TEN OF THE MOST HISTORIC HOUSES IN AMERICA

1.       THE WRIGLEY MANSION - ARIZONA

The Wrigley Mansion was built in 1932 by chewing gum personality William Wrigley Jr. William Wrigley Jr. designed this house as a 50^th anniversary gift for his wife. The mansion sits on top of a hill and has gorgeous 360-degree views of the mountains and the city below. Georgie and Jamie Hormel purchased the property in 1992 and they restored it with the intention of sharing its magic with everyone. Today Wrigley Mansion is a popular destination for weddings and special events, as well as the popular restaurant Geordie’s Steak restaurant and lounge.

2.       OAK ALLEY PLANTATION - LOUISIANA

In 1830 Valcour Aime, known as the “King of Sugar”, purchased the land that Oak Alley Plantation now sits on. In 1836, Valcour Aime exchanged this piece of property with his brother-in-law Jacques Telesphore Roman for a plantation owned by Roman. By 1837, Jacques Roman began building the present mansion under the oversight of George Swainy and entirely with enslaved labor. They completed the mansion in 1839. There have been several owners throughout the years, as most of them could not afford the cost of upkeep. Josephine Stewart was the last owner to olive in the residence. She left the house and grounds to the Oak Alley Foundation when she died in 1972, which opened the plantation up to the public.

3.       ROBERT FROST FARM – NEW HAMPSHIRE

The Robert Frost farm is in Derry, New Hampshire that Robert Frost lived in from 1900 to 1911. The majority of poems in his first two books were written here. The property was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1968. The property is a New Hampshire State Park and is open to the public seasonally.

4.       OHEKA CASTLE – NEW YORK

Otto Hermann Kahn built Oheka Castle in the middle of a 443-acre plot on the highest point on Long Island in Cold Spring Harbor, for an estimated $11 million. The French-style chateau is the second largest private residence ever built in America. The 109,000 square foot home consists of 127 rooms. Developer Gary Melius purchased Oheka in 1984 with the intent of restoring the Castle to its original grandeur.  After $30 million in restoration, the Castle is nearly fully restored.

5.       JOHNNY CASH’S BOYHOOD HOME – ARKANSAS

In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created The Dyess Colony to aid in the nation’s economic recovery from the Great Depression. The community provided a fresh start for nearly 500 impoverished Arkansas farm families, including the family of music legend Johnny Cash. The colony has been restored and opened to visitors in August 2014. Johnny Cash’s boyhood home is furnished as it was when the Cash family lived there. Tours are given Mondays through Saturdays.

6.       MARK TWAIN HOUSE – CONNECTICUT 

Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) and Olivia “Livy” Clemens hired New York architect Edward Tuckerman Potter to design their house on Farmington Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut. Construction began in August 1873 and the family moved into the house on September 19, 1874. Twain wrote, “To us, our house…had a heart, and a soul, and eyes to see us with; and approvals and solicitudes and deep sympathies; it was of us, and we were in its confidence and lived in its grace and in the peace of its benediction.” Financial problems forced the Clemens to move to Europe in 1891. The family never lived in Hartford again.

7.       NEMOURS MANSION – DELEWARE

Alfred I. DuPont was an American industrialist, financier, and philanthropist. In 1907 Alfred married Alicia, his second wife. He loved showering her with grandiose gifts and one gift being the spectacular new house that he built for her on a 3,000-acre plot of land in Wilmington, Delaware. They named the estate Nemours after the French town that his great-great-grandfather represented in the French Estates General.

8.       ERNEST HEMINGWAY  HOME – FLORIDA

Ernest Hemingway purchased the Key West home in 1931 for $8,000 in back taxes from the City of Key West. It still contains the furniture that he and his family used. The cats that live on the property are descendants of the cats he had while he lived in the house.  The house is built from limestone that was excavated directly from the ground beneath. It is believed that the stone was all hand cut since there were no power tools available at that time. Today the house serves as a museum. The estate still remains to be the single largest residential property on the island of Key West.

9.       THE BILTMORE ESTATE – NORTH CAROLINA

George Vanderbilt began construction on his 250-room French Renaissance chateau in 1889. Taking over six years to complete, the Biltmore House is the largest undertaking in residential architecture. In 1895, Vanderbilt opens Biltmore to friends and family. The finished home contains over four acres of floor space, including 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. The estate attracts almost 1 million visitors each year and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964.

10.   GRACELAND – TENNESSEE

In the spring of 1957, at the age of just 22, Elvis Presley purchased Graceland for just over $100,000. When Elvis purchased Graceland, he was working on his second motion picture, “Loving You,” with “Jailhouse Rock” to follow. Elvis had various homes in the Los Angeles area and spent a lot of time on the road. However, Graceland was always home base – a constant in the life of Elvis Presley. Today, you can tour Graceland and get a glimpse into the personal life of Elvis Presley.

