Architects

Jean Louis Egasse at his drafting desk, writing on paper, with an open book in front of him and a desk lamp on his right side, near a window.

Jean Louis Egasse at his drafting table. Photo provided by Jeanne Egasse.

Jean Louis Egasse

The creative and eccentric architect, Jean Louis Egasse was born in Paris, in the 17th arrondissement, on June 17, 1886. His younger sister, Suzanne, was born three years later. Their mother, Louise, died when Jean Louis was 11 years old. Their father, Henri, remarried less than two years later to a young woman, Augustine, only five years older than Jean Louis, causing a great deal of tension in the home. 1901 was a critical year. A half-brother, Henri, was born in July and their father died suddenly in November. The loss of both natural parents by age 15 had a lasting impact on the trajectory of Jean Louis’ life. Augustine, the children’s stepmother, cast both children out. They wound up under the guardianship of an uncle. Suzanne was sent to live in a convent school where she contracted tuberculosis and died in 1910, age 21. Her grieving brother developed a lifelong antipathy to conventional religion which he blamed for his sister’s early death. Jean Louis was sent to Spain to begin his education. He mastered the Spanish language while living there.

Jean Louis spent time as a student in Britain as well. His name appears on the 1911 British census as a student at The Cloisters in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. This was a very unusual school. It was founded in 1905 by Annie Jane Lawrence, a social-minded Quaker. The Cloisters was housed in an unusual building designed using images that appeared to Lawrence in a dream. It was made up of materials collected from all over Europe. Students slept in hammocks that were lowered from the rafters each evening. An electric organ furnished subtle music from hidden pipes throughout the building. Scholastics were initially focused on psychology, but the school’s avant garde curriculum was dedicated to the study of how “… thought affects action and what causes and produces thought.” The Cloisters emerged as a center of theosophy and the Arts and Craft movement. Jean Louis developed a lifelong interest in theosophy and an architectural ascetic clearly inspired by the principles of Arts and Crafts.

A black and white photograph of Jean Louis Egasse standing outdoors in front of a large bush or small tree, with sunlight casting shadows on his face and body.

JLE d’Argastel. Photo provided by Jeanne Egasse.

While in Britain, he met and married his wife, Jessie Read. They emigrated to the United States in March 1912, less than a month before the Titanic’s fateful voyage, and were living in Los Angeles by 1913. They became naturalized American citizens on May 1, 1917. The couple had two children, a daughter named Jeanne and a son named Andre “Yann” Egasse. Both children were born in California. Under the rules of the selective service, he registered for the military draft in June 1917. According to his draft card he was of medium height and build with brown eyes and brown hair. He listed his occupation as “Engineer and Architecture” and his employer as Howard Smith. Because he was married with two young children he was not called to active duty.

His earliest architectural design work was done in Los Angeles County. In 1923 he was commissioned by Albert and Constance Braasch to design a residence in Eagle Rock. This project was followed by the Hanson Residence in Silverlake the following year. His first project in Laguna Beach was the famed Ark House at Woods Cove built in 1923. Three years later, Egasse was commissioned by Joseph Jahraus to design the Laguna Beach Lumber Company building, known as the Lumberyard, on Forest Avenue in the heart of that town. The partnership between Egasse and Jahraus resulted in something magical. The French Norman style structure with Storybook characteristics became his signature look. The Jahraus family hired Egasse a few years later to design the South Coast News building on Forest Avenue just off Glenneyre. This is a much smaller structure but possesses the same French charm. These two projects are really evocative of his later work. Egasse executed several residential commissions in Laguna Beach, some large, others more humble. He designed the Bruce V. Crandall home on Crescent Bay Drive in 1930, as well as his family’s personal residence on North Coast Highway in 1926.

Black and white photo of a man with glasses wearing overalls, standing outdoors near a staircase, with trees and hills in the background.

Egasse in Santa Barbara, standing at the home he built on Dorking Place.
Photo provided by Jeanne Egasse.

Black and white vintage newspaper or document announcing the expansion of the design and drafting service by J. L. E. d'Argastel, a general building contractor, with contact information and the name Alex C. D'Alfonso.

