page_title: Richard Halliburton
section_title: Hangover House in Laguna Beach, California
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Halliburton / Career / Hangover House in Laguna Beach, California
caption_attribution_description: English: Built for author Richard Halliburton.
context_page_description: Richard Halliburton was an American travel writer, adventurer, and author who is best known today for having swum the length of the Panama Canal and paying the lowest toll in its history—36 cents in 1928. His final and fatal adventure, an attempt to sail the Chinese junk Sea Dragon across the Pacific Ocean – from Hong Kong to the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, California – made him legendary.
context_section_description: In 1937 William Alexander Levy designed a house for Halliburton in Laguna Beach, California, which is now known as "a landmark of modern architecture." Alexander was a novice architect, a recent graduate of the New York University School of Architecture and close friend of Paul Mooney. Mooney managed the construction of the house.  The house, built of concrete and steel and fortress-like in appearance, contained a spacious living room, a spacious dining room and three bedrooms: one for Halliburton, which featured a wall-sized map of the world; one for Mooney; and one for Levy. Because of its position, perched 400 feet (120m) above a sheer canyon, it was called "Hangover House" by Mooney, and this title was cast into a retaining wall on the site. Writer Ayn Rand, who visited the house in 1937 when she was still an unknown writer, is believed to have based the "Heller House" in The Fountainhead (1943) upon Halliburton's home.
caption: Hangover House (2016); the word "HANGOVER" (in mirror writing) is stamped into the concrete retaining wall
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