The Edris House is a good answer to anyone who thinks desert modernism is all white walls and polished metal. Here, steel holds up a house wrapped in wood and native rock. Big windows open the rooms to the landscape, and heavy stonework ties the building to the hillside.
E. Stewart Williams designed it in 1953 for William and Marjorie Edris, and it was finished in 1954. The address published in its National Register documentation is 1030 West Cielo Drive.
What makes it special is how it sits on the ground. Williams wanted to move as few boulders as possible, and that decision produced a house that belongs to this exact rocky spot. You couldn't repeat it somewhere else.
William and Marjorie Edris
The Pacific Coast Architecture Database records William Edris's background in law, business and hotels.
He was born in Eugene, Oregon, in 1893 and earned a law degree at the University of Washington. He then joined the Skinner-Eddy Corporation, whose business included shipbuilding and later steamships and Alaskan canneries.
He built up a hotel business too. PCAD names the Olympic and Roosevelt hotels in Seattle and the Davenport Hotel in Spokane among his properties, and records that he died at the Palm Springs house in 1969.
The records say much less about Marjorie. We know her name and that the house was designed for the two of them, but not enough to tell her own story here. If you knew the Edrises, we'd love to hear it.
Building with the boulders
The National Register nomination places the house on a boulder-strewn alluvial fan of Mount San Jacinto. It describes an L-shaped house of about 2,700 square feet.
The stone you see isn't what holds it up. Williams used a steel frame, including a triangular steel truss that lets the living room roof slope upward toward the view across the Coachella Valley.
Most of the outside is board-and-batten Douglas fir siding, with native rock veneer on the south and west sides. Inside, wood paneling covers the walls and ceilings, and the ceiling boards carry on past the walls to become the eaves, so the inside and outside read as one surface.
The rock chimney runs past the living room's floor-to-ceiling windows instead of stopping at the glass, which gives your eye something solid to follow from inside to out.
Underfoot, Arizona flagstone walks and patios meet boulders set into the concrete. A flagstone path leads down from the back patio to an irregular pool tucked into a small arroyo.
A home, not just a view
The main living space is open, with a bedroom at each end. The kitchen flows into a seating area, the dining space and the living room instead of standing off on its own.
Williams designed the built-in cabinets, shelves and storage, plus a wet bar hidden behind folding wood doors. The north bedroom wing combines sleeping, dressing, bathing and a small office with very few interior walls, and when the house was documented it still had its original mosaic tile and bathroom fixtures.
The south bedroom has a native rock wall topped with clerestory windows. An indoor planter holds steel rods topped with lights whose metal shades were inspired by Dixie cups, and Williams designed sculptural metal sconces for inside and out.
Storage, lighting, bathrooms and the way you move through the rooms got the same care as the big view.
Historic status and what came later
The Edris House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 27, 2016, reference number 16000886, according to the National Park Service's weekly list. It was listed for its architecture: a Williams house that survived unusually intact.
The 2016 nomination says the house had had only two owners and describes no changes to its original design. It does note a 2003 permit for a spa at the back, screened by a wooden fence, so "unaltered" refers to the house itself.
National Register listing doesn't open a house to visitors. It's a private home, so watch for an advertised tour rather than stopping by.
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