Origins of the Old Spanish Style
Palm Springs enjoys the luxury of having several dominant and desirable architectural styles. A number of inviting homes built here in the 1920s and 1930’s feature a style with design elements of the Spanish Baroque combined with influences from Italy and even Moorish influences from North Africa. These elements, blended with adobe building traditions of Native Americans and influences from Mexico have brought about a confluence into a new style of American domestic architecture. The result is variously called Spanish, Spanish Revival, Spanish Colonial, Spanish Eclectic, Tuscan, Mediterranean, or sometimes Mission Revival. Palm Springs Old Spanish Style homes may be referred to by any one of these names because elements common to each style may exist in a particular home’s design.
Characteristics of the Style
Palm Springs Old Spanish style homes possess a casual chic; they manage to be informal, yet refined. The exteriors offer simple low pitched roofs covered with red tiles, stucco walls, asymmetrical façades. Multiple interior doors provide a seamless interior/exterior flow opening into tiled courtyards, enhanced with fountains and graceful foliage, surrounded by the home’s arcade or loggia. Further design flourishes include arched doorways, exposed beams and support columns, elaborated chimney tops – some with pitched red tile roofs, the use of colorful clay tiles and wrought iron detailing elements, all enhancing a feeling of informality combined with style and luxury. Lingering here in a private and serene setting under a loggia, you might feel that you were almost anywhere throughout the Mediterranean world!
Where Old Spanish style homes are in Palm Springs
To explore the rich heritage of Palm Springs Old Spanish homes, begin with the well established neighborhoods close to the downtown – Old Las Palmas, Tennis Club, and the Movie Colony, and a bit further out, the Mesa, where you’ll find many grand estate homes in the Spanish style. For smaller properties, you’ll find more choices in Tahquitz River Estates and parts of Ruth Hardy Park. All beckon you with their considerable charm.