Montecito Journal Glossy Edition - Summer Fall 2016

montecito JOURNAL summer

MONTECITO’S MANSIONS

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f all • 2016

TD

TIM DAHL LUXURY REAL ESTATE

Your home could be worth more than you think! www.SantaBarbara.QuickPropertyAppraisal.com

Offerings like this simply don’t come along too often. This estate is approximately 8,000 sq. ft.

The custom designed kitchen lends itself to the most discerning of chefs. Adjacent to the gourmet kitchen is a casual family room that opens up to a patio and outdoor fireplace. Simply breathtaking views. Custom tile work throughout this home provides just a glimpse into the overwhelming quality of this estate. Designed by Don Nulty, no expense has been spared in the construction of this masterpiece. Some amenities include a gym, a golf simulator, a large air-conditioned custom 3 car garage, solar system, entertainment room, and waterfall. The property also includes a detached one bedroom guest home with surround sound, fabulous ocean views and a private patio.

Price Upon Request For an exlcusive & private tour, please contact Tim Dahl. Š2016 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties (BHHSCP) is a member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates LLC. BHH Affiliates LLC and BHHSCP do not guarantee accuracy of all data including measurements, conditions, and features of property. Information is obtained from various sources and will not be verified by broker or MLS. CalBRE#: 00894534

TIM DAHL (805) 886-2211 Tim@TimDahl.com www.TimDahl.com

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Advertising Sales Tanis Nelson: tanis@montecitojournal.net Susan Brooks: sue@montecitojournal.net Christine Merrick: christine@montecitojournal.net National Advertising Representative Judson Bardwell Contributors Hattie Beresford, James Buckley, Jerry Camarillo Dunn, Jr., Chuck Graham, Steven Libowitz, Randy Lioz, Eva Van Prooyen, Briana Westmacott Photography Edward Clynes

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CO NTEN TS 30 REAL ESTATES

With an over-the-shoulder look at Montecito’s heritage and his mind on the future, MJ founder James Buckley gauges the modern-day housing market and spotlights a handful of high-end homes from Hot Springs Road to a beachfront resort.

46 MOGULS AND MANSIONS

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Hattie Beresford dusts off the storied pedigree of New Yorker James Waldron Gillespie, a globetrotter who made history with his El Fureidis estate – “a beautiful mirage” – and found his way to Santa Barbara, where he put down roots in the early 1900s.

64 BEHIND THE WHEEL

Car aficionado and MJ contributor Randy Lioz eyes a “unicorn” on wheels: real estate investor Dan Kolodziejski’s SIATA 208S, which emerged in the 1950s with quite a backstory that spans from Santa Barbara to Hawaii and back. Cars & Coffee enthusiast Dan Hogan accelerates the conversation.

70 PROFILES

Steven Libowitz gets to the roots of wife-and-husband melody makers Sarah Lee Guthrie (youngest daughter of fabled folksinger Arlo Guthrie) and Johnny Irion (related to author John Steinbeck), who along with their daughters made Montecito their home two years ago.

80 FAR FLUNG TRAVEL

Chuck Graham goes sea kayaking with guide Carl Donohue in southeast Alaska – from Yakutat’s Icy Bay to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park – before paddling amid glaciers and massive Taan Fjord in a region known as one of the world’s most seismically active.

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IN STYLE

Easel does it: artist Karen Bezuidenhout has come a long way, literally, from riding horses around Stellenbosch, South Africa, to her open-air studio on Santa Barbara’s Riviera, where she sits down and brushes up with Sentinel contributor Briana Westmacott.

Cover photo: Jim Bartsch

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DANIEL GIBBINGS

1143 coast village road santa barbar a, ca 93108 1 877 565 1284 da nielgibbings.com

CO N T E N TS 94 PROFILES

Conan O’Brien has skyrocketed from writing behind the scenes of Saturday Night Live to replacing David Letterman on NBC’s Late Night, then becoming a talk-show titan on his own. Journal correspondent Steven Libowitz tracks down Conan – who last year moved to Carpinteria, where he enjoys relaxing – to discuss his on-air past, present, and future.

100 LANDMARKS

Hattie Beresford looks over her shoulder, cobbling together a history lesson about the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel and SB Channel – digging up the property’s background – along with Montecito Park and hotelier John McEntee Bowman.

112 CURIOUS TRAVELER

It’s a Dunn deal every time MJ writer Jerry Dunn and wife Merry venture to Palm Springs – old stomping grounds for the likes of Albert Einstein and Frank Sinatra – where the couple experience amenities at The Willows, peruse Palm Springs Art Museum, and take a peek inside Elvis Presley’s honeymoon hideaway.

122 VALLEY LIVING

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Eva Van Prooyen gazes far and wide across the Santa Ynez Valley – whose eponymous town was named after Saint Agnes – chronicling its majestic mountain range and vineyards stretching from Solvang, Ballard, Los Olivos, and Buellton, to Los Alamos.

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805.565.8600 pa rt ne rs@RiskinPartne rs.c om

CONTRIBUTORS Jerry Camarillo Dunn, Jr. has worked with the National Geographic Society

for 31 years and written hundreds of magazine and newspaper feature stories, as well as guidebooks for Nat Geo and the Smithsonian. The Society of American Travel writers has recognized his work with three Lowell Thomas Awards, the “Oscars” of travel writing. He started his travel writing career as a young vagabond with a backpack, roaming around such exotic spots as India (where he worked as an extra in Bollywood movies for $4 a day). Jerry’s Montecito Journal column, “The Curious Traveler,” won the gold medal for Best Travel Column 2011 from SATW. He wrote My Favorite Place on Earth (National Geographic), in which 75 remarkable people, from the Dalai Lama to Natalie Portman, talk about places they love.

Eva Van Prooyen, as a quick-witted freckle-faced teenager with a quirky

sense of humor, moved from Truckee to the Santa Barbara area in 1989. Since then, she has been managing editor of Montecito Journal (weekly), became co-founder and co-owner of the Santa Ynez Valley Journal, worked for and received her master of arts degree in clinical psychology and now runs a busy Montecito-based private practice as a licensed marriage and family therapist. She continues to write for various publications, enjoys a fastpaced game of tennis when not chained to her keyboard and has maintained her quick wit and quirky sense of humor.

Chuck Graham is a freelance writer and photographer living in Carpinteria.

James Buckley, founder/publisher of Montecito Journal (weekly), is an avid

Steven Libowitz has reported on the arts and entertainment for more than

Hattie Beresford is a native of the Netherlands and received her Bachelor’s

When he’s not leading kayak tours on Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands, he’s freelancing for publications such as Backpacker, Canoe & Kayak, Sea Kayaker, Trail Runner, Living Bird, and Surfer’s Journal. He’s also editor of DEEP magazine.

30 years. He has published his work in daily and weekly newspapers in New Jersey and California, as well as in Santa Barbara Magazine and a nationally syndicated news service. When not at his computer or out on the town, you’ll often find him playing volleyball at East Beach, just a short jog from Montecito’s famous Butterfly Beach.

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golfer who has allowed his love of the game to get in the way of his other avocation: writing and publishing a Thedim Fiste Mystery series, based upon the life, foibles, exploits, and discoveries of an editor of a weekly newspaper in a small upscale community on the California coast.

degree and teaching credential from University of California Santa Barbara.

She taught English and American history for the Santa Barbara School District for many years and retired from teaching in 2004. When she is not immersed in some dusty tome, she can be found on the tennis courts, hiking trails, or out on a kayak marveling at the dolphins. She and her husband, former Dos Pueblos volleyball coach Mike Beresford, are avid campers and travelers.

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE

MONTECITO LIFE

Y

ou don’t have to live in Montecito. After all, you could buy a two-bedroom, three-bath condominium penthouse in Beverly Hills in a doorman building for $4,995,000 (asking). It is, admittedly, a large unit of some 3,200+ sq ft with a beautiful (though small) patio, high ceilings, city views from every window, some of which are floor-to-ceiling, and it’s not far from Rodeo Drive.

If you’d rather be up north, there is a 3,125 sq ft lot in the Castro District of San Francisco for $5,900,000 (asking); if that’s

too pricey, a 3,200-sq-ft, single-family home with three bedrooms and four baths on a 2,160-sq-ft lot (1/20th of an acre) will set you back only $2,695,000. If you’d like a little more privacy, $5,500,000 will move you up to a five-bedroom, five-bath, 4,304-sq-ft home on about a third of an acre in Sausalito.

I don’t know Los Altos well enough (though I have visited), but homes range from about $1,850,000 for a three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,382-sq-ft home on a 9,375-sq-ft lot to $11,988,000 for five bedrooms, seven-plus baths, 7,584 sq ft of living space on a one-acre lot, and of course, up from there.

In the following pages, we highlight a number of homes – mansions and estates, really – that are available and provide clear evidence that one’s money goes further in Montecito and Santa Barbara than in many if not most other upper-end areas in the United States. We’ve got the climate, the ocean, the mountains, the scenery, the space, the architecture, the schools, the arts, the food, the wine, the proximity to Los Angeles (yet far enough away to make a real difference), and well, why – if you had your druthers – would you possibly live anywhere else?

And, if indeed you have chosen to live here, what we’d like to say is... ... Welcome to our neighborhood!

Tim Buckley Publisher

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REAL ESTATES MONTECITO’S ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE

BY JAMES BUCKLEY

W

hen my family and I moved to Montecito some 30

and call our own. Our standard was a full usable acre on relatively

years ago, we traveled up and down the entire coast of

flat land (similar homes at similar prices in, say, Marin County, were

California, investigating places such as La Jolla, Del

almost always on hillsides or busy thoroughfares), a pool or tennis

Mar, Carlsbad, San Clemente, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Santa

court, guesthouse, a good school district, and walkable to the beach

Monica, Brentwood, Malibu, Santa Barbara, Big Sur, Carmel, Monterey,

and/or at least some shopping. We found what we were looking for in

Santa Cruz, Sausalito, Mill Valley, Petaluma; we even drove out to

Montecito, and we’ve been happy here for the past 30-plus years, in

Bodega Bay where Alfred Hitchcock filmed The Birds. By the time we

the same house. Montecito isn’t the Garden of Eden... its floral variety

got to Mendocino, we’d had enough and settled on Santa Barbara, and

and abundance is probably similar, but the four rivers described in the

Montecito in particular because of its schools: Montecito Union and

Bible are non-existent... In any case, it comes awfully close.

Cold Spring are among the highest-rated elementary schools in the state.

But, it wasn’t just the schools. We also noted that we got more for our money here than in virtually every other city and town we visited. Here’s what else we discovered: the Santa Barbara area has a near-perfect year-round climate and homes we could afford and, perhaps even more importantly, places we would be proud to live in

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DAYS OF THE GREAT ESTATES

N

o doubt, early travelers, most from the Midwest (Chicago in particular), rather than the East Coast, found what we found,

and they often invested heavily in land, landscape, and architecture.

Many of the nation’s leading architects and landscape artists, beginning

more than 150 years ago, toiled in Santa Barbara and Montecito, creating masterpieces that still exist and that continue to draw people to this area.

If you do not have your copies of David Myrick’s Montecito and

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE UPPER END

M

ontecito’s elite vied with each other in naming their various estates: Piranhurst, El Mirador, Mira Vista, El Fureidis,

Tanglewood, Riven Rock, Arcady, Graholm, Las Tejas, El Tejado,

Santa Barbara volumes I (From Farms to Estates) and II (The Days

Delgosha, Solana, El Cerrito, El Cielito, Pepper Hill, Glen Oaks,

of the Great Estates), you should get thee to Tecolote Book Shop

Cima del Mundo, Casa Herrero, Croyden, Casa Bienvenida,

in Montecito’s upper village and buy both. Now. Not that you’ll

Edgewood, Rivo Riso, Sotto il Monte, Bellosguardo, Bonnymede,

find every one of the real estates pictured in this issue in there, but

Casa Dorinda... every home was an estate and every estate had to have

David’s books will put you in touch with the history and grandeur of

a name. These palaces were designed by many of the above-named

Montecito’s storied architectural heritage.

accomplished architects, and owned by captains of industry, finance,

Noted men such as Bertram Goodhue, George Washington Smith, Frank Lloyd Wright, Stanford White, Reginald Johnson, Addison Mizner, and women such as Lutah Riggs and Julia Morgan

and manufacturing, most of whom were among the richest families in the U.S.: the one-per-centers of their day.

Most of the homes for sale here in the $7-million-and-above range

– architects all – , designed homes for the wealthiest families in

would qualify as world-beaters in any community. In some cases – in

the United States. Landscapists such as Lockwood de Forest Jr.

fact often – these estates compare favorably against their counterparts

and Frederick Law Olmsted (famous for New York’s Central Park)

in other high-end communities around the U.S., such as Marin

shaped the flora that added to Montecito’s allure. Mira Vista, for

County, San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Greenwich (Connecticut), even

example, with an entrance on Sycamore Canyon, was the home of

New York City. What you get for your money here is almost always far

the Waterman family. Nearby, El Fureidis, one of the homes of J. W.

superior to what an equivalent amount of money will get you in other

Gillespie, is still there, as is some of the McCormick estate at Riven

high-end enclaves.

Rock. Lotusland was Cuesta Linda, private home of American Bank

What follows are five properties at the highest end of Montecito’s

Note founder Erastus Gavit; it is now a treasured museum dedicated

valuations. We believe all are exceptional architectural examples and

to the memory of Ganna Walska and the exotic flora she planted and

offer the opportunity for resourceful buyers to take part of Montecito’s

arranged.

extremely desirable lifestyle.

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REAL ESTATES

EL CIELITO

photos by Jim Bartsch

T

he handsome six-bedroom, six-bath, 8,000-sq-ft (+/-), grand-yet-intimate 1920s George Washington Smith-designed Spanish Revival stunner on three-plus close-in acres was dubbed El Cielito (“Little bit of heaven”) and lives up to its name. This surprisingly large parcel has three separate

gated entrances and bespeaks of old Montecito, old money, big money. It sits at the end of a tree-lined driveway dominated by an enormous (and rare) Moreton Bay fig tree. Hand-painted wood beams embrace the den-conversation pit accessed through a grand entry. The bar features a floor-to-ceiling wine wall; many of Mr. Smith’s noted Moorish tile accents enhance the kitchen, butler’s pantry, and the outside covered patios, of which there are many.

In addition to the vintage G.W. Smith details, a new wing (designed and added on seamlessly by Don Nulty in 2008) boasts a modern and separate upstairs guest suite. El Cielito’s additional attractions include an oversized four-car garage, outdoor fireplaces, tennis court, 16’ x 62’ pool (my measurement), pool house, and a one-bedroom guesthouse. This estate’s three-plus acres of lawn, boxwood-bordered rose gardens, lily ponds, orchard, tree house, and exotic foliage, along with its ivy-covered walls, beckon a bygone era. Another appeal is that you are not only in the part of Montecito favored by the likes of Charlie Chaplin (who honeymooned with his young bride, Oona, in a nearby house on Middle Road), George Washington Smith, and Lutah Riggs, both of whom built their own homes right around the corner from El Cielito, but the three-plus-acre estate is within easy walking distance of Coast Village Road and Butterfly Beach.

