Pasadena Moves to Protect Heritage : Emergency Law Prevents Further ‘Rape’ of Blacker House
The Pasadena Board of City Directors on Wednesday adopted an emergency ordinance to halt what preservationists are calling the “rape” of a landmark turn-of-the-century home designed by pioneering California architects Charles and Henry Greene.
The measure is aimed at stopping a Texas rancher from removing valuable fixtures from the 78-year-old Blacker House. The man recently bought the house for $1.2 million and already has stripped it of all of its roughly 50 original lighting fixtures. City officials and preservation groups--while hoping that the light fixtures might be returned--are worried that he may remove more fixtures, including the front door and stained-glass windows made especially for the residence.
The Blacker House was designed and built by the Greene brothers, who pioneered “Craftsman,” or California bungalow-style architecture. The dark, 20-room, three-story residence sits on a one-acre parcel in the exclusive enclave of Oak Knoll. It is the largest and most elaborate California bungalow ever designed by the Greene brothers, who became internationally known for their work in Pasadena.
The emergency ordinance, unanimously approved at a special morning meeting, will take effect Saturday. It will place a 90-day moratorium on the removal of interior and exterior fixtures from structures more than 50 years old.
Cultural heritage groups in Pasadena were outraged by what they say is the desecration of the house by Barton English, a wealthy cattleman from Stonewall, Tex. English, a collector of Craftsman-style furniture and decorative arts, bought the house on May 1. About two weeks later, workers removed the light fixtures.
“We deplore it and feel it is a rape of our national heritage,” said Randall Makinson, director of the Gamble House, a Greene and Greene bungalow that was donated to the city and the USC School of Architecture in 1966. “There are certain pieces of architecture that rise above and beyond just the building. . . . It’s no different from cutting the head off the Mona Lisa and selling it off.”
“What they’ve done is an atrocity,” said Tim Andersen, chairman of the city-appointed Cultural Heritage Commission.
English said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he will keep most of the light fixtures, which one expert valued at about $1 million. Some pieces will go to the private collection of Michael Carey, a New York City antique dealer who is acting as English’s agent and spokesman, and the rest will be resold. English said he plans to install reproductions of the fixtures in the house and to do some exterior repairs. Eventually, he said, he plans to resell the house.
“This is a business deal,” Carey said, “but we are trying to do it with as much sensitivity to the house as we can. It’s a matter of economics. It’s what happens when the value of the objects exceeds the value of the house.”
English said he did not think that his actions would generate such a furor. The property had been on the market for six months before he made an offer on it, and a local buyer could have beaten him to it, he said. “They basically had the first opportunity,” he said.
But Carey said he purposely kept plans to strip the house a secret. “This certainly had to be kept quiet because it was obvious to me that the community was going to be upset,” he said.
Marjorie Hill, who owned the house for 31 years before investment losses forced her to sell it, said she had been told before the sale that English intended to live there part-time and that she had no idea he would alter the residence.
“I feel bruised,” Hill said. “I feel so sad about the house. It’s like a child that’s been abused.”
Built for Lumberman
The 12,000-square-foot house was built for lumber magnate Robert R. Blacker in 1907 for about $100,000, Makinson said. It is one of the grandest creations of the Greenes, according to Makinson, who pointed to the teak, mahogany and Port Orford cedar used extensively in the house.
The Greenes’ style, which was inspired by Japanese and Swiss construction methods, makes extensive use of wood, articulated joinery and exposed beams that blend with the landscaping, and it includes wide terraces and broadly overhanging eaves for shade.
Like Frank Lloyd Wright and a few other architects, the Greenes’ most ambitious projects were designed as total concepts, from furniture to landscaping. In recent years, Greene and Greene furniture and light fixtures, which have wooden frames and leaded Tiffany glass, have brought high prices.
Fetched High Price
A pair of sconces, or small light fixtures, from another Greene and Greene house in Pasadena sold not long ago for $60,000 at an auction held by Christie’s of New York, said Nancy McClelland, vice president of the company.
McClelland said that although Christie’s handles some fixtures, she discourages people from removing them from architecturally important buildings. “It is devastating to to the structure,” she said.
McClelland estimated that the Blacker House fixtures are worth about $1 million but added that the exact value is hard to pinpoint because the market for such items is limited.
Carey said English would be willing to sell the house with the original fixtures to a community preservation group willing to submit a serious offer. Claire Bogaard, executive director of Pasadena Heritage, a community preservation group, said she does not know if Carey’s offer was serious.
