Cliff May: Blow house #1 (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Cliff May and John A. Smith formalized their relationship in a contractual partnership to “jointly undertake the construction of dwellings for sale in the vicinity of Los Angeles,” naming May as builder and designer and Smith as financier through his First National Finance Corporation. By the summer of 1937 they were aggressively promoting and publishing their houses, one of which is the first house May designed for Frederick Blow and his wife.
Frederick Blow commissioned May, left money in an account for him, and then left for Europe. This house has all the hallmarks of the best of May’s ranch houses. It spreads on the site, encloses outdoor rooms, and looks, with its uneven roof line, as though it grew on the site over decades.

Cliff May, architect
William F. Cody, renderer

Cliff May papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.

circa 1937

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