Casa del Herrero History

The History of the Casa del Herrero

The Steedman Estate is one of the best preserved, historically significant, and intact examples of the ‘heyday’ of Montecito estates in the 1920s. The creation of the property reflects a remarkable synthesis of culture, artistic expression, natural environment, and historical antecedents.

San Diego’s Panama-California International Exposition (1915) exerted great influence on the horticulture, landscape architecture, and architecture of the American West The following decade saw the emergence in Santa Barbara of a distinctive California style of landscape design that derived its inspiration from Mediterranean sources, most importantly the gardens, countryside, and palaces of southern Spain, but gained its expressive power from the ideas, talents, and imagination of American clients and their designers.

George Fox Steedman and Carrie Howard Steedman moved into their new house on the day of Santa Barbara’s devastating 1925 earthquake, when much of the business district was leveled. Thus the Casa del Herrero is linked to an important aspect of Santa Barbara’s architectural and cultural history. It was after the Santa Barbara earthquake that civic leaders proposed that the massive rebuilding required should be consistent architecturally. The style adopted was Spanish Colonial Revival, which continues to this day to contribute to the city’s beauty and dominates its cultural identity.

The principal architect of the house was George Washington Smith, one of the architects credited with creating the city’s rich legacy of Spanish Colonial Revival design. The site plan and the spatial organization and horticultural display of the grounds and gardens are the work of landscape architects Ralph T. Stevens and Lockwood De Forest with contributions by Francis T. Underhill while architectural aspects of the gardens and patios were contributed by architect George Washington Smith, and his assistant Lutah Maria Riggs. A number of other artists and architects were involved. Antiquarians Arthur and Mildred Byne set the tone and thematic content of the gardens, interior design, and the furnishings of the house. Above all, the guiding force in the creation of Casa del Herrero and the selection of talented designers and advisers was the owner himself, George Steedman.

The Steedmans’ decision to build in Montecito was probably made after a visit of several months’ duration in 1921. Between 1922 and 1925 George Steedman worked closely with George Washington Smith and Ralph Stevens in the design of the Casa and its landscape. As testament to how involved George Steedman was in all aspects of the house, he traveled through Spain in 1923 with antiquarians Arthur and Mildred Stapley Byne to view sites and purchase antiques, tiles and furniture.

In the early 1930s, George Steedman worked with architect Floyd Brewster on the design of his workshop. Steedman became interested in silversmithing in the mid-1920s and in 1927 studied with George Gebelein, the foremost American silversmith, in Boston.

George Steedman died in 1940 and Carrie continued to live in the Casa alone until her death in 1962. Younger daughter Medora Bass inherited the Casa and made no significant changes in the house, gardens or décor. She was hopeful that the Casa would become accessible to the public for tours and educational workshops focused on horticulture and architecture. Medora Bass died in 1987 and the creation of The Casa del Herrero Foundation fell to her son, George S. Bass, who generously organized and endowed the 501(C)3 nonprofit foundation in 1993 with the support and assistance of members of the Montecito community.