James Homer Garrott Jr. (1897–1991), was an American architect active in the Los Angeles area in the mid-20th century. He designed more than 200 buildings, including twenty-five churches and several public buildings. He has been described as a "pivotal black avant garde modernist of the 1940s era."

Biography

James Homer Garrott Jr. was born on June 19, 1897, in Montgomery, Alabama. Garrott graduated from Los Angeles Polytechnic High School in 1917. He earned his architect's license in 1928. Garrott's first major achievement was as co-designer of the 1928

Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company, was once the largest black-owned insurance company in the western United States, founded by William Nickerson Jr. with the assistance of Norman Oliver Houston and George Allen Beavers Jr. Founding In t ...

. From 1926 to 1928, Garrott worked with Cavagliere Construction Company of Los Angeles. He then studied Architecture at the University of Southern California from 1930 to 1934. Garrott was a close friend of the eminent civil rights attorney Loren Miller. In early 1940, Garrott designed both of their Silver Lake split-level homes at 647 and 653 Micheltorena Street. In 1946, Garrott was the second African-American admitted to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in Los Angeles, after

Paul R. Williams Paul Revere Williams, FAIA (February 18, 1894 – January 23, 1980) was an American architect based in Los Angeles, California. He practiced mostly in Southern California and designed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Frank Sina ...

. His application was sponsored by Williams and Gregory Ain. Garrott and Ain shared office space in the Granada Building beginning in 1940. Then they worked together in a "loose partnership" in the 1940s and 50s, and together designed a small office building that they shared in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. They were alternately “Garrott & Ain” or “Ain & Garrott,” depending on who was responsible for design, while on other projects they simply assisted each other's solo work without credit. After World War II, Garrott and Ain together designed and built their architectural office, at 2311 Hyperion Avenue, within walking distance from Garrott's home. Garrott was “politically well connected” and received nine commissions from the Los Angeles County Government in the late 1950s. Yet the ''Los Angeles Tribune'' commented: "James Garrott, Paul R. Williams, and Carey Jenkins, are the only Negro architects ever to get a public contract in this slate ... and except for Williams they get them infrequently." He died on June 9, 1991, in Los Angeles, California

Buildings

* 1928: (with Louis Blodgett) Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Building, Los Angeles, California ** listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1998 (#98000712). * 1929: (as Williams, Garrott & Young) St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Los Angeles, California ** City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #987 * 1936: Mount Zion Baptist Church, Los Angeles, California * efore 1939 George A. Beavers, Jr. residence, Los Angeles, California * 1940: Garrott Residence/ Loren Miller residence, Los Angeles, California * 1940: Apartment building for Grace F. Marquis, Fifth and New Hampshire streets, Los Angeles, California * efore 1948 Dental Building for Dr. George Hurd * 1944: Bethlehem Baptist Church (unbuilt project), Los Angeles, California * 1949: (with Gregory Ain) Ain & Garrott Office, Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California * 1950: Moss Construction Co., Kenter Canyon, California * 1950: (with Gregory Ain) Hamilton Methodist Church (unbuilt) * 1951: (with Gregory Ain)

Ben Margolis Ben Margolis (April 23, 1910 – January 27, 1999) was an American attorney, best known for defending the Hollywood Ten and the Sleepy Lagoon murder suspects and for helping to draft the United Nations Charter. Career Margolis had a law partn ...

House, Los Angeles, California * 1952: Friedman residence, Los Angeles, California * 1953: M. Wesley Farr residence, El Segundo, California * 1955: Firestone Sheriff's Station, Florence-Firestone, California ** "considered the most modern law enforcement facility of its time." * 1957: Lawndale Administrative Center, Lawndale, California * 1958-60: (with Gregory Ain) Westchester Municipal Building, Los Angeles, California **David Gebhard described Garrott's design as “an anonymous building.” * 1958-60: (with Gregory Ain) Loyola Village Branch Library, Los Angeles, California * 1959: (with Gregory Ain) Ralph Atkinson residence, Monterey County, California * 1960: Bodger County Park Director's Building, Hawthorne, California * 1960: Del Aire County Park Director's Building, Hawthorne, California * 1963: Victoria Park Pool and Bathhouse, Carson, California * 1970: Carson Public Library, Carson, California

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrott, James H. African-American architects Architects from Alabama Architects from Los Angeles 20th-century American architects Modernist architects from the United States Modernist architecture in California 1897 births 1991 deaths 20th-century African-American artists

Biography

Buildings

See also

References