 1938 after receiving a substantial inheritance, and Schindler added heaters and modified the windows and dining table that year.{{Harvnb|Marks|2006|pages=26–27|ps=.}}{{Harvnb|Chusid|1989|page=210|ps=.}} Schindler also added shelves in the living area and installing plywood panels between the living–dining room and kitchen. The house's swimming pool became a garden in the mid-20th century.{{Harvnb|Chusid|1989|page=138|ps=.}} Additional changes to the furniture, windows, and roof were made in the 1950s,{{Harvnb|Chusid|1989|pages=99, 189|ps=.}} and the kitchen's windows and work table were modified in 1955.{{Harvnb|Marks|2006|page=28|ps=.}}

Gregory Ain and John Lautner were also hired to modify the house over the years. Robert Clark renovated the kitchen in the late 1950s, and Lautner replaced the corner windows with steel-framed units at some point later on. The interiors were also repainted, and the doors were fixed throughout the years. The Los Angeles city government issued a building-alteration permit in 1980 for the installation of an elevator in the house,{{cite web |date=August 19, 1980 |title=Document Report: Document Number(s) 1980LA08614 |url=https://ladbsdoc.lacity.org/IDISPublic_Records/idis/ImageMain.aspx?DocIds={c57ae872-0520-4838-877a-5c54cf598791}, |access-date=May 23, 2025 |website=City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety}} which was completed in 1982 for Harriet, whose mobility was decreasing. Sam lived in the house for the rest of his life; sources disagree on whether he died in 1978, 1980,{{harvnb|Gill|1987|ps=.|pages=282–283}} or 1981. Harriet Freeman also lived there until her own death in 1986. The couple had no children to whom they could bequeath the property, and their two nephews did not want it.

In 1984, Harriet gave the house to the University of Southern California's (USC) School of Architecture, partly because the university had helped restore the Gamble House in Pasadena. She also gave USC $200,000 toward the house's restoration, and USC agreed to retain the Schindler–designed furniture as part of the donation.{{cite web |last=Haithman |first=Diane |date=February 18, 1996 |title=Lost L.A. : Can It Be Made Wright Again?: The Sad State of Frank Lloyd Wright's '20s Hollywood Classic |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-02-18-tm-39367-story.html |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |archive-date=July 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240712150152/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-02-18-tm-39367-story.html |url-status=live }} At the time, USC planned to raise another $500,000 for renovation, and it planned to use the house as a seminar space and a retreat for visiting architects. The building remained vacant, and the retreat plans did not come to pass. Due to various structural issues such as a leaky roof and damaged walls, the house was boarded up, and neighbors complained that the vacant house attracted trespassers. After the Getty Foundation announced in 1988 that it would give up to $320,000 per building for restoration projects in Los Angeles,{{Cite news |date=April 22, 1988 |title=Real Estate Briefs |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/potomac-news-real-estate-briefs/173048675/ |access-date=May 24, 2025 |work=Potomac News |pages=40}}{{cite news |last=Kaplan |first=Sam Hall |date=April 18, 1988 |title=Getty Trust to Make Landmark Grants |work=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |page=1 |id={{ProQuest|292850843}}}} USC received a $35,000 Getty grant to conduct studies and create drawings for the house's restoration.{{cite web |last=Kaplan |first=Sam Hall |date=December 20, 1988 |title=3 Getty Grants to Preserve Architecture |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-20-ca-674-story.html |access-date=May 24, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |archive-date=December 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241212105017/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-20-ca-674-story.html |url-status=live }} Martin Weil, who was also involved with the restoration of the Hollyhock and Storer houses, helped design the Freeman House's restoration.{{cite web |last=Whiteson |first=Leon |date=May 2, 1989 |title=Architecture : Finding the Wright Stuff for a Hollyhock House Remake |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-05-02-vw-2542-story.html |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035}}

