Marie Russak (October 7, 1865 – March 4, 1945), also known as Marie Hotchener or Marie Barnard, was an American opera singer and architect.

Biography

Born on October 7, 1865 in the small city of Four Corners, Butte County in northern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, she studied music at

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

. She became a renowned singer, performing in several European cities. In 1899, she married the opera producer Frank Russak and moved to Paris, France with him in 1901. She was deeply interested in

Theosophy Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...

and became active in the

Theosophical Society The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, is a worldwide body with the aim to advance the ideas of Theosophy in continuation of previous Theosophists, especially the Greek and Alexandrian Neo-Platonic philosophers dating back to 3rd century CE ...

. Between 1906 and 1910 she lived in

Adyar (Chennai) Adyar is a large neighbourhood in south Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is located on the southern banks of the Adyar River. It is surrounded by the Tharamani in the West, Thiruvanmiyur to the South, Besant Nagar in the East, Kotturpuram in t ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, where she deepened her study of

esoterism Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas ...

and Theosophy. She participated actively in

Co-Masonry Co-Freemasonry is a form of Freemasonry which admits both men and women. It began in France in the 1890s with the forming of Le Droit Humain, and is now an international movement represented by several Co-Freemasonic administrations throughout th ...

, and in 1912 she co-founded the

Order of the Temple of the Rosy Cross The Order of the Temple of the Rosy Cross (OTRC) was an early 20th century theosophical group. It was founded in 1912 by leaders of the Theosophical Society, including Annie Besant, Marie Russak and James Ingall Wedgwood. According to Gregory T ...

with

Annie Besant Annie Besant ( Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a British socialist, theosophist, freemason, women's rights activist, educationist, writer, orator, political party member and philanthropist. Regarded as a champion of human f ...

. She worked actively with the

Rosicrucian Rosicrucianism is a spiritual and cultural movement that arose in Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts purported to announce the existence of a hitherto unknown esoteric order to the world and made seeking its ...

s until the group was dissolved in 1918. Soon after leaving India in 1912, Marie helped to found the Krotona Colony. She held a substantial role in building

Krotona Krotona was one of three important Theosophical centers in the United States during the early part of the 20th century. Originally built in Hollywood during 1912, the colony was eventually relocated to Ojai, California in 1926, where it operates t ...

and designed a number of houses for Theosophists including a well known house at 6106 Temple Hill Drive. Russak continued to work in the

and was contacted in

Harvey Spencer Lewis Harvey Spencer Lewis F.R.C., S:::I:::I:::, 33° 66° 95°, PhD (November 25, 1883 – August 2, 1939), a noted Rosicrucian author, occultist, and mystic, was the founder in the US and the first Imperator of the Ancient and Mystical Order Ros ...

, who in 1915 had founded

AMORC The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosæ Crucis (AMORC), also known as the ''Rosicrucian Order'', is the largest Rosicrucian organization in the world. It has various lodges, chapters and other affiliated bodies throughout the globe, operating in ...

. She transmitted much of the esoteric knowledge that she had acquired, and she collaborated with the elaboration of some rituals, which were similar to those made of the OTRC. Marie Russak was also involved in architectural design, and her work can still be seen in

. Some of her designs were inspired by Moorish and Mission styles. One of her buildings,

Moorcrest Moorcrest is a house in Beachwood Canyon, Los Angeles, California, United States. It was built in 1921 for the utopian Krotona Colony in Beachwood Canyon and was designed by Marie Russak Hotchener, an architect who designed several buildings for th ...

(probably completed in 1921) was rented by

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...

before its sale in 1925 to the parents of

Mary Astor Mary Astor (born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke; May 3, 1906 – September 25, 1987) was an American actress. Although her career spanned several decades, she may be best remembered for her performance as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in '' The Maltese ...

, Mr. and Mrs. Otto Langhanke. Moorcrest fell into a state of decrepitude and rapidly lost market value throughout the 1990s. The house was finally bought in the early 2000s and the new owner put it under major renovations. Moorcrest went back on the market for $9 million in 2006. In 2014 it was bought by

Joanna Newsom Joanna Newsom (born January 18, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Born and raised in Northern California, Newsom was classically trained on the harp in her youth and began her musical career as a keyboardist in the San Francisc ...

and

Andy Samberg Andy Samberg (born David A. J. Samberg; August 18, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, musician, producer and screenwriter. He is a member of the comedy music group The Lonely Island and was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2005 ...

. Marie Russak was born Mary Ellen Barnard, the daughter of Judge Allyn Matther Barnard of California; she later took the stage name of Marie Ellene Barna. She married first, professor, author and later Pulitzer Prize winner Justin Harvey Smith on May 22, 1892 in Boston, Massachusetts; they divorced in 1895. She married second, Frank Russak on September 19, 1899 in Newport, New York; he died in 1914. She married third, Henry Hotchener on 10 Jul 1916 in Los Angeles, California.California County Birth, Marriage and Death Records, available on Ancestry.com Russak died on March 4, 1945, in

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russak, Marie 1865 births 1945 deaths American women architects Rosicrucians American Theosophists 20th-century American architects Architects from California People from Butte County, California