There is in wood something that stimulates the imagination, its
petalous sheen, sinuous grain, delicate shading that age may give to
even the commonest kind.  -- Charles S. Greene

Early in 1907, the Greenes entered the most demanding phase of their
careers.  News of their home designs had circulated widely in national
magazines since 1902, and potential clients of exceptional
discrimination and significant wealth continued to arrive in Pasadena
each winter to stay at the resort hotels.  Many decided to build
homes, either for winter use or retirement.  Several factors were
conducive to the Greenes' success during this period.  At thirty-eight
and thirty-seven, respectively, Charles and Henry were at the height
of their combined creative energies.  Charles had significantly
refined his approach to designing furniture, lighting fixtures, and
other decorative arts, and Henry made certain that the drafting staff
in the office could reliably reinterpret the challenging conceptual
sketches produced by his brother.  These were then converted into
precise, dimensioned drawings that guided the various craftsmen in
their work.  Henry also shepherded the less elaborate commissions in
and out of the office with skill and efficiency, helping to keep
finances afloat.

The Greenes had been working with Peter Hall since 1904, and the
relationship had become stronger through the next two years.  Charles
Greene had hired Peter Hall to execute the alterations to his own
house on Arroyo Terrace, and by late 1906 the Greenes had come to
enjoy and expect a high level of professionalism and craftsmanship
from the men employed by Hall.  Peter's quieter brother, John, a
cabinetmaker, offered the Greenes the competence and continuity to
reliably execute the furniture designs they submitted.  But more than
that, it seems that the Halls had also given the Greenes the
confidence to design with greater freedom.  Charles's dreams were no
longer constrained by the technical limitations of inconsistent or
inaccurate execution, as they had been in the past.  This allowed him,
as lead designer for the firm, to search his own creativity to an even
greater degree.  Increasingly progressive and artistic designs
resulted, stimulated largely by the individuals that Charles and Henry
Greene counted on (especially the Halls and Emil Lange) to transform
their sketches and specifications into houses and objects of
remarkable beauty and soundness.

Robert Roe Blacker, a native of Brantford, Ontario, moved to Manistee,
Michigan, by the age of twenty-one and made a fortune in the booming
lumber industry during his nearly forty-year career.  His second wife,
Nellie Celeste Canfield Blacker, was also wealthy, being the eldest
daughter of John Canfield, another successful Manistee lumber baron.
In 1906, at age sixty, Robert Blacker and his wife retired to
Pasadena, where they commissioned the nationally known team of Myron
Hunt and Elmer Grey to design a large residence for them on
five-and-a-half acres of land in the exclusive, but as yet sparsely
developed Oak Knoll tract.  Oak Knoll had been subdivided in 1886
during the land boom that followed the opening of rail service from
the Midwest.  It had been the first Pasadena neighborhood with streets
laid out relative to the natural contours of the terrain, an idea
pioneered by Frederick Law Olmsted in the Chicago suburb of Riverside,
Illinois.  The land boom was followed by a slump, however, before any
Oak Knoll parcels were sold. Oak Knoll stood empty -- save for grazing
sheep -- until 1905, when real estate developer William R. Staats
joined railroad magnate Henry E. Huntington to try again, this time
during a stronger land market.  Blacker was one of the first to
purchase along the winding, treelined streets. His was the most
prominent site, a peninsula jutting into the middle of the development
surrounded by the tract's principal streets.  In February 1907, in its
twenty-second annual exhibition catalogue, the Architectural League of
New York published a perspective rendering of the proposed "Residence
and Garden for Mr. R. R. Blacker," submitted by Hunt and Grey.  As
viewed from the southeast, it depicts the rear elevation of a large,
stuccoed villa surrounded by formal walled gardens with pathways, a
pond, and even a mission-style arch over a stile that was to give
access to the east lawn.  The interior plan of the first floor had
been published in Architectural Record as early as October 1906.  By
the following month, however, the Greene and Greene name appeared on
the survey sheets, indicating that Mr. Blacker had released Hunt and
Grey and named new architects for the project.

