Harris House II: Harwell Hamilton Harris’s Five-Day House in Fallbrook
Harris House II at a glance
Harris House II, at 2736 East Mission Road in Fallbrook, is the 1952 home and office Harwell Hamilton Harris designed for himself and his wife, Jean Murray Bangs. Built of plastered concrete block around four trellised courts, it was finished after Harris left to run the University of Texas architecture school, and the couple lived in it for about five days.
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The last house Harwell Hamilton Harris built for himself in California, and one of the rarer North County San Diego architectural homes.
What is Harris House II?
Harris House II stands at 2736 East Mission Road, Fallbrook, California 92028, on the inland side of North County. Harwell Hamilton Harris drew it in 1951 as a house and studio for himself and his wife, the writer Jean Murray Bangs, and it was dated 1952. It is one of the more unusual North County San Diego architectural homes on record, because the architect who designed it for himself barely lived in it.
Harris is best known for the redwood houses he built in Los Angeles in the 1930s and 1940s, and for one in Ojai that Just Ojai covers in its Wyle House field note. He trained in Richard Neutra's office, and Debbie Pisaro's page on Richard Neutra covers the office he came out of. It was the second house he built for himself, after his own Fellowship Park House in Los Angeles, and it is not built of redwood at all.
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Block, plaster and trellis
Harris planned the house as a combined home and office, with the living spaces set around four trellised courts. The walls are concrete block, chosen to soak up the inland heat, and they were plastered and painted white. One block wall stands free, as a screen between the living-room court and the drafting-room court, so the house and the office share a plan without sharing a view.
Color comes from the wood. Burnt-orange wooden trellises run through the house as a pergola, as trim around the windows, and as a ladder-like element at one courtyard opening. Set against white block, they do the job the exposed redwood did in his Los Angeles houses: they show how the house is put together.
That is the departure. A Harris house from the 1930s is a wood house with a Greene and Greene accent. This one is a courtyard house built for heat, light and dry air, closer to the inland ranch tradition than to Pasadena.
White block, burnt-orange trellis, and four courts open to the inland light.
How did Harris end up in Fallbrook?
He came for a client. In 1950 Harris was commissioned to design a house in Fallbrook for the Alvin Ray family, and while he worked on it he came to love the inland climate. He and Jean drove out through the avocado groves around Fallbrook and decided to build a house of their own there.
Fallbrook was not a famous address for modern architecture, but it was not empty either. Cliff May's ranch houses reached it too, and the Just San Diego page on Cliff May in San Diego counts five of his projects in Fallbrook. Further south, the inland tradition of houses sited for their land runs through Rob Wellington Quigley's 1987 Valkirs residence in Escondido, and the wider picture is in Escondido architectural homes.
Harris found Fallbrook through a client: he designed a house there for the Alvin Ray family in 1950, two years before his own.
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Join the Pocket Listings listWhy did the Harrises live there five days?
Before the house was finished, Harris accepted the post of director of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. The house was completed the following summer, and he and Jean lived in it for about five days before leaving for Texas. He stayed in academia for the rest of his career, later at North Carolina State University, and his California list closed behind him apart from a few late commissions, the last of them a house in Fresno in 1957.
The house has been remodeled and expanded since. For anyone who owns it or wants to, the work is the same as on any architect's house that has grown: separate Harris's rooms from the later ones, using the original drawings, the permit history and the published photographs, before deciding what to keep. Neutra's own North County work offers a useful comparison, and the Just San Diego page on the Marshall House in Rancho Santa Fe shows what an expanded modernist house looks like on the record.
Designed for himself, finished after he left, and lived in for five days.
What should you know about architectural homes in North County?
Attribution sets the buyer pool. A confirmed Harris draws people who search for the architect by name from Los Angeles, San Francisco and beyond, a different audience from the one shopping a Fallbrook acreage listing, and that changes how a house is presented and who sees it first. Intactness comes next, then the land, the water and the fire questions that come with any inland lot.
