Step inside Author Peter Moruzzi’s Very Own Palm Springs Paradise: Part 1

Peter Moruzzi, architectural historian and author of pictorial history books such as Palm Springs Paradise: Vintage Photographs from America’s Desert Playground, and Lauren LeBaron, director of accounting in the healthcare industry, bought their desert home in 1998. The three bedroom, three bathroom, 2,600-square-foot home began as a second home, but became their full-time residence in 2017.

According to Peter, even though the glazing in the original steel casement windows is not up to current insulation standards, inexpensive evaporative cooling means the house doesn’t use much more energy than if they had double paned windows. Without a winter  to worry about, heating is a rare necessity. However, for safety reasons, the couple replaced the original glazing in the sliding glass doors with tempered safety glass.

Situated between the living room and the dining room, which hosts eames airport seating, is one of the home’s more unique features—the original wet bar. “Its central location and L-shape consistently serves as a relaxing conversational space for friends and guests,” says Peter.

“The famous Palm Springs illustrator and artist O.E.L. Graves and his wife vie lived in our house from 1960-1965. Graves worked in numerous media platforms: sculpture, painting, assemblage, oils, watercolors, plexiglas, metal, glass,” says peter. “He designed most of the covers for Palm Springs Villager magazine from 1946-1960.”

Custom built in 1956 by Sam Pascal, this Palms Springs gem is nestled amongst a tract of 1948-52 Paul W. Trousdale homes.

The Perfect Find

Peter and Lauren were first captured by their home’s originality and spaciousness. With its intact kitchen, bathrooms, flagstone fireplace, steel casement windows and steel sliding glass doors, it spoke to their preservation-loving hearts. Unique features like the wet bar off the living room, the dining room’s indoor barbeque and its location on what the couple describes as “a bucolic street with spectacular views of the San Jacinto mountains” immediately won them over. “It took months of searching, and visits to dozens of houses, to find one that was original and mostly unmodified,” Peter says.

Given its original condition, Peter and Lauren have been lovingly repairing the home since its purchase. Erring toward restoration, the couple has focused on keeping the house as close to its original design as possible.  As a former rental, renovations to the home were essentially nonexistent, giving Peter and Lauren, who are its third owners, the retro pad of their dreams.