Other nearby neighbors – captains of industry all – include TV mogul Dick Wolf, Manchester Capital CEO Ted Cronin, and Class Action super-lawyer Robert Lieff. The house at the corner of Mesa and Middle Roads was owned by film director Robert Zemeckis back in the early 1990s and is where he and his team edited the Oscar-winning film Forrest Gump. The name on the mailbox outside the home (designed by G.W. Smith), in fact, read “Gump” for a number of years. What I mean to say is that El Cielito is located in what has been a favored area for a long, long time.

Listed by Calcagno & Hamilton and John McGowan at $21.5 million

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REAL ESTATES

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REAL ESTATES

A HILLTOP ESTATE

photos by Jim Bartsch

T

hey were known as the “Hilltop Barons” and the half-dozen men built their Xanadus on the hills overlooking Montecito and the Pacific Ocean. Among them were David Gray, an early funder of the Ford Motor Company and later major stockholder in General Motors, who

built Graholm, and Frederick Forrest Peabody of the Arrow Shirt Company, who created Solana (Spanish for “sunny place”). Upon discovering Santa Barbara in the early 1900s, Peabody hired architect Francis Underhill, whose polo clubhouse on Middle Road is among his contributions to Montecito and the surrounding area, to build his mansion on some 79 acres. It was completed in 1914, with seven bedrooms, 12 full baths, 8 partial baths, and nearly 23,000 sq ft of interior space Eleven of those original acres remain and come with this two-story architectural jewel. In 1959, Solana became the home of a prominent American think tank, The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. During this chapter, Solana hosted many notable figures, such as President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Antonin Scalia. Returning to a private residence in the late 1970s, Solana fell into a state of disrepair before recently undergoing a substantial restoration, courtesy of architect Don Nulty, builder Rick Heimberg, and designer Joan Behnke.

Listed by Riskin Partners at $39 million

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KOGEVINAS

Graceful Monterey Colonial Estate

REAL ESTATE

Lilac Drive | Offered at $6,600,000

Nancy & Linos Kogevinas | 805.450.6233 | MontecitoProperties.com BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY | LUXURY COLLECTION BRE: 01209514, 01849941

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REAL ESTATES

A PRIVATE BEACHFRONT RESORT

T

photos by Scott Gibson

his elegant single-story, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home on slightly less than an acre (.81 acres) overlooking Butterfly Beach features grand and up-close ocean views from the main rooms and the spacious patio out front. The nice thing about living right on the beach is that

you are literally steps away from the Four Seasons Biltmore, Coral Casino Beach Club, and the Music Academy of the West, as well as a relatively short stroll from Coast Village Road and all its boutiques, shops, restaurants, and cafes. It’s like having your own private resort; come to think of it, it would be your own private resort.

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Listed by Randy Solakian at $19.5 million

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HOME FOR A BILLIONAIRE

photos by Jim Bartsch

T

his Reginald Johnson-designed Monterey Manor is called Rancho San Carlos and it is perched at the end of a long driveway on a 237-acre property in the very heart of Montecito’s east side. Reginald Johnson, you should know, designed the Biltmore Hotel, the Clark family estate,

Bellosguardo – built on a hilltop overlooking East Beach in Santa Barbara, – Miraflores in its present form, home of the Music Academy of the West, and Lotusland (before G.W. Smith remodeled it).

Only those friendly or related to the family that has owned this ranch for 100 years or so have actually seen the sprawling hilltop estate, as it is reachable only by a private winding road and is completely hidden from the main thoroughfare. It’s not clear how many bedrooms the main house has, but the 10 full and three half-baths indicate that the family will be well taken care of and there are plenty of spaces to sleep.

There are a total of 12 separate structures on the property, including a barn, stable, workshop, foreman’s house, ranch office, a second residence, and other employee quarters. Views include everything from expansive ocean views all the way to Santa Barbara Harbor, nearly the entire Figueroa mountain range directly behind Montecito, along with wooded views overlooking the lemon, orange, and avocado orchards.

The indoor squash court and/or spacious, covered paddock says it all: there is nothing that isn’t grand about Rancho San Carlos. This property and its main structure sits firmly in the upper echelon of Montecito’s great estates, exceeded only by, say, Oprah Winfrey’s 70-plus-acre abode and Ty Warner’s 7-acre oceanfront estate, both of which would fetch upward of $125 million and have cost much more than that to build to their current standards.

Listed by Suzanne Perkins and Harry Kolb at $125 million

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REAL ESTATES

PARK LANE AERIE

T

photos by David Palermo Photography

his two-story, French Provençal-style home on Park Lane boasts six bedrooms, eight and a half bathrooms, a four-car garage and 7,700 sq ft of living space on a 20-acre site that features boundless coastal views and is situated near the top of one of Montecito’s great Golden

Quadrangle addresses. In addition to all that, there is a gated entry, ground-floor master suite, infinity pool, media room, chef ’s kitchen, and glass folding doors that allow the outside in and the inside out. There is also a one-bedroom/one-bathroom guesthouse (with its own separate entrance from the road).

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Listed by Omid Khaki at $10,950,000

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Marilyn Hoffman

the one hundred million dollar realtor

 ’ expertise in selling extraordinary waterfront estates and ranches attracts a clientele that reads like a Who’s Who of business, sports, entertainment and the social register. Golfer Lee Trevino, a world famous fashion designer, a Saudi Prince, sports legend Deion Sanders, transportation secretary Milo Bryant, a billionaire Texas oilman, Horatio Alger Member, Carl Westcott, cosmetics queen Mary Kay, Merv Griffin, Indy 500 winner, Andy Granatelli, the CEO of the country’s largest corporation, Alan Paulson, the CEO of Gulfstream, and a major sports team owner have all been her clients.

Marilyn sold a 35,000 sq. ft. waterfront estate for the full price of $20,000,000 in only 24 days. This home is believed to be the largest waterfront estate sold in the country. This estate was previously listed with another international broker and did not sell. The remarkable thing is that she sold this home sight unseen to a famous California family.

Marilyn was also the first broker to list a $100,000,000 Texas home. Her sales include Kentucky’s Summer Wind Farm, with a 25,000 sq. ft. mansion, sold for James Thornton, and one of the largest estates in Texas that she sold to the new owners of the Texas Rangers. Her sale of a $9,995,000 Penthouse in Dallas was the most expensive penthouse ever sold in Dallas. She sold this home to the most famous Texas oilman in only 79 days after it had been listed with other brokers for 807 days.

Marilyn also sold a $13,500,000 estate to the owners of a Scottish castle after she met them at the Keeneland sales where they were buying Thoroughbreds.

Marilyn does the most unique marketing in the world, with real estate exhibits at such prestigious events Marilyn Hoff man with National as the Cavallino Classic Yacht Hop in Palm Beach, the Cattle Champion Stallion, NNL Ultimate Bey Barons Galas, the Bal de la Mer in Monte Carlo, the Yacht Extravaganza at Fisher Island, the Saddlebred World Championship Show, the Military Ball in New York, the BarrettJackson Classic Car Auction, the Breeders World Cup, the Rolex Three Day Event, the Winter Equestrian Festival, and at a charity gala at Mar a Lago, Donald Trump’s Palm Beach estate. Marilyn donates champion Arabian horses to many charity auctions, such as the Watermill Gala in Southampton, where her donation sold for $35,000 to a European princess. She has also donated over $200,000 to the Cattle Barons Ball, benefiting the American Cancer Society, and has topped the charity auctions many times.

Not too many brokers can claim they have sold the largest home in multiple states, but Marilyn certainly holds the record. Marilyn sold one of the most famous Texas ranches, the Double Diamond Ranch in Boerne, with 2,000 acres, 20 homes and an exotic game preserve. She sold a 20,000 sq. ft. home in Oklahoma for Cowboy Bill Watts, the world champion wresThis 82 acre Kentucky showplace showcases a 13,000 sq. ft. mansion, a tler and a 28,000 sq. ft. Tulsa estate. She sold the Fox Ranch in Colorado, circa 1885 Stone mansion, a 48 stall show barn with a 210’ indoor arena. home of a 150,000 sq. ft. log home, reported to be the largest private resiOnly $3,900,000 including extensive furnishings dence in the country. Her most recent sale was an $11,000,000 that she sold www.Meadow-land.com to the CEO of the most famous Japanese corporation for $10,875,000

Meadowland Farm

MARILYN HOFFMAN |    marilynhoff man@sbcglobal.net | www.MarilynHoff manRealtor.com  214-698-1736 |  859-523-2812 |  404-414-0690 ,  --- |  800-93498 |   ---

Stronghold Castle LIVE LIKE A ROYAL

Built in 1886, Stronghold Castle is, arguably, one of the most amazing living structures in the United States. And that could extend to the fields of England and France as well.

NOW OWNED BY A RENOWNED DESIGNER,

no expense was spared to make Stronghold Castle into the property he envisioned it to be. He hired some seven contractors for almost $28 million in construction work that included marble and metal installations, renovation to the Olympic-size pool, grotto and interior rooms.

The estate also features an indoor basketball court and a large exercise room. The gymnasium holding the basketball court also features a kitchenette and lavatories and is near to the mansion itself.

Three levels of living space in Stronghold Castle are integrated with a five-level tower that offers incomparable views that would not be able to be built today.

The residence contains 20,000-plus sq. ft. of living space, 22 rooms, including seven bedrooms, eight full and three half-baths, a free standing gymnasium, pool, two garages with a capacity for five cars and an unfinished stone guest house.

The more than 32-acre estate also features two polo fields and a 10-acre subdivided parcel sited with an eight-room carriage house, five garages and another pool.

A rare opportunity to own a part of American history for only $15,000,000. www.StrongholdCastle.com

Freeland Farms ONE OF THE GREAT AMERICAN ESTATES

A RARE OPPORTUNITY TO OWN A WORK OF ART,

this is one of the great mansions of the world, with over 38,000 sq. ft. of museum quality construction, secluded on 50 acres in a prime Midwest location. In addition to the mansion, there is a guest apartment, a separate 5,567 sq. ft. stone home with 3,329 sq.ft. of finished basement, a 6,720 sq. ft. stable and many acres of emerald green lawns, studded with huge towering trees, a 7 acre private lake, incredible landscaping and gardens. This estate has multiple buildings with a total of 16 fireplaces, 16 bedrooms, 26 bathrooms, grand entertaining areas, a conservatory, and a lower level entertainment wing. Elevator to all 3 levels. This Property has all the ingredients of a first class equine breeding/show farm with no details left out. Also available is a separate 25 acre world class equestrian facility which may be purchased with Freeland Farms.

Hoff man International Properties 214-698-1736 | www.MarilynHoff manRealtor.com. www.FreelandFarms.com

WhiteOaks Manor ONE OF THE GREAT KENTUCKY ESTATES

BUILT IN TRUE ENGLISH ESTATE STYLE and strategically placed on manicured rolling grounds, White Oaks Manor is located on 33 acres 5-7 minutes from Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, a short 2 hours north of Nashville and 3 hours from Louisville. Along with an abundance of rich walnut woodwork, the 18,911 sq. ft. home has 6 bedrooms, 8 full baths, 3 half baths, 7 fireplaces, a pool house with kitchen and fireplace and a separate carriage house/garage. There is formal dining and living, gourmet kitchen, a sumptuous master suite, generator, elevator and all of the luxury fun touches including a basketball gym with true gym flooring and scoreboard on the 3rd floor, tri-level theatre, pool table, fitness room, 2 porches with outdoor fireplaces, fire pit, treehouse playroom and oversized heated pool.

Sold lavishly furnished with many fine European antiques, artwork, antique oriental rugs and antique Steinway Piano for only $4,995,000 www.WhiteOaksManor.com

This magnificent estate is just waiting to offer its next owner every amenity thinkable.

PATRICIA HOFFMASTER, Realtor |    CHAPPELL HILL OFFICE pat.mariahllc@gmail.com | : 512-970-8601  214-698-1736 | www.MarilynHoff manRealtor.com

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BY HATTIE BERESFORD

MOGULS & MANSIONS

JAMES WALDRON GILLESPIE’S EL FUREIDÎS “L

ike a beautiful mirage that might be dispelled by a whim of the wind, appears El Fuerides,” wrote one admirer in 1915.

Another waxed poetic over its “pools that in silence lie, dark mirrors of the sky, till in their depths the moon shall find her image, by and by.”

When the Garden Club of America held its annual meeting in Santa Barbara in 1926, its reporter wrote, “What can we say of the Gillespie garden which has been described in every illustrated garden magazine in the country for years?!” Somehow she managed to find a word or two to describe her visit to the estate, which was “all the more charming for being a bit neglected.”

Succumbing to the romance of the place, the Garden devotee wrote, “The great fountain crowded into the courtyard is just the place

Gillespie’s house was just one feature in an elaborate water garden that was open to visitors and as famous as Yosemite National Park and the California missions (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum – SBHM)

James Waldron had no such aspirations.

Mary Wigmore, whose mother was his cousin and had grown up

for veiled women to fill their jars…. The gardens are all terraced, a

with Gillespie, remembers being a bit frightened by his intensity. “He

series of parterres, some nearly all pool.… always with water – that

was a small man,” she said in a February 16, 1982, interview, “who

is the feature of this romantic place – water sometimes spurting and

talked constantly and asked questions like he was testing to see how

playing with old stone basins, sometimes in still, unruffled pools.”

intelligent you were; he was always looking through you with his beady

Dozens of articles extolling the beauty and romance of El Fureidîs

little eyes.”

swept the national media from the moment of its inception. Loosely

Mary’s mother said Gillespie was a terror as a child. Family

translated from the Arabic as “Place of Many Delights,” the estate was

stories say young Gillespie used to greet his mother’s tea guests with

open to the public, and a visit to its pools, fountains, and trails became

a parrot on his shoulder. After chatting politely with the ladies, he’d

a favorite excursion for locals and tourists alike. The villa and romantic

invariably set the parrot on the ground, where it would race to bite

gardens became as well-known nationally as the California missions

delicate ankles, setting off a flurry of shrieks and devolving the refined

and Yosemite National Park.

gathering into chaos.

“When he was little, he had plenty of money and was always

A GENTLEMAN OF LEISURE

E

l Fureidîs was the vision of New Yorker James Waldron Gillespie, who purchased the property at 631 Parra Grande Road circa

dressed to the nines,” related Mary, “and he would go out and see some child who looked poorly dressed or was cold. He would give them all his clothes, so he had to be refurbished all the time.”

Once, well-known author Stewart Edward White was visiting, and

1890. Gillespie had inherited the fortune begun by his farmer

Gillespie said to him, “Now, Stewart, I’ve got a new picture I want you

grandfather, who had the presence of mind to buy up real estate

to look at. I want you to tell me what you think, but you have to back

along upper Broadway in New York City. His father, a professor of

up a little bit and get it in perspective.” Focused on the task, White

civil engineering at Union College in New York, added a tidy sum

obligingly backed up, directly into a little lake. “He enjoyed doing that

to the estate by developing a formula for the curvature of rail tracks.

sort of thing immensely,” said Mary.

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MOGULS&MANSIONS Gillespie’s father had died when James was only two years old.

Clearly at a loss for what to do with her eccentric progeny, his mother Harriet sent him to North Granville Military Academy in upstate New

Absalom Anderson, who had retired from the Hudson River trade and purchased property in Montecito in 1884.

