Southern California Lumberman Makes Suggestion to Redwood Industry For Reviving Business

In our Vagabond Editorials of recent date we discussed the Redwood situation, expressing the opinion that marliet development and NOT curtailment, was the hope of that industry, and the belief that the curtailment road, unless bolstered with forceful and intelligent efforts to create markets for Redwood, would lead down the road to forgetfulness.

We have had many, many returns from that editorial, rlone of them critical, most of them indorsements. The Holmes-Eureka Lumber Company, of San Francisco, copied the editorial and gave it further distribution. The Great Southern Lumber Company of Bogalusa, Louisiana, who are heavily interested in Redwood distribution, copied it and sent it to their trade.

One response to that editorial seems worthy of reprinting because it makes some suggestions for Redwood trade extension work in California that are at least worthy of consideration, because they touch one vital spot, namely, the admitted fact that changes of home building fashions from the broad-eaved wo,oden bungalow was the biggest blow that has come to Redwood. This writer suggests that the Redwood people get busy and get up some new styles, which suggestion is filled with wisdom, if it can be done. And if they agree with Mirabeau that the word "Cannot is not in my vocabulary'', it might be worth trying.

The author of this suggestion asks that his name be withheld from any publication of his idea, Vhich is as follows:

"Of course it is the stucco house that originatedr in Los Angeles that put Redwood on the toboggan but the stucco house.did not come in on account of the high price charged for Redwood Siding by the mills and the difficulty i4 se. curing it at the height of the boorn here. Most retailers think that high prices and scarcity of this siding were what brought stucco into being, but that isn't so. This is proven by the fact that the stucco wall costs more than one made out of Redwood Siding, so price had little to do with it. Redwood Siding had had its period of popularity and a change in fashions was due. When stucco'really got gc ing here it forced out of style not only Redwood Siding, but also the old type of architecture that was built around it, the so-called bungalow with its verge boards, overhanging eaves, wide Redwood door and window trim, Redwood bevel sill, porches, etc.

"Los Angeles is the style center for house designing just as much as Paris is for women's clothes. A style starts herc and spreads all over the country. I believe the time is ripe right now for the Redwood fellows to use their heads and bring out something new in the way of house architecture that will put the skids under stucco. -I belieee people are tired of a stucco house and if the rest of the winter turns out to be as wet as January has been so far, the majority of stucco house qlrrners are going to be more than disgusted with their homes. What the Redwood people ought to do right now is to commission a good architect or more than one, to make a study of different types of house co,nstruc-' tion from other countries. There are countries where,wood is largely used in building of homes and they have evolved a distinctive style of architecture, the Scandinavian countries for instance. If necessary, have the architect go there and make investigations on the ground. Then the Redwood sawmill people should come down herer to Los Angeles and build several exhibition houses, showing the nenr type of architecture that is going to be popularized in Southern California. Of course, it will be necessary to do a lot of advertising and they will have to hold open house, borrowing the furnishings from some big furniture store; get the big searchlights from the studios and have the Baby Wampas Stars act as hostesses. They would get a tre mendous amount of advertising out of it and people can see exactly what the qew house is going to look like. I admit it is going to cost some money to build these houses but it will all come back to them as when the house has served its purpose it can be sold probably at a profit.

"A person would not feel like building in Los Angeles a house with the present Redwood Siding on it even if he preferred a wooden house to stucco. It would look sErreral years older than the rest of the houses on the street that were built of stucco and he would have difficulty some day in disposing of it. At the present time ifI were going to build another house, I do not know what I would build- I would not want a Redwood bungalow, they are out of datc; stucco is not good in my estimation for an exterior wall; this leaves only brick veneer. Now here I am in the lum.ber game and sold on the idea of wood for home construction and it looks as though brick is the only thing I could use. There must be hundreds and hundreds of people here in Los Angeles who want something besides stucco and yetwhat can they get? Nothing new or original is offered them. I know, of course, there are books put out by the Redwood Association, but what do they amount te mostly a rehash of old designs. If some of them. are a little different, it is only a sketch and to my mind that spoils it for the prospect right away. He thinks if that particular design is any good he would be shown a picture of the actual house and not just an architect's drawing. I think it is a wonderful opportunity to get right in now and o'frer prospective home builders something new in the way of a distinctive type of architecture at the same time using Redwood for the exterior walls." '