Art Review: Gamble House — Arts & Crafts Gem in Pasadena

While I was in Pasadena, Calif., a few weeks ago, I visited the Gamble House, the Greene & Greene home commissioned in 1908 by David and Mary Gamble, Proctor & Gamble heirs from Cincinnati. Then, Pasadena was little more than a town but already renowned in the Midwest and Northeast for its ideal climate and clean air. I haven’t walked through the house in years but wanted to see it again and present it as a house that’s a work of art to be adored, protected, and interpreted. How well are its masters stewarding it?

Two architect brothers based in Pasadena, Charles Sumner Greene (1868-1957) and Henry Mather Greene (1870-1954), worked together to design houses in Southern California in a warm and luscious Arts & Crafts style that defines the movement’s aesthetics and reflects them at their most exquisite.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

While I was in Pasadena, Calif., a few weeks ago, I visited the Gamble House, the Greene & Greene home commissioned in 1908 by David and Mary Gamble, Proctor & Gamble heirs from Cincinnati. Then, Pasadena was little more than a town but already renowned in the Midwest and Northeast for its ideal climate and clean air. I haven’t walked through the house in years but wanted to see it again and present it as a house that’s a work of art to be adored, protected, and interpreted. How well are its masters stewarding it?

Two architect brothers based in Pasadena, Charles Sumner Greene (1868-1957) and Henry Mather Greene (1870-1954), worked together to design houses in Southern California in a warm and luscious Arts & Crafts style that defines the movement’s aesthetics and reflects them at their most exquisite.