SU
MO
TU
WE
TH
FR
SA
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
Presenting Partners
Programs > Gamble House
 |
Gamble House 4 Westmoreland Place Pasadena, CA 91103 www.gamblehouse.org |
EVENT(S):
- U Are Here: Roots of the California House
- A presentation and panel discussion with Roberta Martinez,
Edward Bosley, and Dr. Robert W. Winter
October 24, 2009
4:30 p.m.
Art Center College of Design's Ahmanson Auditorium
1700 Lida Street, Pasadena
Who embraced outdoor life more than Pasadena’s pioneers? An inviting climate, dramatic topography, and – it should be said – sheer distance from one’s ancestors, suggested seductive new freedoms in personal choice. Dress, physical activity, and even house design were re-invented to romance the abundant and nature-oriented life of early San Gabriel Valley settlers. The U-shaped adobe house, common during Spanish-Colonial and Mexican rule in California, inspired a new generation of courtyard houses after the turn of the last century that promised to re-make the idea of “home” in California.
Three brief presentations, followed by a panel discussion, explore the origins of the U-shaped house and the people who made it relevant for modern living. Prominent in the story are Pasadena pioneer Helen Elliott, famed bungalow architects Greene & Greene, Chicago art-collector Arthur Jerome Eddy, and his classically-trained architect, Frederick Roehrig.
Helen Elliott fell in love with Arturo Bandini, who was a boarder in her parents’ house. Bandini was the son of a wealthy and powerful rancho grantee from the state’s era of Mexican rule, while Elliott was the daughter of one of Pasadena’s “Indiana Colony” founding families. He enjoyed the role of land-grant scion, and she played to her progressive politics and their adventurous lifestyle together. Helen’s mode of dressing often reflected the traditions of her husband’s family heritage, and she would eventually author a volume of California history that focused on its colonial past—all unlikely activities for a girl from Indianapolis! In 1903 architects Greene & Greene designed a home for the Bandinis that was a romantic look at the past, but one that also established a vibrant new direction for California housing. National magazines published the Bandinis’ U-shaped, hacienda-style house as a new paradigm for celebrating outdoor life. More subtly, the house became a potent symbol for the melding of Anglo and Latino cultures.
Arthur Jerome Eddy, a Chicago-based lawyer, financier and author, traveled widely from his mid-West roots to both collect and commission art. Whistler painted his portrait and Rodin sculpted his bust. Cosmopolitan and educated, Eddy surprised his peers by seeking a simpler life in Pasadena, where he designed a U-shaped house with architect Frederick Roehrig in 1904. Like the Bandini residence, the Eddy house has a social garden embraced by, and easily accessed from, living spaces within the home, a theme that persists in many Western homes to this day.
