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Photographs, drawings, renderings, letters and historical documents are among the items highlighting the life’s work of one of the nation’s most famous African American architects, the late Paul R. Williams.
Paul Revere Williams (1894-1980) was one of Southern California’s foremost architects, producing a remarkable number of buildings during a career that spanned nearly 60 years.
Williams’ list of celebrity clients was a virtual Who’s Who of Hollywood’s golden age. Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Lon Chaney, Anthony Quinn, Barbara Stanwyck and Zsa Zsa Gabor all owned houses designed by Williams.
In addition to the nearly 2,000 homes that Williams designed, he also had a hand in shaping some of L.A.’s most recognizable structures, including the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles International Airport and the L.A. County Courthouse.
He and his firm also re-designed the public rooms and bungalows of the famed Ambassador Hotel and created the United Nations Building in Paris, as well as Beverly Hills’ original Saks Fifth Avenue department store and the MCA building (later the headquarters of Litton Industries).
During his career, Williams was awarded an American Institute of Architects (AIA) Award of Merit (1939, for his MCA building), the Omega Phi Psi Man of the Year Award (1951) and the Spingarn Medal (1953). Honorary doctorates were conferred upon him by Howard and Lincoln universities and the Tuskegee Institute.
In 1923, Williams joined the Southern California chapter of the AIA, becoming the first African American member of the national organization. He later became the first African American elected to the AIA College of Fellows.
Despite his success and accolades, Williams still felt the presence of racial prejudice.
In a July 1937 article in American magazine, he acknowledged his feelings about racially-restricted housing that was prevalent in Los Angeles at the time. Referring to a client’s country house in "one of the most beautiful residential districts in the world," he wrote: "Sometimes I have dreamed of living there. I could afford such a home. But this evening, leaving my office, I returned to my small, inexpensive home in an unrestricted, comparatively undesirable section of Los Angeles … because … I am a Negro."
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