The House Scripps Built : A Family and a Community Struggle to Preserve Their Heritage

After 80 glorious years--many of them at the fore of Altadena social and cultural life--the Scripps Hall mansion stands empty, its fate controlled by neither the family that built it nor the community that is staging a last-ditch effort to save it.

For the better part of two years, the mansion has been caught in a private tug-of-war between a local home for the aged that owns and plans to sell the sprawling estate and members of the Scripps-Kellogg family who want it saved for historic and civic reasons.

In this 100-year-old community only recently awakened to its rich past, the issue has assumed the dimensions of a family squabble, laden with emotion and irony and four generations of Altadena history.

The old-age facility, which is selling the mansion against the wishes of the Scripps-Kellogg family, also bears the family name. The Altadena board and care facility, known as Scripps Home, is located a mile from the mansion and was founded in 1913 by W. A. Scripps. A native of England, W. A. Scripps also built and lived out his life in the four-story, red-brick mansion.

Family members have contributed heavily to a $12-million endowment fund that is used to operate the old-age home. The 24-member board that oversees the facility has always seated a member of the family.

“I see an absolute irony,” said William Crowe Kellogg, Scripps’ great-grandson and a board member who is leading the fight to preserve the family home. “My grandfather served for almost 50 years on the board. My aunts have given thousands and thousands of dollars over the years.”

The Scripps Home for the aged received the mansion and its rolling five-acre grounds and tennis court eight years ago as a charitable gift from Kellogg’s parents, William Scripps Kellogg, who has since died, and his wife, Alice.

Priced at $850,000

Administrators of the old-age home say Kellogg placed no restrictions on the gift and was aware of the possibility that it might be sold. They said selling the mansion, which is listed on the market for about $850,000, would provide the most benefit to the facility, which offers housing and full medical service to 140 elderly people--many of whom are poor--from Altadena and Pasadena.

Once a private matter debated behind closed doors, the sale of Scripps Hall has generated concern throughout this unincorporated foothill community of 43,000.

In an attempt to preserve the stately mansion as a community and cultural center, the Town Council recently formed a heritage committee that is working closely with the members of the Scripps-Kellogg family, a patrician clan that made its fortunes in the newspaper business before endowing Scripps College in Claremont and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla.

But the committee’s grass-roots efforts may have come too late. In November, a few weeks after committee members collected and delivered hundreds of signatures to the board asking that the mansion not be sold, the owners of Scripps Hall began negotiating with a number of prospective buyers. A sale now appears imminent.

“Altadena has a great need to preserve its history and a need for a community center,” said Dotie Bridal, chairman of the heritage committee. “Both of those goals could be realized in Scripps Hall. It would be a shame to lose it.”

The mansion, located at 209 E. Mariposa St., is understated despite being built on a road once known as “Millionaires’ Row” because of the wealthy and famous men such as author Zane Grey and hotel builder, Col. G. G. Green who moved there at the turn of the century. Like the community’s pioneers, the home is more practical than elegant, with its Oriental influences, leaded glass windows and sweeping staircase. Although empty for the past several years since the elder Kelloggs moved permanently to La Jolla, it remains in good condition.

An impulsive and stubborn man, family members said, Kellogg made the decision to deed the family estate to the old-age home in one day. He did not tell his three children, who were under the impression that the home would be given to them upon his death.

“My father made this quick, rather hasty decision and then he began to reflect upon it,” said William Crowe Kellogg. “I think he felt he made a mistake and feared the home would be torn down and the property developed.”

Kellogg acknowledged that his father gave the estate to the old-age home free of conditions. But he argues that board members are legally obligated to maintain and not sell the mansion because of a subsequent gift made by his father. This second gift, a maintenance fund, was given to the board with the expressed intention that it be used to maintain and preserve the mansion in its present state, Kellogg said.

The maintenance fund, which was given to the board a few months after title to the mansion was conveyed, now stands at $365,000.

