It would be safe to assume there were two architectural trends before our contemporary age: the Spanish Revival homes of the pre-World War II period and the midcentury modern period of the postwar years. But it seems there was also a nascent movement that really never caught on, a movement of which there are few existing structures. Call it the Pueblo Revival.
The most famous example is Cabot Xerxa’s home and museum in Desert. With its labyrinth of rooms and multitude of doors and windows, it’s the desert’s answer to the Winchester Mystery House. Xerxa got his inspiration from the Hopi pueblos and originally began the structure in 1939 to house his collection of Native American pottery and art.
However, he was not the first to pursue such a vision. In 1925, a Texan named R. Lee Miller, an engineer and carpenter who worked on many of the early Palm Springs homes, began construction built a rock house on 20 acres he had acquired in what is now the Araby Cove. Over the next several years, he built three more homes on the hillside, all of them out of stone. Very little is known of Miller, except that he married five years after building his first stone house and built a stone workshop for his spouse. His wife, Helen Cooke Miller, was an artist. According to an article by local historian Tracy Conrad, Mrs. Miller, textile art, which included tablecloths and cocktail napkins, were much in demand in the late thirties by such eastern department stores as Saks Fifth Avenue and Bonwit Teller. Mr. Miller’s art were the stone houses he built on his land. He handcrafted the rock floors, doors, and ironwork. Though Miller didn’t leave behind a written biography, the craftsmanship and monumental labor he put into his ’Hopi Village,’ is testimony. Though there is no record of relationship between Miller and Xerxa, it’s hard to imagine that in the days when the western Valley had few inhabitants that the two men weren’t acquainted and that Xerxa wasn’t inspired by Miller’s feat.
Two of the homes were owned by late architect, David Levy, for over four decades. After he passed, his family put their two stone houses on the market in late 2022. Unlike the rest of the Palm Springs real estate, the price has steadily declined and still no takers. The issue is that they are just as rustic as the day Mr. and Mrs. Miller decamped. There is no HVAC (while designated historic, realtor Nyla Patzner is confident the City of Palm Springs would work with buyers to install contemporary essentials), no washer and dryer, no recessed lighting, no marble bathrooms, and no swimming pool. There is no landscaping in the traditional sense, just the natural desert landscape of cactus, ocotillo, and mesquite.
On the other hand, the property has something few other homes in the valley possess: views across the valley, a brilliantly lit night sky, and total privacy (not just the hedge kind).
2501 S. Araby Drive (Built 1930) sits on 3.33 acres and is the smaller of the two properties at 952 sq. ft. It is a two-bedroom, one bath cottage with fireplaces in the main room and the master bedroom. It also comes with a small carport. It is currently listed at $599,000. The larger 1311 sq. ft. home at 2550 S. Araby Drive is two-bedroom with 3 bathrooms on .45 acres with a separate stone artist’s studio. There are two fireplaces (with Miller’s hand-forged fireplace tools) and a hidden room behind a bookcase. The roof was redone in 2022 and Patzner says that in the past, occupants of the house spent much of their time on the roof top, enjoying the days and night sky and often cooking there. Both homes sit on a private road and there is restricted access.
Of course, properties like these likely scare away even the stoutest of owner-builder-remodelers. On the other hand, these are among the earliest structures left standing in Palm Springs. They are also the mysterious and artistic R. Lee Miller’s unique sculptures.
Nyla Patzner
Desert Sotheby’s International Realty
74890 Highway 111, Indian Wells
760-340-1111
