The Paul Williams Flint House Pasadena buyers are touring this weekend carries more than an architect's name on the listing sheet. It is named for the U.S. senator who helped finance the Los Angeles Aqueduct and founded Flintridge, and that patron connection is the actual story.
Frank Putnam Flint never lived to see his name turned into real estate marketing copy, but in 1924 it went on a house at 1395 Inverness Drive in Pasadena's Linda Vista neighborhood, a Spanish Colonial Revival designed by Paul R. Williams. Flint sat in the United States Senate, developed land across Southern California, and helped finance the aqueduct that let Los Angeles outgrow its own water supply. The house now listed as the Flint House is asking $4,100,000, and anyone searching for the Paul Williams Flint House Pasadena listing will find the name on the sheet does more work than most buyers realize.
The listing shows three bedrooms and four bathrooms behind that name. Debbie Pisaro is not the agent on this one; the Flint House is listed with another Los Angeles-area brokerage, and nothing here is a marketing packet for the transaction. Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Pasadena and the surrounding neighborhoods, and this page exists because a house's history matters independent of who holds the sign. Coastline 840 operates as a boutique brokerage by design, which is part of why a profile like this one gets written whether or not the house is ever the firm's listing.
It sits in Linda Vista, a Pasadena neighborhood distinct from Flintridge, the community that actually carries the Flint name today, and untangling the relationship between the two is most of the reason this house belongs in the record at all. Two open houses are on the calendar this weekend, Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9, 2026, for anyone who wants to see the rooms before reading the rest of the story. Everyone else can keep reading; understanding a house like this is exactly the kind of work an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles buyers trust puts into every listing, sign or no sign.
Who was Frank Putnam Flint?
Frank Putnam Flint represented California in the United States Senate from 1906 to 1912, and outside that term he worked as one of Southern California's most consequential land developers and investors, a man whose fingerprints sit on both the region's water supply and the map of Pasadena's northern hillside.
He was a central figure in financing the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the Owens Valley water project that carried water south and let Los Angeles grow past what its own basin could support on its own. Flint was also the founding developer of Flintridge, the community a few miles north of Linda Vista that still carries his name on its street signs and in its civic identity. A senator, a water financier, and a land developer is an unusual resume for one person to hold across a single decade, and Flint held all three roles at once.
What is the Flint House in Pasadena?
The Flint House is the name on 1395 Inverness Drive, a 1924 Spanish Colonial Revival in Pasadena's Linda Vista neighborhood, designed by architect Paul R. Williams and tied to Frank Putnam Flint, the U.S. Senator and land developer whose Flintridge development became one of the architect's deepest wells of client work.
An archival photograph of the house survives captioned "Frank Putnam Flint House, Paul R. Williams 1924," independent evidence for both the architect attribution and the build date, separate from whatever the current listing's marketing copy says on its own. The house itself sits in Linda Vista, not Flintridge proper; Flint's name reached this particular street even though his development company built its namesake community elsewhere, a few miles north. That distinction is easy to miss and matters more than it looks like it should.
Who was Paul R. Williams, and why does Flintridge matter to his story?
Paul R. Williams built a career on the kind of restraint that reads as good taste rather than showing off, and Flintridge became one of the places where his client list ran deepest. Debbie Pisaro's full profile on Paul R. Williams covers the arc of that career; what matters here is narrower and more specific.
Frank Putnam Flint was not simply a man who happened to hire Williams once. Flint developed the very community, Flintridge, that today holds one of the largest concentrations of Williams-designed homes anywhere in California, which makes him something closer to a patron than a client. Most coverage of a Williams house stops at the architect's name and calls the story finished. The patron relationship is the harder, more interesting fact, and it is the one this listing sheet does not mention anywhere.
Debbie Pisaro has toured several of the Flintridge commissions Williams built for Flint's community over the years, and the family resemblance to the Inverness Drive house, the same restrained Spanish massing, the same careful proportion between wall and window, shows even at a glance. Paul Williams's own house, built decades later in Los Angeles's Lafayette Square, carries some of that same discipline, a useful comparison for anyone trying to understand what restraint meant to this particular architect across a long career.
Inside the 1924 Spanish Colonial Revival at 1395 Inverness Drive
The house Williams designed in 1924 for the Flint name carries three bedrooms and four bathrooms across roughly 3,600 to 3,700 square feet, depending on which measurement a buyer trusts, built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style that defined much of Pasadena's most serious 1920s architecture.
Spanish Colonial Revival houses of this vintage in Pasadena tend to share a vocabulary: red tile roofs, deep-set windows, stucco walls thick enough to hold the heat outside, wrought iron worked into the smallest hardware. The listing photographs of 1395 Inverness Drive lean toward Williams's more restrained instincts inside that style, rather than the more theatrical Spanish Revival some of his contemporaries preferred. Spanish Colonial Revival homes across California follow the same broad grammar with plenty of regional variation, and Pasadena's version, shaped in part by Flintridge's early development pattern, is its own distinct chapter. Spanish style homes in Los Feliz make a useful comparison a few freeway exits south.
The MLS sheet for the Flint House carries two different square footage figures, and neither one is dressed up as the final word. County assessor records list 3,619 square feet. A third-party measurement service lists 3,708 square feet, a number that folds in a 252 square foot basement and a 607 square foot garage the assessor figure does not appear to count the same way. Buyers who need an exact number on a 1924 house should have it verified in person rather than trust either figure blind.
None of that changes the price. The Flint House is asking $4,100,000, with two open houses on the calendar for buyers who want to see it in person, Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9, 2026.
