The Earle Revolver House

This distinctive house is near the Roman Bridge in Ascain, in the Pyrenees. We stumbled across it when we were on holiday in 2019, staying in Saint Jean de Luz. At the time we could find out very little about it. What we did know came from the official listed monuments site, which longtime reader Carolyn pointed us to.

So this is all we knew: Film set designer Ferdinand Pinney Earle (born in New York in 1878, died in 1951 in Hollywood) became famous in Hollywood in the years 1910 to 1920. In 1930, he moved to Ascain and built a house whose appearance is reminiscent of the adobe houses built around Santa Fe around 1920. The floor plan in the shape of a revolver is a particular feature. The elevations and decoration incorporate many elements of the pueblo style.  Many show business and arts personalities were guests of Earle there. 

 

Then a few days ago we got a lovely email from one of the Earles' grand daughters, and she was able to tell us a bit more and shared some fun family anecdotes.

She said: "My mother was born there in 1934. She told stories about riding a tricycle through the inside from one end to the other. She also said that they hid a dog from her father for many weeks because the home was so large. Her father was often in his studio painting. He was trained by Whistler." 

 

This prompted me to go looking for any more information I could find on the internet, and nowadays there are a couple of websites and blogs in French with more detail, which I've included below.

 

Due to its atypical architecture the house is known locally in French as la Maison des fous (or La Maison du fou), and in Basque as Eroen etxea. Both names mean 'the Mad House' (or the madman's house). The adobe style of the building, with its minaret like towers, is also influenced by cinema sets, and Gaudi's constructions in Barcelona.

The place is massive, and the revolver floor plan is apparently the result of a bet with the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The Earles' guestlist included Marlene Dietrich, Charlie Chaplin, Abel Gance, Louis Jouvet, Mistinguett, Josephine Baker, Maurice Ravel, Leon Baykt and Le Corbusier.

 

The local press loved having a Hollywood celebrity on their doorstep and made sure they pointed out to their readers that Ferdinand Earle was living amongst them whenever a film he was involved in was showing at the cinemas.

In 1940, fearful of the advancing Germans, the Earle family packed up and returned to the United States. The story goes that Ferdinand launched his car into the river before they left, and it can still be found there today.

The house is privately owned.