The Upton Sinclair House is located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, north of the center of Monrovia at the southeast corner of North Myrtle Avenue and East Scenic Drive. It is a Neo-Mediterranean building in a district of similar houses. It is made of poured concrete and includes "ball-and-ribbon" concrete moldings and Batchelder tile.[4] Its main entrance is set in an ornate archway, with an iron balcony above. The entrance and flanking windows are set in round-arch openings. To the rear right of the house is a period garage.[2]
The house was designed by California architect Frederick H. Wallis and built in 1923. It was purchased by Upton Sinclair in 1942, seeking a quieter location than Pasadena, where he had been living.[2] Sinclair is best known for his exposé style of writing, epitomized by The Jungle, his 1906 novel exposing unsavory practices in the meatpacking industry. Sinclair was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.[2]
Many of Sinclair's later works were written while he lived here, in a studio space created in the garage.[2] The grounds also include a concrete vault where he kept all his papers.[4]
