The Leonis Adobe
The Leonis Adobe was built in stages; however, who and when the original portion of it was built is still under research. At first, there appears to have been a simple adobe farmhouse with whitewashed walls. This original portion of the house is believed to date back to 1844, and if this is so it is almost certain that Leonis did not build it. In any event, about 1880 he extensively enlarged and remodeled the house into the gracious Monterey style mansion you see today, and he and Espirtu moved into it and made it their home.
The building of this project was not an easy one. A great deal of research and studying along with skillful work went to the restoration of this mansion. But there is one or two exceptions. For instance, the present living room was originally two rooms, a parlor and living room, separated by a wall just to the right of the front door. The wall was removed around 1925 and has not bee replaced in order to provide a large room for group meetings.
When Leonis enlarged and remodeled the house, he sheathed the outside front of the house, and paneled the interior living room walls with wood. He walled-in the rear and northeast side porches, both upstairs and downstairs, to add more rooms. He added the Victorian fretwork balcony along the front of the house, and other enhancing details and features. The bright colors that highlight the house were discovered under many layers of paint, and presumably were the ones Leonis used. The paint used to repaint the house was carefully matched to achieve the exact feeling the Leonis Adobe brings.
The present living room, the family portraits hang on the wall where they used to hang, but the mirror originally hung where the dining room door now is. This door was cut through in the 1920’s. Before that, as in many of the California houses, one walked along the porch to reach the dining room.
Both the kitchen and the dining room are board and batten construction added during Leonis’ remodeling. The adobe dirt floors were discovered under modern wood flooring that has been removed. The fireplace in the dining room and stove in the kitchen provided the only heat in the house. The stove, while not original to the house, carries a date of 1875.
Out side, at the northwest corner of the house, a large Mexican “beehive oven” with a shed over it for protection from the rain, was used to bake bread.
...lling device, which was opened up usually in the summertime, the ceiling however was covered in fabric from wall to wall.
The Carrillo Adobe is in a dire situation. It has not only fallen into disrepair from the many years of weather and use by so many individuals, but by visitors and citizens have been less that kind and considerate of its age and the prominence that it deserves. After Carrillo’s death her house was given to three of her daughters, Marta, Juana, and Felicidad. Then her belongings were distributed between all of her children. In the first decade after her death her different children each occupied the house at different times. One of her daughters, Juana and her husband ran the home as a tavern. They then converted the adobe into the first post office in the town of Santa Rosa. After her daughters no longer had a need for the adobe it was turned into a trading post where numerous individuals...
The house stood between Broadway and Fourth Avenue, and it looked like all the other New York brownstones. It was narrow-fronted, with a high stoop. A formal parlor opened into a narrow hall, with the dining room at the rear. The master bedroom and nursery were one floor up, with three more bedrooms one level higher. In contrast to the other houses, however, it had a deep porch, or piazza, at the rear of the third floor level. It had been a bedroom before the Roosevelts tore out the wall and made it an open-air playroom. The house had been a wedding present from Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt, or CVS, to his son and daughter-in-law.
family was they had three-rooms which were placed on a hill facing the "Big House". The
And with good reason! The sheer luxury of the property is overwhelming. The mansion has 34 beautifully decorated rooms that boast 15th through 19th century art and furnishings. While blending together harmoniously, there is nothing subtle about the elaborately carved furniture, voluminous drapes, ornate carvings, and the richly colored tiles. The intent is to convey the excesses of wealth, which it does, albeit with grace and elegance.
The house was built in 1917 by William Bowers Bourn, a San Francisco millionaire whose wealth came from gold mining . Construction of the large property took 2 years, while it took 12 years to build the formal gardens, which were completed in 1929. Its name was created by Bourn, using the first 2 letters from the key words of his credo: “Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.” After the deaths of Bourn and his wife in 1936, it was purchased by William Roth, another prominent San Franciscan, who pr...
A monumental staircase is the centerpiece of entrance hall and creates a barrier to a direct view of the courtyard. The stairway, although grandiose, is modeled after oversized wooden stairs with a “wealth of spindles and paneling from his earlier Shingle style houses.” The oversized arched windows on the wall facing Exeter Street, bring sunlight into this space, and have a radiant effect on the walls covered with variegated Sienna marble (especially quarried for the library). At the intermediate landing, there are two hand carved couchant lions, which are the work of Louis Saint-Gaudens. Above this stairway a spherical chandelier of bronze and cut glass hangs from the richly coffered ceiling. As you climb up the stairs towards the main landing, the paintings of Puvis De Chavannes representing poetry, philosophy, and science adorn the wall. These murals are painted
The Monticello mansion lies atop a mountain which bears its namesake, the home is surrounded by an elaborate garden which grows an unrivaled variety of plants. The complex possesses forty-three rooms is 110 feet long, 90 feet wide, and over forty feet high in some areas. This combined with the thirteen feet thick walls, culminate to offer roughly eleven thousand square feet of living space. The home possesses an iconic octogonal dome over its central portion, numerous skylights, and an altogether unique design, reflecting the innovative mind of its owner. Monticello borrows heavily from Roman and Renaissance styles, with some influence from Enlightenment France as well, culminating in a masterpiece of engineering. The home is symmetrical
It will discuss the different types of dwellings throughout recorded human history from the perspective of how art and culture influences building design. This will fulfill my own curiosity to understand the different influences on homebuilding and design over the years and how people have dealt with these changes.
It began as a country house designed by James Hoban, but throughout time, it had renovations, expansions and many additions used to enhance it to fit with the standards of the president and the ever-changing America and finally built up to of the White House that is there today. But what stuck with the original plan and is still apparent today, is the use of Greek Architecture within the plans of James Hoban. “Hoban's Georgian design reached back to Roman and Greek styles. His plan called for a rectangular, threestory structure containing thirty-six rooms. It featured a tripped roof, a balustrade, and large symmetrically arranged windows with alternating triangular and curved pediments”
In conclusion, the walls and ceilings are relatively consistent throughout the subsequent periods. Wood paneling, gilding, painting, and tapestries were the most popular wall applications. Gilded, carved, and plaster ceilings were the most prominently used during the periods. Craftsmanship was emphasized, and there was an overall lightness of design, especially in comparison to comparative English periods. Walls and ceilings were a vital part of the design, because these areas were the most emphatic areas of the room. Furniture was important but lackluster when contrasted by the gorgeous delineation of forms surrounded the rooms. Perhaps the greatest takeaway from these periods is the emphasis on the seventh plane, something so minutely considered in modern times.
To of the most striking descriptions used to portray the house are those of the windows and the fissure. He describes the windows as “vacant [and] eye-like.” With this description the narrator effectively anthropomorphizes the house. Thus he almost gives the status of character to the house. The other outstanding description is that of the fissure. It is described as “a barely perceptible fissure, which [extends] from the roof of the building in front, [making] its way down the wall in a zigzag direction, until it [becomes] lost in the sullen waters of the tarn.” It is interesting to note that the narrator spends so much time describing a feature that he describes as barely perceptible.
The original residence, built from 1631 to 1634, was mainly a hunting lodge, by Louis XII and private withdraw for Louis XIII and his family. The palace was transmuted into an excessive complex, which has English and French gardens and each feature of its
the house I am surrounded by four columns leading to the most elegant doors I
The house was old. My grandmother lived in it most of her life. The house was