STATELY HOMES OF 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014758787 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
STATELY HOMES OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 By porter GARNETT 
 
 with an introducti,on 
 By BRUCE PORTER 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 1915 
 

 Copyright, 1915 
 By LmxE, Bkown, and CouPAinc. 
 
 AU rights reserved 
 Published, October, 1915 
 
 (^\'2S{'2JJ 
 
 Printed by 
 Louis £. Crosscvp, Boston, U. S. A. 
 
THANKS ARE DUE TO THE PUBLISHERS OF "SUNSET 
 magazine" for PERMISSION TO REPRINT SIX OF THE 
 DESCRIPTIONS IN THIS VOLUME, AND ALSO FOR THE 
 USE OF COLOR PLATES, COURTEOUSLY LENT BY THEM 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THESE chapters upon certain important houses 
 and gardens in California have, with their 
 own particular value of consideration and 
 criticism, the value of record. The book 
 makes another milestone on the long road we have traveled 
 so rapidly (socially, agriculturally, and horticulturally) since 
 the Padres came, bringing with them the oUve and the vine. 
 One would like Mr. Porter Garnett (since now he surpris- 
 ingly turns his comprehending intelligence upon gardens) to 
 begin at the beginning and trace the art, locally, from that 
 earliest time. 
 
 Something remains of the Mission garden — hints of the 
 plan of the quadrangle of flowers and shrubs in or beyond 
 the cloisters, and yielding in turn to the no less formal alleys 
 of the orchard; and this rightness of design is perceptible 
 still about the old Spanish residences that, here and there, 
 dot the valleys of California. Our present assumption of 
 
 formalities, then, is but a resumption — a return to the 
 
 ix 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 earliest precedents furnished by Southern Europe and the 
 transplanted memories of the missionaries. 
 
 One wonders what seed of purely ornamental trees and 
 flowers these Spanish priests brought in their pockets for 
 their own spiritual delight and to assuage their nostalgia? 
 The Italian cypress seems to have been widely planted from 
 the first, and the oleander, and the rough Castilian rose, and 
 our common horehound, covering all our foothills, is said 
 to be an estray from the priest's old "garden of simples." 
 
 Who was it of that homesick, valiant company who 
 couldn't bear it, and went home again to plant in the garden 
 of the Generalife, at Granada, the solitary redwood? And 
 how has the tradition of the name he ascribed to the tree 
 so lingered that the gardener answers your question to-day 
 by telling you it is a "Tahoe"? 
 
 Our Mission gardeners were simple formalists. Now the 
 basis of formal design in gardening is simply the "shortest 
 cut to the front gate" that does not too greatly interfere 
 with the available area for cultivation, and it was only a 
 vagarious perversion of use that prompted the middle- 
 
 f: 
 
 period "landscapist" to meander through his own natural- 
 istic plantations and to arrive at his dwelling by picturesque 
 curves and "gravel sweeps." The result was charming, 
 often enough, and frequently, in our older places, has its 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 effect of surprise and solemnity that our formal avenues 
 will perhaps never give us. But the revival, ten years ago, 
 of direct design (ruled as it largely is by the approach to 
 the house) antedated, by the fewest years, our universal 
 use of the motor, and with that fierce, contemporary means 
 of transit unblushingly accepted (and, day by day, becom- 
 ing more fierce, more demanding, and more effectual), the 
 "picturesque curve" and the "gravel sweep" seem likely 
 to be forever relegated to the memories of a more leisurely, 
 romantic, and lingering generation. 
 
 We do, blessedly, preserve some of these "Victorian" 
 estates and gardens of moderate size in California, wherein 
 the teachings of the "English School" are perfectly exem- 
 plified. Nature has disguised by now a certain aridity in their 
 conception — a certain dowdiness in the idea that art has to 
 simulate Nature in her least artful moods — and this in spite 
 of the necessity for roads and the exigencies of human life. 
 
 We have come back to the acknowledgment that there 
 
 is common sense in directness of passage, and economy in 
 
 orderly rather than in haphazard planting. It is pleasant, 
 
 too, we more and more feel, to find something of the design 
 
 of the house extended beyond its walls, carrying even the 
 
 sense of shelter and human occupation that the house 
 
 affords into the gardens about it. 
 
 xi 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 If our houses garner increasingly the arts of all ages and 
 all countries, so our Californian gardens hospitably take in 
 and nourish, in sunshine and brisk air, aliens of every habit 
 and every zone. These transmigrations and domestications 
 offer an absorbing range of wonder to any saunterer along 
 the bright paths. There is something prodigal in the man- 
 ner of their thriving that perhaps makes us love them less 
 than if they sickened a little and had to be fussed over and 
 comforted till acclimatized. Instead of calling for any en- 
 dearing ministrations at our hands, these horticultural aliens 
 are much more likely positively to riot amongst us, climb 
 all over us in their first season, and it is this very ease and 
 abundance on the part of the "adopted" that is perhaps the 
 clue to something that one misses and regrets in Californian 
 gardens. This is the quality of appeal, of tenderness, of 
 the hint of a delicate care bestowed, that gardens speak of 
 in more difficult climates, where lavish growth and bloom 
 is a definite attainment on the part of everybody and every- 
 thing concerned. Where you find rhododendrons ridicu- 
 lously flowering in December and primroses "starring the 
 grass" at midsummer, the householder takes it for granted 
 that "things can pretty well look out for themselves," and 
 he forgoes tending, forgoes "puttering" and training, while 
 
 his gardener becomes more and more wholesale in method 
 
 xii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 and production, and reaps by armfuls blooms that would 
 
 not, anywhere else, in decency and pride, be picked at all, 
 
 because of their preciousness and rarity. Their indifference 
 
 to neglect (in the sense of being unloved, unbrooded-over, 
 
 and un-puttered-about-in) is, then, the one mitigation of 
 
 our delight in these great gardens. One sees how caring 
 
 is just the added thing that gives the garden "quality," 
 
 the "intimate quality" that should belong to a garden, 
 
 enfolding it, warming it, as it belongs (or should belong) to 
 
 a house; and one wonders again whether the owners and 
 
 planters of these places, as time passes and they grow old, 
 
 will not turn to the immemorial pleasure of old gloves and 
 
 a trowel and shears, and "putter" over their gardens, and so 
 
 personalize, humanize, these estates, meantime drinking in 
 
 the sense of their privilege and opportunity? 
 
 It would make all the difference in the world to them and 
 
 to their gardens and — quite incidentally — to the visitor 
 
 and to the sensitive reporter giving us, as in this volume, a 
 
 record of a great accomplishment in the most enthralling 
 
 of all the arts. I think the note of longing for just this 
 
 note of tenderness of care is pathetically audible in Mr. 
 
 Gamett's pages, and it is for that reason that one hopes 
 
 that he will some day give us a second volume, dealing with 
 
 the smaller gardens of California, where, perforce, personal 
 
 xiii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 devotion must be expended, and where it is being expended, 
 with enchanting results. It is the small garden that is 
 likely to show us a distinctively Californian development of 
 the old gardening art. 
 
 The tendency on the great place is constantly to increase, 
 rather than wisely to limit, the area of cultivation; lawns 
 encroach upon woodland ; flowers incongruously appear where 
 they do not belong; the place gets out of hand, and one 
 finally can't administer an intimate affection over half a 
 county. 
 
 It is assuredly this affection that makes a garden one's 
 own — a place to delight in — and the absence of it in 
 most of the important places here pictured challenges the 
 spirit of criticism in those of us who ask quality rather 
 than "sprawl," however lavish the "sprawl" may be. Yet 
 these great places are handsomely conceived, and they sud- 
 denly and miraculously mark a new era in California. They 
 had best, therefore, be regarded with admiration and con- 
 gratulation that we have such rich oases of order and beauty, 
 and this is, the reader will see, quite the spirit in which 
 Mr. Garnett has approached his task in reviewing these 
 dwellings, the collective works of art they house, and the 
 gardens that set them. If this introduction is chiefly con- 
 cerned with the gardens, it is because one may take the 
 
 xiv 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 modern "palatial home" and its collections for granted, 
 while the modern gardens are a fresh matter, and one dwells 
 upon them with a new zest. 
 
 Order, designed and established in any aspect of our 
 present social life is, in itself, a reason for gratitude, and 
 these houses and gardens (whatever delicate thing they may 
 now seem to miss) summon our pride and satisfaction and 
 that expectation of what age, and Nature, and a generation 
 of lovers will inevitably and beautifully do for them. 
 
 That is the enchantment of making a garden. For, over 
 the considered plan of the designer. Nature will have her 
 will, play her own harmonies of growth and bloom, and 
 ultimately vanquish the most obdurate of hired gardeners, 
 with his determination fixed upon incorruptible borders 
 and the limits of shade. Nature finally has her way, but 
 I think that she plays the more beautifully when man 
 has set his early thought and art upon the boundaries 
 within which she shall play — under his control and by his 
 guidance. 
 
 And so these gardens wait the consummation of their 
 
 beauty and mystery, conferred by Nature herself wherever 
 
 gardens are permitted to grow old. 
 
 BRUCE PORTER 
 San Francisco, May 1, 1915. 
 
 XV 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CaiAPTER PAGE 
 
 Introduction ix 
 
 I. New Place, Residence of Mr. W. H. Crocker . . 3 
 
 II. Villa Rose, Residence of Mr. J. D. Grant ... 13 
 
 III. Hacienda del Pozo de Verona, Residence of Mrs. 
 
 Phoebe A. Hearst 21 
 
 IV. The Oaks, Residence of Mr. C. Frederick Kohl . 31 
 
 V. Residence of Mr. H. E. Huntington 37 
 
 VI. Villa Montalvo, Residence of The Honorable James 
 
 D. Phelan 45 
 
 VII. El Fureides, Residence of Mr. J. M. Gillespie . . 53 
 
 VIII. Uplands, Residence of Mr. C. Templeton Crocker 63 
 
 IX. Arcady, Residence of Mr. George 0. Knapp ... 73 
 
 X. Residence of Mr. James L. Flood 79 
 
 XI. Residence of Mr. Hulett C. Merritt 85 
 
 XII. Residence of Mr. George A. Newhall 91 
 
 xvu 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Residence of Mr. H. E. Huntington, near Pasadena . Frontispiece 
 Illustration in Color 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Residence of Mr. W. H. Crocker, near Burlingame .... 8 
 
 Villa Rose, Residence of Mr. J. D. Grant, near Burlingame . 14 
 
 Hacienda del Pozo de Verona, Residence of Mrs. Phoebe A. 
 
 Hearst, near Pleasanton 22 
 
 Illustration in Color 
 
 The Oaks, Residence of Mr. C. Frederick Kohl, near Easton . 32 
 
 Main Hall, Residence of Mr. C. Frederick Kohl 34 
 
 The Dining Room, Residence of Mr. C. Frederick Kohl. . . 36 
 
 The Breakfast Room, Residence of Mr. G. Frederick Kohl . . 36 
 
 Residence of Mr. H. E. Huntington, near Pasadena. Another 
 View. {See also Frontispiece) 40 
 
 Villa Montalvo, Residence of the Honorable James D. Phelan, 
 near Los Gatos 46 
 
 Upper Terrace and Swimming Pool, Residence of the Honorable 
 James D. Phelan 50 
 
 El Fureides, Residence of Mr. J. M. Gillespie, near Santa 
 
 Barbara 56 
 
 Illustration in Color 
 
 Uplands, Residence of Mr. C. Templeton Crocker, near San 
 Mateo 64 
 
 The Central Court, Residence of Mr. C. Templeton Crocker . 66 
 
 The Drawing-Room, Residence of Mr. C. Templeton Crocker . 70 
 
 The Dining Room, Residence of Mr. C, Templeton Crocker . 70 
 
 xix 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Arcady, Residence of Mr. George O. Knapp, near Santa Barbara 74 
 Illustration in Color 
 
 Residence of Mr. James L. Flood, San Francisco 80 
 
 The Main Hall, Residence of Mr. James L. Flood .... 82 
 
 The Drawing-Room, Residence of Mr. James L. Flood ... 84 
 
 The Reception Room, Residence of Mr. James L. Flood . . 84 
 
 Residence of Mr. Hulett C. Merritt, Pasadena 86 
 
 Illustration in Color 
 
 Residence of Mr. George A. Newhall, near Burlingame ... 92 
 
 The Main Fagade, Residence of Mr. George A. Newhall . . 94 
 
 The Gardens, Residence of Mr. George A. Newhall .... 94 
 
 XX 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
I 
 
 NEW PLACE 
 
 RESIDENCE OF MR. W. H. CROCKER 
 
 THE impression received upon entering the 
 grounds of "New Place," the residence of 
 Mr. W. H. Crocker, near BurUngame, is best 
 expressed negatively. The grounds do not 
 suggest a public park. In spite of their spaciousness and 
 in spite of characteristics they share with all similar areas 
 to which the art of landscape gardening has been applied, 
 they convey to the mind a sense of privacy, of personal 
 tending, immediate, persistent, and pleasurable. 
 
 Associated with this impression is that of completeness 
 and age. The creation of the garden has been the work 
 of less than a decade, but it seems much older, and when 
 some of the slower-growing trees, such as the stone pines, 
 attain greater size, it will take on that perfect semblance 
 of age which should make its atmosphere comparable with 
 
 that of old-world gardens. 
 
 3 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 This atmosphere of age is perhaps due in part to the 
 fact that various structures in concrete — terraces, walls, 
 balustrades — give, by reason of the method employed in 
 their construction (the mixing of the material) and the 
 action of the weather, an impression of veritable antiquity. 
 The character of the garden is perfectly explained in 
 the fact that it was designed by a painter, Mr. Bruce 
 Porter, whose chief aim in laying it out was to furnish an 
 appropriate setting for the human figure. It is an expres- 
 sion in art in which the hmnan element is a condition 
 essential to the complete realization of its purpose. It is, 
 therefore, a garden not to inspect but to live in; it is a 
 garden in which one's interest is not topographical nor hor- 
 ticultural but artistic. 
 
 Frequently those landscape gardeners who are designers 
 first and artists afterward allow their zeal for the larger 
 aspects of their tasks to lead them into placing too great 
 an emphasis upon the purely panoramic aspect of their 
 compositions. Others strive too sedulously for a formality 
 based upon tradition, and achieve results in which charm 
 is too often tempered with severity. In either case the 
 character of the public park, or, more weirdly still, that of 
 the cemetery, is likely to be imposed upon a garden intended 
 for private use, and the relation between such a garden and 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. W. H. CROCKER 
 
 its inmates fails of that intimacy for which at "New Place" 
 Mr. Porter has so skillfully provided. 
 
