Ralph A. Vaughn

Ralph A. Vaughn (1907–2000) was an African-American academic, architect and film set designer. Born in

Early life

Ralph Augustine Vaughn was born on April 24, 1907, in Washington, D.C.^[1] His father, Roscoe I. Vaughn, was a teacher and architect in Washington, D.C. He had three siblings.^[2]

Vaughn was educated at the

Vaughn worked as a draftsman for Albert Cassell, another African-American architect who designed buildings on the campus of Howard University. He then worked as a draftsman for the United States Department of Agriculture Resettlement Administration for two years. He also worked as a consultant for Hilyard Robinson.^[2]

He became a tenured assistant professor in 1935.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1937 to work full-time for Williams. During that time, he helped design the Saks Fifth Avenue store and the MCA Inc. headquarters in Beverly Hills. He also helped design the private residences of actors Bert Lahr, Tyrone Power and Bill Robinson. He was made redundant four years later, in 1941, as architectural commissions came to a standstill when the United States joined the war effort.^[2]

He worked as a set designer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer alongside Cedric Gibbons from 1941 to 1945.^[2][3] For example, he helped design the set of Kismet, a 1944 film starring Marlene Dietrich. He also helped design the sets of A Guy Named Joe in 1943, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo in 1944, The Last Time I Saw Paris in 1954.^[2]

In 1945, Vaughn started an architectural firm with

With Heth Wharton (1892–1958), he designed the North Hollywood Manor in North Hollywood and the Chase Knolls Apartments in Sherman Oaks in 1950.^[1] The latter is listed as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. A year later, in 1951, they designed Lincoln Place Apartment Homes in Venice, Los Angeles, a residential complex which includes fifty-two buildings.^[3][4] It has been described as one of his "best-known extant projects."^[2]

Vaughn was appointed to the Los Angeles Building and Safety Commission in 1953. He was a member of the

Vaughn designed the Schwab's Pharmacy on Sunset Boulevard and the buildings of the San Marcos Golf Club in San Marcos, California. He restored the Watts Towers in the later 1970s.^[1]

Personal life and death

Vaughn married Elizabeth Estelle Christmas Fry in 1935. She worked as a librarian. They had a son, Ronald Fry Vaughn.^[2]

Vaughn retired in Stockton, California, in 1998. He died two years later, on October 21, 2000.^[1]

References