Craftsman Bohemia - Lower Seco Area Real Estate

The lower Arroyo Seco was settled in the 1910 period by artists and other bohemians who were drawn to this lovely oak glen. Many who built here were advocates of the Craftsman aesthetic movement and its veneration of nature and simplicity. One artist was Jean Mannheim whose 1909 painting studio is still intact at 500 S. Arroyo. Farther south at 626 S. Arroyo, the tile maker and teacher, Ernest Batchelder, built his home and first production kilns. Most of these houses were built rugged and woody, often with stream stone foundations. The friendly creature at 686 California was designed by the Irish immigrant Louis du Puget Millar for an Englishman, perhaps both homesick for the Cotswolds and thatched roofs.