Visiting time capsule mansions of Redlands, in the footsteps of Leo Politi

We’re making this 2021 subscriber edition newsletter free for all to read in honor of the Leo Politi Loves Los Angeles bus tour (Saturday, 11/18/2023). Join us to celebrate Richard’s birthday and visit places that are still as magical and lovely as they were when the artist painted them. Learn more in the dedicated Politi tour newsletter, and read on for our 2021 adventure in Politi’s footsteps in the city of Redlands…

Gentle reader,

Greetings from your friendly historic Los Angeles sightseeing tour company, now offering digital programming until we can again organize groups to gather and explore the city we love.

For our latest post that’s hidden from the rest of the internet, we’d like to take you along on an architectural treasure hunt through historic Redlands, California down the old Inland Empire citrus belt.

We recently were given a copy of illustrator Leo Politi’s 1983 book Redlands Impressions, a charming little volume which is very much in the spirit of his 1965 classic Bunker Hill Los Angeles: Reminiscences of Bygone Days. (We call it a little volume because although both are tall hardcover books, there are just 11 paintings and drawings in the Redlands book, compared to Bunker Hill’s 22.)

Leo Politi loved Bunker Hill, and knew as he was painting her streets and gardens, stained glass and turrets, that the whole beautiful neighborhood was soon to fall to the forces of redevelopment. Perhaps that’s why the book feels so melancholy and otherworldly, as if he was painting ghosts just as they left their physical bodies.

There are many ways for those of us who never visited to understand what Bunker Hill was like—through George Mann’s photographs, Nathan Marsak’s book and Gordon Pattison’s memories—but there’s no better way to feel as if you’re visiting that lost neighborhood than to lose yourself in one of Leo Politi’s paintings. It’s our dream that one day the large collection of his Bunker Hill work held by Central Library will be on permanent display, as was the artist’s wish and the library’s promise to him.

But even after Bunker Hill was flattened, Politi was driven to document architectural treasures of past generations. He haunted libraries and newspaper archives, learning the history of Southern California and seeking out the obscure and interesting places that had managed to avoid the bulldozers.

We think of him as a fellow traveler—though instead of spending hours capturing a landmark in pigments for book projects, we snap a few cell phone camera views for our social media and future webinars and move on.

Which brings us to this Redlands treasure hunt.

We can’t ride Angels Flight up Bunker Hill and compare Politi’s paintings to the physical buildings, because every one of them is gone. But it turns out all the landmarks featured in Redlands Impressions are still standing. We couldn’t resist hopping on the 10 to seek them out. It’s only an hour away!

First stop: Kimberly Crest (Dennis and Farwell, 1897 - 1325 Prospect Drive, Redlands, CA 92373), on the edge of beautiful Prospect Park, where we picnicked on chili relleno burritos from Cotija's Taco Shop’s drive-thru window. That’s the exuberant Morey Mansion on the cover, and you’ll see it again later on our treasure hunt.

If the grand Châteauesque mansion looks familiar but a little screwy, that’s because it’s the mirror image of the 1909 Rollin B. Lane mansion in Hollywood, home of the Magic Castle. You can take a tour of Kimberly Crest, though we only explored the grounds.

While the new entrance of the Magic Castle, on the right of the big tower in the vintage photo above, is all heavily utilized surface parking lot, Kimberly Crest still sits atop a wonderful expanse of lawn, with terraced stairs leading a visitor alongside koi-filled lily ponds. Here’s what they sound like.

The gardens were designed by John Parkinson’s partner G. Edwin Bergstrom, who married the daughter of the house, the Kimberly-Clark paper heiress, who he knew from back home in Neenah, Wisconsin.

And here’s the place on the lawn where Leo Politi set his easel, quite unchanged, though the little children are probably grandmothers by now.

Behind the main house, partially buried in sand, we spotted a charming pair of putti riding dolphins, which had been installed in a pool when Politi visited. We’re glad they’re still around, but it would be nice to see them wet again.