His mind filled with the exotic wonders he had seen on his many

York. Upon reaching his majority in 1886, Gillespie bought a 250-

trips abroad, Gillespie set about creating a Santa Barbara estate that

acre farm with a 19-room brick home in Middle Granville and treated

reflected the enchantments of the old world. To help make his vision

himself to a grand tour of the world.

manifest, he hired Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, of the New York

According to a self-description for a 1896 passport application,

design firm of Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson. Known for their work on

Gillespie stood five feet six inches, had dark blue (apparently beady)

ecclesiastical and civic projects in the Neo-Gothic style, their work was

eyes, and dark-brown hair. He listed his forehead as high, his nose as

sufficiently grand for what Gillespie had in mind for his Montecito estate.

large, his chin as firm, and his occupation as “gentleman of leisure.”

Had there been a space to list his sense of humor, he would have answered “wicked.”

CREATING PARADISE

G

illespie’s world travels included Mexico and Cuba. He became fluent in Spanish and purchased an estate in Mariel, Cuba,

before turning his attention to California.

It’s possible that he ended up in Santa Barbara based on the glowing reports of his cousin, Kitty Anderson, daughter of Captain

(above) The south façade during construction shows the window split by a column that Gillespie proved was truly a feature used in classical architecture (Estate photo) (below) Gillespie’s cousin, Sara Anderson Bates, strikes a dramatic pose against the curved backdrop of the pool. Young palm trees and other new plantings can be seen in the background. When completed, the pool grew a pergola and was cloistered by landscaping. (SBHM)

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From the coast to the valley

SANTA BARBARA | MONTECITO | SANTA YNEZ

CLASSICAL DESIGN, A+ MONTECITO LOCATION

EXCEPTIONAL MONTECITO ESTATE

DRAMATIC BIRNAM WOOD CONTEMPORARY

$12,995,000 | Gregg Leach 805.886.9000

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PEACEFUL MONTECITO HOME

THE OTHER MONTECITO

MEDITERRANEAN-STYLE JEWEL BOX

$2,995,000 | Susan Jordano 805.680.9060

$2,600,000 | Carla Reeves 805.689.7343

$2,395,000 | Tim Walsh 805.259.8808

ISLAND VIEWS IN MISSION CANYON

SWEEPING OCEAN VIEWS

ALMA DEL PUEBLO

$2,345,000 | Kelly Knight 805.895.4406

$1,550,000 | Mary Lu Edick 805.452.3258

$1,499,000 | Patricia Griffin 805.705.5133

Ocean views abound from this 5-bedroom home on 6+ An original, approximately 4-acre garden estate with magnif- Stunning estate privately situated on approximately 2 maniacres. Some of the many amenities include: library, the- icent ocean views, surrounded by fabled estates. A glimpse cured acres within the exclusive Birnam Wood Golf Club. The grand living room takes in ocean, island and mountain views. ater, infinity pool and spa, and a 1-bedroom guest house. into the era of refined living. 660hotspringsroad.com

Walls of glass face approximately 1 private acre. Located in Park Highlands, this gorgeous home features 5300 Perfect lower Riviera location with lush private gardens Custom kitchen adjacent to family room, 3-bedroom, sq.ft. of residence with 3 bedroom suites, 4-car garage, pool and ocean view peeks. Absolute turn-key, move-in house, separate studio/office and panoramic mountain views. condition. Only blocks from downtown Santa Barbara.

3.5-bath home is very spacious inside and out.

Iconic mid-century architecture featuring world-class views. Enjoy prime views from this rarely available end unit in the Luxury, downtown, 1-bedroom condo with huge deck Offering includes 2 undeveloped parcels. Rare opportunity quiet, intimate 27-home-community of Eucalyptus Hill Circle. overlooking the city - with private guest rooms available, in a convenient location. More info at 2937Kenmore.com. Located conveniently between Santa Barbara and Montecito. club room, wine storage, bbq, concierge - best amenities.

more online at

VILLAGESITE.COM | 805.969.8900

All information provided is deemed reliable, but has not been verified and we do not guarantee it. We recommend that buyers make their own inquiries.

Neill C. Zimmerman 805-705-6355

Go Beyond.

Neill C. Zimmerman 805-705-6355

www.WeAreSB.com

MOGULS&MANSIONS

FIRST THE GARDENS

T

he estate was literally built from the ground up, with much of the landscaping developed long before the foundations were

laid for the house. When Francesco Franceschi, renowned Italian horticulturalist, published his inventory of exotic plants being propagated in and around Santa Barbara in 1895, Gillespie’s estate only warranted a brief mention for a young clump of bamboo, a young grove of decorative banana trees (musa martini) and catjang of India, a self-sowing flowering shrub.

The experts in palm cultivation were Charles Frederick Eaton of Riso Rivo (today’s El Mirador) and Ralph Kinton Stevens of Tanglewood (above) The view from the azotea (rooftop patio) shows the classical quadrant of Persian reflecting pools symbolizing earth, air, fire, and water. The Greek temple lies at the base of the terraced allée. (Estate photo) (right) A lateral pool to the allée (SBHM)

To this day, scholars debate about who actually did the designing.

Some say Gillespie himself was the primary designer and Goodhue just executed his ideas. Mrs. Henry Wadsworth (Rosamond) Moore, wife of the artist who painted scenes from the life of a young Nero on the barrel-vaulted dining room, wrote that though Goodhue was hired, the architect who actually worked on the drawings in the office was Donald Robb. Robb had said he was merely a hand to draw what Mr. Gillespie directed. Others credit Gillespie’s influence but say Goodhue brought sophistication to his ideas and was the primary designer.

Certainly, Gillespie was an involved client. He took Goodhue abroad with him in 1902 to show him the elements he wanted incorporated in his estate. Mrs. Moore says that he dragged Goodhue halfway across Greece to show him a window divided into two sections

(today’s Lotusland). They had planted so many palms that Cold Spring

by a small column because Goodhue had claimed there was no such

Road was called Palm Drive. Regardless, in 1895, there were only 30

thing in classical architecture. They rode more than 400 miles on

varieties of palms being grown in Santa Barbara.

horseback from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf to visit classical

By the time he was finished planting exotic trees and shrubs and

gardens, accompanied along the way by Gillespie’s personal caravan.

designing his garden, Gillespie had propagated more than 125 species

Goodhue’s drawings for the villa and gardens were completed

of palms ranging from Chilean wine to Australian fan and Canary

by 1903 and published in the Architectural Review, which said, “This

Island date palms. He was so enamored of his palms that he dragged a

[house] is in everyway charming, simple, and does not descend to the

sleepy Henry Wadsworth Moore out of his bed in 1907 and led him

mass of accessory details so frequent in similar work.”

by lantern light into the garden. There a tiny green spear emerged from

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MOGULS&MANSIONS the earth. “Henry,” he said, “that is the Royal Palm of the Andes, the

garden. The focal point of the estate was the terraced Persian water

first time it has ever been grown from seed north of the Equator.”

garden, terminated at its upper end by a pooled court and the house

In a 1922 edition of The Garden Magazine, Gillespie wrote an article lauding and promoting palm trees for the California landscape.

“My love for palms,” he wrote, “dates from my Sunday-school days

and its lower end by a small Ionic pavilion. A cypress allée sweeping down the hillside was reflected in descending pools.”

In addition to the Persian water garden and terraced allée, the

when I always saw Palms as the principal ornament in illustrations of

33 acres of El Fureidîs, Gebhard says, had scattered throughout the

the Garden of Eden.”

surrounding woods “numerous axial water channels, connecting pools,

He also specialized in conifers, planting dozens of varieties

fountains, and secluded seating areas.” Along the trails, wanderers

including native Californian trees such as Monterey cypress and Torrey

found shrines and statuary. Tea houses were tucked away in several

pines and exotics like Italian cypress. Not only did Gillespie import

corners of the estate and around each turn of the trail was another horticultural or artistic surprise.

A STATELY PLEASURE PALACE

B

eing an architectural feature in Gillespie’s water garden, the house was situated and framed artistically. Una Nixson

Hopkins, writing in Craftsman Magazine circa 1915, said, “It is built on the crest of the hill with a deep blue sky above it and behind,

(above) The enclosed courtyard featured a small portico whose walls were painted blue and stenciled with cypress trees, to provide a suitable setting for a statue of Antinous, the Greek youth who was the lover of Roman Emperor Hadrian (Courtesy Library of Congress – LOC) (right) Resembling a Turkish bath house, Gillespie’s “conversation room” included a small fountain whose Romanesque column was surmounted by a bronze replica of the Victory of Pompeii. At its base, two Roman lions’ heads excavated in Syria spewed water. The Mudejar designs on the walls were worked in bronze, blue, and gold.

(Estate photo)

his flora, he also imported Scotsman Thomas Compton, a graduate of London’s Kew Gardens, to take charge of the landscaping and be the superintendent of the estate.

The late David Gebhard, noted Santa Barbara architectural historian, said, “The house was but one of many elements set in a

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MOGULS&MANSIONS a broken range of many-hued mountains forms a great decorative background.”

Water features graced the house both inside and out. On its south façade, between articulated Ionic columns, sculptor Lee Lawrie created a frieze of nine scenes from Arthurian legend.

The constraint and simplicity of the villa’s stark white walls and simple grated windows contrasted with the interior where Islamic, Spanish, Gothic, Saracenic, Renaissance, Occidental, Oriental, Arabian, Roman, and Greek architectural features created a merry bazaar of styles.

(top) The barrel-vaulted dining room where Henry Wadsworth Moore painted scenes from the life of a young Nero. Local artist Friedrich Alexander Funke performed the copper-stippled work. The antique chairs were covered in tooled and painted leather. (LOC) (middle) Two views of the drawing room anchored by antique columns on the south and an ornate fireplace on the north. The carved surround came from Cuba and Goodhue designed the frame for a painting by Caravaggio to match it. (Estate photos) (bottom) The library featured cozy banquet seats in the fireplace and a plethora of carved and gilded furniture (Estate photo)

Writing in Stately Homes of California in 1915, Porter Garnett asserts that there is a mingling of exotic influences in Spanish architecture and ornament. “Gillespie,” he said, “has re-expressed in California, the curious and romantic composite so generally met on the Iberian peninsula.”

Not only did the dining room have a frescoed, barrel-vaulted ceiling, it had a musician’s gallery hung with elaborate tapestries.

One section of tiles in the entry hall showed stations of the cross and another depicted Gillespie himself as a bachelor and cosmopolitan.

The conversation room, according to Mrs. Henry Wadsworth

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NMLS ID#: 472185

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MOGULS&MANSIONS

Gillespie collected artifacts from his extensive travels around the world to furnish his villa. He brought back tiles, columns, brica-brac and more. The front door came from the ancestral home of the Marquesa de Castrillo of Antequera, Malaga, Spain. A fireplace and other details of the home came from an earthquake-damaged cathedral in Havana, Cuba, where Gillespie spent the winters at his estate in Mariel.

A LOCAL REVIEW Moore, was much joked about because it was small and guests often

O

fell into the pool in its center. Una Hopkins, however, found the

designed residence with its beautiful architectural setting was due to J.

room to be magical. Low marble seats held bronze velvet cushions.

Waldron Gillespie. “Mr. Gillespie had the practical good sense in the

The upper part of the wall was covered with elaborate surface

first place to secure a piece of land absolutely fitted to his needs as to its

decorations in bronze, blue, and gold tones, and a large amber glass

topography, its outlook, and its planting, the latter consisting mostly of

globe suspended from the domed ceiling shed gold-toned light.

palm and olive trees. He then held this property quite some years before

It was a place, she said, “wrought by Aladdin and the light of his

building, constantly enriching it with rare plants.”

ne of Gillespie’s Montecito neighbors, the artist Elizabeth Eaton

wonderful lamp.”

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Burton, wrote in her memoir that all credit for the perfectly

Completed in 1906, “the house centers around a large patio with

MOGULS&MANSIONS heater installed which furnished heat to each settee. But alas and alack!

Something went wrong with the apparatus and the marble seats soon became just cooking hot, greatly to the discomfort of the guests and chagrin of the host.”

Gillespie learned from his mistake and the party celebrating the upcoming nuptials of his cousin, Gladys Postley, granddaughter of Captain Absalom Anderson, was a rousing success. In 1909, Gillespie sponsored a barbecue in the oak grove for the Good Roads group, an organization determined to improve the highway system of California.

One of the more elaborate parties was a bal masqué given in 1910. (left) El Fureidîs was the setting for many movies made during the 1910s and ‘20s (above) Gillespie’s estate was the setting for this scene from 1920’s The Letter to Philemon, a story from the life of the disciple Paul. Note the Greek temple in the background. (SBHM)

oranges, bananas, and other semi-tropical plants in the four corners, and little flat mosaic-tiled pool in the center,” wrote Elizabeth Eaton

The newspaper reported, “Agleam with sparkling light, the ball room was a scene of unsurpassed beauty. Garlands of smilax formed a canopy and festoons of smilax and roses encircled the room in classic fashion.”

La Monaca’s band provided the music, and a beturbaned Gillespie greeted his guests in the costume of a Moroccan prince.

“The gardens were flooded with moonlight and the warm, perfect

Burton. “You go up a flight of steps and then look down on this

evening tempted many to stroll on the broad stone terraces where

court, from a flat roof open to sun and air, and on one of the most

silent pools of water reflected the myriad fairy lights which outline

magnificent views ever conceived.

them, while the central fountain splashed merrily.”

“The simple bedrooms remind one of cells. All the splendor of

Guests wandered the villa, admiring the priceless art treasures

the gilded and carved furnishings is reserved for the great banquet

until called to a sumptuous midnight supper. Old names and new

room and the drawing rooms. Long windows open onto wide terraces

attended: Elizabeth Eaton Burton as an Oriental princess, Mrs. Frank

at the foot of which are great water mirrors reflecting the whole of

Norris as an East Indian woman, Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson as the

the columned façade. From there, one descends steep steps until one

Lady of Levoka, Mrs. Francis T. Underhill as an Egyptian princess, and

reaches the garden below, where a vista of long narrow water pools,

Miss Delphina Dibblee as a baby doll. Nearly 100 of Santa Barbara,

reminiscent of Arabia, in which tall cypresses are reflected, leads one’s

San Francisco, and Montecito’s old guard attended.

eye to the far end to where a pillared pavilion of great beauty is set

During WWI, Gillespie loaned the villa for a benefit for Fatherless

on a slight elevation beneath spreading trees. Here was an ideal place

Children of France. “Mary Pickford,” said a local paper, “walked out of

for meditation and repose; here one felt the call of distant lands; here

the picture world on Mr. Gillespie’s terrace, looking just as she does in

Marco Polo might have walked….”

her pictures... and made a touching appeal for the fatherless children of France.” The program, which raised $1,800 in pledges, continued with

FESTIVITIES AT THE VILLA When the estate was completed, Gillespie decided to give a house-warming party for the elite of Santa Barbara and Montecito. An article in the Morning Press in 1916 recalls, “White marble seats and

entertainments given by local talent. The news reporter said, “No more beautiful setting could have been chosen than El Fureides (sic), ‘Place of Delight, Realm of Enchantment’ where under the waning moon a daughter of the dons gave three typical dances of Spanish provinces.”

