1173 Paseo El Mirador, Palm Springs, CA

Description

Built in 1957, this post-and-beam home in Movie Colony East is a beautiful MCM design statement. However, the Meiselman attribution is unverified and actively questioned. The Meiselman credit comes from a prior real estate listing, when the house was sold in 2018, not from original documentation. Several physical characteristics suggest it might be an Alexander Construction Company / Krisel-designed home based on the floor plan configuration, the home’s scale relative to typical Meiselman tract homes, the neighborhood, the see-through fireplace and its placement, the bedroom orientation, and the material used for its patio roof pillars. If this is a Meiselman home, it is likely custom-designed, not one of Meiselman’s tract homes.

The floor plan is larger and more complex than most documented Meiselman homes. Typical Meiselman tract homes in neighborhoods like Sunrise Park or Oasis del Sol had between 1,200 and 1,800 square feet with a straightforward three-bedroom layout. This home includes a fourth bedroom configured as a private attached studio suite with a separate lounge — an arrangement that suggests either a custom commission or a significant later addition. That distinction matters for attribution purposes, and it’s worth noting upfront.

This home features 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, and 2,304sq ft of living area on a 9,583 sq ft lot. Like all of Meiselman’s homes, there is a strong relationship between inside and outside. The main living areas open directly onto a large private yard through updated sliding glass doors — a design move that was central to the desert modern philosophy. The yard centers on a substantial 48-foot pool, recently re-tiled and re-plastered, with an outdoor fireplace, an outdoor shower, and multiple lounging zones — some in full sun, some under a veranda, some shaded by mature Carob trees. From the pool deck and most living areas, Mt. San Jacinto fills the western view.

Interior updates include fully remodeled bathrooms (all three) and a redesigned open-concept kitchen with a bar and adjacent dining area. The electrical, plumbing, HVAC, landscaping, and front entry have all been updated. The original architectural character — the beams, the glass, the clerestory banding — remains the dominant experience of the home.

Neighborhood

Movie Colony East sits on the eastern edge of the Movie Colony, one of Palm Springs’ oldest and most storied residential enclaves. The original Movie Colony drew Hollywood’s elite in the 1930s and 1940s; Movie Colony East developed somewhat later, absorbing the mid-century wave of residential construction that reshaped the city’s east side in the 1950s. It’s a neighborhood of larger, more individualized lots than the tract developments further east and north — which is precisely why a custom or near-custom home of this scale would fit comfortably here, and why the Meiselman attribution deserves scrutiny.

Jack Meiselman built his reputation developing tract neighborhoods — Sunrise Park, Oasis del Sol, Sunmor, Racquet Club Estates, Little Beverly Hills — where consistent floor plans and efficient construction defined the work. A custom-designed home in Movie Colony East would represent a different mode of practice, one less documented in the Registry’s current archive. That doesn’t make the attribution wrong, but it does make it unusual, and unusual warrants verification.

If this is a Meiselman home, it would be among the Registry’s most distinctive entries — not a standard Meiselman tract plan, but a bespoke design that demonstrates the developer working at a larger scale and in a new neighborhood, compared to most of his homes. That makes it unique and interesting.

Is This Home Yours?

If you live at this address in Movie Colony East and have records, permits, or documentation related to this home’s original construction or development history, the Meiselman Registry would love to hear from you. Visit meiselmanregistry.org/claim to connect with our team and help us get the story right.

✏️ Ed