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The home is also culturally important as a setting in the 1985 movie Back to the Future. The Gamble House in Pasadena, California is owned by the City of Pasadena following a gift of the property by the Gamble family. The home was gifted to the city in 1966 after a sale fell through due to the family's desire to preserve the historic residence.
Craftsman Design
It just shows that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. Commissioned by heirs to the Procter & Gamble fortune, the house embodies not only the noblest aspirations of the Arts & Crafts movement but also the aspirations of Americans who seek to live in greater harmony with the land. It is the paramount collaboration between two of America’s most gifted architects and their astute patrons. Karla found 1908 catalog images of the checkered linoleum, which gave Ted the confirmation he needed to proceed with the linoleum restoration. The Forbo company donated the linoleum material and a volunteer was able to install it.
Materials and Tags
In our Gamble House architectural case study, our team of Austin architects reviews the history of the home, the influences of the Greene brothers, as well as the materials and design elements used in construction. Low-pitched roofs, deep terraces, and titanic, unscreened sleeping porches dominate the exterior of the house. The street view is especially striking for the monumentally deep eaves that shelter the northeast porch, which visually expands the boundaries and overall form of the house well beyond the confines of its shingled walls. In the early years of the twentieth century, sleeping porches were popular and national periodicals promoted them to health seekers and the culturally alert, many of whom came to Pasadena for the winter season. Nowhere did these porches proclaim more boldly the promise of outdoor life than in the Gambles’ winter residence.
Design Elements Used in The Gamble House
The Gamble House was designed in 1908 by Pasadena architects, Greene & Greene as the winter residence for David and Mary Gamble. The Gamble House is the finest example of early 20th-century Craftsman architecture. It is preserved with all of its original furnishings which were also designed by the architects. Food and drinks are not allowed inside the house, guests are welcome to picnic outside on the grounds. It has patterned brick paving with planting areas, a large curvilinear pond, and garden walls made with distinctive clinker bricks and boulders.
Greene & Greene Neighborhood Walking Tours
During these conversations, Ted mentioned that he was wanting to restore the linoleum in kitchen, but he was not totally sure about what was there in 1908. He said he had some old black and white images showing linoleum on the floor, but there was a question as to if it was original or not. The Gamble House, built in 1908 for David and Mary Gamble of the Procter and Gamble Company, is the most complete and original example of the work of architects Charles and Henry Greene. • Pursuing a mutually supportive relationship with the City of Pasadena in the interest of meeting our mission and adhering to the 1966 family gift agreement. David Gamble, who lived in the Gamble House, was one of the sons of James Gamble, who founded the company with William Procter in the 1830s.
Visions of Japan: Exploring the inspirations behind the Gamble House - Pasadena Weekly
Visions of Japan: Exploring the inspirations behind the Gamble House.
Posted: Thu, 24 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The icebox/refrigerator in the cold room was too small in scale for a house of that size. The stove in the stove room had been acquired from another Greene and Greene house. But it was a 1920’s stove, which was not the correct period for the Gamble House. The brothers, known collectively as Greene and Greene, were not largely “self-promoters,” explained Smith, who has been researching the pair for over 30 years. Yet, their designs, characterized by a Japanese aesthetic, have permeated Pasadena and Southern California, forever altering the landscape of American architecture. A reception and book signing with Smith will follow the lecture, as well as a one-of-a-kind Japanese folk art sale.
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Structured Artistry: Gamble House is a fixture in Craftsmen architectural history - Pasadena Weekly
Structured Artistry: Gamble House is a fixture in Craftsmen architectural history.
Posted: Thu, 15 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
More than just the architectural significance, the home is also culturally significant to many, both in America and abroad. The popularity of the film Back to the Future has led fans for decades to visit the home and admire the space as the fictional home of Doc Brown. Architecturally, the home represents one of the best examples of Arts and Crafts style made iconic through the work of Los Angeles architects Greene and Greene. Culturally, the home is famous as the setting of Doc's house and workshop in the 1985 film Back to the Future.
