The George & Anna Marston House and Gardens Museum

Well, here I am closing in on a year after first starting this blog and actually writing a post.  I'm not sure what has been keeping me back...fear of being boring, fear of having nothing interesting to say, fear of no one reading this, or just laziness.  Perhaps we'll find out as we go, but nothing will be learned until I actually start.  So here goes...

I was in San Diego for a consulting visit to Matrix Direct Insurance, which turned out to be a magnificently inspiring professional visit (see my work blog for details:  http://hub.am/R4GKto).  We finished quite a bit earlier than anticipated so I had plenty of time to kill before my plane left, so after doing some online work in the hotel (including writing the above-mentioned blog) I set out for the airport with a stop at the Marston House just on the edge of Balboa Park in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego.

I had no prior knowledge of this place, but what a delight!  It claims to be one of the 25 most significant Arts and Crafts style homes in the United States, and I sure couldn't argue with them.  George Marston was the founder of Marston's Department Store, which was, I gather, the kind of flagship shopping destinations that all major cities had until the unfortunate mergers of the last 30 years have resulted in the stupefying blandness of Macy's unifying all cities.  This realization always makes me sad in remembering the likes of Daytons, Frederick and Nelsons, Famous-Barr, Richs, Filenes, Wannamakers, Marshall Fields, Robesons, and countless wonderful nameplates that are now extinct.  Mr. Marston was, in private, an avid gardener and his wife was partial to lilacs, and photos from the early part of the century depicted opulent vases of lilacs all around the cosmetic counters.  It was a beautiful sight, but as I write this, I realize that it couldn't have been easy selecting a perfume when the store was inundated with the smell of lilacs.  But nonetheless, I imagine it was a magical place in which to shop.

At Maston House, under the live oak, looking NE.

The mansion was built in 1905, so it was really quite early in the popularity of this style in America.  It actually started out as a Tudor Revival in the Victorian style but they stripped it of the timbering after it was up and redesigned the entire structure in the more straightforward, and to my eye, pleasing Craftsman style.

I was the only one on my tour, but my young guide (a student at St. Andrew's in Scotland) was not sure how to conduct a tour for one, so it was a little bit awkward.  I learned that questions made him embarrassed so I left many things unasked.  The main floor was all quarter-sawn oak flooring and oak or redwood panelling which gave everything that luscious warmth of dark wood without the prissiness of golden oak.  Most impressive to me were the built-in cabinets...map cabinets in the library, music cabinet in the music room, and newspaper cupboards in the living room...all situated in a way that they were flush with the wall.  A cool feature of the bookcases was that the front edge of every shelf was beveled downward a bit, to protect the bottom end binding when shelving books.

The other finishes in the house were suitably plain, which was exactly right.  The wallpaper in the library was burlap that had been shellacked...a really great look that I would like to attempt sometime if ever confronted with the appropriate space.  The fireplaces were unadorned except for straightforward red brick arches and a plain oak mantle.

Living Room, Marston House

The house was furnished all around with beautiful original Stickley furniture and lovely pottery.  I wanted to ask more about the pottery but was intimidated into remaining silent.  I'm not sure what it was precisely, but much of it was in the style of Teco Pottery or Van Briggle Art Pottery.  Once started in collecting this, I could easily see myself getting obsessed.

Upstairs were the bedrooms that were outfitted much more plainly, although they contained two of the more interesting items.  One was an original Roycrofters bookcase.  The Roycrofters were in East Aurora, NY and encompassed the most intense creative presence of the Arts and Crafts spirit.  They created beautiful editions of many works, including the series of Little Journeys books by Elbert Hubbard.  My Great-Great-Uncle Michael Monahan was a writer in upstate New York and was involved in that activity in some way, at least so far has having written introductions to some of the volumes.  At any rate, I had read about the special bookcases that had been made in the furniture factories in East Aurora to accompany the books and so it was a real treat to see one in person.

Formal garden, viewed through screened porch

The second thing I found of particular interest upstairs was the collection ceramic floral frogs that were on display in the Roycrofters bookcase.  I have seen such items pictured on eBay and have been intrigued.  This collection was really quite beautiful, all from that arts and crafts period of art pottery, and again, one could imagine getting lost in collecting such items.

The last item I found quite touching was that on the nightstand between the twin beds of Mr. and Mrs. Marston was a copy of The Courtship of Miles Standish, a production of which was the conduit for the initial meeting of the couple.  I like those little touches of detail.  Oddly, my guide was astonished that I had even heard of The Courtship of Miles Standish.

The house was surrounded by an appropriately-scaled formal garden and a wild area extending down the canyon behind the house.  I'm sure there are pictures to show off the garden to better advantage, but I rather like the grid imposed on this image by taking this picture from the second floor screened-in porch.

There was quite a nice carriage house that now holds the very appealing gift store.  I probably would have caved in and bought a tile or piece of pottery had I not realized that I was now in peril of missing my flight if I didn't hightail it to the airport.

It just dawned on me as I was writing this, that it would be appropriate to establish some sort of rating system to summarize these posts.  As a tribute to my home town of Belleville, IL, which is an incredibly rich environment and whose schools ingrained in me this curiosity, I will use Belleville flags to rate each site (0 flags is a disappointment, 10 flags is amazing).  I'm using these flags as the symbolism of the imagery sort of coincides with my questing spirit:  black for the rich productive earth, gold for natural resources, green for agriculture, white for arts and sciences, and the tradional German horn for history and culture.

Marston House and Garden Museum: