Jean Louis Egasse
By Hunter Fuentes and Jon Stordahl
Everyone loves a mystery! Last month Laguna Playhouse presented the show Holmes & Watson. Set on a remote Scottish island, Dr. Watson investigates the assertions of three men claiming to be his friend and partner, Sherlock Holmes. The great detective was presumed dead, but no body had ever been found. The clever twist in this tale is that our missing sleuth is hiding in plain sight. In our research of the leading architects of the early decades of Laguna’s history, one of the most gifted was Jean Louis Egasse. Like the fictional Holmes, he was a talented and eccentric free spirit. Egasse left a small body of work but a significant impact on local design, and a little mystery of his own.
Jean Louis Egasse was born to Henri and Louise Egasse in the 17th arrondissement of Paris on June 17, 1886. His childhood was marked by tragedy. His mother died when Jean Louis was eleven. His father died four years later. Orphaned at 15, ejected from his home by a vengeful stepmother, he was sent to study for an extended period in Spain where he mastered the language. He was living in Britain in his mid-20s. He found his way to an experimental school called “The Cloisters” in the village of Letchworth, Hertfordshire. The school had been established by Miss Annie Lawrence, a social-minded Quaker in 1907. Housed in an unusual building, designed using images that appeared to Lawrence in a dream, students studied an avant-garde curriculum dedicated to how “… thought affects action and what causes and produces thought.” Students took most classes outdoors and slept in hammocks suspended from the rafters. The Cloisters also became a center of the emerging Arts and Crafts movement and the study of Theosophy. Both influenced Egasse for the rest of his life.
Jean Louis married a young British woman named Jessie Read in 1912. According to Jeanne Egasse Philpot, the architect’s granddaughter, the bride’s parents did not approve of the union and the couple emigrated to the United States in March 1912. A year later, they were living in Los Angeles, where their two children were born. In 1917, Egasse registered for the selective service. Described as being of medium height and build with brown hair and brown eyes, he listed his occupation as “engineer and architecture.”
The first designs credited to Egasse were built in LA County in the early 1920’s. Egasse developed a truly unique aesthetic, combining the French Norman of his native country, the Arts and Crafts elements of his days at The Cloisters, and the Hollywood-inspired Storybook style. Egasse’s first known commission was a residence in Eagle Rock in 1923 for Albert and Constance Braasch. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote “Good Will Hunting” while renting that very house. That same year he undertook his first local project, the stunning Ark home on Ocean Way at Wood’s Cove. This is one of the most unique homes in all of Laguna. He also designed the Bruce Crandall home on Crescent Bay Drive and his personal residence at 1280 North Coast Hwy. That property looks like a Norman castle, towering over the highway. He completed only around half a dozen homes in Laguna, but each strikingly individual.
His best-known local work can be found downtown. In a Los Angeles Times article, Steve Carney noted that Storybook architecture details include steeply pitched, often wavy roofs, multiple gables, turrets, arched doorways, and chimneys (often crooked). Could you ask for a better description of the Lumberyard restaurant building than that? Completed by Egasse for Joe Jahraus, it served for over half a century as the headquarters of the Laguna Beach Lumber Company. In 1927 he designed the South Coast News Building on Forest at Glenneyre for Joe’s father, Elmer Jahraus. Egasse was a larger-than-life presence in town. He taught fencing, surrounded himself with fellow Francophiles, and actively supported the local Theosophy movement that included many in the art community.
The Depression devastated Egasse’s business and family. Around 1932 his wife left him and returned to live in Britain, joined by their daughter. His son lived with a couple of different local families. But Jean Louis Egasse simply disappeared. He was even described in a December 18, 1942 South Coast News article as “… long since passed away….” But we could find no obituary. A recent conversation with his granddaughter, Jeanne, solved the mystery of the missing architect. She told us that he had fled his Laguna creditors, moved to Santa Barbara and lived a low-profile life there, even assuming a new name, J.L.E. d’Argastel. He died in that city in 1965. Now we know.
In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,” his protagonist boldly asserts, “My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know.”
Jean Louis Egasse spent less than a decade in Laguna Beach. His work still enchants residents and visitors alike. The best part of asking questions is finding answers; it stirs the inner detective in all of us. It’s fun to know something that others might not and even more fun to share that knowledge.
Hunter is a Laguna Beach resident and founder of Historic Laguna (historiclaguna.com). Jon has lived in Laguna for over 20 years. He is a retired history teacher and member of the Laguna Beach Heritage Committee. You can reach Hunter and Jon at [email protected] and [email protected].