The Gamble House represented an American-style which sat amidst an abundance of imitations and interpretations of classical European buildings, the influence for many mansions at the time. It was designed to be very suitable for the southern California climate, with a sleeping porch and beautiful transition spaces from the inside to outdoor patios, a garden and a pond. David and Mary Gamble lived in the house until they passed away in the 1920s. Mary's younger sister Julia, who had come to live with the Gambles shortly after the house was constructed, continued on living in the house until her death in 1944. After that, David and Mary's oldest son Cecil and his wife Louise lived in the house until 1966. They briefly considered selling the house, but pulled it off the market after prospective buyers talked of painting all the woodwork white to brighten up the interior.
Indigenous Japanese shapes appear throughout the house, in the contour of the dining room table, the cloud lift in the transom bar of each window, the recessed handles on drawers and the ebony frame of the master bedroom furniture. The layout of the house is pretty traditional; the main floor includes a living room and a dining room. The contractors that the Greenes hired used over seventeen different types of wood in the house, as well as custom-built furniture, giving the house an inner glow. These different woods provide a decorative contrast without the use of paint. Drawings, or blueprints, were finished by February of 1908, and construction began the next month.
The American architects Charles and Henry Greene — notably known for designing the Gamble House, an iconic American Craftsmen home overlooking Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco — never stepped foot in Japan. Yet, their interpretations of Japanese architecture and design have gone down in the annals of American architectural history. The Gambles moved into the completed home in 1909 and lived there until their deaths in the 1920s. The home stayed in the Gamble family until 1966, when it was deeded to the city of Pasadena in a joint agreement with the USC School of Architecture. Today the home is a museum, with two 5th-year USC architecture students living in the house year-round.
Restorations occurred on the Gamble House property from the 1990s and into the 2000s. The majority of the restoration work ensured that the home's exterior could be preserved and repaired in a responsible and historically accurate manner. Penetrative preservatives and repurposed old fur were used to ensure that the accuracy of the building materials were in line with those used originally by the Greene brothers in the home's first construction.
Built from 1908 to 1909, the Gamble House differs from many of the neighboring historic properties that were aligned with the Neoclassical style, which was very popular during the period the Gamble House was originally constructed. The construction of the home overlooks Pasadena's Arroyo Seco, a dry riverbed, and the Gamble family's love of the natural environment is ever-present in the design of the iconic home. The American Craftsman style gained prominence in the 20th century and the home was listed by the Los Angeles Times as one of the best houses of all time in the Los Angeles area. The home represents a classic example of the American Arts and Crafts period. Many people visit the home on tours each year to marvel at its significant architectural details and blending of American Craftsman style with Chinese and Japanese architectural references.
The American Bungalow style of the Arts and Crafts movement represents the pinnacle of the early period of this important architectural movement. At the same time the Gambles were selecting their lot on Westmoreland Place, a house designed by the firm of Greene & Greene was being built for John Cole on the adjacent property. Perhaps meeting the architects at the construction site, and certainly impressed with the other Greene & Greene houses in the Park Place neighborhood, the Gambles met with the brothers and agreed on a commission. SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment.
Henry nominally carried on the joint practice in Pasadena until 1922, when it was formally dissolved. Critical acclaim for their work did not come again until after World War II, when it was almost too late for the brothers to enjoy it—Henry died in 1954, and Charles followed in 1957. In a 1950 issue of House Beautiful, Elizabeth Gordon and Jean Murray Bangs resurrected the Greenes’ work as a vital link between the decorative excesses of Victorianism and the clean expressions of American Modernism. David and Mary lived in the house until their deaths in 1923 and 1929, respectively. Cecil Huggins Gamble and his wife Louise Gibbs Gamble began living in the house after Julia’s death in 1944, and briefly considered selling it.
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