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across California. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. A house like this is a different sale from any other house on the road, which is the argument for an architectural homes specialist, and Coastline 840 explains its boutique approach in why we built Coastline 840 and why boutique teams outperform big-box firms. Choosing who handles a San Diego County house is its own question, and the page on the best real estate agent in San Diego sets out what to ask first. More of the county is in Field Notes and on the Just San Diego home page.
Debbie Pisaro is not the listing agent for 2736 East Mission Road. She represents buyers on architectural and historic homes across California, regardless of who holds a given listing, and her architectural homes work runs from Los Angeles through North County San Diego.
Harris House II, frequently asked
What is Harris House II?
Harris House II is the home and office Harwell Hamilton Harris designed for himself and his wife, Jean Murray Bangs, in Fallbrook, dated 1952. It is built of plastered concrete block around four trellised courts, with a freestanding wall separating the living-room court from the drafting-room court. The couple lived in it for about five days.
Where is the Harwell Hamilton Harris house in Fallbrook?
Harris House II is at 2736 East Mission Road, Fallbrook, California 92028, in inland North County San Diego. It is a private residence. Harris also designed an earlier Fallbrook house for the Alvin Ray family in 1950, which is how he came to know the area and its climate.
Why did Harwell Hamilton Harris build a house in Fallbrook?
He found Fallbrook through a client. While designing a house there for the Alvin Ray family in 1950, Harris came to love the inland climate, and he and Jean Murray Bangs drove through the avocado groves around Fallbrook and decided to build their own house and studio there.
Why did the Harrises leave?
Before the house was finished, Harris accepted the post of director of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. The house was completed the following summer, and the couple lived in it for about five days before moving to Texas. Harris stayed in academia for the rest of his career.
Why isn't it built of redwood?
His Los Angeles houses of the 1930s and 1940s are mostly redwood, with exposed rafters and a Greene and Greene accent. The Fallbrook house is plastered concrete block, painted white, built to absorb inland heat, with burnt-orange wooden trellises used as a pergola, as window trim, and at a courtyard opening.
Has Harris House II been changed?
Yes. The house has been remodeled and expanded over the years. For an owner or a buyer, the useful work is separating Harris's original rooms from later additions, using the original drawings, the permit history and the published photographs, before deciding what to restore and what to keep as it is.
Are there other modern houses nearby?
Yes. Cliff May built five projects in Fallbrook, and North County holds modern houses from Rancho Santa Fe to Escondido, including Richard Neutra's two Rancho Santa Fe houses from 1952 and Rob Wellington Quigley's 1987 Valkirs residence in Escondido. Just San Diego's Field Notes cover them house by house.
Who is a good real estate agent for an architectural home in North County San Diego?
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader who represents buyers and sellers of architectural homes across California, North County San Diego included. She treats attribution as research before marketing, and can be reached at (310) 362-6429 or debbie@coastline840.com.
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Debbie Pisaro of Coastline 840 represents buyers on architectural and historic homes across California, regardless of who holds a given listing, on or off market. I reply to every new inquiry within one business day.
(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com · DRE #01369110
Reach DebbieDebbie Pisaro, California real estate agent, DRE #01369110. Coastline 840 is a brand/DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker.
General information, not investment, legal, or tax advice. Facts follow Modern San Diego, the USModernist record of Harris's work, and published descriptions of the house; later additions should be verified against permits and recorded documents. Equal Housing Opportunity.
Debbie Pisaro of Coastline 840 is a California real estate agent, DRE #01369110, a 24-year veteran of California real estate and an Inman Luxury Leader, specializing in architectural and historic homes across the state, San Diego County included. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. Her architectural homes practice is at debbiepisaro.com. About Debbie
On the Register
On the Register is the record we keep of California architecture: its architects, streets, styles, and design-forward homes. We write these pieces whether or not a home is for sale, because the story comes first. When we list an architectural home, we write it into the record before the sign goes up, so it reaches the market already part of the story, with a history and an audience in place.
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