Historic house in Carmel Point
United States historic place
Mrs. Clinton Walker House, also known as Cabin on the Rocks, is located on Carmel Point, near Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. It has the appearance of a ship with a bow cutting through the waves. The house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1948 and completed in 1952 for Mrs. Clinton "Della" Walker of Pebble Beach. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 17, 1977.[3][1]
History
In 1918, Willis J. Walker and his wife purchased 216 acres (87 ha) of land in Carmel, which included this lot on the ocean. In the 1940s it was deeded to Mrs. Walker's sister, Della Walker. It was given to her under the condition that she find a noted architect to design the house. Della reached out to Frank Lloyd Wright and told him she wanted a house “as durable as the rocks and as transparent as the waves."
Miles Bain and Mark Mills were hired by Wright to carry out the construction of the house.[2][4][5]
Design of Mrs. Clinton Walker House
The house, an example of Wright's organic architecture, is built on a mass of granite boulders, uses the local Carmel-stone, and has a roof the color of the sea that is shaped to resemble the bow of a ship. It is the only Frank Lloyd Wright house that overlooks the ocean. The house has a view of the Carmel Bay and Pebble Beach.[6][7]
It has a Usonian design; it is a small (originally only 1,200 square feet), single-story house that incorporates a hexagon concrete floor with 120-degree angles, with three rooms completely open with views of the ocean. The low roof was once covered with triangular porcelain panels because of the copper restrictions during the Korean War in the 1950s. Della later replaced it with copper shingles, which lasted forty-five years before being replaced with standing-seam copper sheets.[4] The living-dining room is centered around a floor-to-ceiling fireplace with built-in furniture. The hexagonal modules of the floor plan gave the appearance of a honeycomb. The window frames are painted in Wright's signature "Cherokee Red" color with reverse-stepped glass windows. A master bedroom was added in 1956. The floorplan is based on a hexagon.[6]
In 1954, Wright said, "The over-all-effect is quiet, and the long white surf lines of the sea seem to join the lines of the house to make a natural melody." The California Style landscape design was achieved by Thomas Church, who is one of the pioneer landscape designers of the 20th-century.[1][8]
In the 1959 movie A Summer Place, the characters Ken Jorgenson (Richard Egan) and Sylvia (Dorothy McGuire) have a beach house, which was filmed at the Clinton Walker House. In the film, Sylvia tells Molly (Sandra Dee) that Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house, seemingly located on the East Coast near the movie's "Pine Island" location. The film shows views of the Walker house's interior, exterior and patio. Additional scenes were filmed at a cottage located at Mission Ranch Hotel and Restaurant in Carmel.[9]
Walker House updates
Della had a studio addition to the master bedroom designed in 1956 and built by Sandy Walker in 1960-61, nephew of Mrs. Walker.[3]
In 1964, San Francisco sculptor Robert Howard installed a crushed stone and copper ore mermaid sculpture on the deck, called Undine. The 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m) two-ton sculpture sits on a base that can be rotated for viewing.[10]
The house sold off-market in February 2023 for $22 million.[11] Its current owner is Patrice Pastor.[12]
