Harriett Freeman, Owned Home Designed by Wright

Harriett Press Freeman, whose Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in the Hollywood Hills became a gathering place for local and visiting artists and entertainers, is dead at age 96.

A former musical comedy dancer and physical education teacher, Mrs. Freeman and her late husband, Sam, commissioned Wright in 1923 to build a home of block construction on Glencoe Way overlooking Highland Avenue near the Hollywood Bowl. It was to have been completed in three months at a cost of $10,000, she recalled in a 1984 interview, but took 13 months and $25,000 to complete.

And the roof leaked.

The Freemans had to call in another architect, Rudolph Schindler, to complete and furnish the last of the four block homes Wright was to design in Los Angeles. Over the years the place became a favored spot for photographer Edward Weston, dancers Bella Lewisky and Martha Graham and others.

Wealthy through her husband’s inheritance, Mrs. Freeman, who died Tuesday, chose to continue to teach after her marriage, primarily at local junior colleges and adult schools. Most recently she taught English to Latino children at Vine Street School.

Two years ago she deeded her home, its furnishings and $200,000 to restore and maintain it to the USC School of Architecture.