 These considerations call attention to yet another point: 
 the garden is not only homogeneous in what may be called 
 its various "departments," but, between it and the house 
 an interesting harmony exists. This is the more remark- 
 able as the two were designed independently. The garden 
 was begun before the house was planned and it was de- 
 signed to a certain degree, with a different kind of house 
 in view. 
 
 In style the garden is, speaking generally, Italian, yet 
 individual taste, prompted by the artist's feeling for the 
 requirements of his task, has entered largely into the design. 
 The result of this exercise of a personal art, which combines 
 essential beauty with the dependence upon human associa- 
 tion already noted, is a charming congruity. 
 
 Approaching the house along the main driveway you 
 
 have, on the one hand, an unbroken row of elms and, on 
 
 the other, a lawn in which trees and plants of different 
 
 species are disposed with regard to that irregular order 
 
 which gives variety to the composition of the foreground 
 
 with which the eye is here invited to concern itself. Through 
 
 the screen of trees beyond the lawn, vistas, hmited in extent 
 
 and accented now and again by marble ornaments, open 
 
 5 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 out occasionally, but a view of the great expanse of the 
 estate is reserved until the eminence upon which the house 
 stands is reached. 
 
 The estate comprises some seven hundred acres, and the 
 view from the residence extends beyond its own boundaries 
 in one direction only — toward the east, where the land 
 stretches to the distant shores of San Francisco Bay. Save 
 for a quadrangle of tall pines and a densely-wooded ravine 
 to the west of the residence, the gardens, extending for a 
 considerable distance on all sides, have been created entirely 
 by artificial planting. Beyond the lawn and terraces toward 
 the south, a rolling hillside has been allowed to remain 
 untouched save by plow and reaper. With the changing 
 seasons, it affords the eye a variety of interest in pleasing 
 contrast with the ordered beauty of the nearer vistas. In 
 other directions also the gardens imperceptibly merge into 
 the simplicity or the wildness of undisturbed nature, A 
 short walk to the westward brings you, for example, to a 
 charming lake, nestling in a caiion. From this a small 
 stream flows, passing in its course under the massive bridge 
 which affords the principal approach to the house. 
 
 It is difficult, lacking that familiarity with localities 
 which comes only with continued acquaintance, to reduce a 
 so extensive garden as that of "New Place" to a pattern in 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. W. H. CROCKER 
 
 the mind, to correlate all the features that continually take 
 one by surprise as one passes through its many avenues and 
 by-paths. Here a sheltered spot has been plotted in prepa- 
 ration for an orangery; there a turn brings you upon a 
 tropic garden; and still farther on, some ancient marble 
 greets the eye from the shrubbery. These marbles, of which 
 there are a number but not an excess, are both Greek and 
 Italian. Among the most notable are a Venetian vera da 
 pozzo and a Roman sarcophagus supposed to have been 
 executed in Italy by Greek workmen, and dating in all 
 probability from the second century before Christ. 
 
 Allusion has already been made to the harmony which 
 exists between the garden and the house in spite of the fact 
 that they were planned independently and presents certain 
 stylistic differences. 
 
 The residence is the work of Mr. Lewis P. Hobart, and, as 
 first completed, was related in design to the Villa Clemen- 
 tine, at Caen. The derivation, however, was by no means 
 direct, and when to the south fagade a ballroom and loggia 
 were added on the west, the whole house was revised (it 
 was originally designed with just this delightful provision 
 for growth and expansion to meet living needs) and became 
 freely Italian in character, yet without servility to any 
 example, even though the loggia which shelters the terrace 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 from the prevailing west wind shows pleasantly the in- 
 fluence of Peruzzi. 
 
 This south terrace, with its two sceptral cypresses and its 
 dark planting along the balustrades, is, in its extraordinary 
 stretch and sunny serenity, a notable accomplishment of 
 garden design. It is perfectly related, as such a terrace 
 should be, to both the house and the garden. Between 
 them it is, in a certain sense, an intermediary, and inti- 
 mates in its uninterrupted range that a passage of equal 
 length must exist parallel to it in the house itself. 
 
 This passage in the interior is adroitly maintained by a 
 succession of doorways (not too wide nor too frequently 
 opened to spoil the integrity and purpose of the individual 
 rooms) extending from the sun-room at the extreme eastern 
 end, through the garden-room, the long drawing-room, the 
 breakfast room and dining room, to the great ballroom at 
 the west. The rooms at either end look upon gardens 
 planned to accentuate this long east-and-west axis. 
 
 Each room has its own character and charm, each leaves 
 a distinct impression, and yet, without shock or disagree- 
 ment, associates with all the others. 
 
 It is perhaps the sun-room that is revisualized most 
 
 readily. Three sides of its high walls are glass, its floor 
 
 white marble bordered with green and black, its ceiling 
 
 8 
 
Residence of Mr. W. H. Crocker 
 
 Near Burlingame 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. W. H. CROCKER 
 
 and woodwork one warm gray. The furniture is comfort- 
 ably of wicker, but the richer accent is given by distin- 
 guished examples of Chinese painting and porcelain. The 
 room is gay with an abundance of blossoming plants, and 
 the whole effect is one of airiness and sunlight. 
 
 Chinese ornaments play an important part also in the 
 furnishing of other rooms, although in only one, the smoking 
 room, are they predominant. This apartment contains 
 notable ancient Chinese paintings and fine pieces of lacquer 
 and porcelain. It would be proper to refer to many of these 
 examples of Chinese art as "museum pieces," but they are 
 made to serve their purpose as ornaments so consistently 
 that their interest as curios is agreeably subordinated. 
 
 In a so exceptional collection of Chinese art one sees the 
 expression of a connoisseurship on the one hand as exacting 
 as that of the expert, on the other, more exacting still, 
 because more personal and less inclusive. Here the connois- 
 seur's interest in mere curio quality is tempered by individ- 
 ual predilection and by a response to intrinsic beauty. 
 At "New Place," therefore, we find the exotic art of the 
 Orient represented by one distinctively national style — the 
 Chinese — which in a certain inevitable nobility of design 
 expresses a refinement toward the beautiful as against the 
 
 refinement toward the subtle and delicate expressed in the 
 
 9 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 exquisite art of Japan. By confining their attention, in so 
 great a measure, to Chinese work among the various styles 
 and periods of what I must again call the exotic art of the 
 Orient, the owners of "New Place" have avoided in their 
 collection possible incongruities — incongruities more rarely 
 encountered in Occidental art where, with the exception of 
 works of Gothic derivation, the styles of different periods 
 and peoples are derived, almost exclusively, from classic 
 prototypes. 
 
 In the Ught of what has here been said, it is interesting 
 to note that in the furnishing of "New Place," the owners' 
 personal predilections have deterred them from any attempt 
 to carry out the historical method by creating what are 
 called "period" rooms. Even in the stately English dining 
 room, with its imported oak paneUng, rich with the tone 
 of years, there has been no attempt at that historical preci- 
 sion which, however interesting to the amateur, must needs 
 take away from the personal atmosphere which is charac- 
 teristic of "New Place" and which makes it seem a home 
 that is lived in. 
 
 This personal atmosphere is suggested no less markedly 
 in the spacious drawing-room, rose-colored as to furniture 
 and hangings, but it reaches its most complete expression 
 
 in the library, a room at once dignified and intimate. 
 
 10 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. W. H. CROCKER 
 
 Here are to be found a number of the most notable paint- 
 ings of a notable collection. Among them is a Rousseau 
 which made upon the writer when he first saw it twenty-five 
 years ago an impression of peculiar vividness and unique 
 memorial permanence. Here is Millet's famous "The Man 
 With the Hoe." Here too is an alluring and representative 
 canvas by Monet. The library contains also one of three 
 family portraits by Boldini, the other two being in the 
 drawing-room. 
 
 The new ballroom, with its walls and floor of marble and 
 its five high, arched openings upon the terrace, affords the 
 one hint in the great house of the monumental, the definitely 
 provided-for "architectural effect." It will be interesting 
 to see how quickly (once occupied and put to use) it too 
 will be subjugated to the spirit of that easy and abundant 
 domesticity which is the prevailing tone of this exceptional 
 residence. 
 
 In this necessarily incomplete survey of "New Place," 
 
 it is impossible to deal specifically with all the items of 
 
 importance in the collections which it houses. Mention may 
 
 be made, however, of examples of the skill of Bellini, Canal- 
 
 ^tto, Guardi, Del Mazo, and Puvis de Chavannes. There 
 
 are besides some exquisite bronzes of the later Sansovino 
 
 (Tatti), while, among other examples of sculpture which 
 
 11 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 would make a less perfect thing suffer by comparison, Mr. 
 Arthur Putnam's female figure, i. "Twilight," holds felici- 
 tously its own. 
 
 The Californiana in the library, the examples of furni- 
 ture, by famous designers, — as numerous as they are no- 
 table, — the tapestries (particularly a Flemish "Baptism of 
 Christ," pure Italian in feeling and expression), the silver, 
 in fact, all the objects of this magnificent and various col- 
 lection invite comment, yet in no aspect have they greater 
 interest than in that of their household significance as parts 
 of a sumptuous but genuine and charming home. 
 
 12 
 
II 
 
 VILLA ROSE 
 
 RESIDENCE OF MR. J. D. GRANT 
 
 THE California landscape's most characteristic 
 feature is what is familiarly known as a 
 canon, a term applied by the Spanish pioneers 
 to the numerous ravines cutting the hills 
 across which they led their expeditions of discovery during 
 the late decades of the eighteenth century. These canons 
 are usually wooded and contain an arroyo, which is either a 
 perennial stream, or more often a watercourse, dry in sum- 
 mer, but in winter torrential. 
 
 It is one of these canons — a particularly beautiful one — 
 which affords an approach to "Villa Rose," the country 
 residence of Mr. J. D. Grant, situated near Burlingame, 
 about twenty miles south of San Francisco. Appreciating 
 its natural beauty, and mindful too of a peculiarly Cali- 
 fornian character which distinguishes it as scenery from 
 anything to be found in other parts of the world, Mr. Grant 
 
 has, except for threading it with a well-made driveway, 
 
 13 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 preserved the greater part of the canon in its primitive 
 wildness. From the dense and varied undergrowth rise 
 luxuriant bays and buckeyes, with here and there a russet 
 madrofia, and many live oaks, their great trunks covered 
 with lichens and their branches draped with pendulous 
 Spanish moss. Yet the growth is not so thick but the sunken 
 watercourse which the driveway follows in all its windings 
 may be seen. 
 
 Shortly after passing the entrance gate, the road skirts 
 the site of the old Grant residence, destroyed by fire some 
 years ago. The foundation walls have been reconstructed, 
 and the place converted into a large swimming pool, adjoin- 
 ing which the masonry of what was the first story of the 
 house now supports a rustic pavilion overlooking the plunge. 
 The old garden with its lawns and geometrical parterre may 
 be seen here, but the artificial planting soon merges into 
 the natural wildness through which one passes for about 
 half a mile to the site of the present dwelling. 
 
 As the house is approached, another transition — this 
 time from the gardening of nature to the gardening of man 
 — prepares one for the introduction of the architectural 
 note. 
 
 The first thing to strike the person who sees "Villa Rose" 
 
 for the first time is its color. Constructed of reinforced 
 
 14 
 
VILLA ROSE 
 
 Residence of Mr. J. D. Grant 
 
 Near Bur lingame 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. J. D. GRANT 
 
 concrete, it has been given, instead of the customary cream 
 or gray tone of this material, a rose tint. 
 
 There has been of late a disposition — one might almost 
 say a movement — among American architects to employ 
 more color in their buildings. In California — a land which 
 because of its climatic conditions and certain visual aspects 
 of the country has been not infrequently likened to Italy — 
 the use of color in architecture finds a special justification. 
 A marked tendency in this direction is therefore observable, 
 and the results, except in the case of some that are rather 
 bizarre, have been admirable. It is only timid conservatism 
 that has prevented California from presenting a heightened 
 beauty through omnipresent color. How popular it may 
 become when this timidity or prejudice has been broken 
 down is evidenced by the general approval given to Mr. 
 Jules Guerin's lavish and for the most part skillful use of 
 color in the decoration of the Panama-Pacific Exposition. 
 
 Mr. Grant's house, which was designed by Mr. Lewis P. 
 Hobart, is in its ground plan a simple rectangle. Its pro- 
 portions, whether regarded in relation to the surroundings 
 or not, are most agreeable. The only embellishments of 
 the fagades, if, indeed, they can be called such, are the 
 rusticated quoines; a row of dentils (nicely proportioned as 
 
 to size and shadow value) under an otherwise plain cornice 
 
 15 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 r 
 
 and narrow eaves; discretely ornamental, wrought-iron bal- 
 cony railings before the windows of the second story; key- 
 stone ornaments in the segmental crests of the latter and 
 over the lunettes of the windows of the first story, with 
 their simple wreath designs in relief. In this simplicity one 
 may recognize an unusually pure rendering of Italian Renais- 
 sance architecture, more especially of the best Florentine 
 tradition. Only on the garden front is this simplicity slightly 
 relieved by a row of columns framing three doors with 
 fanlights above and spandrels in molded relief. The balcony 
 railing of the second story here runs the full width of the 
 house. 
 
 The main entrance is from a circular fore-court, inclosed 
 by a wall of the same color as the building itself. Beyond 
 this wall a wooded hillside rises. Within the court a few 
 Irish yews meet the need of planting to relieve that severity 
 which inclosing architecture commonly gives to spaces in the 
 open air, and the note of art is introduced by a white marble 
 bust on a pedestal of red marble within a niche directly 
 opposite the door of the house. From the fore-court a 
 wrought-iron gate of handsome design leads to a broad 
 walk, shut in on the right toward the hill by a continuation 
 of the wall. On the left side of the walk lies a sunken 
 
 Italian garden which is in a sense a prolongation of the 
 
 16 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. J. D. GRANT 
 
 house. It contains rows of plane trees, standard roses, and 
 various blossoming plants arranged around a central rec- 
 tangular pool. On the garden front is a perron from which 
 one descends to a wide terrace and thence to the formal 
 garden just described. On two piers flanking this approach 
 are marble putti, while on the coping of the pool are two 
 stone foxes possessing more character and interest than 
 what it seems quite proper to call the common or garden 
 variety of ornaments. 
 
