Twin Palms

Twin Palms at 1148 East Alejo Rd is a mid-century modern house in Palm Springs, California. The house was designed by E. Stewart Williams, to a commission from the American singer and actor Frank Sinatra. The house was Williams's first residential commission. Sinatra lived in the house from its completion in 1947 to 1954, and sold the house in 1957.HistorySinatra started coming to Palm Springs in the late 1940s. He had been told about it by his close friend, the composer Jimmy Van Heusen, who had stopped for fuel there while flying to Los Angeles. Van Heusen told Sinatra of the beauty of the desert later that day, and Sinatra insisted that they fly there that evening. Fellow acquaintances of Sinatra's who had also started frequenting Palm Springs in the 1940s included Lana Turner and Dinah Shore, and the actress Ava Gardner who was to become his second wife. On 1 May 1947 Sinatra walked into the offices of E. Stewart Williams, wearing a white sailor cap and eating an ice cream cone, and requested that the firm build him a Georgian style house as a weekend residence; he had recently signed a film contract with Metro Goldwyn Meyer, and had made his first $1 million. Feeling that the Georgian style was unsuitable for the extremes of the desert environment, Williams showed Sinatra two architectural drawings, one of the Georgian design, and the other of a single-storey modern house. Sinatra chose the modern design, and the house was to be Williams's first residential commission. Williams's brother and architectural partner, Roger, later said that he was "so glad" that Sinatra chose the modern design, believing that "We'd have been ruined if we'd been forced to build Georgian in the desert". Sinatra demanded that the house be completed in time for a Christmas party he intended to host. The house was eventually finished shortly before the new year at a cost of $150,000. Twin Palms was subsequently photographed by Julius Shulman.