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The home was the setting for Dr. Emmett Doc Brown's 1955 home in the film. The former carriage house on the property, which today serves as the museum's gift shop, was also included in the film as Doc's workshop and laboratory. For those who watched the film, you may remember that Doc Brown's workshop was all that remained of the iconic home in the film version, and it sat in the back of a fast food parking lot. This was a bit of Hollywood magic, and craftsmen from the film built a replica of the carriage house to create this element of movie magic. None of the real interiors of the home were used in the film due to the delicate nature of the furnishings that adorn the interior of the home. The Gamble house is significant architecturally in history and in the present day.
The Gamble House in Pasadena: Overview
The Japanese concept of shibusa is visually present in much of the Greene brothers work. Although there is no evidence that the brothers were formally trained in the Japanese architectural art of shibusa, the visuals they created were clearly influenced by their knowledge of the ancient Japanese form. The refinement of their woodworking and artistic restraint highlighted by the art of Japanese shibui is ever present in the wood paneling and furniture designed by the Greenes in the Gamble House. The Gamble family crest, a crane and trailing rose, was integrated in part or whole in many locations around the house. The Gamble House is often described as America’s Craftsman masterpiece, establishing the standard of Craftsman-style homes.
David B. and Mary H. Gamble Professorship
Additional elegant Greene and Greene creations (still privately owned) abound 2 blocks away along Arroyo Terrace, including nos. 368, 370, 400, 408, 424, and 440. For occasional opportunities to actually go inside the homes, there's the annual Craftsman Weekend in October, and Bungalow Heaven in April. The strong ties to the outdoors are brought to the interior as well, through flowers and trees which are engraved in the windows, doors and lanterns.
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Hand-carved Wood Details
Three of the bedrooms have porches, which were often used as sleeping porches in the days before air conditioning. Restored stonework in the front of the house showcases different planters and new landscaping. The front porches (on the ground level) are paved with patterned bricks, and lead out to a pond and other garden areas. Yes, the Gamble House's exterior is featured in the 1985 film Back to the Future.
Worldwide Church of God Historical Site
This fondness to integrate the natural environment with the architectural marvels they created is present in their work, but especially prevalent in their approaches to Arts and Crafts architecture. The hybrid style they created between Arts and Crafts and Japanese architecture stands out as one of the Greene brothers' greatest achievements. The Greenes wanted control over the totality of the projects they worked on, like many other architectural visionaries including Frank Lloyd Wright. The Greene brothers were commissioned by wealthy individuals to design and construct not only the interiors and exteriors, but often they also constructed custom furnishings and accessories that were incorporated into their finished designs.
The Gamble House: Floor Plan and Interior
They soon changed their minds, however, when prospective buyers spoke of painting the interior teak and mahogany woodwork white! The Gambles realized the artistic importance of the house and it remained in the Gamble family until 1966, when it was deeded to the city of Pasadena in a joint agreement with the University of Southern California School of Architecture. David and Mary Gamble lived in the house during the winter months until their deaths in 1923 and 1929, respectively. Mary's younger sister Julia lived in the house until her death in 1943.
Cecil Huggins Gamble and his wife Louise Gibbs Gamble lived in the house beginning in 1946. They briefly considered selling it, until prospective buyers spoke of painting the interior woodwork white. In 1966, the Gamble family turned the house over to the city of Pasadena in a joint agreement with the University of Southern California (USC) School of Architecture. The Gamble House was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977.[3][6] Today, two 5th-year USC architecture students live in the house full-time; the selected students change annually.
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Celebrating a diverse mix of art, architecture and history of the Arroyo Seco area, MOTA Day features five unique... Exterior porches are found off three of the second-floor bedrooms and were used for sleeping or entertaining. The Green brothers attend an exhibit on Japanese architecture while moving to California, and the influence is evident throughout their work. In The Gamble House, Japanese-inspired cherry blossom tree and cloud motifs can be seen on the front doors, windows, lighting, and more. In 1985, the home gained worldwide notoriety as Emmett "Doc" Brown’s house in Back to the Future. While the Greene brother’s design wasn’t initially popular, it is now cemented as a cultural icon.
Rites of Spring: Nature, Myth, and Legends
Following the deaths of David and Mary Gamble, the home was lived in by Mary's younger sister Julia until her death in the early 1940s. Following the death of Julia, the final generation of Gambles lived in the home from 1946 until it was gifted to the City of Pasadena in 1966. The Gambles entered a deal with the University of Southern California to preserve the home, and they gifted the home to the city, which still owns the property to this day. The Gamble House floor plan incorporates inviting common areas and extensive woodworking to create the three-story wood framed structure. The first floor of the home consists of a living room, dining room, den, kitchen with pantry and cold room, a guest bedroom, four bathrooms, and an entry-way decorated by handmade red mission tilework.
The Greene brothers were well known architects in the Los Angeles region and operated their firm, Greene and Greene, beginning in January of 1894. Their unique style and Japanese influences are present in a number of homes and often classified as a California Bungalow or an Ultimate Bungalow. The Gamble House is an example of the Greene brothers work in this genre of architectural design. They were not initially recognized by the architectural elites for their design sensibilities. Following WWI, they style the Greene brothers worked in largely fell out of prominence. Greene and Greene's firm was dissolved in 1922 after one of the brothers, Charles, moved his family to Carmel, California and decided to focus more on family life and religious pursuits.
Although the exterior of the home and carriage house are used in the film, the interiors were recreated on a sound stage due to the delicate nature of the furnishings adorning the home's interior. Frank Lloyd Wright coined the term “organic architecture,” which was used to describe his designs which feature indoor-outdoor connections, low-pitched rooflines, horizontal orientations, banks of windows, and extended rafters. The Greene brothers employ many of these same elements in The Gamble House design. The home also features a double-story front porch design, capitalizing on the beautiful surrounding landscape. Because the house went from the family directly into becoming a museum, much of the original furnishings that were also designed by the Greene brothers are also still in the house.
The Gamble House is the incredible story of brothers Charles and Henry Greene who were pushed reluctantly into architecture by their forceful father only to design and build the most seminal and stunning Arts & Crafts house in America. The house, however, did not come without its price, both personally and professionally, for the Greene brothers, and David and Mary Gamble who commissioned it. At this time, the house passed to the eldest son, Cecil Gamble, and his wife, Louise, who temporarily tried to sell the dwelling in 1945. Efforts to build a high-rise on the Gamble House site came to a head in 1965. To avoid this, a cousin of the Gamble heirs--James Gamble--spearheaded the family effort to preserve the mansion. In 1966, the Gamble Family made an agreement with the City of Pasadena, CA, and the University of Southern California (USC) to maintain the house, and its furnishings, in perpetuity.
The third story of the home was originally used as a billiard room, but today it houses the Greene and Greene memorial library. The home also includes a full basement for laundry, storage, a heating plant, and a darkroom space. The Arts and Crafts Movement in American Craftsman style architecture was focused on the use of natural materials, attention to detail, aesthetics, and craftsmanship. The 1985 movie, Back to the Future, once again brought the home to the forefront in American popular society.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977. In 2008, a Los Angeles Times survey included the home in a list of all-time top 10 houses in Los Angeles. The rafter tails extending beyond the house’s eaves evoke Japanese sensibilities, yet they were an invention of the Greenes and are rarely found elsewhere.
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