 From the perron one may pass to another terrace which 
 extends the full length of the house on one side. The 
 outer wall drops sheer from this terrace to a lawn in which 
 stands a marble well-curb, surmounted by an ornamental iron 
 canopy. Beyond the lawn is a space of wild garden and, 
 still farther, a great reach of pines the crests of which break 
 into waves with the successive heights and depressions of 
 the terrain. Across this seemingly interminable forest one 
 may see, just under the dim and distant horizon, the level 
 crescent, thin and blue, made by the waters of San Francisco 
 Bay. 
 
 Before taking the reader into the house he must be asked 
 
 to turn in imagination once more to the Italian garden which 
 
 we have examined only in part. At the end of it a fountain 
 
 of wide, superimposed basins faces the house. From the 
 
 17 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 upper pools spring several jets d'eau beyond which one sees 
 the casino called the "orangery," doubtless because similar 
 small buildings in many of the gardens of Italy are used for 
 the purpose of storing orange and lemon trees in winter to 
 protect them from the frost. The hillside, which as we 
 have already seen shelters the garden on its upper side, is 
 planted with gum trees, and a long vista of these may be 
 seen beyond the casino. On the lower side of the Italian 
 garden is an orchard and the wild garden which merges 
 into a great pinery. After passing through this, the gardens 
 of the old dwelling are reached which impinge upon the main 
 driveway already described. The property embraces in all 
 about forty acres. 
 
 The entrance hall of "Villa Rose" is a large, square room 
 of great dignity. The walls, paneled to the ceiling, are of 
 dark oak. The floor is of square flags of black and white 
 marble. The adjoining stair-hall is similarly treated. The 
 furnishing consists of hardly more than a single console 
 table, two tall, gilted candelabra and a few chairs. By 
 way of decoration there is a tapestry and some arms 
 and armor, chiefly helmets. Another tapestry and a few 
 paintings adorn the staircase. 
 
 The remainder of the first story, except those portions 
 
 devoted to the kitchen and the servants' quarters, consists of 
 
 18 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. J. D. GRANT 
 
 but four rooms — drawing-room, dining room, garden-room, 
 and library. These vary greatly in size. The library is 
 quite small and gains thereby an atmosphere of intimacy 
 which suits the purpose to which it is devoted. It is in fact 
 the family room of the house. One entire wall is covered 
 with books; there are ten or twelve steel prints of Shake- 
 spearean scenes, a number of "Spy's" caricatures (more 
 familiar twenty years ago than to-day), and the necessary 
 furniture in excellent taste. 
 
 It must be remembered that "Villa Rose" is the country 
 residence of a gentleman whose principal dwelling is his 
 town house. It has not, therefore, the air of an "establish- 
 ment," but has the quality of comfort everywhere and 
 everywhere a certain serenity. This latter atmosphere 
 pervades the house and imparts to it a homogeneous tone. 
 Each room has not its own character as is so often the case. 
 True, the hall is severely early English, and the other rooms, 
 as far as they suggest periods at all, belong to later times, 
 but the hall has so much the effect of an entrance chamber 
 that one feels it is a transition from the outer air to the 
 house itself. 
 
 The dining room, which is not over-large, is given a 
 
 memorable distinction by four eighteenth-century, Dutch 
 
 paintings which completely cover a large part of the wall 
 
 19 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 surface. The chairs are of English lacquer, and there is a 
 handsome highboy of the same material. The effect is one 
 of pleasant lightness. 
 
 The drawing-room and garden-room have an air of 
 spaciousness and elegance. Here, as in the various chambers 
 of the second story, are many interesting pieces of furniture, 
 painted pieces, English lacquers, and a number of well- 
 selected antiques. Particulariy notable are a bed and chest 
 of drawers in the Italian room. 
 
 One notes with pleasure the use of steel engravings in the 
 upper hall. Used appropriately as they are here, they have 
 a dignity too little regarded in late years. The prints at 
 "Villa Rose" are reproductions of the Medici Gallery pictures 
 by Rubens, the drawings for them having been made by 
 Nattier and his less illustrious son. 
 
 20 
 
Ill 
 
 HACIENDA DEL POZO DE VERONA 
 
 RESIDENCE OF MRS. PHOEBE A. HEARST 
 
 SURMOUNTING one of the low, wide-stretching 
 hills of the Livermore Valley, a short distance 
 inland from the Bay of San Francisco, stands a 
 picturesque, castle-like structure, the "Hacienda 
 del Pozo de Verona," residence of Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst. 
 The white walls of the building, accented by two com- 
 manding towers, rise above the trees — dark evergreen coni- 
 fers, white oaks, cork elms — which richly clothe the hills' 
 lower slopes, their higher and more distant ascents forming 
 a forested background. 
 
 The main entrance to the "Hacienda" is on the side 
 away from the valley, and is reached by a circuitous road 
 which, when it finally enters the grounds, becomes a palm- 
 lined avenue. The spacious and beautiful vista to be had 
 from the eminence on which the mansion stands possesses, 
 in spite of its vastness, an intimacy that charms the eye. 
 
 Its panoramic character does not lessen its beauty nor is 
 
 21 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 one overwhelmed by its expanse. Vineyards and fields 
 under cultivation are spread upon the plain and, upon the 
 gently undulating hills on the farther side of the valley, 
 those portions which have not known the plowshare were, 
 when the writer first saw them in early spring, like oak- 
 studded lawns. Even Monte del Diablo, which rises mistily 
 in the distance, has none of that austere beauty which moun- 
 tains usually possess and which demands a certain mood for 
 its enjoyment. 
 
 Spaciousness without austerity, which is characteristic of 
 the landscape around the "Hacienda del Pozo de Verona," 
 is characteristic too of its exterior and its interior. 
 
 The house grounds which one would judge to be about 
 thirty acres in extent, are part of a five-hundred-acre tract 
 and are inclosed by a square-cut cypress hedge which 
 clambers up the irregular contour of the hillside very much 
 as the Great Wall clambers over the mountains of China. 
 In front of the mansion stretch lawns picked out with orna- 
 mental plants, while behind it, the tree-covered hillside 
 facing the valley proves upon closer inspection to be, in 
 that portion of it immediately adjacent to the house, a 
 succession of rock terraces, threaded with winding paths 
 and thickly set with flowers. 
 
 The architecture of the "Hacienda del Pozo de Verona" 
 
 22 
 
HACIENDA DEL POZO DE VERONA 
 
 Residence of Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst 
 
 Near P le asanton 
 
RESIDENCE OF MRS. PHOEBE A. HEARST 
 
 is Spanish in character, but it is not of the type with which 
 we are generally familiar in California and from which the 
 so-called Mission style has been derived. For Mrs. Hearst's 
 residence the term "Hispano-Moresque" would be more 
 accurately descriptive. 
 
 The original building, as to style, plan, and arrangement, 
 is the work of the late A. C. Schweinfurth; the extensive 
 additions were designed by Miss Julia Morgan. 
 
 The walls of the house, finished in white stucco, support 
 a roof of red Spanish tiles. Although accented by decora- 
 tive grilles in front of the windows of the second story and 
 of the towers, the wall surfaces retain their simplicity. The 
 grilles, however, give to the building an interesting and 
 distinctive character further enhanced by the essentially 
 Spanish device of gutters that pierce and project beyond 
 the walls, and by the red earthen pots placed at intervals 
 along the parapets. These grilles represent one of the many 
 decorative uses of iron to be seen in both the exterior and 
 the interior of the structure. The lower gateway, for 
 example, is spanned by an ornamental, wrought-iron arch 
 which springs from the two round towers. The windows of 
 the latter are covered with grilles of intricate design. The 
 gates themselves are studded with iron bolts, and have 
 
 decorative hinge-plates and other fittings. 
 
 23 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 To enter the house by the main door, one must first 
 pass into, the patio or courtyard, planted in lawn and flanked 
 on either side by vine-grown pergolas. In the center stands 
 a beautiful marble well-head of Veronese workmanship, 
 from which the "Hacienda del Pozo de Verona" takes its 
 name. 
 
 In the antique, damascened lock and ornamental hinge- 
 plates of this principal door, one may see a refined expression 
 of the metalcraft which everywhere within will invite 
 attention. 
 
 The hall is a long, low-ceiled room finished in mahogany, 
 to which a quality of intimacy and ease is given by the great 
 central fireplace and the book-strewn table. Ornaments 
 meet the eye on all sides, but the room is furnished with a 
 view to comfort as well as elegance. 
 
 From the hall, situated approximately in the center of 
 the building, the house extends to right and left a total 
 distance of almost seven himdred and fifty feet. This great 
 length necessitates two connecting corridors, running respec- 
 tively to the east and west ends of the building. Immedi- 
 ately to the west of the main hall is the small dining room. 
 From this a grand corridor extends to the west in which 
 end of the house are situated, on the first floor, the owner's 
 
 summer apartments, the children's playroom and the swim- 
 
 24 
 
RESIDENCE OF MRS. PHOEBE A. HEARST 
 
 ming-tank in an adjacent structure. This corridor separates 
 the kitchen, the pantries, and the servants' hall from the 
 rest of the house; it also opens upon the state dining room. 
 
 Leaving the main hall again but in the other direction, 
 one enters first the blue sitting room and, passing through 
 two libraries and along the east corridor, reaches the largest 
 and most important room in the mansion — the music room. 
 
 On this floor and opposite the various living apartments 
 just mentioned, there are a number of bedchambers, some 
 of which face the patio. Two stairways at the east and 
 west ends of the corridors lead to the second story where, 
 in addition to the owner's winter suite, there are the rooms 
 of the members of the household and a large number of 
 guest chambers. 
 
 The "Hacienda del Pozo de Verona" is as much a dwell- 
 ing as it is a mansion. It is, in fact, a dwelling within a 
 mansion. The inevitable impression conveyed by a residence 
 of which the apartments are as spacious as many of those 
 at the "Hacienda" is that the persons who live in them 
 and many of the things which we commonly associate with 
 family life must be, in a sense, extinguished by the over- 
 whelming scale of the surroundings. One can hardly be 
 "co2y," for example, while reading by the fire in a room 
 
 that measures forty by sixty feet. Such rooms demand 
 
 25 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 numbers, and at the "Hacienda" numbers are happily 
 supplied by the many who partake of the owner's lavish 
 hospitality. Thus the artistic problem of the large room is 
 charmingly solved. 
 
 It is neither desirable nor possible to speak specifically of 
 even the notable objects of art with which the "Hacienda" 
 is filled. I shall mention, therefore, only some that arrest 
 the attention and remain in the memory. Chief among 
 these are the cabinets, credences, and bahuts of which 
 there are many beautiful specimens. There are no forms 
 of furniture upon which more art and more skill have been 
 lavished than those that come under the general classifi- 
 cation of cabinets. To no other form has such nobility of 
 design been given. No other form may be said so truly to 
 include architecture, sculpture, and craftsmanship, the last 
 term being employed here in its older and better sense. 
 Mrs. Hearst's cabinets represent some of the finest work- 
 manship of the Renaissance in Italy, France, Spain, Flanders, 
 and Germany: there are also several specimens from later 
 periods. Equally interesting and beautiful in their own way 
 are the numerous secretaries of various periods and countries. 
 Everywhere in the mansion one sees rugs and tapestries 
 possessed of a beauty in keeping with the interiors they 
 
 serve to enrich; among them are many extremely rare and 
 
 26 
 
. RESIDENCE OF MRS. PHOEBE A. HEARST 
 
 exquisite specimens of the weaver's art. Examples of 
 ironwork which, as I have already said, give individuality 
 to the ornamentation of the "Hacienda," are to be found 
 in many delightful old locks and hinge-plates. The door 
 of the state dining room and the fanlight above it are of 
 Spanish wrought-iron, while the chiseled iron stand of a 
 crucifix in the music-room is admirable in workmanship and 
 design. 
 
 From the small dining room one passes through an antique 
 carved door of great beauty into the west corridor, hung 
 with paintings and splendid tapestries and ornamented with 
 Delia Robbia reliefs. Here too are a few fine pieces of 
 furniture and a handsome Louis XVI clock. 
 
 At the end of the west corridor a stairway descends to 
 the children's playroom; near by one finds the swimming- 
 pool the roof of which is glass, the frieze of Pompeiian 
 pattern. The plunge is twenty by forty feet and lined with 
 green tiles. 
 
 The state dining room is an apartment of charming 
 dignity. In it are portraits by Gainsborough, Romney, 
 and Lawrence. The Gothic credence in this room is one 
 of the rarest pieces in Mrs. Hearst's collection. 
 
 In the blue sitting room on the eastern side of the central 
 
 hall modem tapestry is again employed in the decoration. 
 
 27 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 The library contains an interesting collection of books, 
 among them many illuminated manuscripts, the most 
 unusual and interesting being perhaps the Persian. 
 
 The east corridor brings one finally to the door of the 
 music room. This apartment is entered upon a platform 
 some five feet above the level of the main floor. The room 
 is, one would judge, about thirty-five feet wide by sixty 
 long. The high, trussed ceiling, which rises to a skylight of 
 yellow glass, admits a warm golden light. The walls are 
 a terra cotta red, and red tones enter largely into the fur- 
 nishing and decorations. Among the most notable pieces 
 of furniture are two large cabinets and a bombe Louis XVI 
 escritoire. Perhaps the most interesting piece, however, 
 is an extremely rare Spanish vargueho cabinet. This repre- 
 sents the highest development of Hispano-Moresque decora- 
 tion. Its door is shod with pierced ironwork, and its 
 lock-plate, key, and fastenings are highly ornamental. The 
 interior is elaborately carved, gilded, and enameled in designs 
 peculiar to the period in which Spanish art was informed 
 by Moorish influence. There are, besides chairs and 
 tables, pieces of buhl, tarsia, and marquetry which must 
 arrest the attention of any one interested in such things. 
 
 Of the many paintings in the music room, one may men- 
 tion a Lancret, two Corots, a Millet, an Isabey, a Jacque, 
 
 28 
 
RESIDENCE OF MRS. PHOEBE A. HEARST 
 
 a Detaille, and two Vereshchagins, one of which is "The 
 Walls of Jerusalem." 
 
