San Marino Estate District Offers Peace and Quiet--at a Price : * Neighborhoods: Good life means huge homes, dense foliage. City laws ensure area keeps its expansive charm.
The leaves don’t fall from the trees in the Estate District of San Marino.
Or so it would seem in the immaculate neighborhood--the creme de la creme of a city whose name is synonymous with much of the West’s long-established wealth.
From its winding streets, all that’s visible of the larger landed estates are greenery and fences (never chain-link--that’s verboten ). House and grounds are hidden from view by dense shrubbery and hordes of trees--native California live oak, cigar-shaped Italian cypress, drooping Chinese elm, magnolia, pine, palm and more. They seem unusually thick with foliage. The city regulates the degree of their trimming.
Lesser properties, too, are often obscured. Now and then, the dark wood trim of a castle-like Tudor mansion or the mission tile roof of a Mediterranean villa peek out above the greenery--or can be glimpsed through the iron bars of a locked gate.
As delineated by the city, the Estate District--one of eight residential sections of San Marino, runs west from the Huntington Library to the city line, which also defines the district on the north. Its southern border follows Rosalind Road and a portion of Oak Grove Avenue.
Of its 144 homes, five are landed estates with grounds close to or over five acres. Lot sizes range from 15,000 square feet to more than 236,000, but the average falls between 40,000 and 60,000 square feet.
Although many of the wealthy residents of those estates are virtually unknown to the world--there remains a core whose names are household words, such as Winchell of Winchell’s Donuts and Hughes of the supermarket chain.
The oldest estate in the district, according to owner-occupants William and Constantina Oldknow, is an Italian villa on Virginia Road, built in 1913. Despite the house’s ample 13,000 square feet, the Oldknows throw large parties on the tennis court, which gets floored and tented, even including a crystal chandelier. The couple bought the two-acre estate about 30 years ago for $150,000.
“Today, nothing in the area sells for under a million,” said William Oldknow, a retired drive-in movie magnate.
The largest recent sale in the neighborhood was that of the Lady Crocker estate once owned by the late Lady Ruth Crocker. She was a member of Los Angeles Chandler family who married British baronet Sir William Charles Crocker. Realtors say the five-acre estate sold 2 1/2 years ago for about $8 million.
To the property’s live-in Finnish housekeeper, the estate is the neighborhood. “We can’t even see the neighbors,” she quipped.
“Only the gardeners know the number of trees,” she said. “We have avocado, persimmon, apricot, peach, plum and, of course, citrus trees. We make homemade jam and lots of lemonade.”
The housekeeper, who asked that her name not be used, also cooks, arranges flowers and manages the house and its help. When she came to the estate 16 years ago, she said, it was still owned by the widow, Lady Crocker.
“We had three maids then,” the housekeeper said. “Now we have two--an upstairs and a downstairs maid. If you have to be a maid, this is a good place to be one. It’s so peaceful and green--like a country or farm.”
The current owner, a Los Angeles investor, said he chose the house because he loves old things, and the 11,720-square-foot English manor house had barely been touched since it was built in 1927.
“Myron Hunt designed it,” he said. “The architectural detailing is extraordinary. There are hand-carved limestone columns and imported Italian mantels with 17th-Century gold leaf trim.”
He added that the house has no dishwasher or garbage disposal.
More up-to-date is the Mudd estate on Oak Grove Avenue, next to the Huntington Library. The 5.3-acre estate is owned by USC, which maintains it as the president’s residence in accordance with the will of Seeley Greenleaf Mudd, a medical educator and philanthropist. As a not-unpleasant obligation that comes with the 12,633-square-foot American Colonial mansion, the president also is expected to host large social functions there.
When USC’s new president, Steven B. Sample, moved in to town with his wife and two children, the university sought a variance from a city law that prohibits upstairs kitchens. But city officials turned the request down, fearing it might set a “detrimental” precedent in the neighborhood.
The area’s strict zoning dates from 1913 when San Marino became a city. The founding fathers wanted to protect the city from overzealous developers, and many of the laws they enacted remain in effect today.
The current City Council continues to watch over the ultra-prestigious northwest area. Last February, it acted to protect the area permanently by outlining it and zoning it R1-1E (the E standing for estate). The zoning increased the minimum allowable new lot size from 30,000 to 60,000 square feet (1.4 acres). Lots currently less than 60,000 square feet may stay unchanged. The intent of the ordinance is to limit future splitting of lots.
“There’s a profit to be made in buying and subdividing lots of that size,” Vice Mayor Eugene Dryden said.
Most residents of the area approve of the measure. They prize the neighborhood for the personal privacy and anonymity it affords. That’s largely why they’re there.
There are exceptions, however, and a notable one is Susan McMillan, 42, an anti-abortion activist and spokeswoman. McMillan often has media representatives in her home--a 7,200-square-foot, five-bedroom Colonial mansion (maids’ rooms don’t count) that she and her husband, William, built six years ago. But she also cherishes the undisturbed togetherness that the neighborhood offers her family, including the couple’s two young daughters and their four Bejan dogs
“This is a place where busy people live,” she said. “When I’m home with my family, I don’t want to chitchat with the neighbors.”
As for children, she said, the neighborhood has few. Nevertheless, the quiet predictability and sense of pride make the area “a little bit of heaven” for McMillan.
Possibly the newest arrival in town isn’t really new at all.
Three months ago, Michael Plesset, a 55-year-old computer entrepreneur, moved into the relatively tiny 3,800-square-foot, two-bedroom (plus maid’s room) house on Orlando Road that he and his three sisters inherited from their father, a former Caltech scientist. The elder Plesset bought the land from Caltech, which had used it for botanical greenhouses.
“When my parents built the house in 1966,” Michael Plesset said, “the trees on the property were saved. The enormous number and variety of trees are a luxury you just don’t get elsewhere.” Plesset said his parents never got to know the neighbors, but he added that when he goes out walking, they nod “hello,” just like in any neighborhood.
“I suppose you tend to recognize each other over time,” he said.
