The Way It Was
The Art Decostyle Faulkner Gallery was completed in 1930 (Courtesy Santa Barbara Public Library)
by Hattie Beresford
Faulkner Gallery: Architecture and Art
Myron Hunt speaks to the small group assembled for the groundbreaking ceremony. Seated from left: Mary Corning Winslow Black, Mrs. Francis B. Linn, and Mary Faulkner Gould (Courtesy Santa Barbara Public Library)
B
y 1928, Clarence Black had donated the land and Mary Faulkner Gould had donated $55,000 from the sale of her sisters’ lands in Montecito toward the creation of an art gallery for the Santa Barbara library. Now it was time to create a plan for the direction of the gallery and to find an architect who could create a design that met all the needs of the gallery committee.
Plans and Breaking Ground
Various architectural firms submitted plans and renderings for the new art gallery. In the end, Myron Hunt and H. C. Chambers of Los Angeles won the contract. Hunt came to Los Angeles from Chicago in 1903 and became popular for his residential designs as well as institutional work,
Ms Beresford is a retired English and American history teacher of 30 years in the Santa Barbara School District. She is author of two Noticias, “El Mirasol: From Swan to Albatross” and “Santa Barbara Grocers,” for the Santa Barbara Historical Society.
which included hotels and colleges. In Montecito, he designed Cima del Mundo for Laura Knight (whose estate was most recently the Pacifica Graduate Institute, Ladera Campus) and Las Acacias on Oriole Road. Hunt was supervising architect in 1906 for Bertram Goodhue’s design for El Fureidis and 20 years later for John Cooper’s design for La Arcada on State Street. He also designed the County Bank building on the northwest corner of Carrillo and State streets.
The Faulkner Art Reading Room connected the main library building to the gallery. Today, this is a corridor and main entrance to both the library and the Faulkner Gallery. (Courtesy Santa Barbara Public Library)
Joaquin Crespi “JC” Juarez, groundskeeper and head gardener at Renklauf since 1893, was chosen for the groundbreaking ceremony (Courtesy Santa Barbara Public Library)
Hunt’s plans for the art gallery were accepted on September 1, 1929, and were a startling departure from the architectural style of the Federal Post Office and the Mediterranean Public Library. Hunt believed he had solved the problem of having the addition look like a small version of the main building by using landscaping to hide the connection and make it appear as a completely separate structure with its own unique architecture. This way, he believed, it would harmonize with the main building and that of the post office.
On September 16, 1929, groundbreaking ceremonies commenced. Seated front and center were Mary Corning Winslow Black, Frances B. Linn, and Mary Faulkner Gould. Myron Hunt was there to explain to the small assembly that the architecture was not Egyptian as some suggested, but an adaptation to serve the purpose of the building. Wielding a silver-plated shovel, Joaquin Crespin (J.C.) Juarez, a descendent of Presidio soldiers and for nearly 40 years gardener and groundskeeper at Renklauf, moved the first shovelful of dirt on behalf of the Faulkner family, and construction commenced. In a January 1931 article for The Architect and Engineer, local cultural promoter, architect, and library trust-
WAY IT WAS Page 324
A Tradition of ExcEllEncE
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20 MONTECITO JOURNAL
• The Voice of the Village •
3 – 10 August 2017