Our Easter in Palm Springs...

For a belated birthday gathering, we met my college girlfriend, Julie at the Palm Springs Vintage Market.

What began as a flea market, a decade ago, this über cool shopping experience has morphed since Palm Springs is the land of all things Mid-Century Modern. Most shoppers here are focused on filling their beautifully restored masterpiece homes with authentic vintage merchandise and that then became the market's new focus. Others (me) are here to ogle unique treasures from our childhood, and on occasion, find something that must come home with us.

There is a lot of humor to be found at the market, too.

I wish I would have gotten this talented vendor's name. 𝅘𝅥𝅮 If I had a million dollars...𝅘𝅥𝅮

He takes the most amazing vintage items and turns them into working lamps. Fabulous beyond belief.

Remember the humor I mentioned above? There was something funny about this bald guy carrying the hairdryer. Maybe it was the heat.

How about these Beatles Wing Ding Sneakers. These groovy shoes were manufactured in the USA in 1964 by Wing Dings of Saco, Maine. They came in either blue canvas or white canvas, in either high tops or low rise. Wow, right?

RETRO rules here!

There are always firsts for me at places like this. These snowshoes are intriguing. I don't see how they would work, but so dang cool (pun intended).

One of the first-ever fitness wearables was so dangerous it was banned by the US government for causing miscarriages and hernias. The line between “convenient exercise device” and “ornate torture tool” was thinner back in the 1950s.

Before it was outed as medically horrifying, the Relax-A-Cizor was marketed as an easy way to get thin in your sleep, a glamorous “reduction” contraption endorsed by Doris Day.

Invented by an engineer named William J. Browner, who hand-built and sold prototypes around Hollywood after World War II, the Relax-A-Cizor was a hit throughout the 1950s and 1960s, selling over 400,000 devices at $100 to $400 a pop before people figured out it was a claptrap paralysis-causing hazard. I learn a lot about what was here, too.

I'm sure I had one of these, but looking at them now, I have to wonder why. The Troll Doll, first created in 1959, became one of the United States' biggest toy fads in the early 1960s.

After our market adventure, we picnicked at Sahara Park ( a peaceful, shaded spot we plan to return to.

Our final activity of the day was to covet all the homes that house all the authentic vintage furniture, purchased at the Vintage Market. Twin Palms Estates was the one we chose to focus on this visit.

In 1956, developers George and Robert Alexander, working with architect William Krisel completed the Ocotillo Lodge. The Lodge welcomed home-seekers considering one of their 90 new and distinctive residences. ‘Distinctive’ because this fledging district introduced to the desert such modernist elements as open carports, clerestory windows, exposed concrete block, breezeways, and butterfly roofs. With little fanfare at the time, the area became both the first mid century modern neighborhood completed by the Alexander Construction Company and the first truly modern housing tract in Palm Springs.

Only two floor plans were available from which prospective Twin Palms homeowners could choose. But a wide variety of available facades, roof-lines, landscaping, color palettes, and home orientations on the property effectively concealed this limitation. The result is that the Alexanders could pass along to buyers the economies of constructing tract housing, and buyers could enjoy a sense of owning a home that was aesthetically unique — at least on the outside. As a design and marketing strategy, this proved quite sound.

Considered for decades to be a second hometown for the wealthy, Palm Springs suddenly came within grasp of a much larger population of home buyers. The 90 original residences sold briskly and led to the development of equally popular tracts elsewhere in the area. In this way, the success of Twin Palms initiated the City’s first major housing boom and forever changed its architectural landscape.

A little about the architect: William (Bill) Krisel, AIA, was born in Shanghai in 1924 where his father was an attorney and a distributor for United Artists motion pictures. Krisel’s affinity for architecture came early. At age 13, he critiqued the plans published in Time magazine for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s home in Hyde Park by sending a letter along with his plans, which were subsequently published by the magazine.

The family moved back to Southern California as the gathering storm of World War II was forming. After the war, Krisel continued his studies at USC, which had one of the foremost architectural departments dedicated to modernism in the country. He graduated there with honors in 1949 and formed a partnership with Dan Palmer whom he had met while working part time during school with architect Victor Gruen. While at USC, Krisel met Robert (Bob) Alexander who was a classmate. At the time, Bob’s father, George, was building traditional style tract homes in the San Fernando Valley. George Alexander gave Krisel and Palmer 10 lots to try and presumed they would not be very successful. But Krisel’s homes sold so well that the Alexander’s company went on to do hundreds more using Krisel for many of the projects, including the Ocotillo Lodge and the Twin Palms tract of homes adjacent to it. Cool history, right?

A must stop is the home made most famous by one of its guests. Elvis Presley’s Honeymoon Hideaway estate, also known as The House of Tomorrow, was originally owned by Robert Alexander, who is also the architect responsible for the home’s design (Krisel's classmate). We have watched this home in various stages of being loved. It has sold recently, so here's hope that it will be The Awesome Again House of Tomorrow, soon.

Last architect I will mention, for today, is Claude Du Bois. Mr. Du Bois added a standout element to some homes he produced in the late 1950s for the Alexander Company’s Vista Las Palmas development—an A-frame roofline that extended all the way to the ground, with a deep overhang on both front and back sides of the house. This feature served dual purposes of shielding the property from the sun while differentiating it from the Palmer and Krisel-designed butterfly-roofed residences surrounding it. Ironically, however, for many years, it was a commonly held assumption that Krisel was the architect behind the iconic A-frames—only in recent years has Du Bois been properly credited for their design. Alternately referred to as “Swiss Misses” or “Alohauses” for their Alpine and Polynesian influences, these visually arresting desert dwellings have become coveted trophies—one that hit the market last spring was swiftly snapped up for $2.9 million. We all agreed that a drink with an umbrella is called for at this home!