 Mrs. Hearst's collections are in all departments so ex- 
 tensive that to give the reader an idea of her residence, 
 with the numberless, varied, rare, and beautiful objects it 
 contains, without having recourse to the methods of the 
 cataloguer, is a baffling task. The writer can only hope 
 therefore to convey here a general and inadequate visual 
 impression of the "Hacienda del Pozo de Verona." 
 
 29 
 
IV 
 THE OAKS 
 
 RESIDENCE OF MR. C. FREDERICK KOHL 
 
 NEAR the little town of Easton, which lies 
 in the Burlingame district, some eighteen 
 miles down the peninsula from San Fran- 
 cisco, is the residence of Mr. C. Frederick 
 Kohl. "The Oaks," as it is called, is especially noteworthy 
 among the important residences of California because it 
 represents in its architecture a radical departure from the 
 neoclassic art of the Italian Renaissance which has been so 
 generally adopted. 
 
 It is not necessary to be familiar with architectural styles 
 to see in the gable roof and in the general lines of the build- 
 ing a distinctly English character. Upon noting the details, 
 this impression is made stronger, and one feels that, except 
 for the appearance of age which will come when the planting 
 has progressed, here is the Elizabethan manor transported 
 to California. 
 
 One must of course look for a justification of the choice 
 
 31 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 of an architectural style, and it is found here in the more or 
 less English character of the landscape due to the presence 
 of many stately oaks. It would be difficult to find finer 
 specimens — great, ancient trees with enormous, gnarled 
 branches, so heavy in some cases that they rest upon the 
 ground. 
 
 The house, of dark red brick with brown stone trimmings, 
 was designed by Messrs. Howard and White and is in the 
 modified Gothic style of the late Tudor period, with a main 
 bay and two lateral wings which form three sides of a rec- 
 tangle and inclose a terrace. On the other side a third wing 
 issues from the main bay at the center. The gable roof is 
 of gray and rose-colored slates. 
 
 The driveway, from which is obtained a view of open 
 country studded with oaks — in one direction rolling, semi- 
 forested hills and in the other a great reach of country stretch- 
 ing to the distant bay — widens magnificently as it sweeps 
 up to the house. 
 
 One enters it through a small, polygonal vestibule, the 
 
 plaster walls of which carry ornamental Gothic motives of a 
 
 more flamboyant character than are to be observed in the 
 
 detail of the exterior. From the entrance, the axis of the 
 
 building, formed by the main bay, extends through a 
 
 chain of apartments. Of these the central one is a hall of 
 
 32 
 
THE OAKS 
 
 Residence of Mr. C. Frederick Kohl 
 
 Near E as ton 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. C. FREDERICK KOHL 
 
 noble proportions — twenty-seven by sixty feet in size — the 
 arched ceiling rising to a height of forty feet. The walls 
 of this hall are pierced by six lofty bays, two of which, open- 
 ing on the terrace, are glazed for their full height. The 
 others, in their lower portions, are doorways, while above 
 they afford openings from the gallery which surrounds the 
 hall on three sides and gives access to the apartments on 
 the second floor. These bays and the ceiling of the room 
 show the dropped or flattened arch of dorhestic Gothic 
 architecture of the Elizabethan period. The hall is paneled 
 to half its height in oak in a reeded pattern surmounted by 
 a carved cornice. The high, paneled mantel is supported 
 by columns bearing semi-grotesque carved figures. Above 
 this a painted decoration depicts a scene from the Age of 
 Chivalry. 
 
 The furnishings of the room consist of a number of pieces 
 in characteristic Elizabethan design, notably a long center 
 table, and certain pieces of other periods, some of which 
 are covered with interesting examples of needlework. Per- 
 haps the most interesting single piece is a fine Chippendale 
 vitrine containing French ivories and other objets d'art. Two 
 Oriental carpets of exceptional size and of a quality befitting 
 their surroundings almost completely cover the floor of rubbed 
 
 walnut. 
 
 33 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 In the gallery, near one end of the hall, is a concealed 
 pipe-organ, operated from a console on the floor of the hall, 
 which, in point of fact, is a living room and music- room in 
 one. At the other end of the gallery, also concealed, are 
 echo chimes, operated as an auxiliary mechanism of the 
 organ. 
 
 To reach this central apartment from the entrance, one 
 passes through an antechamber, which also gives access to 
 the library contained in one of the wings. This room, which 
 is also very large (twenty-seven by forty-eight feet), is 
 finished in oak with carved pilasters carrying Renaissance 
 arabesques. A single Chinese rug covers the walnut floor. 
 The furniture, chiefly in French forms, has been selected 
 with a view to comfort and quality without too much regard 
 for uniformity of style. Some of the pieces are old and are 
 covered with interesting examples of needlework or tapestry. 
 L-shaped bookcases occupy the four corners of the room. 
 Above these are paintings by such local artists of more 
 than local repute as William Keith, Charles RoUo Peters, 
 and Francis McComas. In this room hang portraits of the 
 master and the mistress of "The Oaks," and over the door 
 is a typical cattle piece by Verboeckhoven. 
 
 From the antechamber at the other end of the great hall 
 
 one passes into a room occupying the ground floor of the 
 
 34 
 
MAIN HALL 
 Residence of Mr. C. Frederick Kohl 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. C. FREDERICK KOHL 
 
 other wing. This is the dining room and is in many ways 
 
 an achievement in decoration. It presents a peculiarly 
 
 refined example of mid-Georgian style with its paneled walls 
 
 of pale green and cream white. The carved panel frames 
 
 are charmingly designed and delicately executed. The 
 
 molded-plaster ceiling in elaborate low relief is a notable 
 
 example of the Georgian style of decoration. The marble 
 
 mantel is by one of the Adams, though the design has more 
 
 assertion and salience than one usually associates with their 
 
 work. The grate is also an Adam design, as is the lovely 
 
 painted screen which, with the eighteenth-century painting 
 
 in the over-mantel, adds warmth and color to the room. 
 
 The brilliancy befitting a dining room is supplied by a large 
 
 crystal luster augmented by crystal girandoles attached to 
 
 the walls. In the recess of the bay window stands a marble 
 
 vasque filled with blossoming plants. 
 
 At the extreme end of the main axis of the house, which, 
 
 as we have seen, began with the entrance vestibule, is 
 
 another room of striking character, — the breakfast room. 
 
 Although it does not open upon the garden, it has been 
 
 given something of the character of a garden-room. The 
 
 gray walls are covered in part with yellow lattice, with 
 
 spaces left in which occur large paintings of classic sculpture 
 
 in grisaille. The execution of these is extraordinarily skillful, 
 
 35 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 the irompe Pceil^ the illusion of a third dimension — being 
 wonderfully achieved. A slight admixture of yellow in the 
 pigment gives the necessary warmth and preserves the tonal 
 harmony of the room. Old sconces on the walls and a cen- 
 tral lantern of iron floral work, with blossoms of white 
 enamel, light the apartment. The floor is of black and white 
 marble and is covered with a Savonnerie rug. 
 
 In the third wing, already referred to, are the kitchen 
 offices and servants' quarters; its second floor is occupied 
 by a billiard room. Throughout the various chambers of 
 the second floor, wall-coverings of French linens, hangings, 
 fixtures of charming design, painted furniture, prints, orna- 
 ments, bibelots, — all give an impression of the taste of the 
 present day into which flow so many streams of tradition. 
 
 36 
 
THE DINING ROOM 
 
 THE BREAKFAST ROOM 
 
 Residence of Mr. C. Frederick Kohl 
 
V 
 
 RESIDENCE OF MR. H. E. HUNTINGTON 
 
 IN the San Gabriel Valley, near the city of Los Angeles, 
 one may see, at certain seasons of the year, that inter- 
 esting and characteristic phenomenon of the south; 
 orange groves, apparently limitless, in the full glory 
 of their gold-laden boughs, and, in the distance, a rim of 
 magnificent mountains almost covered with snow. It is 
 here, on the first slope of the northern foothills, that the 
 residence of Mr. H. E. Huntington is situated. 
 
 Standing white and long and low against its background 
 of soaring mountains, it attracts the eye by reason of its 
 classic reserve, stateliness, and dignity. These qualities, 
 rather than any showy splendor, make it the most "pala- 
 tial" residence in California. 
 
 From an easterly entrance, the grounds are pierced by a 
 long avenue, straight and wide, lined with palms alternating 
 with Italian cypresses. Beyond these on one side trees of 
 many varieties are thickly set. On the other side an orange 
 
 grove stretches into the valley. Bordering the avenue on 
 
 37 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 both sides are two rows of beautiful but unfamiliar flowering 
 shrubs. One is a native of Mexico, the other of Australia, 
 but the plants were propagated on the place in sufiicient 
 quantities to line the avenue which is not less than a quarter 
 of a mile long. 
 
 If, when the roadway finally branches, the visitor does 
 not take the turn which leads gradually upward to the man- 
 sion, he may skirt for some distance along the lower level 
 a sloping lawn studded with shrubs and trees. Some are 
 recognized at once, but many are "specimens" so unfamiliar 
 that one is forced to the conclusion that, in point of variety, 
 Mr. Huntington's gardens are unexcelled in California. 
 In view of the exceptionally favorable climatic conditions 
 which prevail in this State, this should mean that these 
 gardens are, in outdoor plants, among the richest in the 
 worid. 
 
 Taking now the other branch of the roadway, one as- 
 cends by a curving incline, passing the upper lawn where 
 palms of many kinds predominate. This part of the 
 grounds is called the "Palm Garden." 
 
 A turn in the avenue takes the wayfarer past the "Cactus 
 
 Garden"; within its five acres he will find some fourteen 
 
 thousand plants of between eight hundred and nine hundred 
 
 varieties. 
 
 38 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. H. E. HUNTINGTON 
 
 The grounds near the mansion take on a more formal 
 character. Many ornaments — marble vasques, urns, and 
 a charming small, circular temple of chaste design and agree- 
 able proportions — are disposed here and there. Notable 
 among the embellishments of the garden are three statues 
 in terra cotta by Coysevox. 
 
 The part of the garden adjacent to the house and on the 
 side away from the valley makes one feel both the sense 
 of spaciousness and the charm of seclusion. It possesses 
 not only great beauty, but that air of privacy so important 
 in a garden if it is to be lived in and enjoyed. Here one 
 can walk "with unuplifted eye," letting nature's influence 
 steal over the spirit, or may contemplate with delight the 
 restful reaches of the lawn, flowers bright with sunlight, 
 and leafy boughs stretching overhead. 
 
 In the "Rose Garden," you tread a carpet of turf under 
 what seems to be an endless arbor, its slender supports and 
 arching top thickly covered with climbing roses. 
 
 Reaching the end of the arbor, you are confronted by a 
 heavy wooden gate which, like the torii above it, is Japanese 
 in design. In the gateway stands a large and ancient 
 temple-bell. Passing through, you find yourself in a Japa- 
 nese garden traversed by a deep gully. Here are character- 
 istic winding paths, miniature trees, pools, bridges, stone 
 
 39 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 lanterns, and unhewn stones cunningly arranged in decorative 
 relation to their surroundings. Many of the paths are in 
 reality courses of concrete steps to the surface of which an 
 adaptation of the familiar wave pattern has been applied. 
 
 On the farther side of the gully stands a Japanese house. 
 Japanese houses are classified as to size by the number of 
 mats they contain. In this one there are a great many, but 
 I can not say how many. As might be expected, perfect 
 simplicity is expressed by the interior. The fusuma or 
 partitions are decorated with broad designs in monotone. 
 One notes in the discretely ornamented bronze fastenings 
 of the amado that shunning of the purely utilitarian which 
 characterizes the peoples of the Orient. 
 
 It is difficult to imagine a sharper contrast than that 
 which exists between the architecture of this Japanese 
 house, hidden in a far end of the grounds, and that of the 
 residence itself. Both are charming in their way as repre- 
 senting a high development of widely divergent standards 
 and ideals. 
 
 The residence, which was designed by Mr. Myron Hunt, 
 
 exhibits a peculiarly interesting and happy solution of the 
 
 problems presented in building a modern structure of the 
 
 classic type. Nothing could be more expressionless and 
 
 superficial than are the pretentious examples of neoclassic 
 
 40 
 
Residence of Mr. H. E. Huntington 
 Near Pasadena 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. H. E. HUNTINGTON 
 
 architecture seen in certain ostentatious residences. Mr. 
 Huntington's house, however, has the nobiUty which, to 
 be successful, classic architecture should possess. You feel 
 that, though modeled upon prescribed lines, an element of 
 creative design rather than mere copying or adaptation has 
 gone into its construction. 
 
 It is difficult to deal impressionistically with what is 
 formal and traditional in character. An effort has already 
 been made herein to express in a general way the effect of 
 dignity and reserve which the Huntington residence conveys 
 at first sight. This effect is heightened upon closer examina- 
 tion. From the great terrace which stretches along the main 
 fagade, the splendid arrangement of columns about the 
 monumental entrance is very noticeable. In scale and 
 strength, this portal is admirably related to the building as 
 a whole. It is to be noted too that in such details as the 
 festoons of the frieze there is an unusual excellence of 
 sculptural design. 
 
 The terrace itself is perhaps sixty by one hundred and 
 
 fifty feet in area. It is significant that the rather low 
 
 balustrade inclosing the terrace stands, by virtue of its 
 
 sound design and good proportion, the severe test to which 
 
 its unusual length subjects it. The well-spaced balusters 
 
 show a most successful use of an angular pattern — a type 
 
 41 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 of baluster which, when poorly treated, as it so often is, 
 makes one feel that some architects should confine them- 
 selves to designing floats for street parades or "craftsman" 
 bungalows. 
 
 On the east side of the house is a spacious porch under 
 a roof supported by columns. In its shade are seats and 
 tables providing for comfort out of doors, amid palms and 
 plants in Chinese jars. 
 
 It is in the Palm House, however — a great, green lattice 
 structure with a central, vine-covered dome sixty feet high 
 and wings extending on either side, a total distance of three 
 hundred and fifty feet — that one finds Mr. Huntington's 
 great collection of beautiful and rare subtropical plants. 
 Here are to be seen, for example, forty-six of the ninety-one 
 known varieties of the sago palm. Among these is one 
 from Australia, the only other known specimen of which 
 is in Kew Gardens. 
 
