Architect: Richard Neutra

Neutra House Summary
Began in 1935, finished in 1939
Square Footage: 750

We believe that Jacqueline Johnson and Clayton Stafford purchased a half acre lot in Los Altos near downtown, a few blocks east of San Antonio Road.  The lot was part of a prune orchard.  They then contracted with Richard Neutra to design three houses.  Their concept was to save money by sharing land, designs, and construction projects.  They commissioned unique homes for that era: homes that connected with nature to a degree that conventional house designs failed to achieve.  Clayton Stafford, a poet by avocation, would own one house on Marvin Avenue and Jacqueline Johnson would own an identical house on the back of the lot.  A third person may have planned to be a partner in the beginning for a third house, but this smaller “guest” house ended up being built for Johnson in addition to her house, for a total of three dwellings on the lot.

Neutra was already well known due the “townhouse” he did for Lovell, completed in 1929.  Neutra’s main office was in Los Angeles, but he had a local office in San Francisco with a collaborator, Otto Winkler. Neutra did about 15 housing projects in the SF Bay Area between 1933 and 1940.  Only two Bay Area projects were south of Atherton.  One was the “Three Small Houses in an Orchard” as Neutra called the project for Johnson and Stafford.  The second was for Alvin Eurich in what is now Los Altos Hills.  The Eurich house still exists as a residence.  Eurich worked for Stanford University as vice president and he was an interim president in 1948. Both projects were completed in 1939.

Johnson graduated in 1935 from Stanford with a degree in English and was referred to as a writer for the rest of her life.  She married an English citizen Gordon Onslow Ford in 1941 and they moved to Mexico in 1942 with other artists and writers.  Johnson helped write an influential art magazine called DYN with Wolfgang Paalen while in Mexico.  She and Gordon moved to San Francisco in 1947 and he became a US citizen. 

We believe Jacqueline’s parents lived in this area and they may have provided financial assistance to do this housing project with Clayton Stafford.  The land was subdivided allowing Stafford, who married later, to manage his property separately.  He had Neutra draw up plans to add a second bedroom and bathroom in 1947.  Later his house was torn down and the existing house at 184 Marvin Avenue was built.  Johnson’s two houses were sold and were in use until 2005 when her main house was moved to the City lot and the “guest” house was torn down.

Gordon Onslow Ford was a major influence on the art scene In the Bay Area with his wife helping as a writer.  They were friends with many writers and artists from the 40’s until Ford died in 2003, preceded by Jacqueline’s death in 1978.  These friends include Jackson Pollack, Jack Kerouac, Gertrude Stein, Henry Miller, Frida Kahlo.  Gordon was a partner in buying the Vallejo, an old ferry-boat.  They docked it at Sausalito and used it as an artist studio.  Later he and Jacqueline bought 300 acres near Inverness and lived out their lives there.  They gave away most of the land to the public for a preserve. They had no children and left their house and remaining land to the Lucid Foundation.  A number of artists were invited to build homes beside the Ford home and the artist colony continues today.  Ford’s paintings can be seen/purchased at Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco.  A show with Ford’s paintings along with those of some friends opened September 20, 2008 at the gallery, above 291 Geary.  Ford’s paintings go for $25K to $200K.  The program for this current show begins with a quote from Jacqueline Johnson.

Today the Neutra House is a small public conference center and honors the history of modern architecture, Richard Neutra, and Jacqueline Johnson, writer and wife of Gordon Onslow Ford.