Carolands
Encyclopedia
The Carolands Chateau is a 65,000 square foot (6,000 m²) mansion in Hillsborough, California
. Its 75 foot (23 m)-high atrium holds the record as the largest enclosed space in an American private residence. Considered a masterpiece of American Renaissance
and Second Empire Beaux-Arts design, the building is a California Historical Landmark
and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
Harriet Pullman Carolan, born in 1869, was the daughter of George Pullman
, the 19th century American industrialist, who became the wealthiest man in Chicago
after creating the Pullman Palace railway car. Perhaps because her father was the very inventor of modern "luxury" or "first class" travel, Harriet Pullman came to expect perfection and beauty in her surroundings, and her particular tastes revolved around the French. The mansion originally occupied a 544 acre (2.2 km²) plot of land, situated at the highest local geographical point in order to "look down on the Hearst
s and surpass the Crocker
s."
The Chateau exterior was inspired by the 17th century designs of Mansart
. The project was executed by San Francisco architect Willis Polk
, following plans commissioned by Mrs. Carolan from the Parisian architect Ernest Sanson
, who was at the time one of the foremost designers of prestigious private homes in France and perhaps the world. Sanson, aged 76 and near the end of a long and distinguished career, never visited the California site. (Willis Polk, a distinguished American architect in his own right, was said to have chafed under the strict instruction of Mrs. Carolan to execute Sanson's French plans faithfully, despite the fact that they were intended for a different climate and notated in the metric system.) Only a portion of the magnificent landscape plans commissioned from leading French landscape architect Achille Duchêne
were completed, probably due to cost.
It is often claimed that the Chateau was modeled after the French chateau
Vaux-le-Vicomte
, although the resemblance is remote apart from the shared circular room featured in both buildings (one of which was purchased by Mrs. Carolan intact from a 1760 Bordeaux residence). More accurately, it can be said that both share an authentic Beaux-Arts tradition, inspired by the court architecture of Louis XIV. The gardens on the original Carolans property were patterned after those at Versailles
and originally consisted of 32,000 trees and shrubs, with plans for fountains, statues, and roadways.
The Chateau is occasionally called the "last of the great homes" in the U.S., a reference to a spree of mansion-building that began with the residence of W.K. Vanderbilt in 1881 and ended with Carolands, just after the national income tax was enacted in 1913. The Carolan marriage became embittered over quarrels concerning the building. In 1917, the Carolans separated and moved out of the Chateau; Harriet moved to the East Coast, Frank remained in California. After Frank's death in 1923, Harriet married Colonel Arthur Schermerhorn in 1925, and although the new couple briefly reinhabited the Chateau in the year 1927, it would remain essentially uninhabited for its first 29 years.
In 1939, the U.S. Government evaluated the purchase of the Carolands Chateau to be used as a Western White House. It was considered again for this purpose during the Kennedy administration.
Harriet sold the home and surrounding 550 acres (2.2 km²) in 1946 for development. Life Magazine covered a charity event held in the house in 1947, which marked the first opportunity many San Francisco-area residents had to see its interiors. In 1948 the Burlingame High School
Senior class held its prom at the Chateau, bringing the home to life in a glittering candlelight setting.
Countess Lillian Remillard Dandini, a San Francisco heiress (whose personal fortune derived from the re-building of San Francisco after the devastating 1906 earthquake with one of her companies, Remillard Brick, headquartered in what is now Larkspur, California), purchased Carolands Chateau in 1950, and in so doing, saved it from demolition by promoters more interested in developing the land than in its historic architecture and significance. The 23 years she lived in the chateau were a period of parties, of entertaining and holding charity benefits. Countess Lillian frequently invited the French Community to the Chateau and opened it annually to San Francisco bay area French students. The Countess's generosity in sharing the house resulted in her receiving a "Woman of the Year" award from the city of Burlingame. The city of Hillsborough, derived much of its property base from the former development of Chateau Carolands. Sadly, when the Countess died in 1973, the Chateau was in greater risk of demolition than ever before, owing to its enormous upkeep (heating alone averaged $12,000.00/month) The Countess left the Chateau and its remaining 5.83 acres (23,593.2 m²) to the town of Hillsborough to be used as a French and Italian musical, artistic and literary cultural center rather than pass it through the Remillard Family Trusts. The Countess did not, unfortunately, leave an endowment to run such an undertaking, hoping that her establishment of a gift of this historical importance would spur the City of Hillsborough. The city fathers ruled out any such use, saying they could not afford to pay the necessary maintenance expenses and sold the estate after it continued to be vandalized.