 Mr. Huntington's superintendent is in constant commu- 
 nication with foreign countries, near and remote, and from 
 these sources the collection is being still further enriched 
 with rare plants and trees. Of the three hot-houses, each 
 one hundred and fifty feet in length, one is filled entirely 
 with orchids. It is useless to describe it further. 
 
 Since it is known that Mr. Huntington has an exceptional 
 
 42 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. H. E. HUNTINGTON 
 
 collection of portraits by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Romney, 
 Lawrence, and Raeburn — to mention only the five great 
 English masters; since it is known that his library is one 
 of the most important private collections in existence (he 
 acquired, some years ago, it will be remembered, the famous 
 Church collection; at the Hoe sale he purchased among 
 other items the Gutenberg Bible; and he subsequently 
 bought the Duke of Devonshire's library, with its twenty- 
 two Caxtons and its very rare Shakespeare folios and 
 quartos); since it is known that his tapestries are among 
 the finest that have survived the lapse of time; since, in 
 fine, it is known that Mr. Huntington is a collector with 
 few equals in the world to-day, the reader doubtless expects 
 to find here some account of such of these treasures as it 
 was the author's privilege and good fortune to see. I am 
 sorry that the reader must be disappointed; it is Mr. 
 Huntington's wish that nothing should be set down here 
 concerning the interior and contents of his house. I can 
 not say how many mats there are in the Japanese house, 
 and I must not say how many beautiful things there are in 
 the great residence. The reader must be content, therefore, 
 to have wandered with me through an enchanted garden 
 in the midst of which stands a stately palace containing 
 
 "untold" treasures. 
 
 43 
 
VI 
 VILLA MONTALVO 
 
 RESIDENCE OF THE HONORABLE JAMES D. PHELAN 
 
 TRAVELING down the peninsula from San 
 Francisco, one passes through San Mateo 
 County and into the Santa Clara Valley. 
 Here, amid countless orchards, are many 
 towns, the names of which recall the days when the Span- 
 iards occupied these lands. Among them are San Jose, 
 Palo Alto, the seat of Stanford University, and Los Gatos, so 
 called because of the great number of wildcats once found 
 in the vicinity. 
 
 In the foothills near Los Gatos, at an elevation of eight 
 hundred feet above the sea, stands "Villa Montalvo," the 
 country residence of the Honorable James D. Phelan. The 
 connotations of its name supply Mr. Phelan's country place 
 with a background of Californian tradition. It may be 
 remarked in passing, that an historic background is some- 
 thing the owners of other great residences in California have 
 
 made no effort to provide for their establishments. This 
 
 45 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 very properly calls for comment, because in a country like 
 California, without artistic traditions of its own, the archi- 
 tecture and the decorative treatment of dwellings must needs 
 be derived from sources as remote from our lives as our 
 lives are remote from the spirit of the Renaissance. When, 
 therefore, one finds, as at "Villa Montalvo," a conscious 
 effort made to create, or rather to carry on, a tradition 
 purely Californian, one's sympathies and interest are touched. 
 
 The name "California" first occurs in a work entitled 
 Las Sergas del Muy Esforzado Caballero Esplandian, written 
 by Garcia Ordonez de Montalvo, as a sequel to the romance 
 of Amadis of Gaul (of which he was the translator) and first 
 published in 1519. Mr. Phelan has called his estate "Villa 
 Montalvo." 
 
 In Las Sergas, Montalvo relates of the land of California 
 that it was a country of great beauty and richness, inhabited 
 by a tribe of warlike women who went into battle mounted 
 upon griffins. Wood nymphs inhabited its forests. Here 
 is Romance. How naively young it should make us feel to 
 realize that only two centuries ago our country was as fabu- 
 lous a land as the kingdom of Micomicon. 
 
 Not only has Mr. Phelan linked the present to the past 
 
 by naming his villa after the writer who invented the name 
 
 of California, but he has erected on the grounds a wall- 
 
 46 
 
VILLA MONTALVO 
 Residence of the Honorable James D. Phelan 
 
 Near Los Gatos 
 
RESIDENCE OF HON. JAMES D. PHELAN 
 
 fountain of bronze, bearing a dedicatory inscription to the 
 romancing Spaniard. The amazons and wood nymphs of 
 his fabled land enter into the design, and from the beak of 
 a grifiin a stream of water pours. 
 
 "Villa Montalvo" looks out across Santa Clara Valley to 
 San Francisco Bay and to Monte del Diablo, over forty 
 miles away. The panorama embraces a full quadrant of the 
 horizon. In the foreground extend miles upon miles of 
 orchards, said (to become statistical) to contain, in plum- 
 trees alone, the astounding number of nineteen million. It 
 may be added (to be still unabashed by the pragmatic impli- 
 cation of statistics, and on the word of a United States 
 Senator) that the production of prunes within the Santa 
 Clara region reaches the enormous amount of one hundred 
 and thirty million pounds a year, the total production of 
 the nation being but two hundred million pounds. The 
 reader, slightly fatigued perhaps by the enumerations this 
 book contains of Chippendale chairs, Flemish tapestries, 
 Florentine cabinets, buhl consoles, and the like, may be 
 interested in computing the number of prunes per tree, 
 having their provenience in this fertile valley. 
 
 The natural configuration of the hillside on which "Villa 
 Montalvo" is built necessitated the construction of a number 
 
 of terraces. Gardens occupy the lower level. From these 
 
 47 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 a grassy slope extends upward to the main terrace on which 
 the house stands. Wide stairways ascend the embankment. 
 Marble replicas of the sphinxes at Versailles decorate piers 
 on either side of the last flight. 
 
 The house occupies three sides of a square. Within the 
 inclosure, formed by two wings extending toward the rear, 
 is a court quite properly called "The Patio," since it is 
 modeled after a characteristic feature of Spanish dwellings. 
 On three sides it is inclosed by brick-paved arcades, and 
 on the fourth by a wall in the center of which stands 
 the Montalvo memorial. Stairways on the right and 
 left of the fountain lead to another and higher terrace, 
 square in form and framed by pergolas. An oval pool, 
 sixty feet in length, occupies the center of this space. On 
 the farther side a pavilion overlooks the plunge. On either 
 side of its central arch stands a marble Hermes, and within 
 one recognizes a replica of the Dancing Faun. If one does 
 not too closely examine the details of this terrace, the 
 repeated vertical lines of the pergolas recall something 
 quite Roman. It is a pleasant architectural composition, 
 aided not a little by the discriminating use of the sculptured 
 ornaments and by judicious planting. 
 
 Immediately behind the pavilion a small stage faces a 
 
 grass-covered semicircular slope. Beyond this amphitheater 
 
 48 
 
RESIDENCE OF HON. JAMES D. PHELAN 
 
 springs a steep and thickly-wooded hillside. Not far away 
 is seen a reservoir, decked over and surrounded by a rustic 
 railing. Under its central canopy — rustic too — gushes a 
 constant stream from private sources in the canons beyond. 
 The reservoir has a capacity of two hundred and twenty 
 thousand gallons, and supplies the bathing-pool, the foun- 
 tains, the gardens, and the house. 
 
 Trails plunge into the dense woods covering the hillside. 
 One may walk here amid surroundings that, in their wildness, 
 contrast strangely with the comforts and conveniences of 
 the near-by mansion, which, as one looks down upon it, 
 presents to the eye that "pleasantness of roofs" (" amoenitas 
 tectorem") that Pliny mentions as descriptive of his villas. 
 
 Mr. Phelan's house is the combined product of three archi- 
 tects, the late William Curlett, his son, Mr. Alexander Curlett, 
 and Mr. C. E. Gottschalk. The balustraded terrace, the 
 loggias on the main fagade, the porches on either side, and 
 many more or less obvious details contribute to give it an 
 Italian appearance. The Spanish hint of the patio — Italian 
 though it be in treatment — is reinforced by various de- 
 tached decorations. On the terrace, for example, and on 
 the porches, the eye falls on numerous large Spanish jars of 
 a modem ware, which imitates, with its gay colors and 
 
 Moorish designs, the decorative effect of majolica. They are 
 
 49 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 a rather welcome substitute for the stone or pottery jardi- 
 nieres of stereotyped forms now put to such indiscriminate 
 use. 
 
 The main entrance opens from the terrace on the garden 
 front. The doorway, leading from an exterior loggia, admits 
 one immediately into the living room. At one side of the 
 house a more commonly-used doorway takes the visitor into 
 the stair-hall. Here the Spanish note becomes more insist- 
 ent. The door itself is characteristically Spanish — a fine 
 example of carving. Numerous heads adorn its panels. 
 Two of these are supposed to be portraits of Ferdinand and 
 Isabella; others are representations of nobles, monks, and 
 soldiers; some perhaps effigies of those romantic figures, 
 the conquistadores, who played so important a part in 
 the expansion of Spanish sovereignty, and who move dimly 
 across the background of California's brief past. 
 
 In the stair-hall an old, worm-eaten, Spanish chest and 
 two gorgeous, modern, Spanish chairs carry on the inti- 
 mation. An ornamental escutcheon, bearing the arms of 
 Castille and Leon, hangs upon the wall. In the near-by 
 billiard room, pieces of furniture from Spain — some of 
 them elaborately inlaid with ivory and finished with fancy 
 leather — show where the owner's predilections lie. Here 
 
 too one finds an unusual vargueho cabinet. Its compart- 
 
 50 
 
UPPER TERRACE AND SWIMMING POOL 
 Residence of the Honorable James D. Phelan 
 
RESIDENCE OF HON. JAMES D. PHELAN 
 
 ments extend to the floor and replace the typical stand with 
 its "Spanish foot." 
 
 The paintings of this room recall the fact that Mr. Phelan 
 has been for many years a consistent patron of Californian 
 art. They include works by Mathews, McComas, Peters, 
 Rix, Robinson, and Sparks. In the library, the books are 
 largely Californian, a reprint of Montalvo's curious romance 
 finding here an appropriate place. 
 
 The large living room occupies the center of the house. 
 In the selection of its furnishings, comfort was constantly 
 kept in view. Here, as elsewhere in the dwelling, certain 
 objects, by reason of their Spanish origin or character, betray 
 the influence of Spain. 
 
 The dining room, the latticed sun-room, and the adjoining 
 porch — all in their proper seasons used for refection — 
 complete the principal divisions of the ground floor. 
 
 The second story has, in addition to its many chambers, 
 an inclosed gallery, furnished in chintz and wicker, that 
 sometimes serves as a sitting room. It looks out upon the 
 patio, the upper terrace, and the hillside beyond. 
 
 51 
 
VII 
 EL FUREIDES 
 
 RESIDENCE OF MR. J. M. GILLESPIE 
 
 THE natural beauty of Montecito Valley, near 
 Santa Barbara, fronting along its entire 
 length the blue, subtropical waters of the 
 Pacific and sheltered by the noble Santa Inez 
 Mountains, has been enhanced by the erection of many 
 splendid residences upon the wooded slopes of its foothills 
 and by the cultivation around them of extensive and charm- 
 ing gardens. 
 
 Among these gardens none are more striking or more 
 memorable than those of "El Fureides," owned by Mr, 
 J. M. Gillespie, and, it may be added, none are more widely 
 known. (The name "El Fureides" may be translated as 
 "pleasaunce" which, in turn, may be rendered somewhat 
 inadequately into every-day parlance as "pleasure garden.") 
 "The Gillespie place," as it is generally and familiarly 
 called, is one of the most famous country-seats in America. 
 
 This is due to various causes. The principal feature of the 
 
 53 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 grounds — the terraced pools of the Persian garden — pos- 
 sess a beauty, dignity, and distinction that leave a lasting 
 impression upon the mind. The attention of many experts 
 and amateurs has also been drawn to "El Fureides" by its 
 notable collection of palms — of which there are more 
 than one hundred and twenty-five varieties — and by the 
 many other rare specimens of plant life to be found here. 
 Lastly, the owner has permitted the public to visit the 
 grounds freely, and a great many tourists and visitors in 
 Santa Barbara have availed themselves of the privilege. 
 
 One therefore frequently hears "the Gillespie place" 
 spoken of very much as one hears mention made of the 
 Spanish missions, the Yosemite, the Lick Observatory, or 
 any of the other "points of interest" in California. 
 
 The house gives the impression of an abode marked by 
 individuality and character. It suggests, at first, a certain 
 incongruity, for we find there elements of design derived 
 from Greece, from Rome, from Pompeii, from modern 
 Italy, from Persia, from Arabia and from Spain. It is 
 the art of Spain, however, which chiefly characterizes "El 
 Fureides," and when we remember that in Spanish archi- 
 tecture and ornament there is a mingling of classic and 
 Gothic, Saracenic and Renaissance, Occidental and Oriental, 
 
 we are compelled to admit that, instead of achieving mere 
 
 54 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. J. M. GILLESPIE 
 
 incongruity, Mr. Gillespie has, in point of fact, reexpressed 
 in California that curious and romantic composite style 
 so generally met on the Iberian peninsula. He himself 
 describes the place most appropriately as "Mediterranean." 
 
 The house is hidden from the valley by the formation 
 of the land and by groves of indigenous oaks; even after 
 one has entered the grounds, it remains concealed by the 
 dense growth of palms and other ornamental trees until a 
 turn in the drive brings its severely simple white walls in 
 view. 
 
 The planting of the gardens was begun some sixteen 
 years ago, and as one drives along the main avenue, lined 
 with towering date-palms, one gets from the junglelike 
 growth on all sides a sense of subtropical wildness. This 
 impression is heightened if you enter one of the many paths 
 which lead through thickets of bamboo affording glimpses 
 here and there of open spaces bright with flowers. 
 
 From such surroundings one finally emerges upon the 
 higher levels near the residence, and the eye is made pleas- 
 antly aware of the presence on all sides of beauty expressed 
 through design. 
 
 Thirty-three acres at "El Fureides" are divided between 
 
 the gardens and a wood which embraces them on two sides. 
 
 Paths, or, more properly, trails, lead to secluded spots. In 
 
 55 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 one of the densest parts the visitor comes suddenly upon a 
 shrine that frames a curious image of the Madonna, painted 
 upon tiles. From the wood that shelters this shrine he may 
 emerge upon the terrace adjoining the house by ascend- 
 ing a flight of rough-hewn stone steps, the connecting link 
 between wildness and order — between nature and art. 
 
