Graceful arches on the secondfloor balcony complement the
demi-lune curvature set into
the chimney piece above the
living-room fireplace.
Externally, the houses have
undergone changes, too.
A second-story was added
to the smaller unit back in
the 1930s, and Fairfax and
Sammons have gussied up it
with an elegant Chippendalestyle parapet on the roof.
Stylish black shutters—which
Dining room, located off of living room.
help muffle street noise when
closed—now enhance the
facades of both houses as does a small garden planted with
boxwood, holly and New Dawn rose bushes.
As fascinating as the design details of the houses are
the footnotes to their history. Forty years before his son
Armand purchased the houses, Dr. Julius Hammer, a
politically progressive physician, rented the larger one,
primarily as a gathering place where he founded the Socialist
Labor Party of America. Ironically, his Republican son, whose
name was inspired by the SLP's arm and hammer symbol,
was more given to capitalistic pursuits, becoming head
of Occidental Petroleum as well as a major art collector and
founder of the Hammer Galleries, a dealer in European and
HYLAND