Our next stop was the James S. Edwards Home (built from kit plans, 1890 - 2064 Orange Tree Lane, Redlands, CA 92374), a giddy Queen Anne confection that was threatened with demolition before it was moved next to the San Bernardino County Museum and restored as an events venue by Donald and Sue Wilcott.

Also on the grounds is a charming small church, First Evangelical Lutheran (1901)—it too saved from the wrecking ball when the Wilcotts salvaged it—and a rambling maze of orange groves, fountains, tented dance floors and big flat lawns. The property is a one-stop shop for an old-fashioned wedding and banquet with wonderful photo ops.

The Benjamin Barton Home, or Barton Villa (1866, renovated 1871 and 1893 - 11245 Nevada St, Redlands, CA 92373) belonged to an early physician who accumulated large tracts of land when his Mormon neighbors were called back to Utah. It is now a small office building and events venue, hence the wacky hanging bulbs.

Barton built his family home just outside the walls of a crumbling relic of Colonial California, the San Bernardino Asistencia, an outpost of the San Gabriel Mission that had long served as a free storehouse for locals needing tiles to roof a chicken coop.

The first time Politi came to paint a picture, in 1967, Barton’s house was a riding stable, full of pretty ponies. A dozen years later, the Villa was itself a spooky ruin, with just one lonesome mare to keep the artist company.

The ruined Asistencia (1819 / rebuilt 1926-1937 - 26930 Barton Road, Redlands, CA 92373), meanwhile, had been completely reconstructed during the Great Depression as part of a Works Progress Administration relief project.

But once completed, the faux Catholic complex didn’t serve any particular purpose. Long a white elephant on the County’s books, the property was recently transferred to the stewardship of the Redlands Conservancy, and we look forward to visiting when tours resume.

Another interesting Asistencia well worth putting on your “to visit” list is the Pala Sub-Mission, which we wrote about in an earlier subscriber’s edition of this newsletter.

When people talk about the grand landmarks of Redlands, the David A. Morey House, or Morey Mansion (Jerome Seymour, 1890 - 190 Terracina Boulevard, Redlands, CA 92373) always tops the list. With its eclectic mix of imperial Russian and French Second Empire design, folded together with knife-edge pleats, prominent setting and rumors of hauntings, the house has established itself firmly in the local imagination. Here’s a 1992 video tour, from before it was restored.

Our last bit of treasure in the hunt had all the makings of an anticlimax. The Mission Revival Burrage Mansion (Charles Brigham, 1901 - 1205 W Crescent Avenue, Redlands, CA 92373) perches at the very tippy top of a grand staircase, behind a locked gate bedecked with glittery hearts proclaiming the community Redlands Strong.

But there was something not quite right on the perimeter of the property, so Richard made like the campground host he was in the 1990s and telephoned the Rochford Foundation, the children’s nonprofit that owns the mansion now. And before we knew it, we’d been invited to drive up the hill and take a look see.

And what a stunning structure it is—though only an afterthought to the fabulously wealthy man who built it. Growing up in Redlands, Tim Rochford used to peep through the gates and marvel at this relic of the Gilded Age, and it’s that budding imagination that guides the work of his foundation, dedicated to providing underprivileged kids a chance to play and learn on the grounds. The clock, not in Politi’s painting, is Rochford’s signature addition to the historic buildings he restores.

The mansion was a convent when Politi visited, and the nuns welcomed him. When he returned years later, hoping to meet the new owner, a mean dog chased him down the steps. We think he’d be over the moon to find this dreamy place filled with happy children, and just wish he could have painted it that way.

Thus ends our Leo Politi treasure hunt in Redlands, and we hope you’ve enjoyed the views. Should you wish to replicate our outing, you can find a map here. A second hand copy of Redlands Impressions is helpful, but not essential.

yours for Los Angeles (and points within driving distance),

Kim & Richard

Esotouric