Gillespie spent several months out of the year at his other

benches were placed about for the guests to sit on, and, as cold marble

properties, the farm in Middle Granville, the villa in Cuba, an

is not the pleasantest thing in the world, Mr. Gillespie had an electric

apartment in New York City, and a hunting lodge in Maine. His

su mmer | fal l

57

MOGULS&MANSIONS

One of two pergolas on the azotea (rooftop patio) was clearly visible from the entry drive (Estate photo)

return to Santa Barbara was always heralded by the society pages. In

Among his Italian-themed artifacts was a full-size bronze replica of

1916, a local paper reported on this “Much Sought-After Man.”

an Antinous, which was given a place of honor under the columned

“Santa Barbara society is all aflutter over the return of J. Waldron Gillespie to his beautiful Italian villa, ‘El Feureides,’ at Montecito,

portico of the open interior court. Small wonder that the more classically educated Montecito “Mammas” gave him up as a lost cause.

after a seven months absence,” wrote the editor. “Mr. Gillespie, who

The beauty and romance of Gillespie’s Place enticed the

has ‘money to burn’ as the expression is, is a bachelor, and, of course,

fledgling movie industry, which used the gardens as the setting for

he is greatly sought after by many of the designing Mammas of

several productions. Santa Barbara’s own Flying A (American Film

the Southland. But now, after having braved several long and hard

Manufacturing Company) used the estate for the 1913 productions

campaigns, they are beginning to give him up as a bad job.

The Adventures of Jacques and The Days of Trajen, both of which starred

“He is an art connoisseur of note, and his Montecito home is just full of marvelous things which he has transplanted from Italy.”

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Vivian Rich. The Letter of Philemon and The New Faith, two stories of early Christians, used the classical features of the estate as well.

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MOGULS&MANSIONS of the prized furnishings and parcels of land. Since then, although El Fureidîs has experienced a series of owners and renovations, the romance and magic of Gillespie’s “Garden of Delight” endures.

Many thanks to Emily Kellenberger and Rebecca Riskin of Village Properties. (Sources not mentioned in text: Hilda M. Compton’s interview and writings; Obit: News-Press, 28 April 1954; Mrs. Rosamond Moore’s letter to J.Wesley Hughes, third owner of the estate; Francesco Franceschi’s Santa Barbara Exotic Flora of 1895; U.S. Census reports; News-Press: 31 October 1956, 21 March 1976, plus contemporary articles; Santa Barbara Independent, 31 August 1911; David Myrick’s Montecito and Santa Barbara; David Gebhard’s Santa Barbara: The Creation of a New Spain in America; Horticultural Survey by Arthur Sylvester and Will Reitell, 1985; Morning Press, 30 (above) “From the south façade, with its rose-colored spiral columns which Gillespie had brought from Spain, one looks out upon a maze of green tree tops waving in the sweet scented breeze, beyond to the iridescent sea in the distance lined against a cobalt sky, and marvel that the mirage does not fade.”

– Una Hopkins (LOC) (below) “Built on the crest of the hill with a deep blue sky above it, and behind a broken range of many-hued mountains forms a great decorative background” (SBHM)

WANING GLORY

A

s the years passed, Gillespie spent less and less time at his estate, sometimes not returning for several years. At times, he rented

it. When he was in residence, he made himself known by walking everywhere and talking to everyone. He enjoyed conversing with the children in Old Spanish Town, which lies just south of his estate. He also walked to the Montecito Hot Springs twice a week for the sulphur baths. During the 1930s, he lunched every day he was in residence at the Santa Barbara Club, to which he walked five miles from his house. In later years, he walked to the Coral Casino for lunch and the Montecito Country Club for dinner. As he strolled the roads of Montecito, he made a curious figure in his cloak, high-top tennis shoes, and Panama hat.

James Waldron Gillespie died in New York in 1954 having exhausted his fortune. His News-Press obituary says he sold his estate “El Fure I D Is” (the most imaginative spelling to date) to Thad and Jean Foley before he died. An antiques dealer, Foley sold off much

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July 1918; files and Hughes scrapbook at Gledhill Library; files of the Montecito Association History Committee.)

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©2016 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Each Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage office is owned by a subsidiary of NRT LLC.Coldwell Banker® and the Coldwell Banker Logo, Coldwell Banker Previews International® and the Coldwell Banker Previews International Logo, are registered service marks owned by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. Broker does not guarantee the accuracy of square footage, lot size or other information concerning the condition or features of property provided by seller or obtained from public records or other sources, and the buyer is advised to independently verify the accuracy of that information through personal inspection and with appropriate professionals. If your property is currently listed for sale, this is not intended as a solicitation

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©2016 Terry Ryken. CalBRE# 01107300. Compass is a licensed real estate broker and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdraw without notice. No statement is made as to accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footages are approximate. Exact dimensionscan be obtained by retaining the services of an architect or engineer. This is not intended to solicit property already listed.

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Š2016 Terry Ryken. CalBRE# 01107300. Compass is a licensed real estate broker and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdraw without notice. No statement is made as to accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footages are approximate. Exact dimensionscan be obtained by retaining the services of an architect or engineer. This is not intended to solicit property already listed.

Behind theWheel

by Randy Lioz

photos by Edward Clynes

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Italian Masterpiece

H

ow would you like to own a car that gets its sky-high value from its extreme rarity? In the car world – and no doubt in many other types of enthusiast circles – this is called a “unicorn.” Dan Kolodziejski’s SIATA 208S is about as special as they come.

One of only 37 built in 1953 (or ’56, or ’35, according to various Internet sources), the SIATA 208S was a car built

to showcase an engine. Having started as a performance tuner for FIAT cars, SIATA – a.k.a. Società Italiana Auto Trasformazione Accessori – become a low-volume car manufacturer. When FIAT developed the 8V engine, a high-revving aluminum 2.0L V8, SIATA jumped on the opportunity to develop a car with a chassis and bodywork that would do the sporty engine justice.

This particular car has an interesting story behind it, as well. Raced in the Santa Barbara area by prominent hot-rodder Ernie McAfee, it was actually refurbished after its competition career and sold “as new” in Hawaii, says Kolodziejski.

That’s where Dan Hogan enters the picture. You may recognize him as the Cars & Coffee regular who sells his classic motorsports photography out of his classic red and white #7 GMC pickup. As a younger lad, Hogan was part of McAfee’s racing crew and moved down to Honolulu to help open his new import dealership there, where he raced it and then sold it for the dealership, only to be reunited with the car years later at Cars & Coffee in Montecito.

su mmer | fal l

65

“Motor Imports purchased that SIATA,” says Hogan, “and we got it just in time to prep it and race it in Hawaiian Speed Week in 1957.” He raced the car himself and did quite well, so during the dealership grand opening right after the race an impressed spectator asked him for a ride.

“So I didn’t even ask anybody; I just grabbed the keys and took him for a long 45-minute ride,” he reminisces, conceding that he figured it might be his last chance in the car, especially if he got fired for taking it.

“When we got back, the sales manager was walking up with steam coming out of his ears, and before he could say anything, Calvin Ching asks, ‘Are you the sales manager? Dan just took me for a ride in this car and I want to buy it right now.’”

“I tried to buy the car in Hawaii on and off for ten years,” says Kolodziejski. The car’s journey was a roundabout one once the original buyer sold it, including being lien-sold due to its Florida buyers failing to pay for their storage lot.

When he finally acquired the SIATA, Kolodziejski had the perfect engine for it, an original 8V. And it’s one that has tons of inherent value even outside the car, as a piece of automotive history. According to Hagerty Insurance, the car is worth well north of $1.5 million. But he says the engine alone may hold a value of close to half-a-million dollars.

Kolodziejski and his wife, Arlene, have lived in Montecito for around a year, having raised their kids in Pacific Palisades. A real estate investor, he has done well enough to establish a collection of Italian race cars from the 1950s.

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PROFILES

BY STEVEN LIBOWITZ

SARAH LEE GUTHRIE AND JOHNNY IRION’S ROOTS CONNECT TO AMERICAN ICONS

F

or more than two years, a young family with ties to two of the most iconic names in American literature and music have mostly made their home in Montecito. Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, husband-andwife who have been together since they met back in 1997 when she was

18 and he a decade older, have spent two of the last three school years in the village with their two daughters, Olivia, 13, and Sophia, 8.

Guthrie is the youngest daughter of the famed folksinger Arlo Guthrie of the original Woodstock Music Festival and “Alice’s Restaurant” fame, whose own father was folk icon Woody Guthrie – while Irion’s aunt Gail has been married for more than 20 years to Montecito novelist Thomas Steinbeck, son of John Steinbeck, Nobel Prize-winning author of Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden.

In fact, it was the family connections that first brought the couple – who spent more than a decade together as a folk-rock duo before forging separate career paths this last year – to Montecito in the fall of 2013. But it’s been a long journey.

Right up until she hit voting age, in fact, Guthrie had little interest in music at all, instead rebelling against the family business because she’d been too immersed in the life of traveling troubadours as a child. But then she met Irion in Los Angeles through mutual friend Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, and the two forged a friendship that quickly blossomed into romance and, not much later, a musical partnership.

“I was so young and I had no idea what I wanted,” Guthrie recalls. “I was just hanging out and partying in Los Angeles. But when he came into the picture, the

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(photo by David Evans) su mmer | fal l 71

PROFILES Irion remembers the differences in family social styles between proper Southern etiquette and the more laid-back Guthrie oeuvre really becoming apparent when he got ready to propose.

“I asked Sarah Lee’s dad if I could marry his daughter, expecting this whole ‘What are your plans?’ line of questions,” he says. “And Arlo just shrugged and said, ‘Yeah, sure’.”

The musical perspective took a little more ironing out, given Guthrie’s folksinging roots and Irion’s fervent classic rock leanings.

“I’d never gone the folk route at all,” Irion says. “But when Sarah Lee came back after that first Christmas with all these Woody records and some Pete Seeger, I really got to see what it sounds like. I’ve always wanted music to be positive or at least tell a story. But you have to be careful and learn how to write. (Seeger) said you don’t want to be too preachy-teachy. There’s a fine line.

You have to edu-tain.”

Still, things worked out rather naturally.

“When we got together, it all seemed to meet at a really cool old-school country Americana way that was just beginning to happen at the time,” Guthrie recalled. “We totally meshed our styles and made a real signature sound together, especially with our harmonies. It was awesome.” rest of my life fell into place. I fell in love

different from the musicians she’d known

with him and with songwriting at the same

before, mostly the passel of singer-songwriters

Sarah Lee & Johnny began making records

time, just one package. We were playing

who passed through the Guthrie compound

and playing lots of shows, including several

music, and within a week or two we were

in the Berkshires while she was growing up.

in the area at the music club SOhO, the

together and in love, and making harmonies and melodies together.”

Part of the appeal was that Irion was very

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su m me r | f a ll

“He was such a Southern gentleman.

Although they’d already started a family,

Sings Like Hell series at the Lobero Theatre,

I’d never met anyone like that before. I was

and the Tales From the Tavern concerts

completely taken.”

in Santa Ynez. The family more or less

PROFILES spent life on the road for their first decade together.

But after making the third Sarah Lee & Johnny record together – 2013’s Wassaic Way, which was produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy – the extended touring schedule and demands made it much harder on the kids, who were no longer little.

That’s how they landed in Montecito.

“Gail suggested we drop the kids off at their house while we were going overseas,” Irion recalled. “We were home-schooling them at the time, but after awhile she enrolled them at Montecito Union because she got too busy and the kids were getting bored.”

That changed everything.

“It’s an amazing school, so supportive and community-oriented,” Irion said.

“There’s such a texture of artists and other active people here. We fell in love.”

When they returned from the tour, not wanting to pull the girls out of school,

Steinbecks. “It makes you think about those

the family stayed until that summer, living

kinds of things, and we’ve learned so much

was an edgier record due to Tweedy’s

at first in the Steinbecks’ home and then a

from Thom and his stories. The messages of

contributions – failed to put the Guthrie-

cottage. Naturally, having the offspring of

his family and mine definitely go hand in

Irion duo over the top on the fractured

two great families of American letters in

hand.”

musical map, Irion decided to record an

the same house produced some interesting conversations.

“I never knew John, of course, but I’ve

Although they no longer live in the

In fact, after Wassaic Way – which

album with Modisette and other Santa

Steinbeck household, the Guthrie-Irion

Barbara residents under his long-favored

family was back in Montecito full time this

U.S. Elevator moniker.

learned a lot from my uncle,” Irion said.

past academic year, one which saw Olivia

“He’s been something of a personal professor

now matriculating at Santa Barbara Middle

the rock and the folk because of how the

for me, in the way I read literature, view

School after aging out of MUS.

business is these days,” he explained. “They

topics, and write. And it’s rubbed off on

But there was another attraction in

my songwriting. I can’t say enough on the

Montecito: local architect Nate Modisette,

educational influence he’s had on me.”

who is also a bassist with whom Irion had

Despite growing up a Guthrie, Sarah Lee has also found a new perspective via the

“It was a friend’s idea to separate

never knew where to categorize us as a genre, anyway.”

Montecito shows up all over the U.S.

played when he first came out to Los Angeles

Elevator album that came out last fall,

in 1997.

in such songs as “Momma-Cito Blues” –

su mmer | fal l

73

PROFILES Irion’s tongue-in-cheek paean to the ladies

favorite drives on the planet. But it doesn’t

of the Village – and the instrumental

matter where I am, it’s going to show up in

“Pierre Lafond”, which the guitar-wielding

the music.”

musician wrote at the piano “thinking

The music also showed up all over town

keeps coming back to see you.”

The timing for U.S. Elevator worked perfectly, because Guthrie had herself arranged a long-lasting opening slot as a solo

about surfing and State Street and the

recently, as U.S. Elevator played all the

artist – on her father’s 2015-16 tour, which

whole energy in this area,” not actually

same venues where Sarah Lee & Johnny had

began with the 50th anniversary of Alice’s

over a cup a coffee at the bistro. And

performed earlier, plus established month-

Restaurant.

there’s the unrecorded facetious one he

long residencies at such places as the 7 Bar

co-wrote with Guthrie about asking Oprah

in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone last February

connected to my family and rooted in (folk)

Winfrey if their kids can cut through her

and, more recently, at the Ty Lounge at the

music I wasn’t really ready for when I was

Montecito yard.

Four Seasons Biltmore in Montecito at the

younger,” she explained. “In order for me

end of June.

to dive into who I really am, I needed to

“I’m always writing about what’s going on and pulling at me,” Irion said.

“I love the idea of doing something like

“There’s been a part of me that’s very

spend more time with my dad, especially

“Montecito is such a beautiful town, and

The Beatles at the Cavern Club,” Irion said.

coming back to it at a different angle, solo,

the 192 around Palma Park and then down

“It’s great to create a vibe like at Cheers,

which I’d never done before. Doing the first

Sycamore Canyon Road is one of my

where everybody knows your name and

thirty minutes of my dad’s show every night

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su m me r | f a ll

“His studio is akin to Dale Chihuly’s glass blowing studio.”

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PROFILES changed me. It brought in a new perspective

said. “I got some flack for it, of course,

strong sense of justice in me. To be a part

of what I’m here to do. Everything is making

because whatever side you’re on there’s

of what Bernie Sanders is doing awoke a lot

more sense now.”

the opposing view. Some people posting

of feelings for me. I’ve written a lot of songs

on Facebook thought I should stick with

just from having done that.”

Guthrie often includes some of Woody’s songs as part of her set – and she also led

music and not be political. But then others

the massive crowds gathered at rallies for

commented, ‘How can you tell a Guthrie to

folk music isn’t part of an obligation to carry

presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’s

stay out of politics?’ That was gratifying.

on the family legacy.