A reporter at the Los Angeles Times wrote in the early 1990s that "Terraces are falling down the hillside, walls bulge and whole pieces of the house are separating from one another", in part due to flaws in its design. USC began providing tours of the house on Saturdays in 1992.{{Cite news |date=September 20, 1992 |title=Frank Lloyd Wright home open for tours |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-californian-frank-lloyd-wright-home/173469624/ |access-date=May 30, 2025 |work=The Californian |pages=19}} The tours, which were intended to raise $1.6 million for renovations, marked the first time the house was ever opened to the general public. The Freeman House also hosted events such as a 1996 reception where Bella Lewitzky announced the disbanding of her dance company.{{cite web |last=Segal |first=Lewis |date=April 19, 1995 |title=A Time to Celebrate Change : Bella Lewitzky Will Dissolve Her Dance Troupe, but First She Plans to Commemorate Her Career in '96–97 Season |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-04-19-ca-56390-story.html |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035}} The house sustained even more severe damage after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.{{Cite news |last=Rice |first=Lynette |date=January 17, 1995 |title=Historic Buildings Suffered Damage |work=Los Angeles Daily News |page=N.33 |id={{pq|281461344}}}} Wooden shoring had to be added to the cracked walls; the interiors were water-damaged or covered with soot; and the textile blocks had rusted to the extent that some of the metal had popped out. USC preservationists also said that the house was not adequately reinforced and that the steel rebar was rusting. The house's curator at the time claimed that he could spray the facade at full blast all day "and not have a drop of water hit the ground". Joel Silver, who had considered buying the house before USC took over, criticized the university's restoration as insufficient, a complaint shared by several neighbors. The house was also reportedly neglected; one neighbor claimed that the house's doors were often unlocked or even wide open.{{cite web |last=Walker |first=Alissa |date=August 7, 2019 |title=Historic Arroyo del Rey will not be gifted to USC |url=https://la.curbed.com/2019/8/7/20754304/arroyo-del-rey-house-king-usc |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=Curbed LA}}

By 1996, USC had spent another $400,000 just stabilizing the structure, in addition to $40,000 per year in operating costs. Jeffrey Chusid, the house's director, moved out after resigning in 1997. USC requested $3.6 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during the late 1990s. The agency offered a $852,000 loan, which would have paid for foundation, facade, and stair repairs, but USC initially rejected the loan due to concerns that the funding would not pay for a full renovation. The university later agreed to take the loan and spend $500,000 of its own money as well. A full renovation of the building had been postponed due to funding uncertainties.{{Cite news |last=Werner |first=Erica |date=April 9, 2000 |title=Wright's famed Hollyhock House to shut down for repairs |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/desert-dispatch-wrights-famed-hollyhock/162672097/ |access-date=January 10, 2025 |work=Desert Dispatch |pages=A6 |agency=Associated Press}}{{Cite news |last=Eakin |first=Hugh |date=August 14, 2005 |title=Fixer-Uppers That Need Love and Concrete |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/arts/design/fixeruppers-that-need-love-and-concrete.html |access-date=May 30, 2025 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} Harriet's original $200,000 bequest had long since been used up, and USC did not want to sell the building because any new owner could not take over the FEMA loan. Though the house stopped offering public tours, it continued to be occupied by various USC architecture students. Robert Timme, the USC School of Architecture's dean, offered to sell the house to anyone with the means to fix it.

The Freeman House repair project experienced additional difficulties and delays in the 21st century.{{cite magazine |last=Loomis |first=John A. |date=Sep 2003 |title=UC Berkeley gets Havens House |work=Architecture: The AIA Journal |page=21 |volume=92 |issue=9 |id={{pq|227813607}}}} In 2000, workers began drilling 23 holes measuring up to {{Convert|28|ft}} deep, so they could install caissons to stabilize the house. USC moved the house's furnishings, including furniture and broken tiles to storage to prepare for the project. FEMA granted USC $750,000 for emergency repairs, and the Getty Trust provided another $60,000 to study the replacement of the blocks; the rest of the project was funded by USC. The stabilization work was completed in 2002, and the roof was replaced that year. Subsequently, USC students began replacing damaged blocks with newly-cast replicas. Plain concrete blocks were temporarily installed while the original blocks were being replaced or restored. Only one of the two original aluminum molds still existed, so Los Angeles Trade–Technical College students used computer-aided design software to create a replica of the other mold. In the meantime, USC officials debated how faithfully the house should be restored, and there were proposals to remove the Schindler-designed furniture.{{Cite magazine |last=Sloane |first=Barry |date=May 1, 2001 |title=City of Angles |work=Artforum International |pages=153–158 |volume=39 |issue=9 |id={{Pq|2574700424}}}}