 Quiet pools play an important part in the decorative 
 scheme of the gardens. At a little distance from the house, 
 for example, a rustic pavilion overlooks the naturalistic 
 water-garden devoted to the cultivation of aquatic plants. 
 Not far away is a great rectangular pool, surrounded by a 
 pergola of cement columns with cores of stone. At one 
 end of this pool a semicircular seat inclosed within a high 
 wall marks the center of the architectural composition. On 
 a lower level a bronze wall fountain in the form of a dolphin 
 carries a stream to yet another quiet pool. The wall sur- 
 rounding the fountain is faced with blue, yellow, and white 
 Spanish tiles of striking design. These tiles occur in so 
 many places, both in the gardens and in the house, that they 
 become inevitably associated in one's mind with "El 
 Fureides." 
 
 The visitor, passing from the fore-court along a wide, 
 
 paved walk, may reach the terrace of what may be called 
 
 the garden-front. This he would judge to be about one 
 
 56 
 
EL FUREIDES 
 
 Residence of Mr. J. M. Gillespie 
 
 Near Santa Barbara 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. J. M. GILLESPIE 
 
 hundred feet wide by one hundred and fifty feet long. It 
 is divided by four symmetrical pools, separated by brick 
 walks in the form of a cross. The intersection of the walks 
 is marked by a large, vaselike fountain. Steps descend to 
 the succession of pools forming the main axis of the garden. 
 In the decoration of these also Spanish tiles have been used. 
 
 The architecture of Mr. Gillespie's house is severely 
 simple. On three sides only the windows, protected by 
 iron grilles, break the plain surface of the white cement 
 walls. On the garden facade, however, a row of Ionic col- 
 umns, by creating light and shade, give movement to the 
 design. In the upper part of the nine spaces separating 
 these, bas-reliefs depict episodes of the Arthurian legends. 
 It was Mr. Gillespie's fancy that these should be treated in 
 the classic spirit, a fancy suggested perhaps by the fact 
 that some Celtic bard may have related of Arthur — as 
 Celtic bards were ever fond of relating of their heroes — 
 that he traveled to and had commerce with Greece. 
 
 From the piazza, as well as from the azotea or flat roof, 
 reached from the second story, the gaze sweeps over the 
 luxuriant gardens from which rise the plumed crests of 
 many palms, and through gaps here and there in the oak- 
 crowned knolls of the middle distance, one catches glimpses 
 
 of the sea. If one did not know it was the Pacific Ocean, it 
 
 57 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 would not be difficult to think it the Mediterranean and 
 the misted island in the distance Capri instead of Anacapa. 
 
 To reach the main entrance from the great terrace, one 
 must pass along the paved walk, to which allusion has 
 already been made, and on which stand two spiral col- 
 umns of rose-colored marble brought by Mr. Gillespie from 
 Spain. The entrance doors, curious examples of ancient 
 Spanish carving, open upon the fore-court, with its massive 
 central fountain of superimposed polygonal basins. On 
 the high walls of the stair-hall hang a number of paintings 
 from Guatemala. These are all of a religious character, 
 and, it is to be presumed, decorated once the walls of 
 churches. In one, a crucifixion, the Black Christ ap- 
 pears. 
 
 The drawing-room is entered from the hall. The impres- 
 sion made by this apartment is of richness tempered by age. 
 Except for a few Italian Renaissance pieces, the furniture 
 is Spanish and shows the seemingly arbitrary combination 
 of style — Gothic with Moorish, Moorish with Renaissance, 
 Renaissance with Gothic — to which reference has already 
 been made. Many of the chairs have leather backs, painted 
 and gilded in rich patterns. Other leather-work decorations, 
 or guadamaciles, of similar character distinguish this room; 
 
 the finest example, however, fills the over-mantel of the 
 
 58 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. J. M. GILLESPIE 
 
 adjoining library. Carved furniture, gilded and colored, 
 may also be seen in the drawing-room. The most notable 
 piece of this sort is the massive carving, of ample, florid 
 form and heavy gilding — probably a part of a retable — 
 which serves to frame the fireplace. 
 
 The general design of this carving is carried out above 
 the mantel in a heavy frame, gilded and colored. This is the 
 work of Mr. Bertram Goodhue who, although not respon- 
 sible for the architecture of the house, advised Mr. Gillespie 
 with regard to some of the interesting features of its design. 
 The frame incloses a notable painting by Caravaggio. The 
 sense of richness given by so many examples of gilded wood- 
 carving is enhanced by the yellow hangings and warm- 
 colored fabrics that enter into the decoration of the room. 
 
 But if originality and character are to be found in the 
 apartment just described, what is to be said of the so- 
 called "conversation-room?" It is small and square, naive, 
 amusing, romantic. Its walls are covered to a certain 
 height with dull gold, applied directly to the plaster. On 
 three sides shallow, arched recesses contain long seats 
 covered with yellow velvet. In the center of the floor a 
 square basin lined with the familiar Spanish tiles surrounds 
 the base of a small, spiral, Romanesque, marble column, 
 
 ornate with insets of colored glass and gold, and crowned 
 
 59 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 with a bronze replica of the Victory of Pompeii. Set into 
 the base are two Roman lions' heads excavated in Syria. 
 (A bronze figurine from the same source is one of the objects 
 of interest in the drawing-room.) Above the arched recesses, 
 the walls of the conversation, room are richly decorated with 
 repeated Renaissance designs in which a vivid blue pre- 
 dominates. The central dome carries a floriate design in 
 gold, copied from the church of St. John Lateran. From 
 the center of the dome hangs a great globe of peari glass 
 which reflects light thrown upon it from a concealed source. 
 
 The dining room calls for more than passing mention. 
 Its ceiling — a barrel-vaulting — is covered with intricate 
 decorations in many colors, and carries a series of panels 
 containing figure paintings in the same style. The decorated 
 leather of the high-backed, carved chairs possesses a richness 
 of design and color similar to that of the ornate ceiling. 
 A Spanish cabinet of unusual pattern completes the furnish- 
 ing of the room, at one end of which there is a gallery for 
 musicians. 
 
 The plunge — in a room of its own — with its curious 
 
 blue, hand-made tiles; the breakfast room, with its really 
 
 fine Spanish Gothic chairs; the library with its portraits and 
 
 its metal-shod vargueho cabinet (one of the rarest of antique 
 
 forms), must be passed with this brief notice. 
 
 60 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. J. M. GILLESPIE 
 
 Mr. Gillespie's house holds for the visitor many surprises, 
 but he will count none greater, perhaps none more agreeable, 
 than that which he will experience when he steps from the 
 drawing-room into the open interior court. Here a lofty 
 plumosa palm stands not far from a full-grown orange-tree 
 laden perhaps with blossoms or with fruit, golden against 
 the sky. Here also banana trees, with their enormous green 
 leaves and, in due season, pendant bunches of ripening fruit, 
 rise to a height of over twenty feet. In the middle of the 
 marble-flagged floor is a pool; within a loggia at the far end 
 of the court one sees on a pedestal a full-size replica of an 
 Antinous. Seated in this court on a sultry afternoon, one 
 might believe oneself in Granada. 
 
 The character of "El Fureides" is cosmopolitan, or per- 
 haps I should say "Mediterranean;" but until the court 
 was reached, I saw nothing of French origin. There, how- 
 ever, the French note was pleasantly introduced in the form 
 of absinthes frappes. 
 
 61 
 
VIII 
 UPLANDS 
 
 RESIDENCE OF MR. C. TEMPLETON CROCKER 
 
 THE country around San Mateo and Burlin- 
 game is heavily wooded, and the country 
 places thereabouts are for the most part of 
 considerable size. For these reasons many 
 houses are not visible from any of the main-traveled roads. 
 Neither is there, so far as the writer has been able to dis- 
 cover, any point from which more than one or two. can be 
 seen at the same time. Nevertheless each is so situated 
 that it commands, beyond the tree tops which hide neighbor- 
 ing villas, a splendid view of near-by hills and of lowlands 
 that stretch toward the bay. 
 
 "Uplands," the residence of Mr. C. Templeton Crocker, 
 near San Mateo, is no exception. It remains so concealed 
 that it is only after having driven from the entrance gate 
 for some distance, between thickets of various and variegated 
 shrubbery, separated from the roadway by wide strips of 
 
 lawn, that you suddenly come upon the house. 
 
 63 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Its main fagade fronts two broad terraces, the lower one 
 having somewhat the character of a sunken garden. In its 
 spacious area a number of large pools and plats are laid out 
 in geometrical patterns. A still lower level is diversified 
 by a fountain and other architectural features. Beyond, 
 one may see a space of ornamental planting, and, farther 
 still, slopes of wooded hills. 
 
 In this part of the grounds the planting is formal and 
 recent, but behind the house and along a portion of the main 
 driveway a number of strikingly fine trees of various species 
 are of an obviously older growth. 
 
 The house, which was designed by Mr. Willis Polk, seems 
 to be, in spite of certain Renaissance details, more a varied, 
 free, and personal interpretation of classic architecture than 
 a rendering of the neoclassic. It is monumental, splendidly 
 knit together by the grouping of vertical lines, while well- 
 placed arches correlate the various parts of the composition 
 both structurally and in design. It stands well on its feet 
 and gives the beholder that sense of permanence, inherent 
 in architecture broadly conceived and creatively designed, 
 beside which mere charm is of comparatively little import- 
 ance. 
 
 In proportion and in detail the main fagade is variously 
 
 interesting, but the attention is chiefly attracted by a 
 
 64 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. C. TEMPLETON CROCKER 
 
 central carriage-porch, the narrow outer arch of which 
 plays an interesting part in the vertical movement of the 
 whole structure. A cartouche, with detached sculptural 
 supporters, stands above the architrave of this carriage- 
 porch and makes an interesting silhouette, accentuating the 
 somewhat ornate fagade, rich with ingeniously modified Ionic 
 capitals on columns and pilasters, and cartouches in relief 
 which occur in panels between the windows of the second 
 story. 
 
 At the back of the house a brick-paved perron has been 
 given something of the character of a court by the loggias 
 extending from the house on either side. Festoons in high 
 relief are freely used on this fagade, and the eye notes 
 the presence of Italian stone ornaments, among them, 
 in the middle of the perron, a richly sculptured well- 
 head. 
 
 The principal entrance is from the carriage-porch. Pass- 
 ing through heavy, grilled doors of bronze, you find yourself 
 in a vestibule of considerable lateral extension. Not far 
 from the door an arcade separates this vestibule from the 
 rest of the house. The walls are of plaster in imitation of 
 stone and, except for a highly ornate door-crest at one end 
 and some molded detail, it is severely simple. The furnish- 
 ings consist of a few chairs and jardinieres filled with flowers. 
 
 65 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 "Worthy of note are six old torchhes of colored wrought- 
 iron. 
 
 Beyond the arcade just mentioned, a wide corridor extends 
 laterally and forms the axis of the house. At both ends 
 of it the necessity of interest is supplied, on one hand by 
 a monumental doorway with an elaborate sculptural crest, 
 on the other by a stairway, at the foot of which a French 
 terra cotta figure serves as a terminal decorative note to this 
 interior vista. The corridor has a handsome coffered ceiling, 
 colored and gilded. Two Flemish tapestries adorn the walls. 
 
 Another arcade is passed. Its arches, like those between 
 
 the vestibule and corridor, recall in scale the carriage-porch, 
 
 and by a suggestion of height prepare one for the spacious 
 
 character of the central court, the ceiling of which is fully 
 
 forty feet above the floor. In this great hall the eye is 
 
 immediately attracted to arcades of dark woodwork. These 
 
 pierce the gray-toned walls and open from a surrounding 
 
 gallery of the second floor. Their lower portions are carved 
 
 in an openwork treatment of an imbricated pattern, and 
 
 their crests are decorated with carved and colored reliefs. 
 
 To the architecture of the room they give a fine distinction 
 
 and make it memorable. They do much also to justify 
 
 the very ornate coffered ceiling of richly toned and gilded 
 
 incrustations. One sees in such a ceiling the architect's 
 
 66 
 
THE CENTRAL COURT 
 Residence of Mr. C. Templeton Crocker 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. C. TEMPLETON CROCKER 
 
 acceptance of the challenge inevitably arising from the 
 employnient of intricate ornament. At "Uplands" Mr. Polk 
 proves that he can be at once daring and discreet, reckless 
 and restrained. 
 
 On two sides of the court arcades, similar to that 
 through which one entered, open on recesses and support 
 the gallery. In one of these recesses a marble fireplace, 
 copied from an Italian original, with its supporting Hermae, 
 displays bolder and more salient modeling than was typical 
 of the so-called "High Renaissance." The choice of such a 
 mantel, rather than of one more reserved, is to be com- 
 mended, because, like the architectural detail, it accords 
 with the air of magnificence, the spaciousness, the noble 
 design of this apartment. In the opposite recess a beautiful 
 old French tapestry covers the wall. Before this stands a 
 cassone, gilded and richly decorated, the front an animated 
 pictorial carving in high relief. Furniture, harmonizing in 
 design and color with the magnificence of the court, is to 
 be seen in the central space. Handsome jardinieres, filled 
 with plants, occur at intervals, and in the corners are four 
 ancient torcheres of even greater interest than those of the 
 vestibule. A fourteenth-century candle-stand in wrought- 
 iron must not be overlooked in this enumeration. A fine 
 
 antique covers the marble floor. 
 
 67 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 At the right of the court, as one enters from the grand 
 corridor, two large rooms open, the library and the drawing- 
 room. In the first of these hang, among other paintings, 
 a Gerome, a Detaille, a Daubigny, and a portrait by Law- 
 rence. There are also landscapes by the Califomians, Keith 
 and Peters. The bookcases, closed with thin grilles, contain 
 a collection of fine books, among them many interesting 
 and rare items of Californiana. On the bookcases one notes 
 fine Chinese porcelains which, however, are only a preparation 
 for the splendid specimens of Chinese art to be seen in the 
 adjoining drawing-room. 
 
 In this L-shaped, rose-toned apartment, French furniture 
 possessing all the sophistication of Occidental elegance, and 
 ancient Chinese porcelain, lacquer, cloisson6 of perfectly 
 breath-catching beauty, exist side by side. Rare Chinese 
 rugs cover the floors, and the eye rests in turn on a 
 great coromandel screen, two exquisite cabinets, tables, and 
 ornaments of gold and cherry lacquer, blanc de Chine figures. 
 Compared with the noble lyricism of these latter, of refine- 
 ment so complete, of technique so sure, our own art is for 
 the most part a mere futile gesturing. More and more we 
 must come to reaUze that the art of China is the most 
 firmly rooted, the most subtle, and the most transcendent 
 
 art the world has ever seen. It seems unfortunate that we 
 
 68 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. C. TEMPLETON CROCKER 
 
 in California, although for more than half a century at the 
 very door of the Orient, had to wait for the greatness of 
 Chinese art to be pointed out to us by Europeans, and that 
 from Europe have come not a few of the best productions 
 we possess of this art. 
 
