Mortimer Fleishhacker House Explained

Mortimer Fleishhacker House
Pushpin Label:Mortimer Fleishhacker House
Designation1 Date:September 26, 1986
Designation1 Number:86002396
Designation1 Offname:Green Gables – Fleischhacker
Designation1:NRHP
Governing Body:National Trust for Historic Preservation
Coordinates:37.4328°N -122.2687°W
Location:329 Albion Avenue, Woodside, California
Built For:Mortimer Fleishhacker Sr.
Bella Gerstle Fleishhacker
Architect:Greene and Greene

The Mortimer Fleishhacker House, also known as the Green Gables Estate, is a historic estate with an English manor house, built between 1911 and 1935, and located at 329 Albion Avenue in Woodside, California.[1] The house has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since September 26, 1986.[2] [3] The property has been used to host family weddings, corporate retreats, and historic summits including a United Nations 20th-anniversary gala in 1965.[4] The estate is now 74-acres in size.[5] [6]

The main house is two stories tall, and was created in an English manor-style with an imitation thatch roof, a gunite exterior, and consisting of ten bedrooms.[7] The garden is Italian style and features four levels of terracing and a lily pond, a Roman reflecting pool, and a piano-shaped swimming pool. The estate was used and remained in the Fleishhacker family for five generations. Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes rented a house on the property with her partner from March 2021 until November 2022.[8] [9]

History

The Fleishhacker family

Mortimer Fleishhacker Sr. (1866–1953) was an entrepreneur who co-founded (with his brother Herbert Fleishhacker) Great Western Power, which later became part of Pacific Gas and Electric and the City Electric Company.[10] [11] [12] He served as a director of the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Temple Emanu-El.[13] Fleishhacker also had a home at 2418 Pacific Avenue in San Francisco, California.

Property and landscaping

In 1911, Fleishhacker Sr. and his wife Bella Gerstle Fleishhacker (1875–1963), commissioned Charles Sumner Greene of the architectural firm Greene and Greene to design a country home for them on a 45-acre property.[14] This was the largest of all Greene and Greene designs. The interior of the house was designed by Elsie de Wolfe and the San Francisco design house of Vickery, Atkins and Torrey.[15] When designing the home, Greene also took in to account the design of the landscaping and the driveway.[16] [17]

The property's rolling green lawns were inspired by the Fountains Abbey of Studley Royal Park in 18th-century England, which Greene had visited in 1909. The garden has natural materials used and design elements that complement the landscape such as terraces, walls, arcades, balustrades, and planting urns.[18] Over the years, the Fleishhacker family built out the estate, adding new structures and land.[19] [20]

Film appearances

The estate was filmed as the Martin family home in the 1999 film Bicentennial Man.[21]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Green Gables - Fleishhacker House, Woodside California. Historic Structures. 2020-11-05.
  2. Web site: NPGallery Asset Detail, Green Gables--Fleischhacker, Mortimer, Country House. 2020-11-05. NPGallery, Digital Asset Management System, National Park Service.
  3. Web site: National Register #86002396: Fleishhacker Estate in Woodside, California. 2020-11-05. noehill.com.
  4. Web site: Green Gables - The Estate. The New York Times. In 1965, the United Nations selected Green Gables as the site for its 20th anniversary commemoration gala..
  5. News: Clarke. Katherine. 2018-10-18. The Estate That Wants to Be Silicon Valley’s Priciest Home. en-US. Wall Street Journal. subscription. 2020-11-05. 0099-9660.
  6. Web site: Hansen. Louis. 2019-02-25. Century-old Bay Area family estate could fetch record price. 2020-11-05. The Mercury News. en-US.
  7. Web site: Wood. Barbara. November 19, 2013. Historic Woodside estate is still a summer home for the Fleishhacker family. 2020-11-05. Almanac News. en.
  8. Web site: Khorram . Yasmin . September 7, 2021 . Elizabeth Holmes is living on the grounds of a $135 million Silicon Valley estate during her trial . CNBC . https://web.archive.org/web/20230602034816/https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/07/elizabeth-holmes-staying-at-135-million-silicon-valley-estate-during-theranos-trial.html . June 2, 2023 . live.
  9. Web site: Storey . Kate . Covington . Abigail . December 8, 2022 . Sunny Bałwani Just Received a Nearly 13-Year-Long Prison Sentence . Esquire . https://web.archive.org/web/20230609100510/https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a26810723/elizabeth-holmes-now/ . June 9, 2023 . live.
  10. Web site: July 15, 1953. M. Fleishhacker, Manufacturer, 86; Head of Paper Box Firm in San Francisco Dies ---' Was Civic Leader, Philanthropist. subscription. 2020-11-07. The New York Times. en.
  11. Web site: Zinko. Carolyne. 2016-08-03. Delia Fleishhacker Ehrlich, noted SF philanthropist, dies at 85. 2020-11-05. SFGATE. en-US.
  12. Web site: 1986-09-26. National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form, Green Gables (Country Residence of Mortimer Fleishhacker). 2020-11-04. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service.
  13. Web site: Bloomfield. Anne. Bloomfield. Arthur. Mortimer Fleishhacker Sr. Lived Here - FoundSF. 2020-11-05. foundsf.org.
  14. Web site: 2018-09-30. Design guru Julia Berger gives us a detailed history of her historic family estate. 2020-11-05. The Nob Hill Gazette. en-US.
  15. Web site: Michelson. Alan. Mortimer Fleishhacker, House, Woodside, CA. 2020-11-05. Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD), University of Washington.
  16. Web site: Green Gables. 2020-11-05. The Gamble House, Architecture As a Fine Art. en-US.
  17. Streatfield. David C.. Spring 2012. The San Francisco Peninsula's Great Estates, Part II Mansions, Landscapes, and Gardens in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries. Eden, Journal of the California Garden & Landscape History Society. 15. 2. 11.
  18. Bloomfield. Anne. 1988. The Evolution of a Landscape: Charles Sumner Greene's Designs for Green Gables. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 47. 3. 231–244. 10.2307/990299. 0037-9808.
  19. Web site: van Romburgh. Marlize. February 28, 2019. Photos: This massive old-money estate in Woodside could break the Bay Area's $117M price record. 2020-11-05. Bizjournals.com.
  20. Web site: February 26, 2019. Silicon Valley estate expected to become most expensive in Bay Area. 2020-11-06. ABC30 Fresno. KGO-TV. en.
  21. https://www.almanacnews.com/morgue/2004/2004_03_17.grnea.shtml

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mortimer Fleishhacker House".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.