The Blackers' site, like the Robinson site, was far bigger than those
to which the Greenes were accustomed.  Charles Greene had dreamed of
creating an estate on this scale, as evidenced by the "Proposed
Dwelling for W. B. T." he submitted to the architectural competition
at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.  The Blacker
project was real, however, and would give the Greenes many
opportunities to push their talents to a new level.  They chose to
site the house in the northwest quadrant of the property, on high
ground near the corner of Hillcrest and Wentworth avenues, west of
Hunt and Grey's originally proposed site.  The Greenes' positioning
allowed for sweeping views down from the house toward the lower
reaches of the lot, and presented numerous opportunities for dramatic
landscaping. Most notable was the Greenes' plan to create a rock-lined
pond -- complete with a footbridge to a small island -- planted
generously with lotuses, papyrus, lilies, and other water-loving
plants.  Indeed, the Indian lotus (Nelumbium speciosum) would become
the decorative thematic identity within the main residence itself. The
initial landscape scheme introduced fully mature trees as well as new
plants, striking a balance that created a showcase garden from the
beginning, and the Blackers' landscape was a visible feature from
nearly every part of the house.  The front entry was placed on axis
with clear-glazed french doors at the far end of the entry hall, so
that the view to the south was immediately seen upon entering the
house. Along this line of sight, native palm trees and low shrubs
flanked a swath of grass that terminated in a distant crescent of
trees at the bottom of the lot.  To the right, a wisteria-laden
pergola filtered the view toward the garage structure, a two-story
outbuilding (now enlarged into a private residence) that was linked by
a second pergola to a keeper's cottage, which was shrouded in climbing
roses. Beyond that, a delicate lath house, since demolished, was
placed near the southwest corner of the property to supply plants for
the vast grounds.  A third pergola, in the northeast sector of the
property, was designed and constructed in 1910 as a free-standing
garden retreat, and acted as a focal point along the cypress-lined
axis projecting east from the living-room terrace of the main house.
In total, the grounds comprised four distinct sectors: the house, with
its distinctive porte cochere, adjacent terraces, and sheltered rear
courtyard; the formal allee of palms and adjacent pergolas and
outbuildings to the south; the naturalistic pond area with its
free-form island, exotic plants, and nearby pergola; and finally, the
open, grassy, park-like area sloping to the southeast. Subdivided for
housing following Mrs. Blacker's death in 1947, the extensive original
gardens can be seen now only in photographs, and few remnants of the
original plantings remain.

Construction of the main residence commenced in late spring of 1907,
following completion of the outbuildings. Building contractors Dawson
and Daniels had been hired to construct the outbuildings and frame the
main house. It was the only time they would act as contractors to
Greene and Greene.  This firm, however, appears to have subcontracted
with many of Peter Hall's laborers, since the surviving wage log for
1907 shows William Issac Ott -- an associate of Peter Hall -- as
working on the Blacker site. Throughout April 1907, John Hall is also
listed.  Ott supervised an average weekly workforce of about a dozen
men, including his son Leslie, but during the busy week of April 13,
1907, a total of twenty-eight men worked full-time on the construction
site under Ott's supervision. Nine carried the title of carpenter, the
balance being masons, plasterers, plumbers, and laborers.  The
grading, foundation, sewer lines, framing, and exteriors occupied the
better part of a year to complete, after which Peter Hall was formally
engaged to execute the Blacker interiors. John Hall had also opened an
independent workshop in 1907 to accommodate the Greenes' furniture
commissions, but he would not be building the Blacker furniture until
1909, following completion of the Robinson, Bolton, and Gamble pieces.