Oil and real estate heiress Roz Franks bought the Chateau in 1976 for $313,000, but lost title three years later to land developer George Benny in a legal battle. Benny in turn lost the property when he was indicted on racketeering charges in 1982. Robert Clayton offered to spend $10,000,000 to remodel the Chateau and use it as a corporate think tank, but the Hillsborough city fathers turned down the proposal on zoning grounds. The city's founding charter mandates a community of single-family residences.
During its years of abandonment in the 1970s and 1980s, the grounds and structure were visited by many local high school students who regarded it as "their" haunted house. On February 2, 1985, Laurie McKenna and Jeanine Grinsell, two students at a local high school, went to tour the vacant Chateau and were kidnapped, sexually assaulted, beaten, and tortured by David Allen Raley
, a security guard for the property. Raley bound both women and dumped their bodies in a ravine near his house. While Laurie McKenna survived the ordeal, Jeanine Grinsell later succumbed to her wounds in a nearby hospital. David Raley was sentenced to death in 1988 and is presently awaiting execution.
In 1986 an Environmental Impact Report was conducted for a proposal to further subdivide the parcel and build additional homes thereon. The building suffered extensive (but mostly superficial) damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
and demolition was again quietly considered. A 1991 Hillsborough Designer Showhouse revived local interest in the house, as well as a new debate on whether the home could be zoned to use as a multi-family residence or converted to alternate use. (The issue remains unresolved.)
in 1998, after many years of abandonment and neglect, the Chateau and its remaining land were purchased by Charles Bartlett Johnson and (Dr.) Ann Johnson, of the Franklin Templeton fortune, for a purchase price just under $6 million. Dr. Johnson undertook an estimated $30 million or more worth of renovations to the mechanical systems, including asbestos removal, roof replacement, and extensive and scrupulous restoration of interiors and exteriors, which in large measure restored the building to the state originally intended by its architects. Doug Wilson, of Doug Wilson Construction, a Gardnerville, Nevada-based general contractor, oversaw all aspects of the restoration. The building is of steel I-beam construction, with five-inch (127 mm) thick reinforced concrete floors, and while the concrete had weakened, the steel super structure remains intact. An additional $40 million might be required to bring the building to current structural code. Although the Caroland's walls look like large granite blocks, they are actually hollow, and made of expanded metal lath and plaster.
made a rare northern California appearance on January 30, 2008, helping the Republican National Committee
raise $1.5 million.
and was featured in seven other film festivals, winning Best Documentary (Grand Jury Award) at the Rhode Island International Film Festival
. The film was produced at Luna Productions, the documentary film making partnership of Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg.
Hillsborough, California
Hillsborough is an incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hillsborough is one of the wealthiest communities in America and has the highest income of places in the United States with populations of at least 10,000...
. Its 75 foot (23 m)-high atrium holds the record as the largest enclosed space in an American private residence. Considered a masterpiece of American Renaissance
American Renaissance
In the history of American architecture and the arts, the American Renaissance was the period in 1835-1880 characterized by renewed national self-confidence and a feeling that the United States was the heir to Greek democracy, Roman law, and Renaissance humanism...
and Second Empire Beaux-Arts design, the building is a California Historical Landmark
California Historical Landmark
California Historical Landmarks are buildings, structures, sites, or places in the state of California that have been determined to have statewide historical significance by meeting at least one of the criteria listed below:...
and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
History
George Pullman
George Mortimer Pullman was an American inventor and industrialist. He is known as the inventor of the Pullman sleeping car, and for violently suppressing striking workers in the company town he created, Pullman .-Background:Born in Brocton, New York, his family moved to Albion,...
