WANING GLORY
A
s the years passed, Gillespie spent less and less time at his estate,
sometimes not returning for several years. At times, he rented
it. When he was in residence, he made himself known by walking
everywhere and talking to everyone. He enjoyed conversing with the
children in Old Spanish Town, which lies just south of his estate. He
also walked to the Montecito Hot Springs twice a week for the sulphur
baths. During the 1930s, he lunched every day he was in residence
at the Santa Barbara Club, to which he walked five miles from his
house. In later years, he walked to the Coral Casino for lunch and
the Montecito Country Club for dinner. As he strolled the roads of
Montecito, he made a curious figure in his cloak, high-top tennis
shoes, and Panama hat.
James Waldron Gillespie died in New York in 1954 having
exhausted his fortune. His
News-Press
obituary says he sold his estate
“El Fure I D Is” (the most imaginative spelling to date) to Thad and
Jean Foley before he died. An antiques dealer, Foley sold off much
of the prized furnishings and parcels of land. Since then, although
El Fureidîs
has experienced a series of owners and renovations, the
romance and magic of Gillespie’s “Garden of Delight” endures.
Many thanks to Emily Kellenberger and Rebecca Riskin
of Village Properties. (Sources not mentioned in text: Hilda M.
Compton’s interview and writings; Obit:
News-Press
, 28 April 1954;
Mrs. Rosamond Moore’s letter to J.Wesley Hughes, third owner of
the estate; Francesco Franceschi’s
Santa Barbara Exotic Flora
of 1895;
U.S. Census reports;
News-Press:
31 October 1956, 21 March 1976,
plus contemporary articles;
Santa Barbara Independent
, 31 August
1911; David Myrick’s
Montecito and Santa Barbara
; David Gebhard’s
Santa Barbara: The Creation of a New Spain in America;
Horticultural
Survey by Arthur Sylvester and Will Reitell, 1985;
Morning Press
, 30
July 1918; files and Hughes scrapbook at Gledhill Library; files of the
Montecito Association History Committee.)
MOGULS
&
MANSIONS
(above)
“From the south façade, with its rose-colored spiral columns which
Gillespie had brought from Spain, one looks out upon a maze of green tree
tops waving in the sweet scented breeze, beyond to the iridescent sea in the
distance lined against a cobalt sky, and marvel that the mirage does not fade.”
– Una Hopkins (LOC)
(below)
“Built on the crest of the hill with a deep blue
sky above it, and behind a broken range of many-hued mountains forms a great
decorative background” (SBHM)
60
summer
|
fall