In scale and quality, the Blacker house was unlike anything the
Greenes had ever undertaken. At their disposal was a seemingly
limitless budget. Equally important were Mr. Blacker's connections
within the lumber business, which made it possible for the Greenes and
the Halls to have access to the finest quality woods for framing,
interiors, and furniture.  This was critical to the future of the
firm, since the Greenes had had a potentially embarrassing problem
with twisted timbers on the entry portico of the Robinson house. With
the fundamental requirements on the Blacker house assured, the Greenes
set about designing the most elaborate masterpiece of their classic
style.  The elevations drew on basic forms they had developed in
earlier drawings for the Pitcairn, Ford, Irwin, and Cole houses, and
Charles Greene's own house had provided further opportunity to refine
the specific wood vocabulary to be used in the Blacker house. What
distinguishes the exterior most visibly is the porte cochere, a
titanic structure that rakes acutely toward the street, throwing off
balance the otherwise rational symmetry of the main mass.  The pier
supporting the end of the porte cochere is again resonant with Hopi
Kachina forms with timber "arms" and clinker-brick "body" and "legs."
Balancing the porte cochere is the northeast terrace, with an overhang
that extends from the corner of the east gable into the garden.  Both
the porte cochere and the terrace roof are deep projections echoed in
the overhangs of the eaves around the perimeter of the house. Exposed
rafters, purlins, and beams cast shifting shadows along the exterior
walls. On the rear of the house, the west balcony on the second level
promoted enjoyment of the garden views, though it was enclosed in 1914
to create a year-round interior space.  Because of the visible
position of the house within the Oak Knoll tract, no one elevation
could be considered less important than another; the service porch,
for example, was designed with detailing and sensitivity equal to the
other elevations. Mortise-and-tenon joints, scarf joints, butterfly
joints, iron straps and wedges, profiled beam ends, and sculpted
copper downspouts are all placed and executed with due respect for
their contribution to the total design, regardless of location.

One is prepared for the entry into a dimmer environment by the passage
under the robust timbers of the porte cochere. Past the leaded
art-glass doors, whose design suggests the rays of the sun, the
teak-paneled entry hall is subtly divided into three distinct
zones. Each is marked by a change in ceiling height or a change in the
orientation of overhead beams.  In the first zone, the low ceiling and
dim, golden ceiling light create an intimate and comfortable
transition to the second, a small reception area. Here,
Greene-designed furniture -- a teak bench, a cabinet, and a hanging
mirror -- were originally placed to serve family or visitors entering
or leaving the house. Distinct from this is the third zone, the main
body of the hall, where the overhead beams are at ninety degrees to
those in the initial entry area.  For the Blackers, the main hall
served as a vast, light-filled sitting room with a full complement of
furnishings, including a second cabinet surmounted by a telephone box,
a settle with an adjustable back, "Morris" chairs, a library table,
and small footstools.  A tall, pagoda-like teak lantern with panels of
intricately leaded iridescent glass hangs from the center of the hall,
while its smaller counterparts hang from beams in the corners, all
casting a soft glow. From here, the view of the palm allee to the
south could be enjoyed.

