An Appeal from Edward Bosley, Gamble House Director

December 2011

Dear friends of The Gamble House,

Another year is coming to a close — our 45th year of public access — and it’s been a busy one at Four Westmoreland Place. I want to share with you some of the highlights of 2011 and give you a preview of the exciting activities planned for 2012. I also want to ask for your support once again in helping to keep our outstanding programs fully funded. Annual gifts from friends like you insure that The Gamble House thrives as a public resource, as it has since 1966.

In 2011, the city of Pasadena continued its maintenance and enhancement of the grounds and landscape features. I am delighted to report that the city has just completed a long-awaited re-paving of Westmoreland Place in front of The Gamble House, and the spacious lawn has been re-seeded for the winter. Landscape lights have been repaired as well, and so we are ready for the long hours of winter darkness. Our thanks go to the city’s hard-working Parks and Recreation staff, who made it all happen.

Thanks to gifts from several sources, professional tree movers relocated the four mature camellias on the north side of the house.

The plants, which love the acid mulch and shade from neighboring trees, are thriving in their new home in the parkway strip between Orange Grove Boulevard and Westmoreland Place. And, the unobstructed view of the north side of the house is spectacular!

Another exciting landscape project on the horizon is a new garden being designed for the area behind the garage. Isabelle Greene, FASLA — an award-winning landscape architect based in Santa Barbara (and granddaughter of Henry Greene) — has been working on a re-design of the area currently occupied by a non-original rose garden. The roses will be relocated and replaced by the newly designed garden, where visitors may sit on benches and enjoy a cup of tea and a scone in quiet contemplation of the House. The garden has been a planned memorial to Isabelle’s cousin, the late Nancy Greene Glass, a great supporter of The Gamble House.

Indoors, conservation of the decorative arts collection continues. More than 60+ objects were professionally conserved in the past year. While objects leave, creating a temporary void, we are reminded of how much each piece means to the overall design of the unique and precious Greene and Greene interior. We celebrate the return of each object, too, marveling at the beautiful results of the careful work of Griswold Conservation Associates. Thanks are due the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Windgate Charitable Foundation, Ken and Cherie Swenson, and an anonymous donor for their help in this important work.

In October, a new, in-depth tour was added to the program menu at The Gamble House. “Fire and Light,” our newest specialized tour, is being led by contemporary glass artist, John Hamm, whose tour focuses on the design, materials, fabrication methods, and beautiful effects produced by the art-glass fixtures in The Gamble House.  This new two-hour tour joins “Behind-the-Velvet-Ropes” and “Details and Joinery” as the third of our popular specialized tours.

The Junior Docent program graduated its new class November 20, launching nearly thirty middle-school students as guides for Pasadena Unified School District elementary school children. Thanks go to Jack Englebrecht and his committee for their hard work on behalf of this stand-out public program!

The Gamble House Bookstore continues to provide its customers with a unique shopping environment in which to discover hundreds of beautiful books and gift items. Sarah Stehly and her staff (Lisa, Angelina, and Stephanie) dress the shop particularly beautifully at this time of year, so please drop in for all of your holiday shopping needs! If you can’t drop in, you can shop online (and by the way, you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter, too) at www.gamblehouse.org. Speaking of books, the new title “Greene & Greene: Developing a California Architecture” by Bruce Smith (Gibbs Smith, Publisher) is available in the Bookstore and a must for any fan of the Greenes.

The Docent Council continued its 45-year tradition of leading tours, creating stunning floral arrangements for the House, providing delicious luncheons, lending a hand in the Bookstore, staffing the Huntington’s Greene and Greene exhibit, coordinating the Junior Docent Program, and much more! Their Gamble House cookbook continues to be a best-seller, and proceeds will fund leading-edge computer technology to streamline their operations on the Web. Care to join the Docent Council?

May and October featured sold-out tours to the UK offered to members of the Friends of The Gamble House (one of many benefits of membership). FoGH offered excellent programming in 2011, and 2012 promises an equally high caliber. Look for upcoming news of a Greene & Greene home tour in April. If you are not a member and want to join the FoGH, please be in touch online!

In November an exhibit featuring Greene and Greene drawings and photographs opened in Tokyo, with curator Anne Mallek and yours truly present for the festivities and a related symposium. Thanks go to the Steve and Kelly McLeod Family Foundation for supporting this!

Gamble House programming takes dedicated volunteer support, and equally dedicated financial support. In short, we need your donations to make it all happen. By making a generous gift you can ensure that these outstanding offerings continue, all the while helping to preserve The Gamble House for future generations. Thank you for your loyal support!

Edward R. Bosley