“Felsengarten” is a remarkable example both of the judicious selection of a style and of wonderfully successful composition in 
conjunction with its rugged site 
A California Chalet 
FELSENGARTEN, A HOME IN THE VENTURA VALLEY, DESIGNED BY HUNT & GREY, 
ARCHITECTS, WHERE A SWISS TYPE HAS BEEN ADAPTED TO AMERICAN NEEDS 
by Helen Ray 
I N southern California, untrammeled by inherited convention¬ 
ality, many novel types of domestic architecture court the 
eye from out the luxuriant drapery of Bougainvillea and Passion 
vine. 
The bungalow and Spanish patio seem especially popular in 
the towns and cities, and have an inherent propriety in this 
land of brilliant sunshine. No less adaptable to the rock ridges 
and green mountains is the style of the Swiss chalet, which in 
the city seems meaningless. 
The chalet here shown, designed by Hunt & Grey of Los 
Angeles, is built in one of the lovely mountain valleys with which 
this State abounds. It stands upon a rocky ridge overlooking the 
long valley, and has the 
happy, easy look of “be¬ 
longing ” w h i c h is the 
reward of careful design¬ 
ers. It nestles between 
two sheltering live-oaks, 
whose boughs almost dip 
into the windows of the 
living-room; doing the 
double duty of shading 
and decorating the house 
and also furnishing, rent 
free, the leafy homes of 
many bird neighbors. 
The building lot has 
been “treated” just as 
little as possible in order 
to preserve the natural 
and wild look of things. 
As the picture shows, the 
boulders have been left to 
lie just as found, and among them all the native growth of wild 
flowers luxuriate in the late winter and early spring: blue Bro- 
diaea, yellow violets, white forget-me-nots and always the feathery 
fronds of the coffee fern. 
After entering the roofed gate, the footpath winds up the 
hillside over stone steps, cleverly fashioned from the rocks found 
on the hillside, and out upon stepping-stones that land you at the 
front door. The pious Tyrolese greeting “Griiss Gott!” is 
quaintly painted in bright green lettering over the door, and from 
a wrought-iron arm or bracket at the side swings a bell with 
chain to announce your arrival. On entering you find the same 
German thought carried out in other motives of gay lettering. 
Between the beams one 
reads the happy words 
“Frisch — Fre i — F roh- 
lich,” and over a door- 
wav, the watchword of 
the household, “Immer 
Gemutlich!” In three 
small panels over the 
rude door leading from 
dining-room to kitchen, 
the daughter of the house 
has painted a little Tyro¬ 
lese mountain climber 
with alpenstock, a Tyro¬ 
lese peasant girl, and, 
in the panel between 
them, the words “Gluck 
auf!” the climbers’ cry of 
“Good luck!” Elsewhere 
little prim green pine trees 
are painted between the 
A massive stone chimney, with a fireplace measuring ten feet’across the 
chimney breast, distinguishes one end of the building 
(x 68) 
