House^Garden 
V o 1 . IV SEPTEMBER, 1903 No. 3 
The Setting of i4 El Fureidis ” 
“EL FUREIDIS” 
AT MONTECITO, CALIFORNIA 
THE VILLA OF JAMES WALDRON GILLESPIE, LSQ_. 
Designed by Messrs. Cram , Goodhue and Ferguson 
I MAGINE a little valley lying between the 
scarped and serrated ridges of the Santa 
1 uez Mountains and the purple Pacific, 
whose shore forms a long curve of gleaming 
white, terminated at the westward by the 
little promon¬ 
tory which 
hides Santa 
Barbara and at 
the eastward by 
the Etna-like 
mass of the 
Rincon, — a 
valley with a 
rise of several 
thousand feet 
from sea level 
to m o u n t a i n 
peak, and this 
in less than four 
miles — wherein 
all trees and all 
flowers seem to 
reach their ulti¬ 
mate p e r f e c - 
tion. This is the 
setting of “ El 
Fureidis,” a place which it must be remem¬ 
bered is, as yet, no more than a garden in pro¬ 
cess, and one which does not aim, when com¬ 
pleted, to any great effect of magnificence. 
Here will be little or no marble; all the ter¬ 
races,walls, bal- 
ustrades and 
steps are con- 
structed of 
sandstone 
quarried on the 
estate and fin¬ 
ished, where 
finished at all, 
in whitewashed 
cement. That 
the reader may 
judge for him- 
self of the 
eventual truth¬ 
fulness of the 
drawings, a few 
photographs, 
either pur¬ 
chased in Santa 
Barbara or 
taken only a 
THE POOLS AT THE HEAD OF THE ALLEY 
97 