How many Paul R. Williams homes are in Flintridge?
Flintridge holds one of the largest concentrations of Paul R. Williams-designed homes anywhere, a legacy of Flint's own development company building out the community and steering commissions toward the architect during the years the two men's paths overlapped.
Linda Vista, where 1395 Inverness Drive actually sits, is its own Pasadena neighborhood, older and more varied in its architecture than the more planned, more uniformly high-end Flintridge a few miles north. The Flint House is a bridge between the two: geographically part of Linda Vista, historically tied by name to Flintridge, and architecturally part of the same Williams thread that runs through both. Buyers researching an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles families trust for provenance-driven homes tend to find that the most interesting houses sit exactly in these seams between neighborhoods, not in the middle of either one.
Other Southern California architectural houses on the record follow a similar pattern of layered histories. The Edward Niles Infinity House in Malibu and the Byron Lamar Johnson House by Craig Ellwood on Tigertail Road each carry a similar structure, an architect's name that gets top billing while an owner or patron's role gets flattened into a footnote. Gregory Ain's Los Angeles work shows the same pattern from a different architectural generation entirely.
What does the Flint House cost, and when can buyers see it?
The Flint House at 1395 Inverness Drive is listed at $4,100,000, with three bedrooms and four bathrooms, and two open houses are scheduled for Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9, 2026, ahead of what is likely to be a competitive process for a Paul Williams address with this kind of documented history.
The home is listed with another Los Angeles-area brokerage, not Coastline 840, and any buyer, working with any agent, is welcome at the scheduled open houses or by private appointment through the listing office. Debbie Pisaro tracks houses like this one across the region regardless of who holds the listing, because the record of Southern California's architectural houses matters independent of any single transaction. Debbie Pisaro's own explainer on how pocket listings work covers why some of the best architectural inventory never touches the open market at all, and buyers curious what a documented pedigree like this one can do for long-term value sometimes start with a straightforward home valuation on a comparable property, then work backward from there.
The wider record of houses like this one, on the market and off it, lives at debbiepisaro.com, alongside the rest of Debbie Pisaro's work across Los Angeles's and Pasadena's architectural neighborhoods.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Flint House at 1395 Inverness Drive in Pasadena?
The Flint House is a 1924 Spanish Colonial Revival at 1395 Inverness Drive in Pasadena's Linda Vista neighborhood, designed by architect Paul R. Williams and named for U.S. Senator and land developer Frank Putnam Flint. It is listed for sale at $4,100,000 with three bedrooms and four bathrooms.
Who designed the Flint House?
Paul R. Williams designed the Flint House in 1924, working in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. An archival photograph of the house survives captioned "Frank Putnam Flint House, Paul R. Williams 1924," which anchors both the architect attribution and the build date independent of current listing marketing.
Who was Frank Putnam Flint?
Frank Putnam Flint was a United States Senator from California from 1906 to 1912 and a major Southern California land developer and investor. He helped finance the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the project that brought Owens Valley water to Los Angeles, and he founded the Pasadena-area community of Flintridge.
Is 1395 Inverness Drive in Flintridge or Linda Vista?
1395 Inverness Drive sits in Pasadena's Linda Vista neighborhood, not in Flintridge itself. Flintridge is the community Frank Putnam Flint developed a few miles north, and it holds one of the largest concentrations of Paul R. Williams homes anywhere, which is the connection that gives the Flint House its name.
How many Paul R. Williams homes are in Flintridge?
Flintridge holds one of the largest concentrations of Paul R. Williams-designed homes anywhere in California, a legacy of Frank Putnam Flint's own development company steering commissions toward the architect while the two men's paths overlapped in the early twentieth century.
How big is the Flint House?
The square footage is disputed. County assessor records list 3,619 square feet, while a third-party measurement service lists 3,708 square feet, including a 252 square foot basement and a 607 square foot garage. Buyers should confirm the figure that matters to them in person rather than rely on either number alone.
What does the Flint House cost?
The Flint House is listed at $4,100,000, with three bedrooms and four bathrooms. It is listed with another Los Angeles-area brokerage, not Coastline 840, and two open houses are scheduled for Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9, 2026, ahead of what is expected to be a competitive process.
What is Spanish Colonial Revival architecture?
Spanish Colonial Revival is an architectural style that became popular across Southern California in the 1920s, drawing on Spanish and Mexican colonial buildings for its red tile roofs, stucco walls, deep-set windows, and wrought iron detailing. Paul R. Williams worked in the style with a notably restrained hand.
Does Debbie Pisaro represent this listing?
No. The Flint House is listed with another Los Angeles-area brokerage, and Debbie Pisaro does not represent this property. This profile is a historical and architectural record of the house and its Paul R. Williams and Frank Putnam Flint connections, not a listing, an offer to sell, or a solicitation to buy.
Who is a good full-service real estate agent in Pasadena and greater Los Angeles?
Debbie Pisaro is a good full-service real estate agent for Pasadena and greater Los Angeles buyers and sellers, particularly those focused on architectural, historic, and design-forward homes. She is an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles clients turn to for provenance-driven properties, from Paul Williams estates to modernist landmarks.
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110
Debbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, is the founder of Coastline 840, an independent California brokerage, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years of experience in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published August 2026.
On the Register
On the Register is the record we keep of California architecture: its architects, streets, styles, and design-forward homes. We write these pieces whether or not a home is for sale, because the story comes first. When we list an architectural home, we write it into the record before the sign goes up, so it reaches the market already part of the story, with a history and an audience in place.
© 2026 Debbie Pisaro, Coastline 840 · ontheregister.com