Southern California swing in late May in her

“I love that I can form an opinion and

Still, Guthrie said her newfound faith in

“It’s almost the opposite, more of an

grandfather’s most pervasive composition,

sing it aloud and take a stand in whatever

honor that I get to grow into. It’s amazing

“This Land is Your Land”.

fight it is. That feeling to have grown up

that Woody could write all these songs and

with my dad and with the songs of my

have people singing them generations later.

grandfather and Pete Seeger – there’s a real

It’s very powerful. It’s part of who I am, part

“That was absolutely amazing. I felt so good and so right to be up there,” Guthrie

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PROFILES of my gift this lifetime. It took me a long time to come around to that and feel okay about it, because if you think of it as too big, it’s overwhelming. So I just keep it small and fun and light, and that makes it wonderful to be a part of Woody’s world. It’s a big old family. But I don’t see myself differently than anyone else carrying on his legacy.”

There’s also new original music on the way.

“I’ve been writing a lot, almost two years’ worth of songs toward a new Sarah Lee Guthrie record,” she said. “I’m still figuring it out. I know I’m going to do music, even if it’s only with the family for us. But a big part of me really wants to sing folk songs and be out there in a big way.”

Guthrie has booked some solo shows

(photo by Trent McGinn)

but also re-upped for another tour with Arlo for 2017-18, so she knows she’ll have

“I love it out here,” Irion said, “My

So the couple is “ninety-five percent

to put any big plans for the solo record – or

musical connections are here, and the music

sure” they’re returning, Guthrie said. “Olivia

another Sarah Lee & Johnny album and tour

industry in Los Angeles is just down the

has one more year at Santa Barbara Middle

– on the back burner at least for now. “I’m

road. (The Berkshires) are great, but if you

School, and Johnny’s got U.S. Elevator

over the idea of trying to make it happen

want to pitch a song, maybe all you can find

happening and really wants to keep it going.

overnight,” she said. “For me, the quality of

is a bear who will listen.”

So I think we’re going to give it another

life is enjoying it and making great music.”

Meanwhile, for the summer at least,

“To be honest, it took me a while to get the feel of it,” Guthrie admitted. “I’m

shot. Finding a new place to live is the stress of it. But I have faith it will work out.”

the family is back East in Becket, near the

such a small-town country girl, so the

As for the children, who have often

Guthrie compound in the Berkshires in

pace was a bit much at first. I’m a poet

sung with their parents and handled the

Massachusetts, where Sarah Lee was raised.

and love to just sit on my balcony doing

merchandise tables, at local shows at least,

There are some plans to record a follow-up

nothing, which is great for reflection

apparently the family traditions of music –

to the children’s album Go Wag a Loo that

and songwriting. But we found a great

and rebelling about it – live on.

the family recorded for Smithsonian Records

community through the schools, so many

a few years ago, with new songs that Olivia

like-minded people who care about the

other day singing a song she made up about

and Sophia helped write.

same things that I do – it’s amazing. And in

Sophia’s tooth coming out,” Irion said, with

Come the fall, however, they’ll likely

Montecito, we get a sense of progress and

a laugh. “I heard some of the words about

continue their journey, both musical and as a

things moving, uplifted and motivated by

the tooth, and then, ‘I’m turning into my

family, back here in Montecito.

people on a daily basis.”

dad and I don’t want to.’”

“Olivia was playing her ukulele the

su mmer | fal l

77

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FARFLUNGTRAVEL SEISMIC WIGGLE ROOM STORY AND PHOTOS

BY CHUCK GRAHAM

we haven’t gone any farther than between our tents and the cook

I

and alder trees to hunker down, shielding us from the frigid winds blowing

tent. There’s been steady rain since we arrived via bush plane and then

off Icy Bay. Sideways rain pelted us as we quickly pitched our tents

ferried over by boat to the cobbled finger of Kageet Point. It’s icy cold in

surrounded in fragrant Nootka lupine, and at that point we had no idea

this narrow, desolate sliver of Alaska, living up to its name of Icy Bay.

if we would outlast the rain and reach the Tyndall Glacier, one of three

t is day five of an eight-day sea kayaking trip in southeast Alaska, and

I met friend and Alaskan guide Carl Donohue in Yakutat to explore

After we unloaded gear, we camped in the first row of spruce, willow,

glaciers calving inside Icy Bay.

the innards of Icy Bay. He leads kayak trips there but had never kayaked beyond Icy Bay, to the rear of the Taan Fjord where the Tyndall Glacier calves inside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Although this national park is North America’s largest, it’s also one of the most remote. It has only two dirt roads running through it, so to get anywhere you need to fly in, catch a ferry, or paddle in.

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FROM DISTANT SHORES

O

n his third and last epic voyage sailing the globe, British sailor and explorer captain James Cook sailed up the West Coast of North

America in 1778. Commanding the HMS Resolution, he was searching for

FARFLUNGTRAVEL

a Northwest passage around the North American continent.

When Cook sailed past Icy Bay, he would’ve quickly discovered

Today, Icy Bay fingers off into several fjords leading to the Yahtse, Guyot, and Tyndall glaciers. Cruise ships are not allowed inside Icy Bay, so

that there was no possible entry into the glacier-choked harbor. A lot

kayaking is the best way to explore this slice of southeast Alaska. Dense

has happened since, though. Whatever your views of global warming

ice floes thwarted any access to the Yahtse and Guyot glaciers where

are, there is no denying glacier melt across the planet and Icy Bay is no

harbor seals hauled out and long-tailed ducks roosted on the floes. We

different. It’s receded at least 15 miles into three smaller glaciers since

vied for the Tyndall Glacier at the rear of the Taan Fjord, which was not

Cook journeyed past almost 240 years ago.

visible from where we camped.

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FARFLUNGTRAVEL

FROM SEA TO SUMMIT

T

here was a break in the weather, and as it turned out it was the only opportunity. We left Icy Bay and paddled inside the Taan Fjord; we

Sheets of massive waterfalls spilled off daunting cliff faces, cascading to where we paddled. The smell of natural oil seepage was thick in the air, and the emerald green water was silky smooth.

We plowed through what seemed like an endless maze of ice floes,

were feeling tiny to say the least. The fjord narrowed and because the St.

careful not to run the hull of our close-decked kayaks atop the ice.

Elias, Chugach, and Wrangell mountains are the largest coastal range in

Neither one of us wanted to capsize and go for an unwelcomed swim in

the world, mountains well over 10,000 feet towered over us on all sides.

below-freezing waters.

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FARFLUNGTRAVEL Once we were free of crackling ice, Donohue paddled me by an elongated peninsula. It was the farthest he paddled when he first scouted Icy Bay as a destination for leading trips several years prior.

“I camped at the edge of the trees and went for a paddle,” said Donohue, pointing toward a treeline of spruce. “When I returned, I found a grizzly bear ravaging my camp.”

Farther along, the ice floes increased once again, as we closed in on the Tyndall Glacier. Creaking and cracking, we slammed into them with the bows of our kayaks. When we got to the base of the glacier, we sat and relaxed marveling at its chunky face. Ice floes swirled around us while the glacier, calved inside bellowing across the fjord. Then a huge chunk of ice the size of a Mack truck broke free from the outer edge of the glacier. A thundering splash followed, sending a three-foot wave our way. We both sat up pointing our bows into the oncoming roller. It barely capped, and afterward we moved away from the glacier.

EPILOGUE

I

recently learned that the Taan Fjord and Tyndall Glacier region is one of the most seismically active locations in the world. Just before Christmas

2015, Donohue sent me a link from Columbia University about an earthquake that occurred October 17, 2015, at the back end of the Taan Fjord, sending a 200-million-ton landslide down to the base of the Tyndall Glacier right where Donohue and I were kayaking and listening to the calving glacier. Satellite images showed the landslide covered more than half the glacier’s chunky face with rock and dirt, filling up the back end of the fjord.

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S U L L IVAN GOSS POS TS ENVIAB LE NU MB E RS

www.sullivangoss.com facebook.com/sullivan.goss

FARFLUNGTRAVEL

The landslide was the largest detected since the collapse at Mount St. Helens, which blew its top back in May 1980. Its signature appeared almost simultaneously in seismograms monitored by the Global CMT Project at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory all the way on the other side of the country.

Soon after, a significant tsunami followed and satellite images show the damage done to one of the steep peninsulas that are exposed protruding inside the Taan Fjord. The particular peninsula is located about six miles from the Tyndall Glacier. The fallen trees lying around the peninsula were in a pattern associated with the aftermath of a tsunami. We paddled around this peninsula. The shoreline was rocky and steep, and the treeline began at the water’s edge. The trees continued up a steep knoll, and from the satellite images only the trees at the top of the knoll still stand. The rest of the trees had been ripped out down to the bedrock.

After 30 miles of paddling, we returned to our camp at about 9 pm. The tide was on the rise and with it the pulse of a new, long period swell. A set was rolling up the entire shoreline of Icy Bay. Gray overcast was hanging low over the frigid water, and ice floes were choking the bay. Long, sweeping lines wrapped around Kageet Point and the sound of the surf rolling toward us was

ominous. It was something I had never heard before. The surf bellowed and groaned, growing louder as the waves ran past us on the edge of a steep berm of cobble, nullifying the repetitive honking by a flock of Canadian geese flying by.

“I’ve often thought about how screwed I’d be if something happened there,” said Donohue. “Fortunately, such events are rare, but I’m glad we weren’t there then.”

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In Style BRUSHING UP ON FINE ART

by Briana Westmacott photography by Edward Clynes

“I

go where my brush takes me” were Karen Bezuidenhout’s final words as I departed her art studio on the hillside of Santa Barbara’s Riviera. With sweeping views of the ocean and lush mountain greenery surrounding

her open-air art studio, it’s hard to imagine a need to go anywhere else.

Standing five feet tall on an easel behind her is “Bareback Rider”, Karen’s recent finished work. “It came to me when I was listening to Mark Knopfler’s song about a bareback rider. The music combined with a memory from my mother; she always told me she wanted to run off and join the circus.” This is how Karen’s artwork comes to be, through visions. Each piece has a story to be told, many of them stemming from her days growing up in the wine country in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

When Karen was six she began drawing horses. She vividly remembers the drawing book she used to guide her sketches. Karen and her sister grew up riding horses in South Africa. They both continue to avidly ride: Karen in Summerland on her horse Jazz, whom she describes as her “medicine man.”

Jazz and a blank canvas are some things that keep Karen content.

Karen’s paintings started with horses as the subject. Eighteen years ago, she attended a small art school situated in a wine cellar in Africa. This was her first attempt at formal training, though she said it wasn’t much more than a group of ladies painting while sipping on tea. She later attended a few art classes at the College of Marin, but really she feels her art is something that comes from the heart.

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The inspiration for Karen’s paintings stems from the things she loves: horses, sailboats, the beach, her dogs, Chagall’s moon, and the colors of Africa. She fills large canvases with acrylic paint, specifically acrylic because it dries so fast – and Karen is not a woman who likes to wait. She is expeditious with her design and needs those layers to be dry and ready for her next level.

“The layers create a texture. That texture makes movement and atmosphere in my paintings,” Karen pointed out, as we stood in front of a towering white horse on canvas appropriately named “Prince.” “Prince would pull the plow on the farm in South Africa,” she continued. “He was an enormous Percheron. I remember three of us would scramble up on him to ride as he plowed the fields.” Prince hangs royally in Karen’s kitchen.

SPOTLIGHTING A DARK HORSE

K

aren’s portraiture of a horse has been described as sophisticatedly primitive. She revealed her process in finding this “look” after years of searching for it. Karen attributes much credit to the late artist Bill Woolway. Bill mentored Karen and helped her find her signature horse. “I showed a horse

to Bill one day and he said, ‘That’s it! Now just make it five feet tall,’ and I thought, no way could I do that!” She described this memory with a nostalgic smile. Bill meant a great deal to Karen, and his art will forever inspire her.

Along with Bill’s mentoring, Karen gives credit to homesickness in bolstering her artistic abilities. After leaving South Africa, she spent a short time in Marin County (California) before landing in Santa Barbara. During this time, she recalled missing Africa so much that the only thing that could quell her longing was to paint. She spent nights, all night sometimes, painting on the floor of her kitchen, wistfully drawing up images of Africa. “It was therapy,” Karen admits.

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Now, Karen’s fine art is hanging on the walls of celebrities and collectors in North America, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Mexico, Turks & Caicos, and – of course – Africa.

This is something, she says, that has not been easy to have happen.

“Each painting has a piece of my soul. It’s like having a bunch of little babies all over out there,” Karen confessed with a sense of humbleness. She still seems amazed that her art is globally sought after.

Robert Redford was one of the first to showcase her pieces in his Sundance catalogue, which has opened many doors for Karen. She also has her artwork hanging Upstairs at Pierre Lafond in Montecito. These two platforms have allowed Karen to now host gallery showings in multiple cities, and the world is beginning to see Karen’s talent and unabashed beauty on canvas.

But all of this does not make Karen content. She said, “I am constantly pushing myself and trying to do better, to be more daring, and sometimes to just let it be.” When she comes to finish a piece, she says it’s hard to decide when it is done. “It just comes through me. It flows from my heart.”

Her work is happy and simple and free. You can experience it by looking at any of her pieces, whether it is a four-foot canvas of sailboats dotting the blue horizon or a horse crossing a moonlit desert. Karen’s art makes one want to dive into the canvas and join the world her brush built.

For more information, visit Karen’s website www.karenbezuidenhout.com

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TA F T I N M AT T E B L A C K / B R U S H E D H O N E Y G O L D

W W W . S A LT O P T I C S . C O M

PROFILES

BY STEVEN LIBOWITZ PHOTOS COURTESY OF TEAM COCO

CATCHING UP WITH CONAN O’BRIEN

I

t was just a year ago that Conan O’Brien bought an ocean-front

daughter for about an hour back and forth. That’s when kids tell you

home on Padaro Lane, not far from fellow Hollywood heroes

what’s really on their mind – when you get to just relax and there’s no

Kevin Costner and George Lucas. The Harvard graduate who

one really around, and you’re walking near the water.

was plucked out of a job writing for Saturday Night Live to follow

David Letterman as the host of NBC’s Late Night talk show was famously fired from his dream gig hosting “The Tonight Show” just

Do people come up to you and try to engage you in conversation when they recognize you?

months into the job, but landed on his feet shortly afterward with a

They say “Hi.” But that’s about it. Everyone couldn’t be nicer.

new late night show Conan on TBS. Now he’s landed a choice locale

People in Montecito see everybody. I’m no Oprah, so they’re not going

on the Carpinteria beach, just down the road from Montecito.

to get that excited about seeing me. What’s nice in Carpinteria is that

While O’Brien still spends the vast majority of his time in

the surfers have this very chill, relaxed code. They’re like “Hey. How’s

Burbank writing, taping, and reviewing the show, he made his official

it goin’ Conan?” “Um, pretty good.” Then they get on their surfboard,

Santa Barbara debut recently at the Arlington Theatre in an afternoon

and I get on my bike and that’s it.

discussion for UCSB Arts & Lectures hosted by longtime Montecito resident Dick Wolf, the impresario of TV’s Law & Order franchise. It

Can we talk about the beginning of Late Night? When you look back

was in conjunction with that appearance that O’Brien talked over the

on it now, how big of a shock and surprise was it to move from writing in

phone about his new digs, his old and new jobs, and philosophy on

the background to a very visible on-air job replacing David Letterman?

comedy and work.

