| Mrs. Clinton Walker House | |
| Location: | 26336 Scenic Road, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California |
| Coordinates: | 36.5553°N -121.9233°W |
| Builder: | Miles Bain |
| Architect: | Frank Lloyd Wright |
| Architecture: | Organic architecture |
| Added: | November 17, 1977 |
| Refnum: | 16000634 |
Mrs. Clinton Walker House, also known as Cabin on the Rocks, is located on Carmel Point, near Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. The house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1948 and completed in 1952 for Mrs. Clinton "Della" Walker of Pebble Beach. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 17, 1977.[1]
In 1918, Willis J. Walker and his wife purchased 216acres of land in Carmel, which included this lot on the ocean. In the 1940s it was deeded to Della Walker with the condition that she find a noted architect to design a house. Della reached out to Frank Lloyd Wright and told him she wanted a house “as durable as the rocks and as transparent as the waves."[2] [3]
The house, an example of Wright's organic architecture, is built on a mass of granite boulders, uses the local Carmel-stone, and has a roof the color of the sea that is shaped to resemble a ship. It is the only Frank Lloyd Wright house that overlooks the ocean.[4] [5]
It has a Usonian design; it was built as a 1,200 square feet, single-story house that incorporates a hexagon concrete floor with 120-degree angles, with three rooms completely open with views of the ocean. The low roof was once covered with triangular porcelain panels because of the copper restrictions during the Korean War in the 1950s, these were later replaced with copper shingles.[6] The living-dining room is centered around a floor-to-ceiling fireplace with built-in furniture. The hexagonal modules of the floor plan gave the appearance of a honeycomb. The window frames are painted in Wright's signature "Cherokee Red" color with reverse-stepped glass windows.[4]
In 1954, Wright said, "The over-all-effect is quiet, and the long white surf lines of the sea seem to join the lines of the house to make a natural melody." The grounds were designed by the landscape architect Thomas Church.[7] Later, Walker had a studio addition to the master bedroom designed in 1956 by her nephew.[1]