An ad in the Santa Barbara News Press, October 17, 1948.

Jean Louis and Jessie raised their family in Laguna Beach. Both of their children graduated from Tustin High School which all Laguna kids attended prior to the opening of Laguna Beach High. Very much a free-thinker, he had an interest in the Theosophy movement that thrived in the Southland in the early-twentieth century. He practiced yoga on the beach, a very exotic pursuit in the 1930’s. He also initiated a fencing club that briefly prospered before fading away in the early 1930’s. The Depression had a deep impact on his business and his marriage. In the mid- 1930’s Jean Louis Egasse for all intents and purposes disappeared. A December 14, 1942 article in the South Coast News referred to Egasse as the “…long since passed away…” father of his son, Yann. The Egasse family was shattered as well. Jessie returned to England and later remarried. His daughter, Jeanne, joined her mother. His son, Yann, remained in Laguna, a ward of the Perrin family. Yann had only limited contact with his father.

Despite the rumors of his death, Egasse was, in fact, very much alive. According to Yann Egasse’s daughter, Jeanne, Jean Louis left Laguna in the early 1930’s to escape creditors. Hoping for a fresh start, he moved to Santa Barbara and in August 1941 legally changed his name to J.L.E. d’Argastel. He remarried, ironically to another British woman named Jessie.

He did continue to work under his new pseudonym. He may have worked for the prominent Santa Barbara firm of Edwards and Plunkett in the late-1930’s. He clearly had some sort of professional relationship with J.J. Plunkett. Following Plunkett’s tragic death in 1946 at age 46, his widow tried to keep his firm, Plunkett and Associates going. J.L.E. d’Argastel was listed as an “architectural consultant” with that firm. Within a couple months, he had formed a partnership, the Building Arts Studio, with Richard B. Nelson. They advertised themselves as the “successors” to the Plunkett firm. The firm last only a couple years. In the fall of 1946 and again in the spring of 1947, d’Argastel taught a night school class on architectural design at Santa Barbara High School. In 1938, he designed his personal residence on Dorking Street. The small house, high in the hills above the city, has been heavily remodeled, but there are traces of the Egasse aesthetic, especially in the small, rounded tower at the front of the home. In 1952, he designed a small, humble residence for a group of Catholic sisters. A Santa Barbara News-Press June 12, 1952 article identifies d’Argastel as the architect of a convent building for the Sisters of Bethany that was built adjacent to the Spanish speaking parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe in that city. We visited the church and a friendly parishioner explained that the convent had been torn down several years earlier to make room for additional parking; they literally paved paradise and put up a parking lot. None of these projects captured the originality of his Laguna Beach works. However, the last commission we have been able to ascribe to Egasse did provide him an opportunity to express that unique flair. The November 15, 1953 Santa Barbara News Press ran a story about a home he designed for Dr. and Mrs. Byron Gifford. The article describes the home, built on a sprawling 25-acre site, as “Norman-Spanish.” It goes on the mention the extensive use of exposed timbering in the beams and load bearing walls. Jean Louis Egasse died on August 5, 1965. His niche can be found in a small mausoleum at the Santa Barbara Cemetery. His widow survived him by 33 years and is interred only a few feet away from her husband. The name on his grave is d’Argastel.

Egasse with his sister, Suzanne, studying in Paris.

Jean with his two children, Jeanne & Yann.

Yann Egasse from the Tustin High School yearbook.

Egasse Children

Jean Louis Egasse and his wife, Jessie Read Egasse, had two children. Their daughter, Jeanne Jessie Egasse, was born in Los Angeles on July 31, 1913. A son, Andre Yann Egasse, was born two years later, on October 16, 1915. The family lived in South Pasadena until moving to Laguna Beach in 1923. Both children grew up in Laguna, attended Laguna Beach School, and always considered the city their hometown.

Jeanne was a popular and outgoing girl. She was an athlete, a dancer, and a musician. She completed grade 8 at the local school and was honored as the class valedictorian. Until the local high school was opened in the fall of 1934, all Laguna students were bussed to Tustin Union High School for grades 9-12. Jeanne thrived in high school. She was a member of the Honor Society and played both Field Hockey and Volleyball. Her father also taught her fencing. She excelled at the sport and competed at the collegiate level while studying at the University of California. Jeanne also performed in productions of the local amateur theater group, the Community Players. She graduated from Tustin Union High School in the Class of 1931.