, the 19th century American industrialist, who became the wealthiest man in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
after creating the Pullman Palace railway car. Perhaps because her father was the very inventor of modern "luxury" or "first class" travel, Harriet Pullman came to expect perfection and beauty in her surroundings, and her particular tastes revolved around the French. The mansion originally occupied a 544 acre (2.2 km²) plot of land, situated at the highest local geographical point in order to "look down on the Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
s and surpass the Crocker
Charles Crocker
Charles Crocker was an American railroad executive.-Early years:Crocker was born in Troy, New York, to a modest family and moved to an Indiana farm at age 14. He soon became independent, working on several farms, a sawmill, and at an iron forge. In 1845 he founded a small, independent iron...
s."
The Chateau exterior was inspired by the 17th century designs of Mansart
François Mansart
François Mansart was a French architect credited with introducing classicism into Baroque architecture of France...
. The project was executed by San Francisco architect Willis Polk
Willis Polk
Willis Jefferson Polk was an American architect best known for his work in San Francisco, California.-Life:He was born in Jacksonville, Illinois and was related to United States President James Polk....
, following plans commissioned by Mrs. Carolan from the Parisian architect Ernest Sanson
Ernest Sanson
Paul Ernest Sanson was a French architect trained in the Beaux-Arts manner.Sanson entered the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris at the age of eighteen, and followed the courses offered by Émile Gilbert...
, who was at the time one of the foremost designers of prestigious private homes in France and perhaps the world. Sanson, aged 76 and near the end of a long and distinguished career, never visited the California site. (Willis Polk, a distinguished American architect in his own right, was said to have chafed under the strict instruction of Mrs. Carolan to execute Sanson's French plans faithfully, despite the fact that they were intended for a different climate and notated in the metric system.) Only a portion of the magnificent landscape plans commissioned from leading French landscape architect Achille Duchêne
Achille Duchêne
Achille Duchêne was a French garden designer who worked in the grand manner established by André Le Nôtre. The son of the landscaper...
were completed, probably due to cost.
Château
A château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
Vaux-le-Vicomte
Vaux-le-Vicomte
The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, 55 km southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne département of France...
, although the resemblance is remote apart from the shared circular room featured in both buildings (one of which was purchased by Mrs. Carolan intact from a 1760 Bordeaux residence). More accurately, it can be said that both share an authentic Beaux-Arts tradition, inspired by the court architecture of Louis XIV. The gardens on the original Carolans property were patterned after those at Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
and originally consisted of 32,000 trees and shrubs, with plans for fountains, statues, and roadways.
The Chateau is occasionally called the "last of the great homes" in the U.S., a reference to a spree of mansion-building that began with the residence of W.K. Vanderbilt in 1881 and ended with Carolands, just after the national income tax was enacted in 1913. The Carolan marriage became embittered over quarrels concerning the building. In 1917, the Carolans separated and moved out of the Chateau; Harriet moved to the East Coast, Frank remained in California. After Frank's death in 1923, Harriet married Colonel Arthur Schermerhorn in 1925, and although the new couple briefly reinhabited the Chateau in the year 1927, it would remain essentially uninhabited for its first 29 years.
In 1939, the U.S. Government evaluated the purchase of the Carolands Chateau to be used as a Western White House. It was considered again for this purpose during the Kennedy administration.
Harriet sold the home and surrounding 550 acres (2.2 km²) in 1946 for development. Life Magazine covered a charity event held in the house in 1947, which marked the first opportunity many San Francisco-area residents had to see its interiors. In 1948 the Burlingame High School
Burlingame High School
Burlingame High School is a public high school in Burlingame, California. It is part of the San Mateo Union High School District .-History:...
Senior class held its prom at the Chateau, bringing the home to life in a glittering candlelight setting.
Oil and real estate heiress Roz Franks bought the Chateau in 1976 for $313,000, but lost title three years later to land developer George Benny in a legal battle. Benny in turn lost the property when he was indicted on racketeering charges in 1982. Robert Clayton offered to spend $10,000,000 to remodel the Chateau and use it as a corporate think tank, but the Hillsborough city fathers turned down the proposal on zoning grounds. The city's founding charter mandates a community of single-family residences.
