CASA DEL HERRERO best-known houses is Casa del Herrero (house of the blacksmith), ensconced behind a white stucco wall among oaks and palm trees on East Valley Road. The 11-acre estate, with its historic house museum and impeccable gardens, is open to the public for tours by advance reservation. Built for the wealthy George Fox Steedman family of St. Louis, the villa is one of the finest examples of Spanish-Colonial Revival architecture in America. It’s included on the National Register of Historic Places and maintains National Historic Landmark status in part due to its Moorish-style gardens created by Ralph Stevens, Lockwood de Forest and Francis T. Underhill. Steedman, an industrialist, engineer and architecture aficionado, participated in every detail of the property’s buildings, furnishings and gardens, working closely with George Washington Smith on the design of the house. On June 29, 1925—the day of the Santa Barbara earthquake—the Steedmans moved into their new home. It survived unscathed. In the 1930s, Steedman hired noted architect Lutah Maria Riggs (a colleague of George Washington Smith) to design an octagonal library addition to celebrate his and wife Carrie’s 30th wedding anniversary. Carrie continued to live at the estate after George died in 1940. When Carrie died in 1962, their daughter Medora Bass lived at the casa until her death in 1987. Medora’s son created the foundation that now operates the estate in 1993. A tour of the respectfully preserved house is a vivid glimpse into the Steedmans’ lives and Montecito life in the 1920s and 1930s. The casa is furnished just as they left it; the dining room table is set for dinner with fine crystal and china, and patio chairs designed by Steedman await weary garden strollers. “It’s as if the family just packed their suitcases and stepped out,” says docent Carolyn Williams. Highlights include dazzling Mediterranean tile work and a treasure trove of 15th- and 16th-century fine and decorative art objects, including many religious pieces from Spain. The house of the blacksmith tour ends appropriately in Steedman’s well-equipped workshop, where he practiced metalworking and silversmithing.
PHOTOS: (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP) COURTESY LOTUSLAND; MATT WALLA, COURTESY CASA DEL HERRERO; COURTESY BELLOSGUARDO
ONE OF GEORGE WA SHINGTON SMITH ’S
a year later. The house was damaged in the 1925 earthquake, and Huguette’s mother, Anna, began the process of building a new, opulent mansion in 1933. Designed by Reginald Johnson in an 18th-century French style with Georgian influences, the 21,666-square-foot Bellosguardo is a sturdy structure. Authors Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr., in their book Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune, note that “Anna wanted something more quakeproof—a home built of reinforced concrete and sheathed in granite…” She also apparently wanted something large—there are 27 rooms in the main house, including six bedrooms for the family and three small bedrooms for servants. Huguette Clark inherited Bellosguardo from her mother in 1963 and Huguette died in 2011, just shy of her 105th birthday. Although she is believed to have last visited in about 1953, Huguette arranged for the estate to be carefully maintained over the decades by a devoted staff. In her will, Huguette left the home to a new foundation to foster the arts. Bellosguardo Foundation now has a 19-member board of directors, but the property is still owned by the estate. The community has its fingers crossed, as Bellosguardo Foundation is awaiting word from the New York public administrator, the estate’s executor, on a final estate settlement. Stay tuned for this grande dame’s next act.
(Clockwise, from L-R): Madame Ganna Walska at Lotusland, a contemporary photo of Casa Del Hererro and an aerial view of Bellosguardo.
BELLOSGUARDO AL SO KNOWN A S THE C L ARK ESTATE , Bellosguardo has
been shrouded in coastal fog and mystery for six decades. Most folks whizzing past on Cabrillo Boulevard or playing volleyball on nearby East Beach are unaware of the spectacular 23-acre property that sits high above them on an oceanfront bluff, hidden by trees. The estate was the grand summer home of the late reclusive heiress Huguette Clark. Huguette was the youngest child of Senator William Andrews Clark, a copper king of Montana, a railroad builder, one of the founders of Las Vegas and one of the wealthiest men of the Gilded Age. The Clarks bought the property in 1923, but Senator Clark didn’t have much time to enjoy it—he died just over F A L L 2 017
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