Wyntoon
From Archiplanet
| Wyntoon | |
| Designer | Julia Morgan |
| Location | near Mount Shasta, California, USA |
| Date | 1924 to 1943 |
| Building Type | large house/villa complex |
| Climate | temperate |
| Context | rural, forest riverside |
| Architectural Style | Romantic Neo-Vernacular with Craftsman detailing |
| Street Address | |
| Notes | Hearst Estate at Wyntoon. |
| At Great Buildings | http://www.GreatBuildings.com/buildings/Wyntoon.html |
Contents |
[edit] Images
[edit] Discussion
Commentary
Wyntoon was built as a nothern villa estate for William Randolph Hearst on 50,000 acres of forested land near Mount Shasta in Northern California.
Three sets of buildings were sited along the McCloud River. The first was a "Bavarian village," with three half-timber, three-story guesthouses arranged around a large, grassy oval clearing in the midst of the forest. The back of the guesthouses overlook the river, to which they are parallel. Half a mile downstream, the swimming pool, tennis courts, croquet court, and a building for dining and movies were located. Another quarter of a mile downstream near a bend, a large central building for meals and entertainment was located.
"The guesthouses, which seem more like small castles, are Bavarian-Austrian in style, a choice no doubt influenced by the landscape, with its steep pine-covered hills and tumultuous stony river. . . .
"The effect of the 'village' is Bavarian, but the symmetry of each building and the careful siting around the central green are more Beaux-Arts, a welcome antidote to the potentially cloying Bavarian style. Morgan's use of the local stone and wood is characteristically sensitive. The steep roofs feature many gables, chimneys, and bay windows accented by timbers; but the playful arrangement of forms, in counterpoint to the adjacent patterns of trees and river and mountains, gives a rhythmic quality to the whole design."
Sara Holmes Boutelle. Julia Morgan Architect.. pp. 218-9.
Wyntoon was planned to house Hearst's German art collection, and as at San Simeon, a team of craftspersons worked at the site, making and installing ornament to complement art objects. Carved local soft fir and pine for interior wood paneling and decorative elements, colorful Oakland-made tile, painted fresco style murals on the building exterior, wrought iron for gates, brackets and lanterns were all integrated in the building and landscape design.
Details
Site: 50,000 acres [see below] of dense forest with winding McCloud River, 50 miles south of the Oregon border, in the shadow of Mount Shasta.
New 9/9/07: As of the mid 1990's the total property occupies roughly 120,000 acres contiguously, and is mostly privately managed forestland. Also the structures on the east side of the McCloud river are now in ruins, including the movie house and the associated pool, and only the tennis courts remain. The tennis court is just visible in the maps below as an unnatural shade of green peeking out of the forest canopy immediately across the river to the S-S-E from the maintenance compound.
[edit] Maps
Above is a closeup of the care-taker's residence and maintenance facilities, including horse paddock.
Below, a closeup of the Village. Visible are the roofs of Angel, Bear, and Cinderella Houses (from the north, all copper green), and River House, just west of the bridge. Angel house is by far the largest, and includes the kitchens and main dining facilities. River House is later construction in a mid-century style, two stories with a wrap-around deck. Fountains and statuary pepper the grounds.
Below is the pool for use of guests at the Village, with its own bath house and kitchenette, being the size of most homes' kitchens.
And here below: The Castle, at The Bend. The Castle is in the upper left, horseshoe-shaped with a drive-in courtyard, and the swimming pool out front is on river's edge. There is enough space on the lawn here for some guests, so inclined, to fly in and land a helicopter. Generally only the family patriarch and his immediate guests ever stay here.
[edit] References
Sara Holmes Boutelle. Julia Morgan Architect. Color Photographs by Richard Barnes. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1988. exterior photo of bear house, p216. interior photo of stairway at bear house, p220. exterior photo from across river, p229. exterior photo of the bend, p231. exterior photo from river, p219.
For the map area info edit of Sept 9, 2007, Can only cite the personal experience of this passing reader, having worked groundskeeping on the Wyntoon property in the mid 1990's.
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