TEN MUSEUMS TO VISIT IN SANTA BARBARA

1.       Santa Barbara Museum of Art

Located at 1130 State Street in downtown Santa Barbara, California. Home to both permanent and special collections, the museum was founded in 1941. The building itself was at one time the Santa Barbara Post Office (1914 – 1932). Chicago architect David Adler created the Museum’s galleries. Today, the Museum’s 60,000 square feet include exhibition galleries, a Museum Store, Café, a 154- seat auditorium, a library containing 50,000 books and 55,000 slides, a Family Resource Center dedicated to participatory interactive programming and an 11,500 square foot off site facility, the Ridley-Tree Education Center at McCormick House. The Museum’s mission is to integrate art into the life of the community. They have over 40 educational programs reaching more than 40,000 people each year. 

2.       Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Founded in 1916, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is the oldest museum in Santa Barbara, California. Located in Mission Canyon, directly behind the Santa Barbara Mission. The campus occupies 12 acres. The museum has 5,700 members and more than 150,000 people visit each year. Albert Einstein visited the museum with his wife in 1931 and remarked, “I can see that this museum has been built by the work of love.”

3.       Santa Barbara Historical Museum

The museum is located at 136 East De la Guerra in the heart of historic downtown Santa Barbara, built in 1965 by the Santa Barbara Historical Society. It features relics from Chumash, Spanish, Mexican, Yankee and Chinese cultures, including artifacts, photographs, furnishings and textiles dating as far back as the 15^th century. 

4.       Mission Santa Barbara

The Santa Barbara Mission was founded by Padre Fermin Lasuen on December 4, 1786, the feast day of Saint Barbara, as the tenth mission for the religious conversion of the indigenous local Chumash-Barbareno tribe of Native American people. Today, the Santa Barbara Mission continues to serve the community as a parish church. It also contains a gift shop, a museum, a Franciscan Friary, and a retreat house. The grounds are a primary tourist attraction in Santa Barbara. The Mission is owned by the Franciscan Province of Santa Barbara, and the local parish rents the church from the Franciscans. 

5.       Santa Barbara Botanic Garden

The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is located in Mission Canyon, Santa Barbara, containing over 1,000 species of rare and indigenous plants. The garden sits on 78 acres and the purpose is the display California native plants in natural settings. There are about 5.7 miles of hiking trails within the garden. The Garden was founded by landscape architect Beatrix Farrand in 1926. There is a rock dam that was constructed in 1806 by Native Americans under the direction of the Spanish padres of the adjacent Mission Santa Barbara. The Garden became a Santa Barbara County Landmark in 1983. Part of the Botanic Garden was burned in the Jesusita Fire on May 6, 2009. Several buildings were destroyed by the fire and have not yet been replaced. Garden displays have recovered from the fire. 

6.       Santa Barbara Maritime Museum

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum opened its doors in July 2000, inside the Santa Barbara Waterfront Center (formerly the Naval Reserve Building). There are many different events including lectures, tastings, celebrations, special gatherings, and private meetings and parties. The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum also offers educational programs such as: Marine Science Program – For two weeks, about 400 children from elementary schools and after school programs participate, many of whom have never been out on the ocean or on a boat. Another program is the Tall Ship Program. This program allows students to spend the night aboard a tall ship living the life of an 1830’s sailor. They also offer a Science Night Program and a Book Club. 

7.       Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum

The Karpeles Manuscript Library is the world’s largest private collection of original manuscripts and documents. David and Marsha Karpeles, California real estate magnates, founded the library in 1983. All of the Karpeles Manuscript Library services are free. There are 11 different Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum’s around the US. The world’s largest private holding of important original documents and manuscripts is located at 21 W. Anapamu Street in Santa Barbara, California. 

8.       El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park

The El Presidio de Santa Barbara is a former military installation in Santa Barbara. The Presidio was built by Spain in 1782. The park houses an original adobe structure called El Cuartel, which is the second oldest surviving building in California. The Santa Barbara Presidio was both military headquarters and governmental center of the region that is now San Luis Obispo County to and including the Pueblo of Los Angeles. El Presidio de Santa Barbara is located at 123 East Canon Perdido, between Anacapa and Santa Barbara Streets in downtown Santa Barbara. It sits across from the Santa Barbara Post Office. 

9.       Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara

The Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara was founded in 1976 by artists and supporters seeking a venue that was dedicated solely to contemporary art. There is no admission fee because MCASB believes that the arts should be accessible to all audiences of all persuasions. There are several different education projects put on by the MCASB which can be found on their website www.mcasantabarbara.org/learn.

10.    Casa Dolores

Casa Dolores, Center for the Study of the Popular Arts of Mexico is an art museum located on 1023 Bath Street in Santa Barbara, California. The museum is located in the Botiller Adobe house that was built in 1843, the oldest standing two-story adobe in Santa Barbara. The house was purchased by Linda Cathcart in 2007. The Museum houses art historian Linda Cathcart’s collection of over 6,000 objects in various media: clay, wood, ceramic, natural fibers, leather, paper, glass, clay, and tin. Some artists whose work is displayed include Josefina Aguilar, Teodora Blanco, Candelario Medrano, Abelardo Ruiz, Rosa Real de Nieto and the Linares family.