On the east side of the hall, the main staircase rises to a landing
alongside a triple-thickness baseboard panel whose gentle arcs flow
from riser to riser like a cascading stream. At the landing, a leaded
art-glass oriel window borrows exterior light through the design of a
grapevine that rises through a dense trellis structure in the lower
panels and climbs free of it in the upper casement panels.  Behind the
east wall of the stair-hall lies the living room, a mahogany-paneled
space from which a rich palette of colors glows. The fireplace is
surfaced with Grueby tiles in mauve, accented with burnt-red tile
chips in a modified tsuba shape. Six leaded art-glass and
mahogany-frame lanterns depicting lotuses and lilies hang by leather
straps from box beams on the ceiling.  Golden lotuses and lilies on
the ceiling catch reflected light from the lanterns, contrasting with
the matte olive-brown earthtone of the ceiling's background
color. Surrounding the room, a sculpted-relief frieze of lotuses is
covered entirely in golden metal leaf. Mahogany brackets and
truss-like trim pieces are applied to the course of the frieze as if
to bring a pergola-like structure indoors. 10 A bronzed "old copper"
fire screen, designed in 1914, is also embellished with lotuses, and
with handles cast in an abstracted cloud design similar to that
illustrated in the pages of Morse's Japanese Homes and Their
Surroundings. A richly inlaid desk (1908), music cabinet (1909), and
table lamp (1912) were designed for the room, along with sufficient
chairs and sofas to fill the large space.  To the east of the living
room, a broad terrace extends the living space outdoors. Illuminated
by large copper lanterns paneled in iridescent glass, the terrace is
paved in eight-inch terra-cotta tiles and edged with clinker bricks.
Overhead, large posts, beams, and trusses of Oregon pine support a
balcony roof above, and create a shaded outdoor room beyond the
northeast corner of the house. In the days when the original gardens
were intact, this terrace was one of the departure points for visits
to the east gardens, including the free-form lotus pond and the
pergola structure that lay beyond an avenue of lawn marked by potted
topiaries.  Through a narrow passage from the living room is situated
the formal guest room, a one-story pavilion with windows on three
sides for views of the pond, south garden, and inner court. Leaded
art-glass and mahogany lanterns and sconces shed soft, golden light
through a design of stylized flowers on the sides and an abstracted
step-pyramid on the front panels.  A full, tiled bath includes an
elaborate shower appliance and leaded, opalescent art-glass windows to
shed artistic, soft light and provide privacy. The Blackers, who later
became important benefactors of the California Institute of
Technology, would often accommodate visiting lecturers and professors
in this guest suite.

On the opposite side of the house, the dining area occupies the lower
level of the southwest wing. Extending like another pavilion into the
garden, these rooms receive daylight on three sides.  Removable glass
doors separate the breakfast room from the formal dining area without
blocking light from one to the other.  For large groups, the doors
could be removed and the breakfast and dining tables joined to seat
twelve. Leaded art-glass casement transoms in an abstracted
sun-with-clouds design enhance the intimate space of the breakfast
room, while bookmatched, vertical grain panels of mahogany line the
dining area.  Originally, cherry blossoms were painted onto the canvas
frieze (now missing), bringing a vision of nature indoors. In both the
dining and breakfast room, chandeliers of delicately perforated
mahogany with stained and leaded art-glass panels were suspended from
leather straps blocked with mahogany medallions in tsuba shapes.
Abstracted cloud, fish-scale, and butterfly forms decorate the bottom
panels.  The dining furniture, like that of the living room and entry
hall, has a distinct identity. A vertically oriented, carved pattern
of waves carries through chairs and sideboard, and square-plug inlays
of ebony, with vine-like twists of mother-of-pearl and metal wire,
stand proud of the surfaces. Echoes of these motifs appear in the
breakfast table and servers. The sideboard's drawer pulls float like
clouds on a background of wispy mahogany grain. Dark-green Grueby
fireplace tiles are accented with smaller rust-red and golden-yellow
squares.  In the upstairs guest bedroom, Rookwood field tiles with
decorative fragments of Grueby tile depict a climbing vine in the
fireplace. A riveted copper hood is chased in a design of cloud-like
smoke that rises in volcanic plumes from above the fire box below.
Throughout the house, the repetition of motifs symbolizing the
elements -- earth (vines), water (clouds and waves), and fire
(sun-like shapes) -- became fundamental to the decorative order that
emerged in the Greenes' work in 1907. The symbols would gain
increasingly deep spiritual significance for Charles Greene, and would
continue to appear in his work in the years to come.

