San Marino Estate Exemplifies Southern California’s ‘Golden Age’ Architecture

The period between 1920 and 1940 is known as the “Golden Age” of Southern California architecture. During this relatively brief window, highly skilled craftsmen and high-quality building materials were in plentiful supply, as were well-heeled clients, all of which would be made scarce by the Great Depression and World War II. Among the architects most popular with the money-is-no-object crowd during this period was Gordon B. Kaufmann, whose client roster was filled with such illustrious names as Doheny, Chandler, and Adamson.

In 1927, Kaufmann was commissioned to design a residence for Harry L. Thompson and his wife, Anna Lambert Thompson. Together with his business partner, steel magnate John Lambert (who was Anna’s father), Thompson held a controlling interest in several Pasadena hotels. The Thompsons’ Palladian-style villa was constructed not far from the palatial estate of Henry and Arabella Huntington — now the Huntington Library, Museum, and Botanical Gardens — and is just as impressive today as it was a century ago.

Occupying a lot of just over one acre, the villa disperses nine bedrooms and the same number of bathrooms within three levels. Public spaces include a vast drawing room with Italian marble fireplace and ceiling murals hand-painted by Giovanni Smeraldi, a dining room with lovely wallpaper by Zuber & Cie, and a walnut-paneled library with a hidden, Prohibition-era bar-room. Other sumptuous features include Palladian archways, marble and tile floors, elaborate moldings and plaster work, coffered ceilings, French doors, an elevator, and a stunning loggia with groin-vaulted arches, painted tile, and original cast-iron lanterns.

Among the estate’s exterior amenities are a swimming pool and spa, a lighted north/south-facing tennis court, and a garage with space for six cars. There’s also a one-bedroom guest house with kitchen and family room.

The pedigreed property has been owned by the same family since 1984, but is now available with an asking price of $12.5 million. Brent Chang of the Chang Group at Compass holds the listing.