During its years of abandonment in the 1970s and 1980s, the grounds and structure were visited by many local high school students who regarded it as "their" haunted house. On February 2, 1985, Laurie McKenna and Jeanine Grinsell, two students at a local high school, went to tour the vacant Chateau and were kidnapped, sexually assaulted, beaten, and tortured by David Allen Raley
David Allen Raley
David Allen Raley is a convicted murderer and currently on San Quentin's Death Row. He was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Jeanine Grinsell on February 2, 1985 in Santa Clara County. The jury also found Raley guilty of attempted murder of a second girl who survived the ordeal,...
, a security guard for the property. Raley bound both women and dumped their bodies in a ravine near his house. While Laurie McKenna survived the ordeal, Jeanine Grinsell later succumbed to her wounds in a nearby hospital. David Raley was sentenced to death in 1988 and is presently awaiting execution.
In 1986 an Environmental Impact Report was conducted for a proposal to further subdivide the parcel and build additional homes thereon. The building suffered extensive (but mostly superficial) damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
Loma Prieta earthquake
The Loma Prieta earthquake, also known as the Quake of '89 and the World Series Earthquake, was a major earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area of California on October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. local time...
and demolition was again quietly considered. A 1991 Hillsborough Designer Showhouse revived local interest in the house, as well as a new debate on whether the home could be zoned to use as a multi-family residence or converted to alternate use. (The issue remains unresolved.)
in 1998, after many years of abandonment and neglect, the Chateau and its remaining land were purchased by Charles Bartlett Johnson and (Dr.) Ann Johnson, of the Franklin Templeton fortune, for a purchase price just under $6 million. Dr. Johnson undertook an estimated $30 million or more worth of renovations to the mechanical systems, including asbestos removal, roof replacement, and extensive and scrupulous restoration of interiors and exteriors, which in large measure restored the building to the state originally intended by its architects. Doug Wilson, of Doug Wilson Construction, a Gardnerville, Nevada-based general contractor, oversaw all aspects of the restoration. The building is of steel I-beam construction, with five-inch (127 mm) thick reinforced concrete floors, and while the concrete had weakened, the steel super structure remains intact. An additional $40 million might be required to bring the building to current structural code. Although the Caroland's walls look like large granite blocks, they are actually hollow, and made of expanded metal lath and plaster.
Current status
The Carolands Chateau remains a private single family residence on 5.83 acres (23,593.2 m²), and has undergone an extensive restoration since 1998. Although no tours are available, the home is occasionally opened for charity benefits and fundraisers. U.S. President George W. BushGeorge W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
made a rare northern California appearance on January 30, 2008, helping the Republican National Committee
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee is an American political committee that provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. It is...
raise $1.5 million.
Films about Carolands
A feature-length documentary film entitled Three Women and a Chateau tells the nearly 100-year history of the chateau. In 2006 the documentary had its world premier at the Santa Barbara International Film FestivalSanta Barbara International Film Festival
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is a film festival and non-profit organization, established in 1985, that showcases independent American and international films. The SBIFF line-up includes 20 world premieres and 11 U.S. premieres, with newly expanded 11-day festival...
and was featured in seven other film festivals, winning Best Documentary (Grand Jury Award) at the Rhode Island International Film Festival
Rhode Island International Film Festival
Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival takes place every year in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island as well as satellite locations throughout the state. Started in 1997, the Festival is produced by Flickers, the Newport Film/Video Society & Arts Collaborative, a 501 non-profit...
. The film was produced at Luna Productions, the documentary film making partnership of Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg.
Further Reading
- Dwyer, Michael MiddletonMichael Middleton DwyerMichael Middleton Dwyer is an architect practicing in New York City known for renovating historic structures and designing new ones in traditional vocabularies. He is also a writer of architectural history who was the editor of Great Houses of the Hudson River and author of Carolands...
. Carolands. Redwood City, CA: San Mateo County Historical Association, 2006. ISBN 0978525906