While the Blacker outbuildings were under construction, the Greenes
were attempting to resolve a nearly year-long project to design a
house for Freeman A. Ford, vice-president of the Pasadena Ice Company.
Ford had come to the Greenes in the summer of 1906 to commission a
house to occupy a site north of his brother's property and immediately
south of his long-time family friends, Henry and Laurabelle Robinson.
In September 1906, the Greenes had presented their plans for a
distinctive courtyard house with a stucco finish and half-timbering on
the exterior walls of an upper-level sleeping porch, a treatment that
would have complemented the Robinson house exterior very well. Ford
requested another scheme, however, which was not presented until May
16, 1907.  The delay was probably the result of the substantial
previous design commitments the Greenes had made to the Blackers, the
Coles, and other clients.  By then, the Greenes had made significant
progress toward the mature state of their signature wood style, and
their second design for Mr. Ford exhibited a more even balance between
horizontal and vertical masses, and the articulation of structural
wood that had become their trademark style.  The design differed
significantly from the Blacker and Cole houses, however, because of
the dramatic site it was to occupy high above the Arroyo Seco. The
interim Ford design focused on maximizing opportunities to appreciate
the beauty of the arroyo by giving views to most of the interior
spaces on the west side of the house. On this elevation, the Greenes
designed the rooms with wide plate-glass windows, bands of casements,
and broad, deep balconies. This visually dramatic approach was
rejected, however, and the original, single-level courtyard scheme was
ultimately approved with only minor revisions. As constructed, the
house is unique within the Greenes' work. The plan relates nominally
to the 1903 Bandini courtyard house, but there is far greater
formality in the Ford design. The organization of the courtyard space
suggests a focus on privacy, rather than easy circulation or
hospitality. Opportunities for access from the interior to the
courtyard are more limited than in the Bandini plan (or compared with
historical casa de campo antecedents).  The Ford house sits well away
from the street on the eastern edge of the arroyo's escarpment.  The
driveway winds toward the high point of the site and curves gently to
meet the wide, brick entry stairs flanked by jardinieres and planter
boxes. Just past the top of the stairs, a covered pergola connects the
south wing of the house to the north, giving the visitor a sense of
entering the privacy of an inner court. As originally conceived, the
materials of the courtyard were hard and finished in light earthtone
colors, the ensemble producing an austere yet bright and open space.
The low surface of the original grey malthoid roof echoed the
reflective expanse of hardscape: tile pavers, brick steps, and planter
platforms, stucco exterior walls, and a pebble-dash fountain.  The
sheltering form of the deep eaves and exposed rafters, and the jeweled
color of the entry door, however, transformed the shady edges of the
court into an inviting sanctuary.

The distinctive ambience of this court may have been suggested by a
building that Charles Greene had seen during his visit to the
St. Louis Fair in 1904.  A photograph of the German pavilion, designed
by Joseph Maria Olbrich, was one of the first entries Charles made in
the St. Louis portion of his scrapbook, and shows an interior
courtyard fountain that compares closely with the Ford
courtyard. Several more illustrations of the interiors were included
on the following scrapbook pages.  Beyond the Ford court, through the
front door, an intimate entry hall acted as a small transitional
space. A rich palette of bright blue, green, and cream-colored glass
is arranged around the inner wooden members of the entry door in a
peacock-feather design that extends to the transom lights.  These
inner wooden members are in the form of a stylized human figure, so
that the panel of wood and glass together depicts a feathered,
anthropomorphic figure reminiscent of American Indian ceremonial
dancers. The Hopi tradition of the Butterfly Dance, in particular,
involves participants wearing a tableta, or flat headdress adorned
with feathers.  Behind the entry, a study was originally reached by
way of a passage on the right, from which a flight of stairs led to a
loft space. The loft and stairs were later removed and the ceiling
lowered to eliminate the study and create a deeper, but lower, entry
hall. To the left of the entry, steps lead down to the living room,
which is paneled in Port Orford "white" cedar.  A smooth, brick
fireplace and secluded inglenook area are immediately to the right, in
a windowless corner lighted by one intricately leaded art-glass and
mahogany light fixture mounted flush to the ceiling.  Additional
hanging lanterns in metal and glass also bring soft light to the dim
recesses of the room. Beyond the fireplace area, large windows and a
balcony give spectacular views of the ravine below and hills to the
west.