 There remain on the ground floor of Mr. Crocker's house 
 only the owner's lounge — with its supplementary library 
 at once a study and a smoking room — and the dining room. 
 This latter is in certain respects the most noteworthy room 
 in the house. Its walls from floor to ceiUng are of polished 
 Siena marble, the broad, irregular yellow vein of which 
 determines the predominant tone of the room. The door- 
 casing, with pilasters and pediment carved, gilded, and col- 
 ored, is from a French chateau, though of Italian origin. A 
 conventional motive from this has been reproduced in the 
 frieze of the room. The ceiling, once more of the coffered 
 and incrusted style, is pleasantly related to the room in 
 scale and color. The table and chairs, though Portuguese 
 in origin (they came from the palace at Cintra), are Spanish 
 in type and interesting because different from forms with 
 which we are perhaps too familiar. Their design reveals 
 the infelicitous character of Spanish furniture when unaf- 
 fected by Gothic or Renaissance ideals. In the metal mounts 
 
 with which they are shod one divines a Saracenic influence. 
 
 69 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 At the end of the room two gilded French consoles of rich 
 design sustain the note of quiet splendor. On these stand 
 pieces of majolica and a carved and colored wooden stemma 
 which has been converted into a clock. Another ornate 
 Italian fireplace increases the aesthetic interest of the apart- 
 ment. It is unusual in having a marble fireback carrying a 
 beautiful relief. Above the mantel and on the wall opposite 
 are pieces of Robbia work — the first an enshrined Madonna, 
 the second an angel in a lunette. Fruit-filled baskets, in 
 glazed and colored terra cotta too, rest on the mantelshelf. 
 Among so many pieces of identical design, the problem of 
 their authenticity must needs be delicate. Although Delia 
 Robbia originals are not unknown in the East, those at 
 "Uplands," if not the only ones in California, are surely 
 among the few from the hands of the Florentine masters 
 or their apprentices that have journeyed thus far. 
 
 There is nothing to be said of the various suites and 
 chambers of the second story, all of which open upon the 
 quadrangular gallery surrounding the court, except that they 
 are admirable examples of the modern convention of elegance 
 
 — a standardization, as it were, of French traditional styles, 
 
 — modified here and there by personal taste in the selection 
 
 of details. One of the evidences of personal touch at 
 
 "Uplands" is to be discerned in a number of colored draw- 
 
 70 
 
THE DINING ROOM 
 THE DRAWING-ROOM 
 
 Residence of Mr. C. Templeton Crocker 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. C. TEMPLETON CROCKER 
 
 ings by Brunelleschi, one of the younger Italian artists who, 
 with Gino Sensani and the Parisian, Georges Lepape, carries 
 on worthily the tradition of Beardsley and Conder, and has 
 enjoyed a recent and well-deserved vogue. 
 
 71 
 
IX 
 ARCADY 
 
 RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE O. KNAPl- 
 
 SITUATED in Montecito Valley, near Santa Bar- 
 bara, the residence of Mr. George 0. Knapp com- 
 mands from an eminence a spacious and inspir- 
 ing view. Behind "Arcady," as Mr. Knapp calls 
 his place, soar sudden mountains, sheltering closely here 
 the coast, their slopes etched in vertical patterns by a 
 thousand watercourses and outcroppings. Below and in 
 front of the estate lies the graceful curve of the shore-line 
 and the waters of the Pacific, on clear days as blue as lapis- 
 lazuli. In the distance Santa Rosa Island stretches its 
 great length like a sleeping leviathan. 
 
 In this majestic setting — a setting that would be over- 
 powering were it not tempered by the charming prospect 
 of the valley itself, with its wooded foothills and canons — 
 many persons of wealth have built dwelling-places. Of 
 these, not a few are interesting because of their design, 
 
 their gardens, and the objects of art they contain. Monte- 
 
 73 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 cito Valley is therefore one of the most charming and desir- 
 able places in California. 
 
 As one approaches "Arcady," one sees from afar the 
 square tower of the mansion, lifted high above the surround- 
 ing trees. A nearer view reveals the fact that this tower at 
 once dominates and unifies the design of the house. For 
 the casual observer it is merely a tower, but an analysis of 
 its lines and proportions, its simple dignity, its discreet 
 fenestration, reveals a meritorious design. The architect 
 of the tower and the house in its present amended form is 
 Mr. Russell Ray. 
 
 The property consists of some two hundred acres, of 
 which over fifty are at present under cultivation, and are 
 surrounded by a wall of a buff sandstone, quarried near 
 Santa Barbara and much used in the neighborhood. Much 
 of the estate is heavily wooded with oak, and the arrange- 
 ment of roads and paths in the cultivated parts seems to 
 a great extent to have been governed by the position of 
 the trees and by the natural configuration of the land. 
 
 Except in the water-gardens, of which more will be said 
 
 later, little attention has been paid to formal design. One 
 
 walks through the grounds with a sense of being surrounded 
 
 by nature, but nature made more charming, more variegated, 
 
 more profuse, by the gardener's art. 
 
 74 
 
ARCADY 
 
 Residence of Mr. George O. Knapp 
 
 Near Santa Barbara 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE O. KNAPP 
 
 As you thread the "meandering paths," you encounter 
 here and there an occasional ornament such as a marmoreal 
 seat or a glazed terra cotta relief set into a stone pillar. 
 Hidden among the trees at some distance from the house is 
 a building of unusual and picturesque character. It is 
 called "The Hut," and is rudely constructed in half-timber, 
 and has a roof of great slabs of redwood bark, possible only 
 in California. It is used by the owner for informal enter- 
 tainments. 
 
 On one side of the house stretches a wide lawn; beyond 
 are the water-gardens, designed by Mr. Francis T. Un- 
 derbill, to which allusion has already been made. 
 
 The plan of the water-gardens is extensive and interest- 
 ing. From a bathhouse of classic design, forty by one hun- 
 dred and sixty feet in area, extends, dropping from level to 
 level, a succession of formal pools connected by stairways. 
 Like the links of a chain they succeed one another along 
 an axis stretching from the bathhouse at one end to a 
 terminal terrace, or tea-garden, at the other, a distance of 
 twelve hundred feet. 
 
 The interior of the bathhouse has two main divisions. 
 In one is a hot plunge; in the other are dressing rooms, tub- 
 rooms, and the Uke. The fagade fronting the water-garden 
 is largely glass, metal-muUioned windows opening between 
 
 75 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 concrete columns that support the roof. From central 
 grilled doors, one steps out upon a spacious terrace. A 
 large, open-air, cold plunge, in the design of which the rec- 
 tangular form has been avoided, fills a great part of its area. 
 Below, the "Children's Pool," the "Lily Pool," and other 
 divisions of the water-garden occupy successive levels and 
 lead to the tea-terrace, on which grows an enormous live 
 oak. This terrace is defined at the back by a balustrade 
 and on either side by Italian cypresses, tall and closely 
 planted. 
 
 The residence is irregular, and certain characteristics of 
 Italian Renaissance architecture are suggested by the lines 
 of the red-tiled roof and by the arches of the porch and the 
 windows. It is finished in stucco of a yellow tone. Orna- 
 mental trellises cover the walls in many places to the height 
 of the first story. Three unusually large reproductions of 
 metopes from the frieze of the Parthenon form part of 
 the exterior decoration. Two of these have been set into 
 the wall of the long, wide porch that overlooks the lawn; the 
 other serves to decorate a little loggia. 
 
 The interior is marked by a certain massiveness. The 
 hall, drawing-room, library, dining room, and music room 
 have this quality, though not without an agreeable simplicity. 
 The breakfast room is, however, an exception. It is fur- 
 
 76 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE O. KNAPP 
 
 nished with Chinese Chippendale, and its walls are covered 
 with a fabric of colored pattern. 
 
 The woodwork throughout is dark in tone and harmonizes 
 with the neutral gray walls. All the doors are arched, 
 carrying out certain features of the exterior. The lunettes 
 contain floral arabesques in relief. 
 
 A fine old Spanish cabinet is the keynote of the furnish- 
 ings of the dining room. The chairs and table are repro- 
 ductions in the same style. The music room has quiet 
 distinction. Its ceiling is much higher than in the other 
 rooms; sufficiently high, in fact, to accommodate an organ- 
 loft and pipe-organ. A curving stairway, enclosed in a 
 wooden railing of slender and delicately designed spindles, 
 leads to the loft. Large reproductions of two panels from 
 the Cantoria of Luca della Robbia adorn the walls on either 
 side of the entrance. 
 
 The size of the dwelling is sufficiently indicated by the 
 statement that it contains thirty-two bedrooms. Twelve 
 of these — each with its individual bath — are in the 
 tower, where there is also a tea-room (in the belvidere), 
 an electric kitchen, wardrobe-room, and servants' dining 
 room. 
 
 If one had to point out the two distinguishing features 
 
 of "Arcady," one would without question name the 
 
 77 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 music room and water garden. The excellent pkn of the 
 latter and its remarkable natural setting make it one of 
 the most memorable examples of garden architecture in 
 California. 
 
 78 
 
X 
 
 RESIDENCE OF MR. JAMES L. FLOOD 
 
 IN 1836 a certain Jacob P. Leese built the first house in 
 Yerba Buena, as San Francisco then was called. With 
 what a sense of the miraculous, as in our minds we 
 bridge the years since that day, so of the present still 
 — with what a sense of amazement, this so prodigious leap 
 held romantically in mind, we contemplate the stately 
 strength, the ornate magnificence, of Mr. James L. Flood's 
 great marble dwelling that crowns one of the seven hills 
 upon which this same precocious town paradoxically yet 
 complacently sits beside the Golden Gate! 
 
 From the windows of this palatial residence, which has 
 drawn into itself many of the dispersed currents of art that, 
 since the Renaissance, have flowed through the countries 
 of Europe, one overlooks the bay of San Francisco, inclosed 
 by the silhouette of its gracious hills. In the center of the 
 canvas lies the picturesque, or perhaps one should say the 
 pictorial, island of Alcatraz. At the extreme left one sees 
 
 the Presidio, estabUshed in 1776 for the protection of Fran- 
 
 79 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 ciscan missionaries from the savages inhabiting the land. 
 Spread, too, before one, like some enormous toy, cut out of 
 colored cardboard — a Gargantuan plajrthing — stand the 
 bedomed buildings of the Panama-Pacific Exposition, dumb 
 witnesses to the union of Efficiency and Art, yet a great 
 commercial, as Mr. Flood's house is a great material, achieve- 
 ment. The magnitude of this achievement is the more 
 impressive when one thinks of Leese's "shack" and re- 
 members that the intervening years have been barren of 
 art, but for few and minor phenomena — phenomena which, 
 for the most part, it is difficult to consider seriously, much 
 less to hold as either important or vital. 
 
 Mr. Flood's house and the exposition are parts, too, of 
 a wonderful recovery from the earthquake of 1906. The 
 residence has been chosen to represent San Francisco not 
 only because it exhibits in its architecture the most advanced 
 evolution toward magnificence that the city possesses, but 
 because it is, among residences, the most substantial example 
 of regeneration from the ruins. 
 
 Since it is a "town house," it calls for no description of 
 
 gardens, and the accompanying picture, possessing as it 
 
 does the particularity of a close view, renders superfluous 
 
 such analysis of the exterior as might have been offered. 
 
 Attention may be called, however, to the design of the 
 
 80 
 
Residence of Mr. James L. Flood 
 San Fr ancisco 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. JAMES L. FLOOD 
 
 monumental portal. It has a special interest of its own as a 
 piece of architectural virtuosity successfully incorporated 
 by the designers of the house, Messrs. Bliss and Faville, 
 in the general composition. 
 
 The fenestration of the fagade, rigidly symmetrical, though 
 not without movement, shows that above the high first 
 story there is a mezzanine. This extends inward but half 
 the depth of the house; beyond the point where it ceases to 
 exist, the ceilings of the first story rise to still greater height 
 and give the apartments there still greater magnificence. 
 
 Owing to the sharp downward slope of the hillside, the 
 house has, at the rear, two high stories underneath what, 
 at the front, is the ground floor. 
 
 The main hall, entered at one end by the front door, runs 
 the full depth of the house, a distance of one hundred and 
 forty feet, and ends in a great bow window, overlooking 
 the bay. It is paved with rose-white marble, narrow stripes 
 of Verona marble serving to vary the surface. The walls 
 are of imitation Caen stone, broken by Ionic pilasters and 
 cartouches of molded plaster in the over-doors. State 
 chairs and monumental console tables at intervals give a 
 
 r 
 
 severe conventional dignity to the hall. Toward the rear, 
 
 where the mezzanine ends, the ceiling rises to a greater 
 
 height, and the walls are decorated above an impost cornice 
 
 81 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 with panels carrying trophies of molded plaster. The hall 
 is lighted at the end by the bow window and midway on 
 the right by other windows, which give upon the garden, 
 here allowed to penetrate to the center of the structure. 
 Artificial light is supplied from sunbursts of cut glass in the 
 ceiling and torchlike iron brackets on the walls. The stair- 
 way of polished, rose-toned marble rises at the left. 
 
 Except for two small dressing rooms and a commodious 
 "service," occupying a space behind the staircase, the 
 ground floor is given over to no more than four apartment^, 
 two on each side of the long hall. The largest of these — 
 the drawing-room — is in the wing, on the right and at the 
 rear. An impression of the size of the house may be con- 
 veyed by stating that in this wing alone three superimposed 
 apartments — ballroom, drawing-room, and library — are 
 each thirty-three feet wide by sixty-five feet long. 
 
 The ballroom, situated on the sub-floor, is without decora- 
 tion. The drawing-room is, on the contrary, ornate. It is 
 oak-paneled to the ceiling, the woodwork enriched with 
 carving in relief. The ceiling is decorated as to its cove 
 with gilded rococo incrustations. The furniture is modeled 
 after French designs and like the ornamentations of the room 
 is of the style of the Regency. 
 