Shortly after graduation, her parents’ rocky marriage began to fall apart. Jeanne moved to Whittier with her mother in the summer of 1931. A year later mother and daughter moved to Pasadena and Jeanne began classes at Pasadena City College. In the fall of 1934, her mother decided to move back to Britain. Jeanne initially joined her mother. She returned to the United States in December 1936. At some point, she enrolled at Berkeley. She made a couple trips between the United States and Britain in the 1930’s. She arrived in Britain on August 27, 1939, just days before the outbreak of World War II. She would spend the next five and a half years in the UK.

In December 1939, Jeanne married Harold Cornick, a young British merchant marine. Her husband worked on the cargo ships that braved the North Atlantic routes stalked by German submarines. On January 17, 1942, he was stationed on the SS Culebra when it was torpedoed by a German U-Boat off the coast of Bermuda. The ship went down with all hands. Jeanne was a widow by age 28. She never married again and used her husband’s name for the rest of her life. She returned permanently to the United States in February 1946 and eventually settled in North Lake Tahoe where she died on June 17, 1968.

Yann Egasse had an adventurous nature. He loved Laguna, especially the beaches. He learned to swim and surf along the city’s coastline. He attended Laguna Beach School and after finishing grade 8, he matriculated to Tustin Union High School. His high school years were a time of chaos in his home life. His parents’ marriage collapsed and both his mother and sister left the city. The family home at 1280 North Coast Highway fell into foreclosure in March 1932. At some point shortly thereafter, his father also left Laguna. Yann’s daughter, Jeanne Egasse Philpot, related a family story that Yann briefly joined his father in Santa Barbara but missed Laguna so much that he rode his bike the 150 miles back to the city. He lived for a period with Levi and Ada Gibbings at 337 Hawthrone, just blocks from his former home. After graduating from Tustin Union High School in June 1934, he began a remarkable half-decade. In February 1936, Yann was arrested with three friends for drag racing on Anita Street. Given the choice of 30-days in County jail or working on city road repairs for five days, he chose the latter.

A few months after his run-in with the law, Yann sailed to Britain to see his mother. The journey was exciting and transformative. Yann had always loved the ocean and now resolved to make a life at sea. After only a few months in Britain, he signed on as a crew member on the SS Lawhill, a canvas rigged “… old-time sailing vessel…” for a voyage around the world. The ship left Belfast in October 1936, sailed down the western coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean to Adelaide, Australia. The return voyage was just as epic. The Lawhill left Australia a few weeks later, made its way across the Pacific to Cape Horn, then up the coast of South America and across the Atlantic. One hundred days later the ship docked in England. He returned to Laguna in the summer of 1937.

Once home, Yann settled into the family home of his closest friend, Doug Perrin, at 445 Myrtle. The boys had been close friends since elementary school. Doug’s parents, Kurt and Bessie Perrin, became surrogate parents to Yann as well. He got a part-time job in Kurt Perrin’s stock brokerage office downtown. He was home. He earned a position as a Laguna Beach lifeguard in the summer of 1940. He also registered for the draft. On his selective service form, Yann listed Bessie Perrin as his closest contact. He joined the merchant marine sometime in late-1940 before enlisting in the US Navy in the spring of 1941. He was stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. On December 22, 1941, he was allowed to send a radiogram to anxious family members to let them know that he was well. He sent his message to the Perrin’s. They hung the message on their Christmas tree.

Yann served on active duty through the war. In February 1943, he received a 25-day leave. He spent it in Laguna with the Perrin’s. After the end of his enlistment, he rejoined the merchant marine. On March 3, 1948, he married Anne Kidder, a registered nurse from Costa Mesa. In 1951, the couple had a daughter, Jeanne. They eventually settled in Orange County. On the 1950 census form, Yann listed his occupation as “fisherman.” He never lost his love for the sea. He died on June 8, 1995.