On the south wall, steps up to a long passage communicate with the
family bedrooms.  Moving from west to east, each room projects
successively further beyond the main mass of the house to allow for
corner windows, improved air circulation, and views.  A nursery,
located at the end of the hall on the left, is accessible directly
from the courtyard, and a narrow flight of stairs leads from the hall
to a second-level sleeping porch, originally echoing the loft over the
entry.  This was a typically spirited gesture, probably designed by
Charles Greene, to attempt to amplify the possibilities of outdoor
living for his clients. On the opposite wing of the house, the dining
room, like the living room, has a dim zone just inside and a brighter
zone beyond, where casement windows on the northwest corner of the
room give more views of the arroyo.  Probably to mitigate the dimness,
Charles Greene had wanted to apply 256 square feet of gold leaf in the
living room and dining room -- similar to the decorative frieze and
ceiling in the Blacker house -- but the Fords declined.  The pantry,
kitchen, side porch, and servants' quarters complete the north wing,
behind which is the garage, set back to the east.

While the essential concept of the Ford house dates from the fall of
1906, its construction took place from July 1907 to March 1908.  The
chronology of commissions during this period is significant, since it
establishes not only the large quantity but also the high quality of
activity in the Greene and Greene office.  The Blacker outbuildings
were begun in April 1907; construction began at the Cole house in
mid-May; the two design revisions for Freeman Ford were presented in
May and June; and furniture was being crafted from the Greenes'
designs for the Robinson and Bolton houses.  There was also a suite of
living-room and dining-room furniture to be designed and produced for
Freeman Ford.  The Ford furniture included an unusual oval dining
table, with host chairs and side chairs in dark mahogany, all with
inlays of lighter woods in a vine pattern across the top rails of the
chairs and in the tabletop.  The dining server is plain, and has the
proportions and simplicity of the Greenes' most austere work, lacking
inlays or elaborately expressed joinery.  Small square ebony caps,
arranged with no discernible decorative pretense, cover the brass
screws that secure the components of the base.  Ebony splines join the
table slab to its ends. The thin, broad top cantilevers beyond the
rails and stiles of the base, producing a serene horizontal line. The
living-room furniture included an upholstered couch that resembled a
similar piece for the Robinson house, and a wingback chair with deep
side panels.  Some pieces merited Charles Greene's more fanciful
treatments, such as a tabourette with silver wire inlay in the top
surface depicting a twisted vine running through thin, straight lines
that suggest cloud abstractions. Because of the Fords' ultimate
rejection of the second house design, and the return to the 1906
concept, the resulting house had evolved into a hybrid of the
Southwest adobe-stucco aesthetic of the Robinson house, and the
articulated wood construction of the newer designs for the Coles and
the Blackers.  It was this wooden building language that would consume
the Greenes' professional practice for the next three years. David
Berry Gamble was one of ten children of James Gamble, a cofounder of
the Procter and Gamble Company, the highly successful soap and tallow
concern based in Cincinnati, Ohio.  In the early years of the new
century, David Gamble and his wife, Mary Huggins Gamble, had come with
their three sons and Mary's sister "Aunt Julia" Huggins to Pasadena to
stay in the city's famous resort hotels during the winter seasons. In
May 1907, they decided to purchase the largest parcel along
Westmoreland Place, two lots north of Mary Cole's Greene and Greene
house, for which ground had just been broken.  The Cole house and the
Arroyo Terrace enclave of Greene and Greene houses were easily within
view to the south, and must have made a strong architectural
impression on the Gambles. Within days of the purchase of the land the
local newspapers announced that the Greenes had been commissioned to
design the Gambles' new house.  Mature eucalyptus trees shaded the
high point of the site, from which fine views of the riverbed and the
mountains beyond could be had. This is where the Greenes chose to
place the house, not only for the views and shade, but for the cooling
breezes that came down the arroyo. The first design the Greenes
presented to the Gambles was for a house of U-shaped plan, with a
garage and service wing appended.  It was a plan for a relaxed,
informal lifestyle, designed to fully exploit the views and natural
features of the site. Perhaps too informal, the concept was rejected
in favor of a second scheme that proposed a more traditional and
compact floor plan, positioned at an angle to the street. The plan
itself was adopted, but the convenant of restrictions governing
Westmoreland Place stipulated that the front elevation of all houses
had to be parallel to the street.  The footprint of the house had to
be shifted a few degrees clockwise. Similar to the situation of the
Blacker house plan inherited from Hunt and Grey, the Greenes had once
again been challenged to work creatively through unforeseen external
requirements. The design process for the residence was largely
completed by February 1908, and a construction permit was issued on
March 9, 1908. Fixtures and furnishings would be designed and executed
over the next two years, but the Gambles were able to occupy the house
during the 1909 - 10 winter season. The Gambles made their wishes
known with regard to design details (Charles Greene's notations about
Mrs. Gamble's specific requirements survive on scraps of yellow
paper), but overall, the Gambles had sufficient confidence in their
architects to depart for an extended tour of Asia while the house was
under construction.

