Los Angeles Architectural Icon

John Sowden House: The Mayan Revival Jaws of Los Feliz

Los Angeles, California, United States

By the Wicked Cool Places editors · Published Fri, Aug 28, 2026

Why it’s cool

This 1926 residence features a striking facade resembling a shark's mouth. It is the most celebrated work of Lloyd Wright and carries a dark legacy as a potential site in the Black Dahlia case.

West Coast Historic

The Sowden House's geometric, Mayan-inspired stone facade rises above a lush garden of tropical plants and palms.

Rising from the Los Feliz hillside, this concrete fortress looks less like a home and more like a temple for a forgotten deity. Completed in 1926, the John Sowden House is a masterclass in the textile-block style popularized by the Wright family.

Its jagged, geometric window frame has earned it the nickname of the Jaws House, as the sharp concrete ornamentation mimics the open mouth of a shark.

Why It Stands Out

Lloyd Wright, the son of the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright, designed this structure for his friend John Sowden, a painter and photographer. The architect utilized patterned concrete blocks to create a Mayan Revival aesthetic that feels both ancient and futuristic.

While the home gained cinematic fame as the residence of Howard Hughes in the film The Aviator, it is also shrouded in a much darker reputation. Between 1945 and 1951, the house belonged to Dr.

George Hodel. Decades later, Hodel's son, a former homicide detective, alleged that his father murdered and mutilated Elizabeth Short, known as the Black Dahlia, within these very walls.

Despite these grim associations, the house remains a pinnacle of Los Angeles architecture. In 2001, designer Xorin Balbes purchased the property and underwent a massive restoration project.

He spent over a million dollars repairing the intricate stonework and modernizing the interior, which spans 5,600 square feet. The renovation added a pool and spa to the central courtyard while incorporating significant Asian antiquities, such as a centuries-old Quan Yin statue and a stone Buddha, into the decor.

Before You Go

The house is a private residence located at 5121 Franklin Avenue. While it is not a public museum, the striking exterior is easily visible from the street.

Visitors should respect the privacy of the occupants and the surrounding neighborhood when viewing the facade.

Questions worth answering

What makes the exterior of this house so unusual?

The front of the building uses jagged concrete blocks to mimic a shark's open mouth. This 1926 design by Lloyd Wright is why locals call it the Jaws House.

Can I go inside to see the central courtyard?

You'll have to settle for the view from Franklin Avenue. It's a private residence, not a museum, so don't expect a tour of the 5,600 square foot interior.

Is there any truth to the rumors about the Black Dahlia?

Dr. George Hodel lived here for six years starting in 1945. His son later claimed the Elizabeth Short murder happened inside these walls, though it remains a dark theory rather than a proven fact.

How has the property changed since it was first built?

A million-dollar restoration in 2001 added a pool and spa to the courtyard. The current decor also features Asian antiquities like a stone Buddha and a Quan Yin statue.

Visit Snapshot

Located on Franklin Avenue in the Los Feliz neighborhood, this is a private residence. You can view the famous shark-like facade from the sidewalk, but internal access is generally not available to the public.

Location

Los Angeles, California

Editorial source

John Sowden House

If the John Sowden House at 5121 Franklin Avenue in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, California, looks a little familiar, it's probably because it was used as the home of Howard Hughes in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator . Also, if you've ever seen it before, it can be a little difficult to forget because of its unique design.

Designed and built by Lloyd Wright, the son of legendary Frank Lloyd Wright, in 1926, this Mayan-inspired home is often known as the "Jaws House." It was the shape of the window, built using ornamented concrete blocks, which looks a bit like the mouth of a Great White Shark, that gave the house its nickname. Much of the design here is influenced by Lloyd Wright's father; you can see that he borrows the elder Wright's early 1920s textile-block construction and Mayan themes.

The original owner of the house, the one who gave the structure its official name, was John Sowden, a painter and photographer who knew Lloyd Wright for some time before he was commissioned to design the building. Much like typecasting in the movies or writers being unable to escape the shadow of their bestseller, Lloyd Wright was always known for this building.

After the architect and designer died in 1978, the Los Angeles Times wrote that Sowden's house had been "hailed as the apogee of [Lloyd Wright's] work." In addition to serving as the Howard Hughes home on film, the John Sowden House was actually once the home (from 1945 through 1951) of Black Dahlia murder suspect Dr. George Hodel.

A Los Angeles physician, Hodel was not publicly named as a suspect at the time of the investigations, but his own son, a retired Los Angeles homicide detective, would later write that Hodel has tortured, murdered, and dissected Elizabeth Short inside of the Sowden House in January 1947. Long after either John Sowden or Dr.

George Hodel lived in the house, it was renovated for new occupants. Designer Xorin Balbes purchase the home for $1.2 million in 2001 and then promptly declared it a wreck and spent an additional $1.6 million restoring it.

With seven bedrooms, four baths, and about 5,600 square feet of living space, this was not a small undertaking. Balbes restored the stonework, converted the three-room kitchen into one, installed a pool and spa, and added new upscale bathrooms.

Balbes also added enormous antique pieces, including an Indonesian stone Buddha, an antique Chinese dowry chest, and a 400-year-old Quan Yin statue.

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