Saturday, May 1, 2010

More Griffin Homes

I have been unsuccessful in finding much info on Fred Griffin but have come across a few of his other houses in the valley here and there. I need to compile the info so what better place than here?
A local blogger sent me an article about a home built by Mr. Griffin in Tempe. Recent photo

here. The article was from Arizona Days & Ways and originally identified the home as 1114 Okley Place, Tempe, AZ but according to Google Maps, this home's addres is now 1408 S. Oakley Place.

I was sent another .PDF with a photo and caption only of a super modern triangular fireplace flanked by large built-in speakers, this was attributed to Mr Fred Griffen (sic). I know this is our same architect because he also built-in floor-to-ceiling speakers here, flanking the sliding glass doors.
My home-hunting friends recently came across a great listing for only $235 in Encanto! It is falsely advertised as an Al Beadle. As my friends researched tax breaks for historic properties, they discovered this gem was also by our own Fred Griffin! We drove by it tonight and it's a stunner! Love the pool! This one was apparently built in 1953 as Mr Griffin's residence as well. It is located at 2201 Encanto Drive NE, Phoenix. Pictures from the real estate listing and tonight's drive-by are seen below.


So far, this is what I deduce: lot placement of the home is imperative to Griffin. All of the homes I have identified have somewhat unusual placement of the home on the lot to maximize yard space. That is one element of our home that I **love**. We are built on the far north side of our lot and our home runs from the front of the lot (far east) all the way to the back of the lot (far west). So our yard is really maximized and the entire home has glass windows that look into the green yard.
The home pictured above and our home both have unusual decorative elements on the entry door and sidelights on one side. He builds his homes long & skinny :)
Geometric and linear elements are integrated into the design, whether in the wood construction or the block construction. The Encanto home was built in 1953, our home was in 1959. I am surprised to see the nice glass sidelights above, as our home has white plexi. It is quite possible, however, that a homeowner along the way upgraded those windows.
I have a few other .PDFs I will try and get converted and onto the blog soon...

3 comments:

  1. I remember seeing that house sometime in 08 or 07. It was highly priced at the time, definitely not in the low 200's as you found it.
    I wonder if changes were made since then.
    Beautiful place but with very limited space (great yard though).

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    Replies
    1. Are you referring to the Encanto home? I never toured it but photos appear it may be long & skinny like ours.

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  2. Meagen, if you're still here, could you shoot me an email? I'm pulling together some info on Griffin & would love to trade info with you. I'm waltlockley a t gmail dot com. Thanks!

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