The aspects of the house that are most notable from the street are two
elements in contrast: a traditional gabled elevation on the south, and
a deep terrace with a heavily timbered sleeping porch on the north,
jutting away from the primary mass of the house to claim a central
aesthetic role in the overall design. The two disparate elements are
unified, however, by the shared horizontal line of deep eaves and
exposed rafters and beams, and by the simple rhythm of the
split-redwood-shake surface.  The broad mass of the first and second
levels is given height and balance by the one-room, third-level attic
space. The attic idea had been borrowed from the second residential
design scheme for Freeman Ford, who had rejected it just weeks before
the Greenes began design work on the Gamble house.

The driveway, of bricks laid in a chevron pattern, was designed to
disappear behind the sculpted half-ellipse of lawn separating the
house from the sidewalk. The separate garage structure, embedded along
the north property line of the site, resonates with the design of the
house. As on the garage the Greenes had designed for the Blackers, a
series of massive iron strap hinges were shaped with respect to the
structure, creating a harmony between the materials that is echoed in
the iron details of the main residence. The north and rear elevations
of the house are devoted to outdoor life. Each of three sleeping
porches -- screenless outdoor rooms defined by robust timber posts and
railings, board-and-batten paneling, and dramatically deep eaves --
challenges the distinction between interior and exterior on the
mid-level of the house.  These porches, in turn, shelter the recesses
of the terraces below: large expanses of terra-cotta mission tiles
with edges, steps, and paths in contrasting fire-brick. The terraces
are elevated behind imposing walls: a brick foundation wall coated
with pebble-dash on the front and north elevation, and a delightfully
sinuous and seemingly random clinker brick and arroyo-stone retaining
wall on the rear.  The naturalistic shape of the west terrace,
originally appointed with woven willow furniture and Persian rugs, is
artistic and anti-architectural enough to create an appropriate buffer
between the linearity of the house and the graceful undulations of the
middle landscape, also designed by the Greenes.  Stepping stones
emerge above the water's surface in the terrace's pond, a concept
adapted from Japanese landscape traditions. The same influence
continues where a rock path, embedded in the lawn, leads to the bottom
of the garden.

The broad entry, which stands beyond a run of brick steps, consists of
a large, leaded art-glass central door, two narrower side doors with
screens, and a series of leaded transom lights, all within a massive
teak frame.  The leaded-glass design in the doors can be only partly
discerned from outside; it is from within the entry hall, looking
back, that its full impact is appreciated.  Inspired by the California
Live Oak, designed by Charles Greene, and executed by glass craftsman
Emil Lange, the Gamble entry must be counted among the most
transcendently beautiful domestic spaces in America.  Early-morning
light casts a green and golden glow on the oak flooring, Persian
carpets, and Burma teak paneling. Just inside, the right angles of the
main staircase create a deep alcove fitted with a built-in bench seat
and a marble-top stand for potted plants. The plan of the house is
tripartite: guest bedrooms, dining and service spaces, and Aunt
Julia's chambers are arranged in the south rectangle; the stair and
hall circulation core is in the hyphenlike midsection of the house;
and the den and living room occupy the northerly portion, with the
immediate family's bedrooms and sleeping porches above.  From the
entry, the visitor's eye is drawn to the light of the west terrace
doors at the end of the hall. A Chinese "lift" design, the traditional
stylized cloud, is visible in the mullions, and angled rays,
symbolizing the sun, emanate from the top of the lift motif. This was
not new decorative territory for the Greenes, but rather a subtle
evolution from the elemental references of earth, water, and fire in
the Blacker house. Indeed, with the symbolized sun as fire, the other
elements could be witnessed beyond the door: water in the pond and
earth in the soil of the garden.

