HOUSE AND GARDEN 
September, 1913 
157 
to the steep contour of the ground, 
and is set one hundred feet back from 
the street. 
The motives back of the planning 
of the house have been gone into thus 
fully for two reasons; one, because 
they are of intrinsic interest, the other 
because there has been one criticism 
of this house by an Eastern man who 
had not seen the surroundings, on 
the score of its being too evidently an 
attempt at originality. As a matter 
of fact, there was absolutely no such 
attempt whatsoever. The exterior 
was merely the logical expression of 
the plan, and the plan, as has been 
made clear, was solely the result of 
trying to conform the house to its 
peculiar position on the side of a steep 
hill, surrounded by winding drives 
and beautiful scenery. 
The interior is very simple. The 
main rooms downstairs are finished 
in California redwood, stained a gray- 
brown color by means of an acid mix¬ 
ture. None of the rooms has a beamed 
ceiling. There is a fireplace at one 
side of the living-room, the carving 
of which also is in California redwood. 
The tile in the fireplace are an unu¬ 
sual combination of both Grueby and 
Batchelder. It so happened that cer¬ 
tain of these two different makes of tile harmonized very well 
with each other. The “grill doors” between the hall and the 
dining-room were inserted to give greater privacy to the dining¬ 
room from anyone entering the hall through the front entrance 
door, but at the same time not entirely to shut off the view of 
the dining-room from the hall. It was felt that the hall was 
rather small and that if the view into the dining-room was not 
entirely cut off, the small size of the hall would not be so much 
noticed. The idea of the grill doors was probably derived from 
old Mexico. Such doors are used at the street entrances of 
courtyard gardens there to enable people to look into the courts 
and enjoy the beauty of the gardens, but at the same time to 
prevent the entrance of undesirables. 
The house is, therefore, built to 
meet certain definite requirements and 
certain demands of situation. These 
were primary considerations. After 
they were tentatively provided for in 
the plan as indicated, the matter of de¬ 
sign developed itself. 
There are so many houses in Cali¬ 
fornia that show a uniformity of roof 
structure, a little reflection of the 
adobe house or an echo of the old 
Spanish Mission that the originality 
of this house is a pleasing relief where 
these characteristics have been allowed 
to become predominant. In this house 
no stereotyped Mission details were 
used, but there is a touch here and a 
shade there which makes this home 
truly fitted to California. The use of 
the local materials assists in this effect. 
The rough redwood shakes and the 
color of the stucco walls help. What 
gives a distinctive touch to the house 
more than anything else is perhaps the 
harmony of line in the approach of 
stairway, terrace and porch. The bal¬ 
ustrade as shown in the picture at the 
head of this article is intrinsically 
beautiful as adding to the design, and 
the various units combine in forming a 
pleasing decoration to the front facade- 
of the house. This is practically all the attempt at decoration 
on the front elevation. But the house needs nothing more be¬ 
cause nature has been so carefully used to form part of the 
design. The disposition of the house among the trees, the re¬ 
taining of the one great tree in the terrace make these natural 
features definite and an effective part in the architectural scheme.. 
The house is particularly interesting in its freedom from follow¬ 
ing the various stylistic trends that mark a locality. Because of 
this freedom the house is devoid of that heaviness that results 
from the too general use of Spanish motives. It is decidedly in¬ 
teresting as an example of a difficult architectural problem well 
solved according to all its requirements. 
Looking from the veranda toward the oak tree which is surrounded by a 
retaining wall to conserve the rainfall 
The entrance hall is for utility only and makes no 
architectural pretenses 
