Ennis House for sale

Frank Lloyd Wright home in Los Feliz is for sale to the right buyer

The 1924 Ennis House, heavily damaged in the Northridge quake and by rains, is being offered for $15 million. It's the largest of the architect's experimental 'textile block' houses.

By Martha GrovesFrank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House, a Los Feliz hilltop masterpiece composed of patterned and smooth concrete blocks that has been mightily threatened by man and Mother Nature, is being offered for sale at $15 million by the private foundation that has been restoring it.

The Maya-inspired estate, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has been featured in films including "House on Haunted Hill," "Grand Canyon" and the futuristic "Blade Runner."

Inspired by the ruins of Uxmal, Mexico, the striking 6,000-square-foot estate consists of a main house and a smaller chauffeur's quarters, separated by a paved motor court. Wright's notion was to craft an organic structure that literally seemed to rise from the site. Workers extracted decomposed granite from the property to use in many of the 27,000 blocks.

Ultimately, the goal is to fulfill Wright's prophecy, as laid out in a 1924 letter to the Ennises. "You see, the final result is going to stand on that hill a hundred years or more. Long after we are all gone, it will be pointed out as the Ennis house and pilgrimages will be made to it by lovers of the beautiful from everywhere."