Four Homes With a Viewer on La Quinta Tour
There’s nothing that brings out the snoop in all of us like a chance to get a look behind the walls of fabulous private homes. And a charity fund-raising tour of those homes allows you to glimpse the lives and possessions of the people who live in them for a good cause.
Recently, I went on the second home tour presented by the 2-year-old La Quinta Arts League.
Jean Garland, president of the league, said that the money from the home tour and an art show co-sponsored with the La Quinta Arts Foundation later this month will go for college art scholarships for talented kids and sponsor art classes and art-related field trips and lectures in public schools.
The first residence we saw belongs to Max Eckert. He bought two small original La Quinta bungalows and wrapped a hacienda around them. The entrance is through a spacious courtyard. There’s a crosscut saw hanging over the front door with a woodsy West Virginia landscape painted on it.
The original kitchen has been expanded into a great room that is a chef’s delight. Over the pantry door is a vintage 1890 20-foot-long wooden “Groceries” sign from a store. The house is full of folk art. The doors have three-color bands painted around them. Iron works stand side by side with wooden sculptures and ceramic figures.
There’s a swimming pool fed by water flowing over beautiful tile work. Among old-growth palms and cascading bougainvillea, 150 prize rosebushes grow. A gazebo that looks like a bird cage is guarded by an ancient Indian weather vane.
The day of the tour, Eckert was having a dinner party for 40 people. All of the cooking was being done in the garage so it wouldn’t be in the way. He was the most composed and gracious host I have ever seen, with his house filled with strangers and his dinner hour approaching.
The second house on the tour is owned by David and JoAnn McGrath Jr. It’s a large house of spacious rooms and interesting content.
A garden gate of natural wood stands to the left of the front door, and there are carved birds perched on the fence.
Inside, most of the light fixtures are black California wrought iron, hung with bells. A manzanita branch holds bright-colored Southwest clay figures along with delicate paper globes hand-painted with Southwest designs. In a gallery of Cahuilla Indian artifacts, terra-cotta pots and ancient woven baskets are displayed in lighted niches.
A wide terrace leads to a pool, Jacuzzi and barbecue. The view is of the La Quinta Country Club golf course.
The third house we visited is known as La Quinta Farms. A circular drive curves from the huge wrought-iron gates to a house with 10,000 square feet under its red tile roof. The Santa Rosa Mountains tower in front of anyone sitting in the glass-walled living room.
William and Pat Zacker are the owners. The Zackers are horse people, and the paddocks with their beautiful horses surround the house. Competition awards are prominently displayed. The living room fireplace features a picture of a polo player done on painted tile.
The fourth house is on the Stadium Golf Course at the Professional Golf Assn. The owners are Art and Mardell Brandt.
The house is contemporary, unlike the Southwestern ones we saw first. A vertical marble wall makes one side of the living room; seven textured brass pillars form the opposite wall. The house is built in a circle, done in grays and mauves with accents of black and deep purple. It is constructed in circles, arcs and arches for a beautiful flow. Glass vases stand in lighted niches throughout.
Outside, the pool has a swim-up bar and an elevated Jacuzzi.
The home tour netted $15,000 for the foundation’s arts education programs, and more funds will come in from the art show, to be open from 10 a.m. to dusk daily next Thursday through March 22 at La Quinta Park.
Garland told me that the group has already planned two of the houses we can see next year. I wonder if she’d like to use mine. I have my father’s map of Ireland done on parchment and one of my great-grandmother’s parlor side chairs. It’s viciously uncomfortable but authentic. And in the guest room, I have a hooked rug I made when our son Timothy had chickenpox 40 years ago.
