Built in 1964 for entertainer Dinah Shore and her husband Maurice Smith, this steel post-and-beam residence occupies a 1.3-acre compound in Old Las Palmas. Local historians credit Shore's move to the neighborhood with accelerating celebrity migration to Palm Springs, where studio contracts had long required stars to remain within two hours of Los Angeles. The house is properly known as the Shore-Smith Residence, commissioned the year following Shore's divorce from actor George Montgomery and marriage to Smith. Donald Wexler, working through his newly formed firm Donald A. Wexler Associates, designed the compound to include a main house, guest house, and casita totaling six bedrooms and 7.5 baths.
The defining architectural features are a commanding diagonal elevation and an unusual marriage of materials where rugged adobe brick meets sleek midcentury detailing. Approached via a gracious covered promenade, the entrance displays distinctive tubular metal spider-leg beams, a direct reference to Richard Neutra, for whom Wexler had worked two decades earlier. From an initial sense of privacy behind walls, the interior unfolds in linear planes and glass walls opening to mountain views. The 1.3-acre grounds include a lawn and garden, pool and pool house, gazebo, gym, and tennis court.
