A cherished member of the family for 95 years
This Pasadena home was built as two houses next to each other in 1910. They were combined into one residence in 1918.
The same family has owned the home for 95 years. It has included such community leaders as Mrs. Everett Wellington Brooks, for whom Brookside Park, home of the Rose Bowl, is named. She was the wife of a wealthy manufacturer from Chicago who retired to Pasadena after spending several winters there. He and his son-in-law, Robert Ladd Gifford, had the home built as a “double residence” for their families.
They asked architect Frederick L. Roehrig to design the home in the late 19th century English Arts and Crafts style. Roehrig designed several nearby homes and public buildings, including the Green Hotel, distinguished for its 1898 Moorish-style section featuring cylindrical turrets and ornate cornices.
About this house: Samuel W. Upton, a Pasadena contractor, built the house at a cost of $35,000 -- a hefty sum for the time. The average house could be constructed then for less than $5,000.
Asking price: $4.6 million
Size: The home has 11 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms in slightly more than 13,000 square feet.
The manicured grounds amount to 1.7 acres.
Features: The home is filled with leaded and art glass, terrazzo tile, mahogany, redwood and white cedar. The living room has a beamed ceiling and a wood-burning fireplace. There are five more fireplaces in the house, which also has a billiards room, a library, two kitchens, two butler’s pantries, two laundries, a detached workshop, two basements, a sleeping porch and two upstairs sunrooms.
Where: The home is in the Oak Knoll neighborhood of Pasadena.
Listing agent: John Fairbanks and Marion Fairbanks of Coldwell Banker Previews, Pasadena, (626) 398-9000.
To submit a candidate for Home of the Week, please send color interior and exterior images and captions on CD and a brief description of the house, including what makes the property unusual, to Ruth Ryon, Real Estate Section, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Questions can be sent to homeoftheweek@latimes.com.