For the hallway, Mrs. Gamble became involved in the
furnishings. Charles Greene recorded her suggestion that the chairs be
designed "not like Mrs. Bush's [chairs, whose] backs [are] high but
not narrower at top," referring to the severe tapering that the
Greenes had designed the previous year in the hall chairs for
Mrs. Belle Barlow Bush, the tenant renting the William T. Bolton
house.The Greenes complied, producing a wider seat and back for
Mrs. Gamble.  In the top rail of the Gamble hall chairs are handholds
that resemble the bird-like shapes in the top rails of Charles Rennie
Mackintosh's chairs for his own house, though the resemblance could be
coincidental. Charles Greene's notations also indicate that originally
there was to be a hanging clock in the hall, with an abalone-shell
inlay depicting swans on the water, "to brighten" the space, according
to his notes. No actual drawings exist of this piece, however, and it
was never executed. A mahogany hall table with ebony-trimmed drawers
stands on the south wall, a copper and shell lamp (probably designed
by Frederick H. W. Leaders around 1910) shedding soft light on its
satiny surface.

Through a broad, cased opening near the west end of the hall, the
living room extends toward the north.  In this space, more than any
other in the house, can be seen the Greene and Greene manifestation of
gesamtkunstwerk, the concept of comprehensive artistic design of a
living environment.  As with some of the interiors designed by Charles
Rennie Mackintosh and Charles Francis Annesley Voysey, the Greenes let
no detail escape their artistic control in this space. Furniture,
light fixtures rugs, andirons, fireplace tools, metal hardware, and
built-in features all express the spirit of the Greenes' design
vocabulary as it was envisioned for the Gambles.  Every aspect was
scrutinized, no sight line was neglected, and the placement of every
object, including the piano and even a table lamp, was carefully
considered and committed to the drawings for the room.  The
square-cross plan of the living room allows for convenient zoning of
the space into compact functional areas, each defined by beams and
trusses overhead, as well as by five separate rugs woven to Charles
Greene's watercolor designs.  The inglenook space is dominated by a
broad hearth and fireplace in olive-green field tiles with yellow and
buff decorative chips arranged to depict a creeping vine. The
fireplace is cased in richly burled teak and flanked by recessed
bookcases concealed behind leaded art-glass cabinet doors. The entire
room is encircled with a series of clear-redwood panels installed at
the frieze level.  Each is hand-carved with scenes from nature, as if
to give a view onto an idealized landscape as traditionally expressed
in Japanese homes using decorative rammas.  As executed, the living
room is remarkably faithful to the Greenes' earliest conceptual
sketches, though the lighting fixture designs evolved as the project
progressed. Concerned that Mr. Gamble have a light bright enough to
read by, Mrs. Gamble requested "bright" lights, "not too subdued."
Charles's notes to himself also say: "Fixtures electric, slender, not
too woody. Lantern something like Mrs. R. R. B[lacker]'s."  Mahogany
and iridescent art-glass lanterns hang like pagodas over the inglenook
seats, but it is not known if the light was considered by Mr. Gamble
to be strong enough for reading.  The originally conceived pine-branch
design, however, was deleted in favor of another of Charles's
increasingly spare abstractions of vines, variations of which appear
throughout the house.