By Priscilla Lister
In just one block on the northwestern edge of Balboa Park are 10 private homes designed by four of San Diego’s most prominent historic architects: Irving Gill, William Hebbard, Frank Mead and Richard Requa. The houses are some of the finest examples of the “Arts and Crafts” period of architecture that was popular at the turn of the 20th century.
Find them on Seventh Avenue at Upas Street, immediately north of the Balboa Drive entry into Balboa Park. And remember, these are all private homes, so stay on the sidewalk and respect the homeowners’ privacy and property.
You’ll note that some of the sidewalk here is tinted pink, a recommendation from Kate Sessions, often called the “Mother of Balboa Park,” San Diego’s famous horticulturalist who worked in the early decades of the 20th century.
The most important house here is the Marston House, built in 1905 for George White and Anna Gunn Marston. Located at 3525 Seventh Ave., it was named one of the 25 most important Arts and Crafts buildings in the U.S. by Style 1900 magazine. Until earlier this year, the Marston House, listed on the National Register of Historic Place for Architecture and Cultural Landscapes, was operated by the San Diego Historical Society and open for touring.
Today, it is still owned by the city, but historical society finances required it to suspend its operations and the house was closed to the public. However, SOHO, the Save Our Heritage Organisation, may be able to finance the reopening of the house. Meanwhile, its five acres of beautifully maintained gardens are still open to the public.
Robert Sanders has been the sole gardener here for the last 10 years. A delightful man who is happy to identify the specimen plantings, Sanders can be found Monday through Friday in the gardens. “Our biggest
task today is to find plants that the rabbits and squirrels don’t like,” he said with a smile.
The Marston gardens are amazing just for the enormous oak, eucalyptus and magnolia trees that are now over 100 years old.
George Marston, a prominent merchant, philanthropist and civic leader in San Diego for five decades, originally owned 10 acres. But he sold one-third of that parcel to his sister and brother-in-law, Lilla and Frederick Burnham, who hired Hebbard and Gill to design their home in 1906. It cost them $16,000, according to Bruce Kamerling, who wrote “Self-Guided Walking Tour of Seventh Avenue” for the Spring/Summer 1990 issue of The Journal of San Diego History, the historical society’s publication. Find the entire article at www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/90summer/walk.htm.
The historical society’s website may also have updates on the status of the Marston House.
The Dr. Frederick and Lilla Burnham House, at 3565 Seventh Ave., right next door to the Marston House, also sits on the edge of the canyon that today harbors Highway 163. The Burnham house – which now houses law offices – also features beautiful landscaping and huge trees. Its original landscaping was designed by Samuel Parsons & Company, a New York firm that had first worked in San Diego, by Marston’s request, to draw up plans for Balboa Park.
At 3575 Seventh stands the Arthur & Elsa Marston Residence, built in 1909. Arthur was George’s son and vice president of the Marston Co. The younger Marstons hired Irving Gill, no longer in partnership with William Hebbard, to design their house. “At this time in his career, Gill worked primarily in a modern stripped-down style with smooth stucco walls,” wrote Kamerling. The Marstons, however, preferred brick, so the resulting design shows “typical Gill features such as the boxy shape, casement windows and recessed arched entry, adapted to a brick structure.”
Three cottages at 3574, 3560 and 3578 Seventh were all designed by Hebbard and Gill in 1905. At 3574 Seventh is the Alice Lee Residence; at 3560, the Katherine Teats Cottage; and at 3578, the Alice Lee Cottage.
Alice Lee came to San Diego in 1902 from upstate New York. She bought the properties in 1903, hired Hebbard and Gill to design the three houses, one for $5,000 and the other two for $3,500 each. She granted the Teats Cottage to her companion, Katherine Teats, and she and Katherine lived in the main house and used the other two for rentals.
“Miss Lee was close friends with both Mrs. Grover Cleveland and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt,” wrote Kamerling, and “President and Mrs. Roosevelt, Mrs. Cleveland and other distinguished visitors were often guests at Miss Lee’s Seventh Avenue home.”
The George and Anna Barney Residence, built in 1911, sits at 3530 Seventh, and was designed and built by the Pacific Building Co., where some of Gill’s draftsmen worked.
And just to put those yesteryear prices in perspective, this home is currently listed with Prudential for $2.195 million.
George Barney moved here from Omaha in 1906 and was known as the “Father of Mission Beach.” His son, Lorenze Barney, built the Lorenze & Miriam Barney Residence in 1913, designed by Frank Mead and Richard Requa, that sits next door. Lorenze also became a real estate developer and with his brother, Philip, established the Barney & Barney Insurance Co.
Mead and Requa had both worked for Gill. Mead had also studied Pueblo Indian architecture in the Southwest and “these influences are strong in the Lorenze Barney house,” wrote Kamerling.
The Rev. Frederick & Mary Cossitt Residence, at 3526 Seventh, was also designed by Hebbard and Gill in 1906 and is one of the loveliest. Its gardens are anchored by a classic Gill trademark: the arbor.
“Strongly influenced by the Prairie Style, this is one of the first buildings to show the modern trends that Gill’s later work would take,” wrote Kamerling. “He designed it as a series of receding and enlarging cubic shapes with broad flat eaves.”
You might also note the street lights along the block, which are different from those found elsewhere. Marston had installed a generator and supplied all his neighbors with power until utilities arrived several years later. His generator also powered his two electric cars, which had to be recharged every 100 miles.
It seems some classics never go out of style.