Initial restoration work was finished in 2005;{{cite web |last=Gluck |first=Marissa |date=December 3, 2008 |title=Freeman House Restoration: What the Hell Is Taking So Long? |url=https://la.curbed.com/2008/12/3/10552340/freeman-house-restoration-what-the-hell-is-taking-so-long |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=Curbed LA |archive-date=February 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190204231148/https://la.curbed.com/2008/12/3/10552340/freeman-house-restoration-what-the-hell-is-taking-so-long |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last=Villa |first=Angelica |date=February 28, 2022 |title=USC Sells Frank Lloyd Wright House in Deal to Secure Preservation |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/usc-sells-frank-lloyd-wright-samuel-house-1234620447/ |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=ARTnews}} FEMA had granted $901,000 in total, while USC had raised another $1.5 million. The house continued to leak even after the roof was replaced. After the initial work was completed, USC undertook a more substantial renovation of the building, which was planned to last a decade. Work proceeded slowly due to a lack of funding,{{cite web |last=Finkel |first=Jori |date=August 27, 2010 |title=Column One: Dramatic, historic and prices slashed, yet no buyers are biting |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-aug-27-la-et-0827-wright-houses-20100827-50-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250115065246/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-aug-27-la-et-0827-wright-houses-20100827-50-story.html |archive-date=January 15, 2025 |access-date=May 18, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 }} as well as changes in USC's leadership. In the meantime, USC gave tours and used the house as a construction laboratory. A USC official said in 2010 that workers were still trying to replace several hundred blocks and that they were still trying to determine the ideal ratios of materials for each block.

At some point in mid-2012, a pair of cast iron and brass floor lamps designed by Wright, as well as a cushioned folding chair and a tea cart designed by Schindler, had been stolen from a storage facility where they were placed after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.{{cite web |last=Tuohy |first=Jennifer Pattison |date=March 13, 2019 |title=Thieves Stole $200k Worth of Pieces from Frank Lloyd Wright's Freeman House |url=https://www.dwell.com/article/freeman-house-frank-lloyd-wright-furniture-stolen-7e416ced |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=Dwell |archive-date=September 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928161157/https://www.dwell.com/article/freeman-house-frank-lloyd-wright-furniture-stolen-7e416ced |url-status=live }} Although an employee noticed the theft in September 2012, it was not publicly reported, the Los Angeles Police Department did not receive a report of the theft until 2019,{{cite web |last=Ryan |first=Harriet |last2=Hamilton |first2=Matt |date=February 3, 2019 |title=Must Reads: Thieves stole architectural gems from USC in a heist that remained hidden for years |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-architecture-gems-stolen-usc-mystery-20190203-htmlstory.html |access-date=May 26, 2025 |website=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |archive-date=January 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200103130207/https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-architecture-gems-stolen-usc-mystery-20190203-htmlstory.html |url-status=live }} after a concrete block from the house was sold in an unrelated event in Chicago. The news of the theft prompted concerns about whether USC was properly maintaining the Freeman House.{{cite web |last=Walker |first=Alissa |date=February 11, 2019 |title=What is USC doing to care for LA's most important architecture? |url=https://la.curbed.com/2019/2/11/18217152/freeman-house-usc-frank-lloyd-wright-gamble-house |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=Curbed LA}} At the time, the house was still closed to the public and had no permanent director. The Los Angeles Times described the house as having "splintered wooden beams, peeling paint and gaps in the walls", and it was hard to visit the house in any case, as the neighboring section of Glencoe Way had limited parking and was a dead-end road.

File:Samuel Freeman House (50653706507).jpg

USC placed the house for sale in 2021 for $4.25 million. By then, the university was focusing on archival collections instead of house restorations, having given up the Gamble House two years previously. The asking price of the house was later reduced to $3.25 million. The next year, USC sold the house for $1.8 million to the real-estate developer Richard Weintraub. The low purchase price was attributed to the fact that the house still needed numerous repairs. The transaction was the first time in the house's history that it had been sold, as the only other change of ownership (when USC acquired the building) had been a donation.{{cite web |last=Davies |first=Rachel |date=August 10, 2021 |title=The Frank Lloyd Wright–Designed Freeman House in L.A. Is Listed for $4.25 Million |url=https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/frank-lloyd-wright-freeman-house-listed |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=Architectural Digest |archive-date=June 4, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250604183656/https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/frank-lloyd-wright-freeman-house-listed |url-status=live }} The terms of the sale included a easement preserving much of the existing design features, and Weintraub was also required to open the house for public tours at least four times annually.