 In the dining room across the hall the walls are of patine 
 
 82 
 
THE MAIN HALL 
 Residence of Mr. James L. Flood 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. JAMES L. FLOOD 
 
 plaster in imitation of old marble. Pilasters divide each 
 wall into three spaces, arched above an impost cornice. 
 The twelve lunettes thus formed contain painted decora- 
 tions in which various figures from famous paintings by 
 Italian masters have been utilized in new and curious 
 combinations by the ingenious artisan. The coffered ceiling 
 is tinted white and gold and blue, the latter color appearing 
 also in the cut-velvet covering of the gilt-embellished walnut 
 chairs. An attempt has been made to "pull together" the 
 color of furniture, frieze, and ceiling by the placing of tapes- 
 tries upon the white marmoreal walls. At one side stands 
 a heavy console sideboard of cipollino. 
 
 The other rooms on this floor are the breakfast room and 
 the reception room, the former simply furnished in mahog- 
 any of late Georgian style; the latter, also Georgian, is 
 more frankly in the manner of the Adams, and its walls 
 are of satinwood, the panels separated by slender pilasters. 
 Delicate, gilded carving enriches three large mirrors set into 
 the wall. The floor is of teak. 
 
 Except for various suites and chambers on the mezzanine 
 
 and second floor, there remains only the library, occupying 
 
 on the same level as the latter, the third floor of the wing. 
 
 A new note is instantly detected here. The room is finished 
 
 in oak and carries out in design and detail and with inter- 
 
 83 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 esting consistency the style of the Elizabethan period, when 
 Renaissance influences from various continental sources had 
 left of Gothic forms only reminiscences, but had not yet 
 assumed a severely classic character. In the woodwork, the 
 furniture, and the hangings of the apartment, a brown tone 
 prevails, the books supplying, as books so happily supply, 
 abundant color. The unusual aspect of the room is enhanced 
 by the depressed barrel-vaulting of its ornate banded ceiling. 
 From a recessed window, provided with an encircling seat, 
 one may gaze, as from a dizzy height, over the panorama of 
 the bay. 
 
 84 
 
THE DRAWING-ROOM 
 THE RECEPTION ROOM 
 
 Residence of Mr. James L. Flood 
 
XI 
 
 RESIDENCE OF MR. HULETT C. MERRITT 
 
 SINCE it lies within the city limits of Pasadena, 
 the residence of Mr. Hulett C. Merritt may be 
 properly regarded as a town house. And yet the 
 extent of the grounds in which the mansion is set 
 gives it much the character of a country place. The gar- 
 dens comprise about seven and one half acres. The estate is 
 enclosed by a wall and bounded on three sides by streets. 
 One of these, Orange Grove Avenue, with its fine palms 
 and superb lawns, may be said to be the most beautiful 
 thoroughfare in the West. 
 
 The property round about, amounting to an additional 
 eleven acres, is owned by Mr. Merritt, and when he has 
 removed, as is his intention, the houses occupying parts of 
 it, nothing will disturb the sylvan outlook. Part of this 
 land has already been converted into a turfed tennis court 
 surrounded by a pergola — rustic poles on columns of con- 
 crete — covered thickly with vines. Beyond the court 
 
 stands the garage. 
 
 85 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 The front wall, flanking a central gateway, is made up of 
 balustrades, between piers supporting vases containing plants 
 and trailing vines. A fence of wrought-iron encloses the 
 remaining three sides of the garden. Wrought-iron lanterns 
 crown some of the piers; they serve a more than ornamental 
 purpose, since when the house is occupied, they are lighted 
 at night. Beds of sword ferns and begonias surround the 
 outside of the fence. 
 
 The house is approached from the main gateway by an 
 
 ascent of turfed terraces connected by steps. Midway one 
 
 passes a large concrete pool and fountain. A perfect lawn 
 
 stretches on either hand. At the back of the house, the 
 
 grounds are more ornamental, the trees more plentiful. 
 
 Among these the Italian cypress predominates, and gives 
 
 a distinctive character to the garden. The center of this 
 
 portion of the grounds has been laid out as a sunken Italian 
 
 garden. Into this a double stairway descends. On the 
 
 right and left stand arbored pavilions. From a pool on 
 
 the upper landing, water passes through a wall-fountain to 
 
 a basin on the lower level. The sunken garden is about 
 
 one hundred and twenty-five feet wide by one hundred and 
 
 fifty feet long. Its geometrical flower-beds are surrounded 
 
 by a luxuriant hedge of Cherokee rose. Ball-topped trees 
 
 in boxes are symmetrically disposed in this area. At its 
 
 86 
 
Residence of Mr. Hulett C. Merritt 
 Pasadena 
 
m 
 
 ■'^- 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. HULETT C. MERRITT 
 
 farther end, a lofty pergola, supported by discretely-orna- 
 mented columns, is clothed with vitis capensis, or nonde- 
 ciduous grape, and wistaria. Iron gates separate the pergola 
 from the main lawn beyond. 
 
 The house is of brick, covered with gray stucco, and, 
 architecturally, of Italian Renaissance type. In plan and 
 details, however, it is an expression . of its owner's personal 
 taste — a practical working out of sketches made by him. 
 This is equally true of the details of the interior, for which 
 Mr. Merritt made a considerable number of drawings. 
 Much of the interior decoration was in fact actually executed 
 on the premises under the owner's personal supervision, 
 while the house was in process of construction. Drawings 
 and clay models for the fixtures were made there and passed 
 upon by Mr. Merritt. Even the gold-plating was done 
 upon the spot, as likewise were the staining and tooling of 
 leather used in certain pieces of furniture, and the burning 
 of tiles. But by far the greatest undertaking was the con- 
 struction and carving, in the house itself, of many pieces 
 of furniture from a variety of hardwoods, to say nothing of 
 the labor of a similar nature that went into the woodwork 
 of the various rooms. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the treatment of the wood- 
 work of the interior gives this residence a character all its 
 
 87 
 
STATELY HOMES OFCALIFORNIA 
 
 own. Except for the molded plaster ceiling in the dining 
 room, all the rooms on the first story are finished entirely 
 in hardwood, varnished and revarnished until it shines like 
 a mirror. The large entrance hall, which extends the full 
 depth of the house — beamed ceiling, paneled wall, and 
 parquet floor — is of light-toned mahogany. The drawing- 
 room — ceiling, wall, and floor — is rosewood. The walls 
 of the dining room are of a fine mahogany burl. The large 
 pantry adjoining is finished in tamaranga, a hardwood from 
 the Andes, which is also employed in the principal wardrobe- 
 room in the owner's suite on the second story. The study 
 adjoining the central hall is finished in mahogany. The 
 fireplace fittings, an adjustable bronze hood with counter- 
 weights and a bronze fender, were made in the house 
 while it was being built. 
 
 Mr. Merritt's collection of Oriental carpets and rugs is 
 large and contains exceptional pieces — a Ladik prayer-rug, 
 a Bergamo, and a Samarkand — of sufficient importance 
 from the collector's point of view to have been reproduced 
 in color by Mr. Walter Hawley in his monumental work. 
 
 Mr. Merritt's interest has extended also to porce- 
 lains, and there is to be seen in his drawing-room 
 a cabinet containing many fine examples of Meissen 
 
 ware. These include fine uncolored statuettes, a "May- 
 
 S8 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. HULETT C. MERRITT 
 
 flower" vase, and Meissen and Dresden colored figurines. 
 The best piece, however, is a Meissen candelabrum, with 
 twelve rococo branches from which depend bouquets of 
 those carefully modeled and colored flowers for which the 
 German kilns are famous. This candelabrum is said to 
 have been designed for the palace at Munich upon which 
 Ludwig lavished his mad fancy and cultivated though erratic 
 taste. Exercising his own taste and manifesting at the same 
 time a commendable sense of utility, Mr. Merritt has had 
 it converted into an electrolier. 
 
 Descending to the basement floor, one enters a room about 
 twenty by sixty feet in size. This is the so-called "New 
 England Kitchen;" it is used for informal entertainments. 
 The beams of the ceiling are rough-hewn and there is a 
 great recessed fireplace provided with an enormous practi- 
 cable crane and connected with an equally practicable oven. 
 A descent of a few steps reveals a swimming-tank, finished 
 in white tile. From this one may repair to a spacious gym- 
 nasium and the necessary dressing rooms. 
 
 The billiard room is also in the basement. Its mahogany 
 table was constructed and carved on the spot, and may be 
 converted for the playing of either pool or billiards by 
 changing the whole frame containing the cushions. 
 
 On the second story an up-stairs sitting room is finished 
 
 89 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 entirely in myrtle. The wood employed here is most excep- 
 tional in the pattern of its grain. Adjoining this apartment 
 is the principal guest chamber in bird's-eye maple, with 
 furniture of the same wood but gilded and burnished to 
 transparency. 
 
 From the second story a stairway leads to the roof, from 
 which the splendid view may be enjoyed. To east and 
 north, the Sierra Madre Mountains rear their rugged fronts, 
 the sky accented by the peaks of Mount Wilson and Mount 
 Lowe; to the west, the foothills sweep around and form 
 with their loftier neighbors a vast crescent-shaped amphi- 
 theater; while to the south, beyond the shore-line, one sees 
 the Pacific majestically unfurled. 
 
 90 
 
XII 
 
 RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE A. NEWHALL 
 
 AMONG the gardens of California those at the 
 residence of Mr. George A. Newhall, near 
 Burlingame, are the most distinctly archi- 
 tectural in character. I do not mean by 
 this that they are over-architectured, unduly loaded with 
 basins, bridges, and balustrades, as is so often the case 
 when an architect is given the task of laying out pleasure 
 grounds, but that they have in their plan the regularity 
 and homogeneity of architecture. One notes with pleasure 
 that they escape the rigid dryness of design that many 
 architects impose upon their Americanized Italian gar- 
 dens. 
 
 The house and gardens were designed by Mr. Lewis P. 
 Hobart. The general scheme of the latter will be readily 
 understood when it is stated that they are in the shape of a 
 Latin cross. The house stands at a point on the shaft of this 
 cross just below a transverse avenue which forms its arms. 
 The main entrance to the grounds is at one end of this 
 
 91 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 avenue. Double rows of superb Lombardy poplars stand 
 on the left and right of the wide driveway and outline paths 
 which parallel it on either side. These fine trees number 
 upwards of two hundred. 
 
 Reaching the point where the two shafts of the cross 
 meet, one sees that in the upper portion of the main shaft 
 the central space, instead of being a paved roadway, is a 
 tapis vert between cropped cypress hedges. Two lateral 
 paths are bordered on either side by fully-developed plane 
 trees. A few Italian cypresses edge the central lawn, which 
 has at its end a marmoreal term of Pan. 
 
 Large boxes of simple design, containing orange trees, 
 stand at frequent intervals along the wide paths. 
 
 Passing around the house and standing on the terrace 
 at the garden-front, one looks down the longest arm of the 
 cross. Here again the arrangement of a broad central 
 avenue with lateral paths is followed, the whole inclosed 
 within hedges of cropped cypress. The avenue, a slightly 
 undulating stretch of turf about two hundred yards in length, 
 is bordered on either side by hawthorns of the white variety. 
 Outside each lateral path and close to the cypress hedges 
 a row of the pink variety parallels the other. 
 
 The cross pattern is now seen to be complete. Outside 
 
 it and separated from it (in the strict etymological sense of 
 
 92 
 
Residence of Mr. George A. Newhall 
 Near Bur lin game 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE A. NEWHALL 
 
 the word) by the cypress hedges, four areas he. The upper 
 two are devoted to orchard, the lower to miscellaneous 
 planting. 
 
 Some of the more intimate features of these charming 
 gardens still remain to be described. 
 
 On the side of the house toward the hawthorn avenue, an 
 extensive terrace fronts a yet more extensive sunken garden. 
 The surrounding embankments are crowned with balustrades 
 and cypress hedges. From the upper level, on both near 
 and far sides of this garden, wide stairways descend, and 
 from points at the tops of these the eye may travel down 
 double rows of plane trees, in all some one hundred in num- 
 ber. On piers stand ornamental vases holding oleanders. 
 The center of the sunken garden is occupied by a large pool, 
 at points equidistant from which, on left and right, well-heads 
 have been placed among Italian cypresses. 
 
 Passing now to one side of the house, you enter still 
 another inclosure — the rose garden — with a central foun- 
 tain and many Irish and English yews, a charming parterre 
 subdivided and edged with box. Rose-garden, service-yard, 
 terrace, and sunken garden, all are, by their lateral exten- 
 sion and by their position, knit, as it were, to the trans- 
 verse axis — the poplar-lined main driveway — of the general 
 
 cruciform plan. 
 
 93 
 
STATELY HOMES OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 In style the house is ItaUan Renaissance, freely treated. 
 It is built of concrete. The fagades, which are surmounted 
 by a balustrade, carry a sufficient amount of ornamental 
 detail to give a rather decorative effect. 
 
 The entrance is through a vestibule, marble-floored and 
 wainscoted, from which, to the right and left, short flights 
 of steps lead to a central hall or living room that gives upon 
 the terrace. To the right of this apartment you may pass 
 into the drawing-room, morning room, and a guest chamber. 
 On the same side too is a stair-hall, finished in stone and 
 made unusually attractive by a curving staircase with hand- 
 some bronze railing of rich design. From the left-hand side 
 of the hall, you penetrate to dining room, breakfast room, 
 and service departments. 
 
 The otherwise rectangular ground-plan is modified by 
 two pavilions. These rise near the ends of the terrace 
 of the garden front, and are connected with the house by 
 curved loggias. 
 
 The character appropriate to a summer residence is every- 
 where manifest in the light-toned walls — varied now and 
 then by patterned fabrics, by paintings of pastoral and genre 
 subjects in the over-doors, and by hangings and upholstering 
 of gay chintzes and linens. There is a pleasant sense of 
 
 airiness in the rooms. The furniture is for the most part 
 
 94 
 
THE MAIN FACADE 
 
 THE GARDENS 
 
 Residence of Mr. George A. Newhall 
 
RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE A. NEWHALL 
 
 of French design; among the exceptions here and there are 
 the chairs of the breakfast room which are in Chippendale 
 style. 
 
 Mr. Newhall's residence may be said to be, in the strict 
 sense, a villa, for contiguous to the gardens, but separated 
 from them by a screen of trees, is a considerable acreage 
 devoted to practical farming. 
 
 95