It’s been 23 years now, and I’m still recovering. What strikes me now is how young I was. At the time, I didn’t think of myself as young.

Q. Do you spend most of your evenings in Carpinteria after the show?

I had already been working for a long time, I had been through a lot.

A. I’ve been working too much. I’ve been getting up only here and

But when I think about it now I think, wait a minute, I had just had

there, but I need to come more often. My grandfather was a retired

my 30th birthday and had little to no experience (on air). I’d written

policeman and he had a small house near the ocean in Rhode Island.

lots of comedy and been doing improv, but I hadn’t been on television.

He used to refer it as Morphine Beach, because he said he’d just relax

Then I’m in the national spotlight. It was a giant shock and a period

and even sleep better. I feel the same way when I’m up anywhere near

of my life where it felt like I was fighting a dragon with a toothpick.

Montecito or Santa Barbara. So I’m hoping that I’ll be able to find

How am I going to do this and survive? It was unheard of. And it

better ways to sneak away and get there.

could never happen today. Everybody is filming themselves from the time that they’re three and putting it on YouTube. So there’d be about

What do you do to relax when you’re in Santa Barbara?

600 hours of video available. But in 1993, there was not even a current

I love just getting on my bike and riding around. That’s one of

photograph of me. People were scrambling for anything. They’d go

my passions. Last time I was there, I just walked the beach with my

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“Oh I found his yearbook from Brookline High School. Here’s a

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PROFILES picture of him from 1981.” That couldn’t happen today.

For reasons that defy logic, I still have a young audience. Fifteenyear-olds are really into the weird stuff I do, and I can’t explain to them

Or at least very Oprah.

Yes, exactly! When I was caught climbing over Oprah’s wall, before she called the police she told me, “Stay in the now.”

what it was like when I started out. They can’t grasp it. It feels like I might as well have started in the Eisenhower administration.

What do you do to keep the show and your characters fresh?

I’m blessed with good writers. I have had so many genius ones

You are now at 22-23 years and definitely the late-night king in terms

come up with funny things that keep invigorating me. And it’s also

of longevity. Is there sort of this sense of vindication that you’ve outlasted all

the change in technology, which you could be afraid of. But for me,

of them?

it’s all happened very naturally. I review video games on the show, and

I don’t think so. I don’t look at it like that, because they started

that’s become very popular in the community... I don’t even like video

before me. My main concern is the quality. I do enjoy viscerally

games! I’m terrible at them. The big video-game companies insist that

making people laugh and being silly, and if they’re laughing at me

I review their games. I tell them, “I’m going to say lousy things about

that’s okay, too. I’m still interested in finding new ways to do it.

your game, just because I’m a frustrated middle-aged man who doesn’t

With the travel shows, and the different stuff we’ve been doing,

know how to play video games.” But they want to give me a sneak-

the remotes we’ve been doing that go on the Internet, I think that’s

peek of a game that cost $8 billion to develop, so I can mock it. I’m

happening. I was just in Korea. They don’t even get my show in

like, “How did I get this to happen?”

Korea – it doesn’t air there. But young people there really like the remotes I do on YouTube, and they’ve translated them for each other

On the other hand, you’ve held rather steadfast to the concept of your

and put their own subtitles in. And it became a thing. I’m just trying

style of comedy, not trying to keep up with the Jimmy Fallons or whoever.

to stay in the now. I know it’s such a Santa Barbara phrase, but it’s what I do every day.

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Everybody has got to play their instrument their way. I don’t want to be rigid just for the sake of it, but there are core things that I believe

PROFILES work for me, how I’m funny. I’ve got to be true to those. People don’t want to see me change to try to keep up with the latest thing.

What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned over two decades in latenight TV? A late-night host primer, if you will.

I do have some ideas and principles that I’ve come up with. I said it at the end of my last Tonight Show, and it always gets quoted back to me: “Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.” It’s a very simple mantra, but I absolutely believe in it. We live in an era with things happening very quickly, with people becoming famous for questionable reasons. But to me, nothing beats hard work. Being true to what you’re good at. The way you approach the world. I’ve always worked really hard. I prepared. I wanted things to be good, and I

Conan and Dick Wolf at The Lark in Santa Barbara (photo by Grace Kathryn Photography)

stayed up all night to try to make them better. I don’t think anything beats that combination.

just how I am. I’m very physical with my staff – I tackle the guys and wrestle them to the floor. I imagine that will still be the same years

Is that how you were able to eventually turn the Tonight Show fiasco into a positive experience?

It was just day by day. I had bad days and better ones. And I’m fortunate. I married the right person. So I have a great wife and

down the road. I’ve never quite grown up. Maybe that’s something younger people connect to. If the joke is on me and I’m humiliated, I’m fine with that. I don’t need to be in the power position in comedy.

I’m really good at looking sad. People think that’s funny.

partner who helped me when I got down. And I have really good people who support me. And it wasn’t the first time I went through

Do you know what’s next? Is there an exit strategy?

struggle. When I first took over Late Night back in 1993, people were

Eventually, I’m told I’ll die. So there is that. But I don’t know

not happy with what I was doing. No one thought I was going to last

when I’ve ever enjoyed my work more. People say that all the time,

more than a couple of months. I think we were technically canceled

but it’s true. Over the last two years, there’s this great liberated feeling

at one moment in 1994. The thing that has saved me throughout my

at the show. We goof around a lot at rehearsal and try to incorporate

career was “You go and do your show.” That’s what helped (during the

a lot of that looseness into the show. I want to take it a day at a time

Tonight Show situation). If I had gone away at that point seven years

and keep enjoying it. And at some point – it’s not really up to me,

ago, it would have been insurmountable. But the fact that I stayed and

it will just be obvious – it’ll be time to go. I’ll go out there to do the

did a show every day helped me. It’s almost the best kind of therapy.

monologue, and the audience will start shouting, “You’re too old!

Go out there. Do your work. Try to make people laugh. The old “shut

You’re too old!” And that’s when it will be time to either get off the air,

up and do your job.”

or double-up on those Prozac cookies and stay on another 15.

Whenever I’m done, I would like my legacy... well, I don’t know if

How do you explain that you’re still attracting such a young audience?

there is a legacy in media anymore. Everyone has such a short attention

I really don’t know. I’m kind of a cartoon character in the same

span. But last week, I was walking down the street here in Los Angeles

way that Bart Simpson doesn’t age. I always had this cartoon-ish hair,

to get a cup of coffee and a guy, who was about 25, shouted from

and I’m that way in my humor and my movements. So, I do think

across the street, “Thanks for making my life better.” That’s as much as

I’m an animated figure. I’m very silly around kids. It’s not forced; it’s

I could ask for. That and real estate. And blue-chip stocks.

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Landmarks The Santa Barbara Biltmore

by Hattie Beresford

Aerial view circa 1930 shows the Biltmore Beach Club headquartered in Gull Cottage (lower right), the beach cabanas with boardwalk, and the new Biltmore with its cottages that include Inellan, which lines up with the pool that replaced the bowling green. Tennis courts and additional cottages lie in the right background. (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum)

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Nestling along the shoreline of the Santa Barbara Channel in an exquisite setting of 21 acres of century-old trees, trim lawns, and gay gardens, with the towering Santa Ynez peaks flaunting skyward in the rear, the hotel is a delightful picture (May 5, 1928, Santa Barbara Biltmore Souvenir)

T

he grand opening of the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel on December 16, 1928, was hailed as “a night of indescribable brilliance.” Reviewers gushed about the gorgeousness of

the hotel’s setting, the perfection of its architecture, and the romance of its location. Today, as the Biltmore Hotel approaches its 90th birthday, the beauty and integrity of Reginald Johnson’s masterful architecture remains intact. The story behind the development of this cultural icon on Channel Drive in Montecito highlights the tangled interconnections and spinning coincidences associated with the history of Montecito and Santa Barbara.

Background to the Land

B

efore there was a Biltmore, there was the land; land that in the 1880s was being bought and sold at a frenzied pace in

expectation of a rail connection to San Francisco and Los Angeles.

While some owners did develop working farms, others wanted to ride the rising property values and cash out with a profit.

In 1881, Chicago railroad magnate John Murray Forbes visited Santa Barbara with his son Malcolm’s family and stayed at the Arlington Hotel. When his grandchildren contracted scarlet fever, he purchased a house in the salubrious valley of Montecito and promptly named it Mount St. George. Over the next several years, he continued to buy up parcels of land in Montecito. Then, in 1887, he suddenly sold almost everything, just before the land boom went bust and the new rail line from Los Angeles stalled at Goleta. He truly was a man of impeccable timing.

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Landmarks Albert E. Touzalin, an associate of Forbes at the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, purchased the majority of the lands.

He garnered local investors to form the Montecito Land Company and transferred all his holdings into it with the intention of developing a residential tract.

The Land Company’s property roughly included the lands east and south of Hot Springs Road and west of Olive Mill Road all the way to the ocean. The company plotted out hundreds of small strip lots connected by curving roads. With the fall in land prices, however, sales were slow. Nevertheless, those few who could afford to buy often purchased several lots to build large residences with expansive gardens.

In 1894, a newly arrived global businessman from New York, Major Joel Adams Fithian, purchased three lots on Channel Drive at the urging of his sons, who wanted to establish a country club. Soon, a wood-shingled clubhouse for the Santa Barbara Country Club faced the Pacific Ocean. Over the years, the club added a pier, bathhouse, and additional cottages. A golf course was laid out on land leased from the Montecito Land Company. Each time that lots were sold, however, the course had to be realigned. When the number of holes decreased to seven in 1908, the Club decided it was time to move to a new location.

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(above) The Montecito Land Company subdivided its properties into residential lots circa 1887 (Courtesy Montecito Association History Committee) (below) Channel Drive circa 1900 shows the cottages and clubhouse of the Santa Barbara Country Club, as well as the gazebo, stone balustrade, bathhouse, and Fithian pier ( Courtesy SBHM)

Landmarks

Montecito Park

I

n 1902/03, Francis Townsend Underhill, a multi-talented, wealthy New Yorker who had established two ranches in Santa Barbara

County, decided to take up architecture. He designed and built a small cottage on six parcels of Montecito Land Company land near the Country Club. He called his charming bungalow La Chiquita. Events took him to San Francisco for a few years, so he sold La Chiquita to Walter Stuart Douglas, a mine owner and manager from Bisbee, Arizona.

Douglas and his wife, Edith Margaret (Bell) Douglas, had come to Montecito to escape the Arizona heat in 1903, and Margaret had fallen in love with La Chiquita. In a 1907 letter to her parents, she wrote, “You can imagine my surprised delight on driving through Montecito four years ago to come to a tiny cottage, whose situation was almost identical with my childhood’s home [Innellan, Scotland].

The lawns in front, the pink hydrangeas, the ocean across the road….

But few days passed before the house was mine, and shortly after, I added my pink rose garden and the bowling green.”

When Underhill returned to Santa Barbara circa 1906, he designed a new La Chiquita for himself and his intended, Carmelita (above) The Parrott family, winter visitors, prepare for an excursion in 1901. The building on the right is the Santa Barbara Country Club; the others are the shingled cottages that grew up around the club and were rented out by their owners. These cottages became part of Montecito Park. (Courtesy Montecito Association History Committee) (below) A lantern slide of Inellan circa 1920 shows its expansion from the simple one-story cottage designed by Underhill (Courtesy Library of Congress)

de la Guerra Dibblee. The house was an instant hit with his friends who wanted him to design homes for them, so Underhill opened an architectural firm. In 1915, the new La Chiquita was lauded as one of the 12 best country houses in America by Country Life in America.

Among Underhill’s many commissions, he designed the Montecito estate house for fellow yachtsman, horse breeder, and Union Carbide owner, C.K.G. Billings.

Four of the five Douglas children were born in the Montecito cottage, which had been renamed Inellan, inexplicably dropping an “n” from the name. Over the years, the house expanded as the family did.

In 1908, Walter Douglas purchased the holdings of the Montecito Country Club and several other area residents to form a deluxe vacation-cottage complex called Montecito Park. Local architect Joseph L. Curletti was hired to design and build additional cottages until there were nine rentals plus Inellan. In addition, the property included a gardener’s cottage, servants’ quarters, a greenhouse, and a garage. A pier, bathhouse, and gazebo stood above the beach.

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Landmarks

A Dearth of Hotels

T

he only hotel near the beach, the Potter/Ambassador Hotel, burned to the ground in 1921. The 1875 Arlington Hotel, which

had arisen phoenix-like in Mission style plumage after a 1909 fire, tumbled to the ground forever during the 1925 earthquake. Afterward, only two hotels catering to the luxury traveler existed in Santa Barbara.

One was the Samarkand near Oak Park. The other was the exclusive El Mirasol, which took up an entire city block that today is Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens. Created by the artists Albert and Adele Herter, it was owned by Frederick C. Clift of the Clift Hotel in San Francisco in 1925.

By this time, the Douglas family had moved to New York, and their visits to Santa Barbara were fewer and fewer apart. Several Santa Barbara citizens, who had decided to remedy the hotel situation, believed the Montecito Park area would be an ideal site. They formed an investment group and acquired the title to Montecito Park and the residences of Inellan, La Chiquita, and Gull Cottage.

When officials from the Bowman-Biltmore Corporation

(above) John McEntee Bowman, president of the Bowman-Biltmore Corporation (Courtesy Library of Congress) (below) Grand Central Terminal in New York City connected via underground passages to the 26-story Biltmore Hotel (Courtesy Library of Congress)

expressed interest in developing a hotel in Santa Barbara, the investors rolled their assets into the newly formed Santa Barbara Biltmore Corporation. Its directors were Harold S. Chase, developer of Hope Ranch, and Santa Barbara lawyers Francis Price and A.C. Postel, as well as six men from Los Angeles. Harold Chase and C.K.G. Billings were major investors.

The corporation hired Pasadena architect Reginald Johnson, who

John McEntee Bowman

C

anadian-born John McEntee Bowman learned the hotel business from one of New York City’s premier hoteliers, Gustav

Baumann of the Holland House. On New Year’s Eve 1913, Gustav

had designed several homes in Santa Barbara and Montecito. These

opened a new hotel across from Grand Central Station. Commissioned

included the 1915/1918 redesign of the 3rd clubhouse of the Santa

by New York Central Railroad and designed in the Beaux-Arts style,

Barbara Country Club as a residence named Mira Flores. Today this

the hotel took up the entire block bordered by Madison Avenue, 43rd

house anchors the Music Academy of the West campus.

Street, Vanderbilt Avenue, and 44th Street.

Ralph Tallant Stevens was hired as the landscaper architect. Ralph grew up at the Tanglewood estate where his father, also a landscape architect, had his residence and business. Today it is called Lotusland.

The stage was set, and on March 5, 1927, The New York Times reported, “President John McEntee Bowman, in his room in the Giralda Tower at Coral Gables, touched an electric key and flashed the signal to Santa Barbara, more than three thousand miles distant, setting the steam shovels to work on the excavation.” Ground was broken; a new era was begun.

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Landmarks The 26-story hotel, which cost $10 million to build, connected via underground passages and elevators to Grand Central Terminal.

