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Gamble House (exterior) by Greene and Greene : The craftsmanship on display at the Pasadena Gamble House is just amazing, and all the more so when you consider how houses were built in 1908. While clearly no normal tract house, we still have to remember that portable jobsite power tools were not yet invented at this time. The first portable circular saw was invented in the 1920's, the direct-drive sidewinder saw was developed in 1928. Yet the house is built to the tolerances of a piece of furniture. Now, the museum docents will tell you that '20 men took 11 months to build it'. A useful sound-bite, but clearly not the whole story. I'm guessing that while 20 or so men labored on the jobsite, the house was to a great extent being fabricated in the Hall's furniture shop, with probably an equal number of workers using state-of-the-art (for their day) stationary power tools. It is known that the Halls' furniture shop had an array of belt-driven combustion-motor powered stationary woodworking tools. Since the Hall brothers were both building contractor and cabinet/furniture maker on the Gamble House, they could work together in a way that is not common on any jobsite. They had worked extensively with the Greene brothers. And they were good, in a way that only a very small percentage of woodworkers ever achieve. A lot of this is lost on the general public, you can see it as they breeze by incredible details at every turn. One reason its so easy to miss the craftsmanship is that the house is not ostentatious in any way. The house is subtle. The detailing doesn't jump out and demand attention, you have to be alert. Photos of the house are impressive. But seeing it in person, it just haunts you. The craftsmanship is incredible, the floor plan is very practical and liveable, the level of detailing just defies description. There are very few clues that the house is a hundred years old. The joints are still tight on all the woodwork inside - furniture, doors and windows, and structural. There is a quote on the Gamble House website calling it “one of the best crafted pieces of architecture in the U.S., and certainly one of the very best houses ever built." While that's a subjective statement, just reading it may sound like pure hyperbole. But when you see the house, you can definitely understand where the comment is coming from. The Greene brothers sought to make not just a house, but an architectural work of art. While surely an impractical goal, it truly is remarkable what they achieved by trying.

Gamble House (exterior) by Greene and Greene

The craftsmanship on display at the Pasadena Gamble House is just amazing, and all the more so when you consider how houses were built in 1908. While clearly no normal tract house, we still have to remember that portable jobsite power tools were not yet invented at this time. The first portable circular saw was invented in the 1920's, t ...

Updated: Jun 21, 2009 6:34pm PST