I have often passed this apartment at 4419 Fulton, north of Moorpark, and noticed its unique and graphic address sign. While searching through the archives of photographer Maynard Parker (1900-1976) housed at the Huntington, I came across photos he made in 1963.
Masculine and modern, the squat and flattened lettering, ingeniously aligned with the low slung horizontality of the building, is as much architecture as the architecture itself. Almost cartoonish and leading into pop-art, it leaves behind the decorative scrolling that marked 1950s apartments whose builders slapped their daughter’s names on building fronts (“Debby Ann”, “Stacy Lynn”) or borrowed from faraway places (Tahiti, Hawaii or Fiji). The indoor entrance, private and serene, concrete slabs floating across water, marries Japan to Southern California.
If this building is not on a historic preservation list- it should be.
Title:Fulton Terrace Apartments. Exterior. Los Angeles, CA
Architects: Burlew and Liszt.
Creator/Contributor:
Parker, Maynard L., 1901-1976.
1963 May
