Two Commemorative Architectural Photography albums of the Clarence Black Estate "El Cerrito" on the "Santa Barbara Riviera" with photographs by Frederich Dapprich and Jesse Tarbox Beals.
Eighty-one 8 x 10 contact prints, nineteen by Jesse Tarbox Beals and sixty one by Fred Dapprich.
In 1916, Clarence A. Black, built an ornate Italian villa, El Cerrito, at 2130 Mission Ridge Road, on what is known as the Santa Barbara Riviera. Prominent in building the estate was Winsor Soule, the architect. El Cerrito was noted for its stonework, laid by a Scotsman named Peter Poole. Black sold his estate to socialite Hilda Boldt Weber. In 1941 she offered it to President Roosevelt and staff as a summer White House, and FDR would have accepted had it not been for the attack on Pearl Harbor. Two years later, Mrs. Weber conveyed the estate to the sisters of the religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, who operated it for many years as the Marymount School for Girls. Marymount is currently a non-denominational, coeducational school, kindergarten through ninth grade, and one of the Riviera's proudest assets.
Winsor Soule -
The most influential style in Santa Barbara is, without a doubt, the Spanish Colonial. And Spanish Colonial architecture is enchanting. Starting in 1916 (with the San Diego Expo), Spanish Colonial took California, and especially Santa Barbara, by storm. Rather than look to California's historical missions, architects looked to Spanish and Mediterranean roots for inspiration. In the hands of architects such as Winsor Soule, Edward Plunkett, and Reginald Johnson, Spanish Colonial architecture transports the visitor to another world.
About 1913, Ray teamed with another prominent architect, Winsor Soule. Together they designed buildings for Cate School in Carpinteria, as well as homes on the upper Eastside, one of which was for artist Reginald Vaughn at 316 East Los Olivos Street. Their largest commission was the YMCA building at 110 West Carrillo Street, an interesting mix of Mission Revival and Italian styles. This building was torn down in 1986.
1924 publication of Spanish Farm Houses and Minor Public Buildings by Winsor Soule
Soule, Murphy and Hastings ( Soule, Winsor (b. 1883) / Murphy, John Frederic (1887-1957) / Hastings, Theodore Mitchell - University of California at Santa Barbara, Architecture & Design Collection
Fred R. Dapprich -
Photographed the Louise and Walter Arensberg foyer with sculptures by Brancusi.
Portraits of dancer Zora have been available on the market.
Automobile Club of Southern California collection, 1892-1963, at the Huntington Library includes photographs by Daprich.
“Fred Dapprich was a very well known man. He worked with Rudolf M. Schindler and some of the early architects. And Harwell H. Harris, too, for that matter--because I remember seeing his name when I was first beginning association with these architects. . . . the architectural photographers of that period were mostly specialists in interiors--and exteriors, of course, too--but they were good. They were the forerunners of some of the work that was done in later years.” Julius Shulman interview, 1990 Jan. 12 - Feb. 3, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Jesse Tarbox Beals -
Jessie Tarbox Beals was a pioneer in the field of photography, becoming the first woman to be hired as a staff photographer on a U.S. newspaper. She was featured in a 1913 The New York Times article about women photographers and described a recent project—“photographing tenement-house conditions for the purpose of reform.” She was published in the New York Times, Ladies’ Home Journal, Town and Country, and Harper’s Bazaar during the course of her career.
Beals and her daughter moved to Santa Barbara in the summer of 1928. In California she specialized in architectural and garden imagery for the wealthy and celebrities in the film business, and in the summer of 1929, she moved to Hollywood, but after the stock market crash, she moved back to New York and renewed her photography career.
Clarence A. Black - Clarence A. Black was the Detroit City controller who became the first President of Henry Ford’s initial effort at manufacturing the automobile, i.e., the Detroit Automobile Company in 1900. Eventually, Ford parted ways with the company, and it reformed as the Cadillac Motor Car Company with Clarence A. Black as its President. In1895, Black married to Mary Corning Winslow, daughter of John Winslow, financier of the Civil War vessel “Monitor.” For health reasons, the Blacks moved to Los Angeles and then Santa Barbara. Mary Black became a noted artist in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Monterey. Mr. Black donated the funds necessary to build the Faulkner Gallery in Santa Barbara so Mary and other artists could show their work. Mary bought the old Abrego Adobe in Monterey for her studio, which is now a woman’s club.
Hilda Boldt Weber
“In 1936, as the opulent mansion known as Casa Encantada began rising above the hills of Bell-Air, Calif., its owner, aspiring Hollywood socialite Hilda Boldt Weber, hoped that the ostentatious structure would provide her with the means to become the talk of Tinseltown. She had already hired architect-to-the-stars James Dolena to draw up the plans for the Georgian-style Bellagio Road estate, so it was a natural decision to tap the most prominent decorator of the times, Terence Harold Robsjohn-Gibbings, to appoint the interior. *** Robsjohn-Gibbings ultimately designed more than 200 pieces at a cost of about $3.5 million, and it proved to be the pinnacle of his formidable career. ... the house and its contents remained intact even after bad investments and gambling debts forced Weber to sell it to hotelier Conrad Hilton in 1950....” Art & Antiques, by Christy Grosz, 2/1/2009
The gossipy Movieland Directory states abruptly that in the “1940s [ Hilda Boldt Weber ] built a huge estate here [Bell Air] in 1940s before running through millions and dying broke by slitting her own throat.”
Peter Poole - The Larco Building has been registered as historic building in Santa Barbara and is renowned for its stone masonry by Peter Poole. In 1903 Poole built his own family home our of sandstone. “Of a unique design, it contained a bathroom, pantry. and closets and in addition to seven rooms. ...beautifully chiseled posts as well as the finely crafter altar rail fence/seat. Known as Hawthorn Den, it continues to grace Santa Barbara, testifying to the eternal attraction as well as permanence of stone construction.” Stone Architecture in Santa Barbara by the Santa Barbara Conservancy.
