 |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
 |
Location
“El Fureidis” In 1880, J. Waldron Gillespie, the scion of a wealthy
upstate New York family, began transforming thirty-three acres in what is now
Montecito and started an architectural and horticultural revolution. The
Gillespie gardens, with their Persian and European-inspired use of carefully
placed terraces and still-reflecting pools, inspired many later California
estates to break away from the eastern U.S. concept of landscaping, which in
essence was a broad sweep of lawn surrounded by a border of flowers. In 1901,
after 11 years of planting trees on his property (over 125 different varieties
of palm trees filled the sloping terrain), Mr. Gillespie hired on of the most
important architects of the day, a brilliant and romantic New Yorker by the name
of Bertram Goodhue, and took him on a year-long trip to study buildings and
gardens of Mediterranean Europe and Persia. They returned and built Santa
Barbara’s first Mediterranean villa and what was probably California’s most
spectacular gardens. “El Fureidis”, loosely translated “pleasure gardens”, was
completed in 1906. Obviously, to build such a place in a town dominated by
wooden, Victorian structures, Mr. Gillespie was considered out of the ordinary,
even eccentric (One present resident of Santa Barbara remembers Mr. Gillespie in
his later years as the first person to wear shorts in the Coral Casino.) His
most extraordinary act, however, was to hire Bertram Goodhue, who was noted
primarily for his designs of medieval gothic churches in the eastern U.S. “El
Fureidis” was one of only five houses that Mr. Goodhue designed during his
career (three in Santa Barbara, all still standing and occupied). While Mr.
Gillespie and others contributed to the design of the house, much of its
sophistication is attributable to Mr. Goodhue, who is also believed to be
responsible for certain inside detailing and the major part of the garden
design. Perhaps the most dramatic element of “El Fureidis” is the south
elevation of the home and its attended Persian water gardens. These water
gardens are frequently credited with being the finest examples of Persian
gardens outside of Persia. A succession of four quiet pools are terraced in a
cascading garden stepping down 70 feet linking the main home with the lower
casino. These still-pools mirror the highlights of the plain white cement walls,
iron grilled windows and lush foliage. Today, the pools of “El Fureidis”
continue to reflect a lasting monument to Montecito’s rich and illustrious past.
Facing this terrace is the one-story, symmetrical, south facade of the home,
columned with a bas-relief frieze depicting Arthur’s legendary Knights of The
Round Table sculpted by Lawrie and crowned by an entablature. The residence is
one of the founding estates in Santa Barbara’s exclusive enclave of Montecito,
and now in recent years has been renovated into a completely ingratiating and
convenient 21st-Century home.
"Featuring the best in Montecito real estate." |
|||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
