The Della Walker House, Frank Lloyd Wright

Last week I stumbled across Gizmo’s blog post regarding the Florida Southern College, home to the world’s largest one-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright. I was amazed and truly excited to be taken on a virtual tour of this amazing place! For those of you who do not know, I studied Residential Design at the Art Institute of Seattle and (of course) I fell in love with one of the greatest American architects of all time!

Since Carmel-By-The-Sea is known for inhabiting people who have lots of money and for employing Dirty Harry as the town’s mayor for two years, I figured it was worth a shot to see if any Frank Lloyd Wright homes were built here. Alas, there was one!

The Della Walker House, aka the Mrs. Clinton Walker house is located (on my beach) on Scenic Road at Martin Street in Carmel, CA. The house was built in 1948, originally only 1300 square feet for $125,000 - even converted to today’s money it is a steal for $1,174,382. FLW later added a master bedroom in 1956. Why a master bedroom was not originally included in the design is a mystery, but apparently this house was featured in the 1959 movie “A Summer Place” which I have not seen.

For those of you who know about FLW, you know Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment. I can’t tell you how many times I have walked this beach not realizing that I was starting at a FLW house. That is how brilliant, organic, and modern in nature his designs were.

So, just like the common tourist (even though I live here) I told my beloved husband we were going to stalk one of my favorite architects. He just looked at me and smiled.

Here is the Della Walker House from the north side of the beach. It's located high and built low, so it's easy to miss. However, once you know what to look for, you can't miss it. I sort of feel a little silly for not recognizing this house before.","engine":"visual"}" data-block-type="2" id="block-358a15d03e745f1e3fa3">

Here is the Della Walker House from the north side of the beach. It's located high and built low, so it's easy to miss. However, once you know what to look for, you can't miss it. I sort of feel a little silly for not recognizing this house before.

Here I am on the north side of the house (as far as you can go on the beach) snapping some photos. If I had the right pair of shoes on I would have climbed the rocks to get a better view.

This is the view you see standing from the street directly in front of the gate that leads to the covered garage. I couldn't physically locate a front door, but I can only assume it was placed somewhere magical!","engine":"visual"}" data-block-type="2" id="block-a069f3fe464d619d6146">

This is the view you see standing from the street directly in front of the gate that leads to the covered garage. I couldn't physically locate a front door, but I can only assume it was placed somewhere magical!

These two photographs were taken on the south side of the\nhouse on a small trail we found leading down to another section of the\nbeach. You can see that FLW designed a\nvery inconspicuous stair case leading down from the house to the owners \u2018yard\u2019. Talk about luxury! If you are interested in seeing interior photos along with the floor plan you can visit here. It's a good link I promise! It's an article written by Brook Walker, the grandson of Della Walker.","engine":"visual"}" data-block-type="2" id="block-d42d2366e324c7c227b6">

These two photographs were taken on the south side of the house on a small trail we found leading down to another section of the beach. You can see that FLW designed a very inconspicuous stair case leading down from the house to the owners ‘yard’. Talk about luxury! If you are interested in seeing interior photos along with the floor plan you can visit here. It's a good link I promise! It's an article written by Brook Walker, the grandson of Della Walker.

I left the dogs home for this beach trip, but couldn't hep photographing this pretty lady that kept circling around me. ","engine":"visual"}" data-block-type="2" id="block-d5af18f08c116240d5a3">

I left the dogs home for this beach trip, but couldn't hep photographing this pretty lady that kept circling around me.

Another gorgeous shot of Carmel Beach.

I haven’t yet figured out if the original owners live here full time or if this house is being used as a summer home, but I can only assume that the owners would appreciate some sort of privacy, even though they own a very highly sought after home that has been photographed a lot. Finding and photographing a FLW home is something I can now officially check off my bucket list!