The Ultimate Bungalow: Inside Pasadena’s Gamble House

In the quiet, tree-lined streets of Pasadena, California, stands a home that is widely considered the masterpiece of the American Arts and Crafts movement.

The Gamble House isn’t just a house; it is a piece of furniture you can live in. Built by the legendary architectural brothers Greene and Greene, the home is a symphony of wood, glass, and light. It embodies a specific moment in time when craftsmanship was valued over mass production, and health was found in the fresh air of a sleeping porch.

And yes, if it looks familiar to movie buffs, it might be because a certain time-traveling DeLorean once parked in the driveway.

The Soap Fortune and the Winter Home

The house was commissioned in 1908 by David and Mary Gamble. If the name sounds familiar, check your bathroom cabinet—David was a second-generation member of the Procter & Gamble dynasty.

Like many wealthy Easterners of the era, the Gambles wanted a winter retreat to escape the cold of Cincinnati. They hired Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene, brothers who had trained at MIT but found their signature style in the golden light of California.

The cost was staggering for the time: $79,000 (including furnishings and landscaping). To put that in perspective, the average American house in 1908 cost roughly $2,500.

A “Total Design” Masterpiece

The Greene brothers didn’t just draw the blueprints; they designed everything. They sketched the furniture, the rugs, the light fixtures, and even the picture frames.

The result is a home that feels incredibly cohesive.

• The “Cloud Lift”: Look at the wooden beams, the furniture, and the window frames. You will see a recurring motif of rising and falling lines known as the “cloud lift,” inspired by Chinese design.
• The Woods: The interior is a warm glow of teak, maple, oak, Port Orford cedar, and mahogany.
• The Glass: The front door is a work of art in itself. Designed by Charles Greene and crafted by Emil Lange, the leaded glass depicts a gnarled California Live Oak tree. When the sun hits it, the light spreads across the entry hall like a golden canopy.

Engineering for Earthquakes

One of the most fascinating aspects of the house is hidden in plain sight. The Greene brothers used scarf joints to connect the massive wooden beams.

Borrowed from shipbuilding, a scarf joint uses a long, interlocking “Z” shape to join wood without nails or screws. In earthquake-prone Southern California, this was genius. It allows the house to flex and move during a tremor rather than snapping. It is likely why the house remains in such pristine condition more than a century later.

The “Clinker” Bricks

On the terraces, you will notice bricks that look melted, twisted, or blackened. These are clinker bricks.

In the 1900s, these were considered trash—bricks that had been too close to the fire in the kiln and deformed. However, the Arts & Crafts movement celebrated natural imperfection. The Greene brothers bought these “rejects” cheap and used them to create organic, textured walls that looked like they grew out of the earth.

The Near-Disaster: “Paint it White”

The house remained in the Gamble family until 1966. It was occupied by David and Mary, then Mary’s sister Julia, and finally their son Cecil and his wife Louise.

In the mid-1960s, the family considered selling the home. The prospective buyers, looking at the dark woods through the lens of 1960s trends, mentioned their plan: They were going to paint all the interior teak and mahogany woodwork white to “brighten it up.”

Horrified, the family immediately took the house off the market. Realizing the house needed protection, they deeded it to the City of Pasadena and the University of Southern California (USC) in 1966. That close call saved one of America’s greatest architectural treasures from being whitewashed into oblivion.

Doc Brown’s House

For pop culture fans, the Gamble House is hallowed ground. The exterior and the carriage house served as the 1955 home and laboratory of Doc Brown in the classic film Back to the Future.

While the interiors were shot on a soundstage, the garage (now the gift shop) is where the flux capacitor was born—at least in movie magic history.

If You Visit

Today, the house is managed by the Gamble House Conservancy. It is the only surviving Greene & Greene house that retains all of its original custom furniture.

• Location: 4 Westmoreland Place, Pasadena, CA 91103.
• Tours: Guided tours are the only way to see the interior. They sell out quickly, so book in advance.
• The Students: If you see people who look like they live there, they might! Two fifth-year architecture students from USC are selected annually to live in the house’s former servant quarters, acting as caretakers and soaking in the history.
• Pro Tip: Visit on a sunny afternoon to see the front door “glow.”

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For More Information

• The Gamble House Conservancy (www.gamblehouse.org)