One of California’s largest and most interesting estates, historic Green Gables in Woodside, was the summer residence of the entrepreneurial Fleishhacker family of San Francisco. After the 1906 earthquake and a family trip to England, the family began buying land to build a compound that would emulate the thatched-roof homes they had seen on their vacation. At 74 acres, and still in the Fleishhacker family, the property with its multiple homes and supporting buildings – 110 years after it was built – is for sale priced at $110 million.
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Money was no problem for one of the busiest and wealthiest families in California when it came to creating a big and comfortable summer estate. Mortimer Fleishhacker, Sr. owned a paper company, an electric company, and was one of the country’s leading bankers. Documents show that the estate grew through close collaboration between Mortimer and architect/landscape architect Charles Sumner Greene of the famous architectural firm of Greene and Greene. The goal for the design was that it appear natural to its landscape. It was a property of California firsts: first to have exterior walls of gunite, first to have a free-form swimming pool and the first to have a shingle roof that replicated the thatched roofs of England. The property grew over the years to include seven homes, extensive gardens, woodlands, and a Roman-style pool that is the size of a football field. The last home to be built on the property was completed in 1970, showing how the structures have expanded across the landscape since the main house was constructed.
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Green Gables has hosted dignitaries from European royalty, U.S. senators, congressional representatives, governors, and business leaders. In 1965, the United Nations selected Green Gables as the site for its 20th-anniversary commemoration gala. Today, especially with its proximity to Silicon Valley, the estate would make an excellent corporate retreat and meeting center or continue as a large family compound. Historians and architectural students will appreciate the extensive documentation on the estate located in the Documents Collection of the College of Environmental Design, University of California Berkeley.
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The historic Green Gables estate is listed by Mauricio Umansky of The Agency.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Green Gables LLC.