Midcentury Treehouse in La Cañada Flintridge Awaits Second Ever Owner

It’s a shame that the poet Joyce Kilmer, who penned the famous lines “I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree” isn’t around to appreciate this arboreally intertwined residence soon to hit the market in La Cañada-Flintridge. Located in the hills overlooking Descanso Gardens, the single-story ranch was built in 1967 by its owner, Thomas French, as his own personal residence. An electronics engineer by profession, French, who passed away in 2019 on his 100th birthday, also designed several houses, this one being his third.

According to listing agent Michael Grady, French was a longtime admirer of Cliff May, sharing his enthusiasm for the blend of indoor-outdoor living made possible by Southern California’s temperate climate. Accordingly, when designing his own house, French used May’s ranchos as a model, employing pitched wood-beam ceilings, ample walls of glass, and ceramic tile and aggregate concrete floors that flow seamlessly between indoors and out.

Sited at the end of a gated driveway near the Cherry Canyon trailhead, the home’s floor plan — a series of rectangular volumes that from above resembles a railroad train — looks to have been conceived with the goal of disturbing as few trees on the heavily forested lot as possible. Further demonstrating French’s commitment to the indoor-outdoor living ethos, an ancient coastal live oak is integrated into an atrium at the home’s heart.

Constructed from Douglas fir and cedar, the elongated residence contains two en suite bedrooms, two living rooms, a kitchen with built-in breakfast bar, a formal dining room, and a powder room within its 3,301 square feet. Notable architectural features include two floor-to-ceiling wood-burning fireplaces, soffit lighting, tiled Roman tubs in both bathrooms, and multiple banks of sliding glass walls that open to various patios and the home’s amoeba-shaped swimming pool.

On a 1.3-acre lot, the woodsy time capsule is now being offered for sale for the first time, asking $4.8 million. The Agency’s Michael Grady is representing the listing.