HOMING IN

The scaffolding and construction trailers are gone, a sign that the renovation of the Huntington Gallery is nearing completion. Curators are busy reinstalling art throughout the house, and gardeners have already begun to restore the landscaping surrounding the home Henry and Arabella Huntington commissioned 100 years ago. The building will open to the public once again in May 2008.

Curators have been working closely with engineers and preservationists to execute a plan that acknowledges the competing visions of the Huntingtons and the architectural team of Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey. Historian Sam Watters adds another layer to the story by comparing Hunt and Grey’s early plans to those of Edward S. Cobb, the first architect Huntington hired for the job.

Early renderings and photos of the south facade show the house high on a hill overlooking a ranch that was gradually giving way to specialized botanical gardens. Forty years later, a different kind of ranch house appeared on the landscape of Southern California. Sunset editor Daniel P. Gregory explores the allure of Maynard L. Parker’s photos for magazine readers eager to see—if not move into—the postwar ranch houses designed by Cliff May.

Writer D. J. Waldie grew up in Lakewood, where 17,500 homes went up in a mere 33 months. More than 70,000 people moved in by 1955, populating the workforce of Douglas Aircraft and other Southern California companies occupying the home front of the Cold War. Waldie still resides in the modest home he grew up in, a longevity that helps him ponder the impact of the rise, fall, and rise of the aerospace industry on the lives and families of its workers.

All this construction—50 and 100 years in the making—is a reminder that history in California is relatively new, if not fleeting. However, historian David Igler takes us back more than 400 years to a period before the arrival of British settlers in North America. Thousands of miles to the west of Jamestown, an international cast of characters was already making contact with Indians along the Pacific Coast. History is not so new, after all, and it’s in our own backyard.

MATT STEVENS

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