A writer for the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1947 that the Freeman House had "lost nothing in desirability with the passage of time", in spite of common concerns about modern architecture. John Pastier stated in 1974 that the Freeman House and Wright's other textile-block designs in Los Angeles "successfully demonstrate Wright's special powers of expression and innovation".{{Cite news |last=Pastier |first=John |date=June 2, 1974 |title=What Wright Hath Wrought |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-what-wright-hath-w/22190164/ |access-date=January 16, 2025 |work=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |pages=1, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-what-hath-wright-w/22190083/ 76], [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-what-hath-wright-w/22190109/ 77] |archive-date=January 19, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250119053345/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-what-wright-hath-w/22190164/ |url-status=live }} Aaron Betsky wrote in 1992 that "Everywhere you go, you are made aware of the site", because Wright had arranged the interior so as to subtly guide visitors in various directions. Observers have also written about the contrast between bright and dark spaces throughout the house.

One of Wright's biographers, Brendan Gill, characterized the house as "an experiment in vertical cubage". The architectural writer Kathryn Smith described the Freeman House as among Wright's 20 most historically significant projects, calling it "the missing link between two World Heritage sites: Taliesin and Fallingwater". The historian Robert Winter, in a guidebook about Los Angeles architecture, said: "To have seen the Freeman House above the Methodist Church is to have reached Mecca!", in reference to the church directly south of the house. The writer Robert Sweeney described the design as flawed in several respects but that the architectural features "combine to produce an architecture that anticipates the future, rather than recalling the past". Another Wright historian, Robert McCarter, wrote that the Freeman House was the culmination of Wright's efforts to resolve "the spatial and constructive forms inherent" in his textile-block houses. The biographer Meryle Secrest wrote that all of Wright's textile-block houses were "monumental, aloof and irresistibly Mayan in feeling".{{harvnb|Secrest|1998|ps=.|page=289}}

Unlike Wright's other houses, the Freeman House has not been depicted in many works of media, despite its proximity to Hollywood. An exhibit about Wright's Los Angeles designs, including the Freeman House, was hosted at Barnsdall Art Park in 1988.{{cite news |last=Kaplan |first=Sam Hall |date=February 6, 1988 |title=Wright Stuff-In and Out of the Gallery |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-wright-stuff-in-an/173469055/ |access-date=May 30, 2025 |work=Los Angeles Times |issn=0458-3035 |page=4 |id={{ProQuest|292731441}} |archive-date=June 5, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250605133128/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-wright-stuff-in-an/173469055/ |url-status=live }} Jeffrey Chusid, the house's onetime director, wrote the book Saving Wright in 2011, detailing the house's development and history.{{cite journal |last=Siry |first=Joseph |date=July 31, 2013 |title=Saving Wright: The Freeman House and the Preservation of Meaning, Materials, and Modernity by Jeffrey M. Chusid (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/23/article/515258 |journal=Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=140–142 |issn=1934-6832 |access-date=May 30, 2025}} In addition, a 3,200-page, multi-volume set of books published in 2014 documented a five-year program of studying the history and condition of the house.{{cite web |url=http://www.grahamfoundation.org/grantees/3956-freeman-house-document-collection |website=Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts |title=Freeman House Archive Publication |access-date=May 6, 2017 |archive-date=February 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190204014355/http://www.grahamfoundation.org/grantees/3956-freeman-house-document-collection |url-status=live }} The house is designated as California Historical Landmark number 1011.{{cite web |last=Delja |first=Beatrice |title=CHL # 1011.10 Freeman House Los Angeles |url=https://www.californiahistoricallandmarks.com/landmarks/chl-1011.10 |access-date=May 30, 2025 |website=California Historical Landmarks |archive-date=June 4, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250604183450/https://www.californiahistoricallandmarks.com/landmarks/chl-1011.10 |url-status=live }} It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places and labeled as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

• List of Frank Lloyd Wright works
• Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in Hollywood
• List of Registered Historic Places in Los Angeles
• Hollywood Heights, Los Angeles

