The South Pasadena Preservation Foundation invites the public to a festive outdoor brunch and exclusive look inside one of historic Oaklawn Avenue’s grandest homes Saturday, Dec. 2, from 10 a.m. to noon.
Completed in 1909 by builder/designer G. Lawrence Stimson, the nearly 6,000-square foot home at 217 Oaklawn Ave. South Pasadena features a 40-foot long living room, a dizzying variety of windows, dramatic entry staircase, and rich wood work. Its first owner was President Theodore Roosevelt’s vice president, Charles Warren Fairbanks.
“Stimson was a young designer who took on a challenge with houses of this scale. His solution was to be inventive and surprising wherever he could to vary the experience from room to room,” said SPPF President Jennifer Trotoux, curator of the Greene and Greene-designed Gamble House in Pasadena.
John Ripley, historian and expert on the work of Stimson, will guide walkthroughs of the house at 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. The home has been in the same family for 61 years and is now for sale with no open house planned.
The brunch and viewing price is $35 for SPPF members and $45 for nonmembers. Tickets are available at spppreservation.org/product/oaklawn-brunch-tour/. SPPF members should add the coupon code SPPF23.
First published in the December 1 print issue of the South Pasadena Review.
