Elvis? Elvis is someone Marlow Harris writes about on her 360 Digest blog, but I couldn’t resist.  It was Elvis’ birthday last week, so Palm Springs Elvis’ fans held an open house, not for real estate agents, but for the public to see Elvis and Priscilla’s honeymoon hideaway.

Birthday cake was served and tours were given of the house.  We saw the pink bedroom, the true honeymoon hideaway,

the master bath with its free-standing tub,

the gorgeous living room with its 64 foot long built-in couch, the dining room.  the pool area, and the escape route Elvis and Priscilla used to leave the house to fly to Las Vegas for the wedding ceremony. 

Hounded by the paparazzi of the day, Rona Barrett, a Hollywood gossip columnist, Elvis decided the ceremony could not be held at the house as originally planned.  He and Priscilla escaped by taking the path which led to the back of the property.  Frank Sinatra had a car waiting to take the couple to his jet and off to Las Vegas.

Memorabilia is all over the house, from photos  to newspaper articles,

juke boxes. and guitars.

The can of Charles potato chips brought different memories back for me.   I remember Charles Chips being delivered to my parents’ door when I was a kid in Connecticut.  Charles Chips are another ’60′s icon.

Mid-century Modern Architecture and Real Estate

The house is also fascinating from a real estate/architectural perspective. Built by the Alexanders, a family of builders, who built huge neighborhoods in Southern California, mostly in Los Angeles area and Palm Springs, the house is iconic not only because of Elvis, but because of its design.  The house was featured in LOOK magazine, a mid-century pictorial, shortly after the home was built. The entire house is a set of round forms on different levels, there’s not a square room in the house. 

Designed in 1962 as “The House of Tomorrow’”  by the architecture firm of  Palmer and Krisel and built  for a mighty sum of $300,000, Helen Alexander fell in love with the house her husband had built, so he gave it to her. The house set the tone for much of mid-century modern architecture by incorporating indoor and outdoor spaces.  The big windows captured the views of  the mountains, bringing the outdoors inside.  The peanut brittle stone and terrazzo flooring was carried from the interior to the exterior of the home.

William Krisel and the Alexanders went on to build homes for the low and moderate income families in the area.  The Alexanders were prolific builders in post-war America, building huge neighborhoods of more affordable homes.

According to architectural historian Alan Hess:  “They (Palmer and Krisel team) brought excellent and elegant modern design to mass-produced housing.”

Homes all over Palm  Springs were built with the trademark butterfly roof, huge windows and simple lines.  The homes were between 1200 and 2500 square feet, often with 3 bedrooms and 1 3/4 baths.  Clean lines, open spaces, and simple materials were the trademarks of the Alexander homes. Today, these homes are being beautifully remodeled and refurbished, utilizing the best of the clean and simple designs.

Bellevue’s Lake Hills neighborhood is a huge neighborhood of similarly styled homes, mostly built in the 1950′s. 
View Larger Map The ’50′s in Bellevue, saw housing on Seattle’s eastside explode, much like California and the California desert. The end of WWII and the completion of the Mercer Island floating bridge opened the Seattle/eastside  for real estate development.  The ramblers of Lake Hills, with their big windows, simple lines, and modest spaces, were similar to the Alexander homes and represent some of the first big growth of housing developments and suburban neighborhoods on Seattle’s Eastside.

Back to Elvis:

You, too, can rent Elvis’ honeymoon cottage, for a fee. Click on the second link above to find out all about it.