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Chusid |first=Jeffrey M |title=Historic Structure Report: Samuel and Harriet Freeman House, Hollywood, California, Frank Lloyd Wright, 1924 |publisher=USC School of Architecture |publication-place= |date=1989 |isbn=}}
• {{cite book |last=Gill |first=Brendan |url=https://archive.org/details/manymaskslifeoff0000gill_t0l6 |title=Many Masks: A Life of Frank Lloyd Wright |date=1987 |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons |isbn=978-0-399-13232-2 |publication-place=New York |page= |url-access=registration}}
• {{cite report |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/12931616-72ab-44ef-a3f4-18963abd69e7 |title=Historic Structures Report: Samuel Freeman House |date=October 14, 1971 |publisher=National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service |ref={{harvid|National Park Service|1971}}}}
• {{Cite report |url=https://planning.lacity.gov/odocument/c6f7f7ba-efc3-4ffd-8cc4-691ea56ba171/Hill%20Houses_1920-1985.pdf |title=Los Angeles Citywide Historic Context Statement; Context: Architecture and Engineering, 1850–1985; Sub-context: Engineering; Theme: Technological Developments in Construction; Subtheme: Hill Houses, 1920–1985 |date=July 2017 |publisher=Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey |ref={{Harvid|Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey|2017}}}}
• {{Cite dissertation |last=Losch |first=Edward D. |title=Frank Lloyd Wright's Textile Block System: The Inspiration for a Sustainable Future |publisher=Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute |url=https://www.pci.org/PCI_Docs/Papers/2011/Frank-Lloyd-Wright's-Textile-Block-System-the-Inspiration-for-a-Sustainable-Future.pdf |year=2011}}
• {{cite report |last=Marks |first=Judith Ruth |title=The Freeman House: A Case for the Expansion of Significance |date=Aug 2006 |publisher=University of Southern California |url=https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/C.aspx?VP3=pdfviewer&rid=2A3BF1L0TYZC}}
• {{cite book |last=McCarter |first=Robert |title=Frank Lloyd Wright |date=1997 |publisher=Phaidon Press |isbn=978-0-7148-3148-0 |publication-place=London |pages=}}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Milão |first1=Susana |last2=Ribeiro |first2=Telma |last3=Neves |first3=Isabel Clara |last4=Lima |first4=Ana |last5=Pacheco |first5=Luís Paulo |date=September 21, 2024 |title=20th-Century World Built Heritage Facing Water: Conservation of Fallingwater and Boa Nova Tea House |journal=Buildings |language=en |volume=14 |issue=9 |pages=3004 |doi=10.3390/buildings14093004 |issn=2075-5309 |id={{ProQuest|3110410666}} |ref={{Harvid|Milao et al.|2024}} |doi-access=free}}
• {{cite book |last=Secrest |first=Meryle |url=https://archive.org/details/franklloydwright00secr/ |title=Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-226-74414-8 |url-access=subscription}}
• {{cite book |last=Sweeney |first=Robert Lawrence |url= |title=Wright in Hollywood: Visions of a New Architecture |date=1994 |publisher=Architectural History Foundation |isbn=978-0-262-19337-5}}

• {{cite book |last=Chusid |first=Jeffrey M |title=Saving Wright, the Freeman House and the Preservation of Meaning, Materials, and Modernity |publisher=National Geographic Books |publication-place=New York |date=November 15, 2011 |isbn=978-0-393-73302-0}}
• {{Cite Wright Companion}} (S.216)
• {{cite book |last=Wilson |first=Mark Anthony |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Frank_Lloyd_Wright_on_the_West_Coast/yUgWBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |title=Frank Lloyd Wright on the West Coast |date=July 24, 2014 |publisher=Gibbs Smith |isbn=978-1-4236-3448-5}}

{{commons category|Samuel Freeman House}}

• [https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8j96ff2/ Freeman (Harriet Press) collection on the Freeman House]
• [https://www.flickr.com/photos/army_arch/2677528738/ Freeman House photos]

{{Registered Historic Places}}

{{LAHMC}}

{{Frank Lloyd Wright}}

Category:1920s architecture in the United States

Category:1923 establishments in California

Category:Frank Lloyd Wright buildings

Category:History of Los Angeles County, California

Category:Hollywood Hills

Category:Houses completed in 1923

Category:Houses in Los Angeles

Category:Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles

Category:Modernist architecture in California

Category:University of Southern California buildings and structures