It boasted 1,000 bedrooms, all with private baths. Its sumptuous appointments and amenities soon drew a wealthy and famous clientele to its elegant rooms.

They called it the Biltmore, perhaps because it lay along Vanderbilt Avenue or perhaps to associate it with the Vanderbilts’ world-famous, 123,000-acre estate called The Biltmore in North Carolina. The new hotel certainly drew the “smart” crowd. Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald honeymooned there so boisterously they were asked to leave. And J.D. Salinger placed Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield beneath its solid bronze clock to watch the girls and brood.

Less than a year after the opening, Gustav fell to his death from the 22nd story into the Italian cloistered garden. John McEntee Bowman became head of the organization and carried the Biltmore name and idea throughout the nation and into Cuba.

His first hotel in California was the Los Angeles Biltmore, which opened in 1923. At the time, it was the largest U.S. hotel west of Chicago. And its appointments were luxurious. Giovanni Battista Smeraldi, the world-renowned Italian painter who had created many of the ceilings and frescoes for Grand Central Terminal in New York, created the frescoes and murals and decorative ceilings in the Galleria and Crystal Ballroom of the Los Angeles Biltmore. (top) 1930s view of the romantic turret room with its curving exterior staircase (middle) Today's Ty Lounge in 1928 (below) A porter awaits guests at the newly completed Santa Barbara Biltmore ( all photos courtesy of Santa Barbara Historical Museum)

In 1928, Smeraldi came to Santa Barbara to design the Mudejar paintings on the ceilings and walls of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, most notable of which are contained in the Mural Room and Hall of Records.

The Santa Barbara Biltmore

A

s March rolled into April and then May, existing buildings on the former Montecito Park property were moved or demolished.

Other cottages were constructed. The landscapers preserved large stands of old cypress, oaks, camphor, and eucalyptus trees. Paths and lawns were laid out, exotics added, and fountains installed.

From the newly poured foundations, arose “a Santa Barbara-style hotel;” one which was inspired by the elements of historic Spanish,

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Landmarks

Mediterranean, and Italian architecture, but, said Johnson, “is not any of those because it is modern and a new evolution in architecture.�

The builder of the hotel was P. J. Walker Company of Los Angeles, who had constructed the Clift Hotel in San Francisco. What they built in Montecito was a rambling complex that resembled a small village anchored by a manor house or palace.

Elements of historic styles were used with restraint. Arched entries to arcades, flying breezeways and exterior staircases led to loggias and wrought-iron balconies. Wrought-iron fixtures, tiled risers and wainscoting, and terracotta floors evinced the feel of Old Spain.

Several colorful tiled murals portrayed scenes from early days in Santa Barbara. A map of Spanish Santa Barbara, the discovery of the Santa Barbara Channel by Cabrillo, scenes featuring festive senoritas and caballeros, and the Biltmore galleon adorned the porticos.

Inside, the white walls of the rooms were punctuated by colorful fabrics, hand-carved furnishings, and rugs woven in Spain. Bottle-glass windows, rambling hallways, and massive carved doors gave a sense of intimacy, solidity, and nostalgia. With construction beginning only a year after the earthquake, the heavily trussed beams, such as those

(top left) The Douglas place became one of the cottages belonging to the Santa Barbara Biltmore (top right) Oil painting of the newly constructed Santa Barbara Biltmore graced the cover of the 1928 souvenir booklet (above) The Redistribution Center organized tea dances at the Coral Casino (All photos Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum)

in the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, were made of reinforced concrete, painted and impressed to look like wood.

Rooms on the American Plan started at $12 a night, and special

such as rubberized shower curtains and special slots for razor blades.

Recreation was provided by a swimming pool adjacent to Gull

dining rooms and sleeping quarters were arranged for chauffeurs and

Cottage, which had become the Biltmore Beach Club, as well as tennis

maids traveling with guests. Orchestra music accompanied lunch and

courts and bowling greens. Inellan, which had been renamed Rose and

dinner, and every guest room had a cookie jar that was perpetually

later Anacapa, as well as La Chiquita, ended up being named Cabrillo

filled with ginger cookies. Rooms featured the latest modern amenities

Cottage, and became two of seven cottages for rent.

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Landmarks The Biltmore provided for every need the traveler might have.

In 1944, the Biltmore became one of three local hotels

For the ladies, I. Magnin opened a clothing store, and there was a

requisitioned by the government as lodgings for servicemen stationed

jewelry and shoe store and a beauty parlor, as well. For the business

at the Army Air Corps redistribution station based in Santa Barbara.

traveler, there was a public stenographer, a valet, a barbershop, a

The Biltmore ballroom was given over to Bingo parties, the Coral

Western Union Telegraph office, a newsstand, and public telephones.

Casino hosted tea dances, and radio stars and jazz bands entertained

And Harold Chase, of course, had a realty office on site. Combine all

on the Biltmore stage. When the hotel returned to civilian duty, a

that with its award-winning restaurant, ballroom, and beach cabanas,

thorough renovation was required.

and one never needed to make the long journey into plebian Santa Barbara.

The Biltmore steadfastly tried to uphold its standards in post-war America. The “Appropriate Dress” bulletin of 1950 remarked, “Part of

In February 1928, the Architectural League of New York awarded

The Biltmore’s charm is its dignified atmosphere of the true sense of

the Silver Medal in Architecture for General Works to Reginald

the word. You will be correctly attired at all times by following these

Johnson, the first time the League had awarded a prize to a California

suggestions.” These “suggestions” allowed Bermuda shorts or Capri

project or architect.

ensembles for women at breakfast, but men had to wear jackets. At lunch, ladies had to wear skirts and men could wear sports jackets.

The Tides of Change

At dinner, ladies were encouraged to wear cocktail suits or dresses, but sport coats were not acceptable in the evening for gentlemen. The bulletin also said, “If you prefer more informality, may we suggest you

T

hen on October 29, 1929, the world came tumbling down.

The Biltmore stayed open despite staggering financial losses.

call Room Service.”

The rate sheet for August 1950 listed double rooms on the

Bowman died in 1931 but others struggled on. In November 1936, it

modified American Plan (breakfast and dinner) from $23 to $45,

all came to an end. Bowman’s nine-year-old Biltmore, which had cost

and Cottages from $28 to $45. For an additional $11.50 per

$2 million to build, was sold at a bankruptcy auction.

Robert S. O'Dell, a real estate investor who had purchased the Clift and Plaza hotels in San Francisco and the Coral Beach Club in Florida, acquired the Santa Barbara Biltmore for $476,000. He continued the tradition of superior service and amenities and initiated an advertising campaign to regain the old clientele and entice new guests. He intended to capitalize on America’s fascination with the rich and famous. Soon, Hollywood stars were mingling with foreign royalty and what remained of the wealthy socialites.

O’Dell brought in one of Santa Barbara’s premier landscape architects, Lockwood de Forest Jr., to oversee changes to the landscape design. In 1936/37, Gull Cottage was razed to make room for a new modern beach club named the Coral Casino Beach and Cabaña Club.

O’Dell also arranged access for his guests to La Cumbre and Montecito Country clubs, two polo fields, horseback riding, swimming at the new Coral Casino, and boating excursions aboard the Coral Casino’s own ocean cruiser.

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Landmarks

(left top) Colorized postcard of beach cabanas circa 1930 (left bottom) The Coral Casino circa 1950 boasted a saltwater pool, diving exhibitions, and a sand area complete with colorful beach umbrellas (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum) (top right) The rose garden at today's Biltmore (Courtesy of the Four Seasons Biltmore)

person, one could have privileges at the Coral Casino Beach and

2000, additional renovation as well as preservation of historic

Cabaña Club, which featured excellent dining, dancing, and bar

elements was instituted.

facilities, in addition to a salt water Olympic-sized swimming pool

One of the latest embellishments is the addition of decorative

complete with diving towers. Overnighters who required no meals

designs inspired by Mudejar tradition on the concrete beams of the

could get a room for $8-12. And quarters were still available for

lobby and lounge. Camarillo-based artist Darin Ward researched and

“white servants.”

created the designs especially for the Santa Barbara Biltmore which

By the 1960s, the Biltmore’s strict policies were under attack.

now, too, has the verve and color of Smeraldi-like ceilings.

When Kirk Douglas and his son Michael were turned away because Michael’s hair was collar length, the national press had a field day.

(Sources: “Santa Barbara Biltmore Souvenir,” 1928; Morning Press,

Also in the 1960s, O’Dell attempted to add more rooms and

16 December 1927; The New York Times, 26 December 1913, 6 March

parking in an eight-story structure. Public outrage convinced him

1927, 3 February 1928; Biltmore Hotel website; www.nyc-architecture.

to abandon the idea. Nevertheless, the original Biltmore has seen

com/GON/GON041.htm; The Biltmore Santa Barbara: A History, by

dozens of alterations over the years. One of the most significant

Jerry Camarillo, 1996; Montecito and Santa Barbara by David Myrick;

was the removal of Inellan/Cabrillo Cottage and the construction

OAC finding aids for Reginald Davis Johnson; Cultural Resources

of 60 additional guest rooms on its site in 1982 by the Marriott

Study by Alexandra Cole, April 2001; vertical files of the Santa Barbara

Corporation. When Marriott sold the property to Ty Warner in

Historical Museum and the Montecito Association History Committee.)

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CURIOUS TRAVELER

BY JERRY CAMARILLO DUNN, JR.

HOT AND COOL: PALM SPRINGS

W

hen people talk about Palm Springs, the desert playground where Hollywood stars once hid out and partied hard, it’s invariably “Sinatra this” and “Sinatra that.” In the 1940s, the singer built

a modern house in the Movie Colony neighborhood, complete with a piano-shaped pool. (The house is now available to rent for private vacations and parties.) He regularly drank at Melvyn’s Restaurant & Lounge. (If you care to emulate him, order Jack Daniels.) He dined for three decades at the Lord Fletcher Inn; on one occasion Sinatra strolled over to a nearby table as a candle-lit cake was brought out and sang “Happy Birthday” to a flabbergasted stranger. Sinatra was generous to a fault (and that fault was usually his latest girlfriend or his boozer buddies from the Rat Pack).

But Ol’ Blue Eyes wasn’t the biggest name ever to hit town. In the 1930s, Albert Einstein was a regular houseguest at a Mediterranean-style villa set against golden mountains on the sandy edge of town. It was the home of his friend Samuel Untermyer, the first lawyer ever to receive a $1-million fee. During his visits, the great physicist liked to sunbathe, often on a hilltop behind the house – and not always with his clothes on.

Recently my wife, Merry, and I got to spend the night in Einstein’s actual bedroom in what is now The Willows Historic Palm Springs Inn. Ours was a comfortable sanctuary decorated with dark wood furniture. In the morning, sunlight streamed through a door leading to a private patio, and I woke up with my mind as clear as a desert sky.

My first thought: Holy Theory of Relativity! Einstein slept here! Did occupying the same space as this luminous mind make me brighter? A genius, even? Well, I liked to think so.

At least I’d been smart enough to winnow out the eight-room Willows from all the other hotels and resorts in Palm Springs and the surrounding desert. Over the years, the home’s guest list has included

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royalty and rock stars, a U.S. president, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, honeymooners Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, contemporary celebrities ranging from Robert De Niro to REM’s Michael Stipe, and at least a dozen people whose faces have appeared on the cover of Time magazine.

When Merry and I arrived in late afternoon, innkeeper Daniel Hogan ushered us into the living room and joked about the inn’s high-tech check-in system, which consisted of a white card and a pen laid on an antique desk. Wrought-iron chandeliers hung from a beamed ceiling, and a fire was already going in the carved limestone fireplace, its light dancing on the red oak floor. We had magically entered the gracious, glamorous 1920s, the era when people began “wintering” in Palm Springs to savor its slow, sunny way of life.

A row of French doors opened onto a terrace with a broad view over the city and the Coachella Valley. But we plunked down by the fire to sip wine and enjoy appetizers that Daniel served on a silver tray: olive tapenade on French bread, dates wrapped in bacon, Brie with apricot sauce. Other guests came in and sat on large velvety chairs, and we

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TRAVEL

chatted as though we were all visiting at a friend’s house.

Canadians Colin and JJ Hill, who had come to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary, told the kinds of stories travelers tell – like the time they were pulled over in Mexico by police “collecting for a school charity.” JJ reached in the glove box and handed them a roll of bills, then told Colin, “Get going! Step on it!” She had given the police a wad of promotional bills from a Canadian tire store. “At least they had the president’s face on them,” observed Colin. “Yes,” JJ said, “the president of the tire company!”

In the morning, we sat down for a three-course breakfast in a dining room with an ornately frescoed ceiling and a fireplace clad in 300-yearold Spanish tiles. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, a 50-foot-high waterfall tumbled down a native rock cliff.

Later, we walked out the inn’s iron gate and around the corner to the Palm Springs Art Museum – where we promptly ran into our evening innkeeper, Daniel. He doubles as a museum volunteer and greeted us warmly.

Feeling dwarfed in the vast open lobby, we gazed up at a colorful sculpture fashioned of glass tubes and tendrils by the celebrated artist Dale Chihuly. We admired western paintings by Edgar Payne and Joseph Sharp. In the excellent museum café, we got a tip to head to the third floor and look for a giant stack of plates. “Walk around them to see something magical.”

Artist Robert Therrien had created 1950s dinner plates of a ludicrously exaggerated size and stacked them in what appeared to be a precarious manner, a tower eight feet high. Walking around them created the strange optical illusion that the tilted rims were wobbling and the plates about to fall. The piece both created a Pop Art effect and invited a good laugh.

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TRAVEL WHAT WITH ALL THE CIVILIZED FEATURES of Palm Springs – the art museum, the Sinatra-related cocktail lounges, the shops along Palm Canyon Drive – I’d nearly forgotten that we were in the middle of the Colorado Desert. To orient ourselves, Merry and I headed to a 1,200-acre zoo and botanical garden devoted to animals and plants that manage to thrive somehow in this sun-scorched, stone-dry landscape.

The most remarkable animal we met at the Living Desert, though, was a primate of the species Homo sapiens – our amusing, informative guide, Bruce Elwood. The charming volunteer poured out a stream of corn-pone jokes and deep knowledge about the wonders of deserts, both here and around the world.

As we strolled through the botanical garden, Bruce used his car key to scrape white scale off a cactus, then crushed it, whereupon it turned scarlet. “This is cochineal,” he explained, “the stuff that turned the robes of European kings red. It’s still used today – for instance, to make pink grapefruit juice pink.”

Later Bruce pointed to a thick-billed parrot, the last parrot species in North America. “We used to have one in our bird show,” he recalled. “It spoke three words, including ‘Oh-oh.’”

Bruce: “You’re almost extinct.”

Bird: “Oh-oh!”

We also met two 40-pound bobcat brothers that had never been separated, spotted a great horned owl high in a grove of fan palms, and marveled at the world’s smallest fox, the fennec of Africa, which weighs less than three-and-a-half pounds. (Its unusually large ears dissipate the heat of its native Sahara. “Ear conditioning,” noted Bruce.) But our favorite animal sighting was Nemo, a jaguar that padded directly up to us and stopped with his huge head just inches

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TRAVEL

away – fortunately through a thick pane of glass. His visage called to mind a sacred Inca mask... a jaguar with eyes of gleaming emeralds.