Maintenance Fund Set Up

“My father feared that the burden of upkeep would force the board to sell the home to developers, so he established a maintenance fund with the help of my aunts,” Kellogg said.

“The moment the board accepted the maintenance fund, they put a different perspective on the whole matter,” he said. “They had only one reason for accepting the fund: to maintain the home as my father wanted.”

Kellogg cites considerable correspondence between his father and board members in which his father expressed his desire that the family estate be maintained and used for cultural, civic and social purposes.

In several letters written to Kellogg and given to The Times, board members and the administrator of the old-age home state their intentions of remaining faithful to Kellogg’s wishes.

“They led my family to believe that the acceptance of the maintenance fund was for the perpetuation of the family home,” Kellogg said. “My father would have never imagined that they would now be selling the home by choice.”

Said Board Free to Sell

Jim Graunke, administrator of the Scripps Home, acknowledged that his letters to the family held out the possibility that the home would not be sold and would be used for civic and cultural purposes. But he said he also made it clear that the board was free to sell the estate and would pursue that option as well.

He said the acceptance of the maintenance fund in no way changed the nature of the gift.

“There was never any promise on our part that we would keep the home,” Graunke said. “The option to sell was clearly laid out and acknowledged at the time the gift was made.”

Kellogg, 65, a geophysicist by profession who manages the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club as part of the family estate, said he initially viewed the dispute as a private matter to be dealt with discreetly behind the closed doors of the board.

Delay Turned Down

Last November, in a 12-9 vote, the board turned down Kellogg’s request to delay the sale for a year while he explored the possibility of setting up a foundation to administer the home and operate it as community and cultural center. He said if such an option were pursued, the old-age home would retain title to the mansion.

“The practicality of converting it might not be there. But I’m not willing to accept that on intuition,” Kellogg said. “One year is all I need to determine if it’s feasible. One year is not going to hurt them a particle. The real estate has appreciated all this time.”

Since the vote, Kellogg and his wife, Desdy, have supported the public efforts of the Town Council’s Heritage Committee. Kellogg has asked his attorney to review the legal theories involved in the case but would not say if he is considering any legal action.

He said he still believes the board, which seats only two members who reside in Altadena, is not fully aware of the issues.

‘I Don’t Like Pushing People’

“I’ve been trying to persuade them for two years,” he said. “I don’t like pushing people around, although I’m capable of doing so. I’d much prefer that they come to that conclusion after being given the full facts.”

Graunke said the board considered Kellogg’s proposal for more than a year before rejecting it as unfeasible. He said any additional time would not serve the interests of the old-age home.

“If the property was used as a community center, it’s possible that it would become a drain on our resources,” he said. “We’re not in that business. Our business is taking care of older people. The board feels our primary responsibility is to use our resources in the best way to benefit our residents.”

Graunke said the board is negotiating with several people who have made offers to buy the estate. He would not identify the prospective buyers but said many of them have expressed plans to keep the home while developing the five-acre grounds.

‘Sensitive to Community’

“There’s no reason to believe the family home will be torn down,” he said. “We would prefer to sell it to someone who would keep the home. We are sensitive to the community of Altadena and its needs.”

Desdy Kellogg thinks developing the grounds while retaining just the home would mean a great loss to the community.

“This is a very historic place. The home, the grounds, what went on inside are all part of Altadena’s history,” said Kellogg, during a tour of the home. “To tear down any of it would be a loss to this community’s heritage.”

“Bill and I haven’t inherited any money. He’s a professional man who’s worked hard all his life. But if we could, I’d love to buy this place and turn it over to the community. We just don’t have those resources.”

But her husband remembers the servants and cooks, the afternoons playing tennis and the stories of John Muir and other famous Californians who visited the mansion during the time of his forebears, a time that Altadenans fondly refer to as the “golden years.”

“It’s an historic site of early pioneers. I was raised there, learned to play tennis and enjoyed so many wonderful things,” William Kellogg said. “It’s a way of life that doesn’t exist anymore.”