Portico with a pedigree
IT took two fine architects -- the duo credited with the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Garden’s Beaux Arts mansion -- to design this Pasadena house in 1910.
Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey were partners for only a few years. At the tail end of their partnership, dentist Romeyn M. Paine decided to have a house built.
Paine and his wife, Ida Minnie, lived in Chicago until he retired, and they moved to Pasadena in 1907. The old-world architectural style of Hunt and Grey appealed to the couple. Indeed, after the home was completed, the Paines liked it so much that they lived there until they died -- he in 1945 at age 93; she in 1946 at age 86.
The stately, gated home, a combination of Craftsman and English Revival styles, has a grand entry foyer with a sweeping staircase; a formal dining room, a butler’s pantry off the kitchen and bedrooms upstairs. There are large windows, French doors, treetop views, crown moldings, tall ceilings and mahogany doors. The yard is shaded by a mature magnolia tree.
New bathrooms and a finished basement were added recently when the house was restored and updated.
The house cost $11,000 to build -- a hefty sum at a time when an average-sized house and lot could be purchased for about $3,000, according to Tim Gregory, the Pasadena-based building biographer.
About this house: The property is potentially eligible for listing on the California Register of Historical Resources because of its design by regionally significant architects and its good state of preservation. Hunt was known for designing the Occidental College campus and the Ambassador Hotel. Grey designed the Pasadena Playhouse, L.A.’s Wattles Mansion and garden in Hollywood and the Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands.
Asking price: $2,395,000
Size: Five bedrooms and six bathrooms in close to 4,000 square feet.
Features: Pool, spa, patio in private yard; remodeled kitchen; a front terrace accented by Doric columns. The master-bedroom suite has a sitting room or office, a fireplace and a walk-in closet. The house has new plumbing and dual-zone central air conditioning and heating.
Where: The property is on a tree-lined street in Pasadena’s Madison Heights neighborhood, near the Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hotel and South Lake Avenue boutiques and restaurants.
Listing agent: Carol Chua, Coldwell Banker Previews, (626) 844-2222, South Lake Avenue, Pasadena office.
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