I Could Live Here

We're closing out our season with one of the most iconic buildings in New York. The Chrysler Building in midtown Manhattan was paid for and owned by Walter P. Chrysler, automobile tycoon, and designed by the avant-garde architect of the age, William Van Alen. Hey, it's not exactly a house but it does have hubcaps as ornamentation! A sky-high Art Deco lunch club! Sneaky spires! Career-ending lawsuits! All that drama and more!

On our first non-Western historic home, we're visiting Tai Fu Tai (大夫第) mansion in Hong Kong! This 19th century home was built by a prominent local philanthropist, Man Chung Luen, whose wealth, the rumors went, came from pirate gold and/or crime, but also maybe hard work and wise savings? No one knows! Join us as we ramble on about the intricacies of Chinese history and ponder on the best courtyards for martial arting.

Welcome to a new year, new decade, and new episode! To kick off 2020 in spectacular style, we're visiting Wisconsin's wild and wacky tourist attraction, House on the Rock! To be fair, Alex Jordan Jr. did intend for it to be a house. It just... didn't end up there! We're covering DIY house-building issues, horse-less carousels, how many dolls are too many dolls, and in particular relevance for this home, just an astonished, generalized, "...what?"

We're mixing it up! This time, Deb's calling the shots as we go visit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's administration building, a beautiful Tuscan Revival structure designed by the legendary McKim, Mead, and White firm. Join us as we enthuse about Brooklyn over Times Square, wax excitedly about greenhouses, and ponder the different scenarios that might lead to installing iron rails and grilles over windows.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that two readers who run a podcast about houses, must at some point talk about Pemberley. And guess what? THIS IS IT. We're going ACROSS THE ATLANTIC to talk about Mr. Fine himself, Fitzwilliam Darcy, and the House That Changed Elizabeth Bennet's Mind. Join us for our quasi-holiday special where we go visit some of the classic British homes that served as inspiration and sets for our favorite Pride and Prejudice adaptations! We cover fake lake diving! Collectible head busts of actors! And as always, regrets in your architecture-- all of that, with an Austen spin.

We're going to our first house in Georgia in this episode! The Herndon Home was the dream house of a pretty spectacular power couple, Alonzo, who was born into slavery but rose up to be a self-made millionaire, and his wife Adrienne, a talented actress and one of the first African American women faculty members at Atlanta University. If that piques your interest, take a listen-- we talk about customized murals! Jalousies! And how many roles can one woman possibly do in a one-woman show!

We're kicking off the season with a spoopy lil' place in Los Angeles built by Frank Lloyd Wright Jr., drawing on his sense of the *tosses glitter* theater! This neo-Mayan home has the cool cool nickname of the Jaws House and also was home to a leading suspect in the notorious Black Dahlia cold case. As always, you'll hear about architects! Houses! Persian cats! And, bonus for the season, murder...!

For the last episode of season 1, we are taking you uptown in our current homebase of New York City, to the Frick Collection, a home that pulls double-duty as a museum. Built for the industrial tycoon Henry "Most Hated Man in America" Clay Frick, the Frick Collection is nevertheless one of the most pleasant places to spend an afternoon in the city. Join us as we debate how petty is too petty and what is the wrong way to hassle your contractors when a World War is going on!

Send in the clowns, guys, we're heading down to Sarasota County in Florida to see the palace of the Circus King, Ca d'Zan! A little bit Venice, a lotta bit flamboyance, Ca d'Zan had gondolas, belvederes, a giant tub carved of a single block of yellow marble, and organs with far too many pipes to play "Entrance of the Gladiators" whenever the heck you want. Join us as we discuss circus history, sibling rivalry, and why we would never leave the bathroom windows open.

Our first home in the Midwest is the swanky Gilded Age mansion that was known as the Marble Palace in its heyday! We're off to talk about the Nickerson house in Chicago, Illinois, where we fawn over ebonized wood, kokomo glass, and discuss solutions to the age-old problem of what to do when you're hella scared of fire, but you really dig fancy fireplaces.