Posted by
Anthony Holdsworth in
Uncategorized on
April 7th, 2009 |
one comments The Dunsmuir-Hellman House, an arrow shot away from the 106th Street exit of 580, is a world removed from Thirteenth and Franklin Streets where I last worked in Oakland. This testament to the Greco-Roman thrust of our westward course of empire stands in splendid isolation in its own 45 acre valley. When the wild turkeys make a racket or the wind blows, they muffle the the low hum of the hidden freeway. At such times observing the duck pond, the thirty-seven room mansion, the subsiding swimming pool, the tiny grotto and the barn strung out along this valley with a stream running through it, observing all this, one can be excused for imagining oneself in another time and place.
The Dunsmuir-Hellman House, Oakland
I encounter many interesting people while I paint on the street. I met Annalee Allen this way, in Oakland, around the time of the Loma Prieta Quake (Nov 1989). I was documenting the quake’s aftermath while she, as president of the Oakland Heritage Alliance, was working to preserve some of the older historic buildings that had been damaged by the quake.
Recently we’ve been discussing collaborating on a book that would feature my paintings of Oakland accompanied by her historic commentary. Annalee observed that the Dunsmuir Hellman-House would need to be included.
So I went out and painted it. This seemed a good moment to explore a collaboration. I’m, therefore, turning the rest of this post over to Annalee – my first guest blogger!
ANNALEE ALLEN
The Dunsmuir Hellman House # 2, Oakland
Until recently, I thought I knew pretty much all the history of the beautiful landmark Dunsmuir House and Gardens located in the Oakland hills, near the San Leandro border. I knew the the hidden valley where the mansion stands was once the property of Ygnacio Peralta, son of Don Luis Peralta, whose 44,000 acre Rancho San Antonio once encompassed all the land of present day Alameda, Oakland, Piedmont, Berkeley, and Albany. I knew that later the valley belonged to a Gilbert Tompkins who maintained a trotting horse breeding farm with stables and a racing track.
And I knew that the early 20th century Broadway stage actress Edna Wallace helped select the architect J. Eugene Freeman to draw up plans for the stately Colonial Revival style residence for her mother Josephine who, after a years long love affair, was finally able to marry her sweetheart Alexander Dunsmuir, the son of a very wealthy Canadian mining magnate. The star crossed lovers were not able to enjoy their hidden retreat for long, I knew, because both passed away within a few short years, leaving the property to Miss Wallace.
Despite her best efforts Edna Wallace could not keep up the large estate and she soon sold it to a banker, I.W. Hellman, Jr. and his wife who lived across the bay in San Francisco and wanted a secluded estate where they could relax and entertain family and friends.
I have come to know a lot more about the Hellman years, from reading a fascinating new book,
“Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant named Isaias Hellman Created California,” written by Frances Dinkelspiel, Hellman’s great-granddaughter. From her book I came to know how her ancestor immigrated to California in the 1850s from Bavaria, a 16 year old Jewish boy who started out working in a cousin’s stationary store. The author traces the young man’s rise from store clerk to brilliant financier and head of Wells Fargo Bank, and how nearly single handedly, he propelled frontier California into the modern era.
It was the Hellmans who over several decades, beautified and developed the property which they called Southvale Park, calling upon landscape designer John McLaren (of Golden Gate Park fame) to lay out the gardens, swimming pool, tennis courts, and ornamental ponds. The home was lavishly furnished with purchases made when the family traveled to Europe, and according to her book, through the years there were many family weddings, celebrations and gatherings.
In the early 1960s the family sold the property to the city of Oakland, and since the 1970s a dedicated nonprofit group has maintained the estate and offered public tours and other wonderful community events (the upcoming Easter egg roll party on the lawn is one example). Recently the nonprofit’s director, Jim deMersman, formally petitioned the Oakland City Council to change the name, as a way to honor and celebrate the Hellman family’s long association with the Dunsmuir property.
So, if it has been awhile since you last visited, make a date to go up to the Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate. Visit
www.dunsmuir.org to learn more.
(Written specially for this blog by Annalee Allen.)
I recently read the book Towers of Gold and was amazed at what this man did for Los Angeles and the state. I live in the Alta Loma District of Rancho Cucamonga, a suburb of Los Angeles and one of Hellman’s land purchases. The house I live in has 100 year old euctelyptus windbreakes along the bridal trails. You can almost feel the history in this area expecially when the Santa Ana winds blow. The city has one of it’s oldest major streets named after Isaias, called Hellman Avenue. The Citrus Orchards are all gone and so are the vineyards but many many historic homes have been fully restored and in Alta Loma are primarily located along Hellman. Thousands of new mansions and middle class homes were built on the agricultural and irreplacable land. This Rancho is one of the most beautiful places in the world despite it’s sub-urbanization and eventual urbanization. Historic Route 66 (Foothill Blvd) runs right through the Rancho and is still the primary retail corridor in the city. The boulevard has a traffic count of 50,000 cars per day and remains the busiest street in the city. Rancho Cucamonga is one of the most affluent cities in the state bringing high end retail inland for the first time to the new downtown district. The city planning is astounding. The new general plan for the city will focus on building very intense buildings with new urbanism and pedestrianism as the goals. The city also houses the oldest winery in California Thomas Winery. Some of the parkways in the city have been transformed into working vineyards and the city plans to expand the project. Hellman was one of the main reasons why this city is such a gem. What a revolutionary man to whom I honor and cherish.