At the end of our tour, we watched giraffes loping along a ridge, their gait slow-motion and dreamlike. Silhouetted against the sunset sky, they painted a classic scene from out of Africa, and yet here they were in the desert of California.

IN PALM SPRINGS, THE NATURAL WORLD dovetails beautifully with the man-made one, particularly in architecture. The city possesses a trove of houses in the Mid-Century Modern style that exploded onto the scene after World War II, with Palm Springs as ground zero. Architects such as Albert Frey, John Lautner, and Donald Wexler adapted its clean lines, glass walls, and indooroutdoor living to the desert’s intensely sunny climate and broad mountain views, creating what’s known as Desert Modernism.

All this makes Palm Springs a pilgrimage spot for architecture devotees and lovers of cool. (Think tanned movie stars with cocktail glasses on a poolside terrace.) To learn more, we chose a tour offered through the museum’s Architecture and Design Center.

There we met our witty expert guide, Michael Stern, and piled into his red Ford Flex to begin our education.

Q: Why does Palm Springs look the way it does?

A: The city long ago imposed a one-story limit on houses, to keep them from blocking views of the mountains. Hedges and walls make residences “discreet to the street.” Landscaping often reaches to the curb, showcasing desert plants such as ocotillos and smoke trees. su mmer | fal l

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TRAVEL Why have so many celebrities, from Bob Hope and Elizabeth Taylor to Elvis Presley, had vacation homes here?

A clause in Hollywood contracts required actors to remain within 120 miles of the studios when they were filming – so Palm Springs was perfectly located. Here the world’s most famous stars could party outside the limelight, or simply relax: when reclusive film goddess Greta Garbo wanted to be alone, Palm Springs is where she went.

Our blacktop tour passed Mid-Century Modern houses that have been home to William Holden, Debbie Reynolds, Kirk Douglas, and Jack Benny. Dinah Shore lived in a six-bedroom showplace designed

by Donald Wexler and now owned by Leonardo DiCaprio. (It’s available for nightly rentals.)

But for someone like me who grew up back in the day, a big attraction was Elvis Presley’s “honeymoon hideaway.” Built in 1960 by Palm Springs developer Robert Alexander, it was featured in Look magazine under the headline “House of Tomorrow.”

Merry and I walked up the disk-shaped front steps where, in 1967, Elvis had carried his new bride, Priscilla, to begin their honeymoon.

(Lisa Marie Presley was born nine months later.)

As we entered, our guide cautioned, “Try to look past all the Elvis kitsch.” I’m not exactly sure how you’d do that. Rooms were festooned with reproduction gold records, guitars, a bust-of-Elvis lamp with a baby-blue shade, and bad oil portraits of the King. On the kitchen counter lay an Elvis cookbook titled Are You Hungry Tonight?

The house itself, though, was an icon of Desert Modernism.

Designed in four perfect circles, it cascaded through three levels.

A curving rock wall in the living room formed the backdrop for a sweeping built-in sofa. A vast wall of glass looked onto a tropical garden and swimming pool. It would have been the perfect set for an Elvis movie.

When we resumed our driving tour, Michael pointed out the 10-bedroom house Liz Taylor once shared with Mike Todd. High on a hillside we spied actress Suzanne Somers’s pink residence (known locally as “The House That ThighMaster Built”). We saw the hideaway of Marilyn Monroe, tucked behind dense greenery.

I came to understand why homes in Palm Springs’s gracious residential neighborhoods are considered masterpieces of modern architecture. Many of them trail clouds of glory from shimmering stars

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in the Hollywood firmament. And today young actors, musicians, and designers are again flocking to town, restoring its stature as a stylish oasis in the desert.

Once more, Palm Springs is both hot and cool.

TRAVEL

PALM SPRINGS PRIMER STAY THE WILLOWS HISTORIC PALM SPRINGS INN: 412 W. Tahquitz Canyon Way, (760) 320-0771, thewillowspalmsprings.com.

Includes full breakfasts, afternoon wine and appetizers, drinks by the pool, 24-hour staffing, high-speed Internet, flat-screen TVs hidden in antique armoires; room service available from celebrated Le Vallauris across the street. Rates range from $375 to $755.

THE RITZ-CARLTON RANCHO MIRAGE: 68900 Frank Sinatra

DO

Drive, Rancho Mirage, (760) 321-8282, www.ritzcarlton.com. If you’d

PALM SPRINGS ART MUSEUM: www.psmuseum.org.

like a full-immersion resort experience, this sprawling luxury property is

Sophisticated collections range from Chagall and Picasso through

your spot. Set on a bluff with a stunning view over the Coachella Valley,

Warhol and Ansel Adams.

its look features stone, wood, water, and fire. Rooms have private balconies or patios, flat-screen TVs (plus a TV in the bath), and Frette

LIVING DESERT:

bed linens. The Club Lounge offers access to a private lounge with

www.livingdesert.org. Individual visits, tours.

a friendly concierge and five food offerings daily. Spa treatments are based on indigenous herbs and mineral salts. State Fair restaurant has

MID-CENTURY MODERN ARCHITECTURE TOUR:

a creative California menu, while The Edge Steakhouse is celebrated

www.themoderntour.com

for its steaks, seafood, and dizzying cliff-side views. Rates from $179 to $899; the Club Lounge is an additional $200-$300 nightly.

SUNNYLANDS: 37-977 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage; (760) 2022222; www.sunnylands.org. Built by Ambassador Walter and Leonore

DINAH SHORE-LEONARDO DICAPRIO ESTATE:

Annenberg as a winter home, and designed by noted modernist

www.432hermosa.com. From $4,500 per night.

architect A. Quincy Jones, this 25,000-square-foot house sits on 200 acres with a golf course and 11 lakes. It functions as a “West Coast Camp David”, a high-level retreat center for world leaders. Among eight U.S. presidents who have visited, Ronald Reagan regularly celebrated New Year’s Eve here with friends. Frank and Barbara Sinatra were married in front of the fireplace. Exhibits, gardens, tours.

VINTAGE CARS: Classic and exotic automobiles can be yours at twice-a-year auctions run by McCormick’s (www.classiccarauction.com), or visit their showroom (244 N. Indian Canyon Drive).

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E X P E RT I S E Expert advice.

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BY EVA VAN PROOYEN

VALLEY LIVING

SIMPLE A N D LU X U R I O U S

A

pproximately 30 miles north of Santa Barbara situated between the Santa Ynez Mountains to the south and the San Rafael Mountains to the north is the Santa Ynez Valley.

It’s a beautiful gorge, embracing not only coastal influences, but also a celebrated swath of the nearly 2 million acres that make up Los Padres National Forest.

The unique transverse (east-west) orientation of the Santa Ynez Mountain range sweeps oceanic breezes eastward, resulting in one of the most diverse grape-growing regions in the country. The area was originally inhabited by and honored as the aboriginal lands of the Chumash Indians, and the valley has a rich history and culture that spills over with natural beauty.

Ancient oaks stretch over rolling hills, and vineyards line the countryside, soaking up the sun and relishing in the moderate climate of cool nights and warm days. The valley offers up casual and peaceful country living with a sophisticated edge, boasting an impressive collection of world-class wines and beer, art galleries, restaurants, bakeries, hotels, chocolate shops, boutiques, shopping, orchards, vineyards, top-notch schools, parks, saddleries, hotels, spas, entertainment, fairs, parades, hiking trails, and markets. A true treasure of Santa Barbara County, the valley has a population of more than 20,000 residents living in the communities of Santa Ynez, Solvang, Los Olivos, Ballard, Buellton, and Los Alamos.

The town that gave the valley its name is the township of Santa Ynez – named after Saint Agnes (the patron saint of virgins) – a rustic and stylish Old West settlement complete with period-style faux building façades, a honkytonk saloon, a feed store, and horseshoeembedded crosswalks. It is home to the newly renovated Chumash Casino Resort, the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Society Museum, and Parks-Janeway Carriage House, surrounded by wineries and vineyards.

The city of Solvang, Danish for “sunny fields,” was founded in 1911 on almost 9,000 acres of the Rancho San Carlos de Jonata Mexican land grant, by a group of Danes who traveled west to establish a Danish

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VALLEY L I V I N G colony far from the Midwestern winters. Outside of the Old Mission Santa Ines, traditional Danish village style is reflected in much of the architecture, and the city features six museums, including the Wildling Museum of Art and Nature and the Elverhøj Museum.

Los Olivos is a picture-perfect, historic, charming village known as the artistic epicenter of the valley. It is home to an eclectic array of winetasting rooms, art galleries, upscale shops, a lavender farm, horse trails, a former Pony Express stage coach stop, and Neverland Ranch – Michael Jackson’s 2,700-acre former home. Los Olivos has approximately 1,000 residents, features a gourmet grocery, an iconic flagpole marking the center of town at Grand and Alamo Pintado avenues, and views of the annual wild flower bloom of poppies and lupines on Figueroa Mountain.

The community of Ballard was founded in 1880 at the location of a Wells Fargo stage line station. It has a one-room Little Red School House that is still in operation and only one commercial establishment – a quintessential wine country corner known as The Ballard Inn and Restaurant.

The small City of Buellton is considered to be the industrial sector of the valley. Vintage billboards along Highway 101 point to Pea Soup Andersen’s, once a major roadside stop and landmark. However, in among all the “industry” and quite frankly “entrepreneurship” are higherend tapas and wine bars, Industrial Eats restaurant, Figueroa Mountain Brewery’s taproom and mother ship brewery, and a myriad of inventors, commercial offices, and Brothers Spirits – a craft distillery with an onsite lounge serving mixed drinks.

The 1,890 residents in the historic Old West town of Los Alamos are definitely considered to be part of the community, and the hamlet serves as the “northern entry” to the Santa Ynez Valley. The main thoroughfare is Bell Street, and though only seven small rural blocks

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R e p r e s e n t i n g Th e B e s t o f Th e S a n ta Y n e z Va l l e y

S A G E C R E S T S Y V. C O M

S A N TAY N E Z R I V E R R A N C H . C O M

s a n t a y n e z l a n d . c o m m i k e b r a d y • j e n n i f e r n at i o n • m i c a h b r a d y 805.391.0587 805.350.1977 805.331.3053 Sotheby’s International Realty and the Sotheby’s International Realty logo are registered service marks used with permission. Operated by Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. CalBRE License#s 00825140 • 01219166 • 01217818

VALLEY L I V I N G long, it flaunts the town’s western heritage with the historic 1880 Union Hotel – a Victorian-style bed and breakfast – art galleries, antique shops, tasting rooms, Babi’s Beer Emporium, and a cluster of restaurants, including Bob’s Well Bread Bakery, Full of Life Flatbread, and Bell Street Farm Eatery and Market.

In total, the valley just may well be a perfect blend of lifestyle elements. Much of the charm, people, places, activities, and events that bring tourists in from around the world are also part of the practical daily rhythm and draw for local residents.

Vintners, ranchers, winemakers, chefs, farmers, celebrities, horse trainers, artisans, craftsmen, politicians, wine country pioneers, teachers, business professionals, and the like can be seen shaking hands and saying hello or duking it out over political issues at neighborhood coffee shops such as The Valley Grind or Corner House Coffee. Children sell lemonade on the corners on weekends, and families grab fresh veggies at the Solvang Farmers Market every Wednesday and collect fresh produce from Finley Farms Organic and Summerset Farm “U pick” fruit stand.

Wine-tasting rooms running the spectrum from abandoned berry shacks to high-end contemporary, state-of-the-art facilities bump up against dog-friendly wine tasting rooms such as the Wandering Wine Dog. Small-town parades, a seemingly drought-resistant annual Fish Derby at Lake Cachuma, Danish Days festival, chili cook-offs, charity mud run events, plein air art and wine days, an archery club, and a bocce ball league give a tiny nod to the colorful nooks and crannies that fill in the better known agriculture, equine, and tourism economy.

Miniature donkeys, baby peacocks, more than 50 breeds of horses, orchards, vineyards, and rolling hills are tucked in and around the real estate, which is quite varied. Buyers will find cottages with picket

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Patty Murphy country estates

Happy Canyon Three beautiful homes on 83 acres. $5,850,000

Authentic Charleston-style Manor 805.680.8571

Follow on Instagram: pattymurphyestates Visit my luxury blog at pattymurphy.com/blog

Casual Opulence on 20 acres. $3,250,000 patty@pattymurphy.com www.pattymurphy.com CalBRE#: 00766586 Operated by Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc.

VALLEY L I V I N G fences, a handful of apartments and condominiums, classic single-family homes, upscale custom homes, and neighborhoods tucked behind private gated communities with views of the coastal range. Residents sit on wooden porches and chat with friends and visitors, and real estate selections reveal both simple and luxurious California ranch-style living, single and rare multi-family homes, barns, studios, and “Granny units.”

The area is also home to Rancho del Cielo, a.k.a The Western White House, where Reagan spent ranch vacations during his presidency.

Surprisingly, the valley has six school districts and a host of private and charter schools. And as for “What’s on the menu?” there is a strong selection of markets and grocery stores with many restaurants highlighting the locavore – field, farm, and vineyard to table movement.

Romantic hideaways, family-friendly pancake houses, fine dining, brew houses, and everything in between can be found on the burgeoning and award-winning restaurant scene.

There is much to celebrate, explore, and enjoy. For more information and to crack the equation on what a perfect day in the Santa Ynez Valley could be, visit www.visitsyv.com, www. santaynezwinecountry.com, and www.solvangusa.com.

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SANTA YNEZ VALLEY Los Olivos 2928 San Marcos Avenue

805.688.1071

San Luis Obispo 714 Higuera Street

805.545.ROMP

www.rompshoes.com

Exquisite Footwear & Accessories From Italy & Beyond

Outpost

Trading Company

A M O Denim

wendy foster 3547 SAGUNTO STREET • SANTA YNEZ • 805.686.5588

LOS OLIVOS

2928 SAN MARCOS AVENUE

A

805 . 686 . 0110

lthough Uriel Nielsen and Bill De Mattei (of Mattei’s Tavern) were the first to plant grapes at a commercial level in the 1960s, it was Pierre Lafond (yes, the same Pierre Wendy AMO Denim hydrangea Montecito Journal who runs and owns Pierre Lafond in Montecito’s upper village) whose Santa Barbara WineryFoster/LO became the•first winery in Santa Ynez ValleyAd to for operate commercially sinceGlossy 1/4 page 4.136 x 4.136 before the Prohibition era.

The ensuing years brought more viticultural entrepreneurs, led by Fess Parker (TV’s “Davy Crocket”), Brooks Firestone, and Fred Brander, and followed by scores of talented and resourceful vintners. By the turn of the 21st century, Santa Ynez Valley had already become a destination for those who knew 805 wine,. but movie “Sideways” not only Flannery Designs&Graphics 966in.2004, 2445theart@montecitomag.com caused a precipitous drop in sales of Merlot, but also put the valley firmly on the international wine scene.

Job #16-2561 What with the 120-plus wineries and an equal number of wine tasting rooms, many of them in Solvang, but also scattered around the hills and vales, breweries, music, dining, and shopping (nearly all Santa Ynez Valley boutiques are individually owned; chain stores are nearly non-existent), you’ve got yourself a full weekend, heck, a full week.

1st proof

Due to client confidentiality we do not publish pictures of our clients’ homes.

For reference, please contact: Ryan Bailey 805.845.1061 baileyconstructionsb@gmail.com