The House That Elegance and Grandeur Built

The other day I once again enjoyed my social event of the year as a luncheon guest of the Pasadena Junior Philharmonic Committee--the Junior Phils--in the 1995 Pasadena Showcase House.

Every spring the Phils acquire a large Pasadena house, bring in decorators and landscapers to completely remodel the house and garden, and show it publicly to raise funds for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and junior musical programs.

This year, the showcase house is a mansion in the true sense of that word. Built in 1929, it was the dream of an English boy who had sailed around the Horn at the age of l4. Fifty years later, after amassing his fortune, he hired famed architect Paul Revere Williams, the first African American to belong to the American Institute of Architects, to design what he meant to be his castle.

I am indebted to Janice Lambert, this year’s showcase historian, for her charming history of the house built for Jack Pease Atkin on the eve of the country’s Great Depression.

Atkin chose a 3.5-acre site on the west bank of the Arroyo Seco for his castle. Atkin told Williams he expected to spend half a million dollars on it. “In those days,” Williams later recalled, “that was hard to do.” He complied, however, by a lavish use of the most expensive materials, such as oak, marble and leaded glass.

The 12,000-square-foot manor house stands on a knoll overlooking the Arroyo, the Colorado Street Bridge and the snow-capped San Gabriel mountains. It is built of English brick. A slate roof and wrought iron gates suggest the opulence to be found beyond the massive oak front door.

Atkin, his wife and their daughter, Clarabel, moved into the house the year the stock market crashed. The loss of fortunes meant that many of Pasadena’s largest labor group, domestic servants, were unemployed.

Atkin rented his property to movie studios to finance a soup kitchen that fed many of the jobless. As a result of such citizen projects, Pasadena was rated in the 1930s as America’s most desirable city.

“The manor’s starring role in such movies as ‘Topper,’ ‘The Bells of St. Mary’s’ and ‘Sweet Bird of Youth,’ ” Lambert wrote in her history, “has made it a familiar and beautiful landmark to the thousands who have glimpsed a vision of what was once a young man’s dream.”

We lunched at a table for 10 in the living room, the dining room being still in an unfinished state. Though I have predicted every year that the houses would not be finished in time for its public opening, it looked to me this time as if it would. “Don’t say that,” said Junior Phil Judy Frank. “You’ll jinx us.”

Lunch was a cobb salad served with champagne and white wine (provided by local establishments) and a huge piece of chocolate mousse pie. “I love chocolate,” confessed Anne Scott, the Junior Phil on my right, as my plate was placed in front of me.

I told her that I didn’t eat much chocolate and invited her to help herself to mine. By the time a waitress came to pick up my plate, half of the pie was gone. Scott told her, “No--we aren’t finished yet.”

I wondered what it would have been like to grow up in such a house. Would I have become a better young man? Or a snob? Looking at the empty bookshelves in the library, I thought I would like to have grown up with the books they must have held. In reality, I realized, they wouldn’t have held as many books as the shelves in my own house. (Remember, my wife alone has 1,000 cookbooks, though they are seldom consulted.)

Since Atkin’s death in 1938, the house has been occupied variously by three families. It is presently up for sale, but I wouldn’t expect it to go for the half-million Atkin expected it to cost.

Visitors often wonder what happens to the homes’ owners during the showcase period. Often the house is up for sale and they have moved out, as in the present case. Otherwise, the owners must move out during the remodeling and the public showing, removing all their possessions.

Our house will never be a showcase. We could not possibly remove all our possessions without having a giant bonfire.

The Pasadena Showcase House of Design was started in 1965, making it the oldest showcase event in the nation. The first year, 7,500 guests attended. That grew to 40,000 in 1994.

The committee has donated $5 million to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and has financed several youth music education programs.

The house and garden tour this year opens on Sunday and runs through May 14. It includes a stop at a restaurant and marketplace, and entertainment. For information, call (818) 792 4661.

Free parking for the shuttle bus is at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, Lot 1. No parking at the house.

* Jack Smith’s column is published Mondays.