The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutQuito Road 15231HISTORIC RESOURCES INVENTORY ( #51) IDENTIFICATION 1. Common name: Meagher /Smiley House 2. Historic name: Casa Tierra 3. Street or rural address: 15231 Quito Road City: Saratoga 4. Parcel number: 397 -07 -020 Zip: 95070 County: Santa Clara 5. Present Owner: Trans - Optics /Jerome Field Address: 300 Montgomery St. Suite 500 City: San Francisco Zip: 94104 Ownership is: Public: Private: X 6. Present Use: Residence Original Use: Residence DESCRIPTION 7a. Architectural style: Southwest Colonial 7b. Briefly describe the present physical appearance of the site or structure and describe any major alterations from its original condition: This is a one -story sprawling house of natural- colored adobe. The house wraps around a central patio and is approached by an extensive entry courtyard of patterned masonry. The roof is tiled with deep red Spanish tiles. Stairs and walls in the courtyard area contain decorative ceramic tiles. It is set in overgrown grounds which also contain a barn. (photograph here) 8. Construction date: Estimated: Factual: 1941 -43 9. Architect: N/A 10. Builder: Maude Meagher & Carolyn Smiley 11. Approx. prop. size Frontage: Depth: approx. acreage: 3.22 12. Date(s) of enclosed photograph(s): 1988 13. Condition: Excellent: 14. Alterations: Good: Fair: X Deteriorated: No longer in existence: 15. Surroundings: (Check more than one if necessary) Open land: Scattered buildings: X Densely built -up: Residential: X Industrial: Commercial: Other: 16. Threats to site: None known: Private development: X Vandalism: Public Works project: Other: 17. Is the structure: On its original site? X Moved? 18. Related features: Barn Zoning: Unknown? SIGNIFICANCE 19. Briefly state historical and /or architectural importance (include dates, events, and persons associated with the site). This house was built in 1941 by Maude Meagher and Carolyn Smiley. They built the adobe bricks from clay on the site, leaving them to sun dry. The house was built without an architectural plan, and much of the engineering of the house, such as the method of attaching the roof supports, was done by trial and error. The tile for the roof was handmade in Santa Barbara, supposedly the last of the tile made for the California Missions. The house contains over 13,000 square feet, and is reported to be the largest residential adobe in California. Meagher and Smiley used the house as a base to publish a magazine, World Youth, designed to promote peace through international understanding. 20. Main theme of the historic resource: (If more than one is checked, number in order of importance.) Architecture: 1 Arts /Leisure: Economic /Industrial: Exploration /Settlement: Government: Military: Religion: Social /Ed.: 2 21. Sources (List books, documents, surveys, personal interviews and their dates). Article in World Youth (undated). Santa Clara County Heritage Resource Inventory, 1979. 22. Date form prepared: 4/88 By (name): SHPC Organization: City of Saratoga Address: 13777 Fruitvale Ave. City: Saratoga Zip: 95070 Phone: 867 -3438 Locational sketch map (draw and label site and surrounding streets, roads, and prominent landmarks): NORTH Threats to site: None known kA Private Development ( ) Vandalism ( ) Other ( ) Primary exterior building material: Zoning ( ) Public.Works Project ( ) Stone ( ) Brick ( ) Stucco ( ) Adobe (A Wood ( ) Other ( ) Is the structure: On its original site? + Moved? ( ) Unknown ( ) Year of initial construction This date is: Factual (V) Estimated ( ) Architect (if known) Builder ( if known) Related features: Wooden Barn N Carriage House ( ) Outhouse ( ) Shed(s) ( ) Formal garden(s).()� Windmill ( 1 Watertower /Tankhouse ( ) Other (�') None SIGNIFICANCE Briefly state historical and /or architectural importance (include dates, e.yyents, and persons associated with the site when known): cLckabe Sic.' %Ifv- WaS house reslder,�er Ly, ecLce. m�a herc��tl Sh��Ie 4Y�Nc S hd !G-or" e l 1 al�� o�-�v area the i v-� e.l�p o� Coce v l.r �$ + Y) l C�rY2� 3cdc (�: 4.\r\e > � C�#an : A01--)<1 Source (books, documents, surveys, personal interviews, and their dates): r4a' 1 C �4�� i c � �. - eso��wc e. Zl� \jen�Zy & I Ct S 197 "l C Form'prepared" by: �0-nd[A BQ(,� 1 Date: 161g� CITY OF SARATOGA PLANNING DEPARTMENT IDENTIFICATION Street Address 1 E -'�S1 01 a L'+-0 'R-Oa d Historic Name �a�� j j'to- rro_, Present Owner R M Bind CC��'�ne�r'w1� 1� Tr ►' �� p Address 15 a 3 L1`% RoC_.e4 narc,4o�a C►� °15u:7 U Present Use 1n �►Ci � _ rt�C'�Si'!rn Other Past Uses nDCrRTDTTnhl CULTURAL RESOURCES INVENTORY INVENTORY # C PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN (p (date) APN 3ql° 01 °0;Q Original .Use Rk.hl�5yinc' out)e resider m Briefly describe the present physical appearance of the site or structure and describe any major alterations from its original condition: �� S Y1'�� 0 � �h,a d.rWew A-t A0 - h�S ,Lto h � c� adobes �'� wc`0 S ' � �n r �ur ` e GrC er,� Qr� r),) Q ��n _-Ci one d and Coves ��ar is is ca Y-S C�v� �� cock -O S r L n 4 he Coo,- C'Lr ' C�YICll.lb deed' Aox � G'�h cl ,p�c�re�, av� �� '� c�lc u�oode�n �� IOu11k ckj -1 � U(�a. Yvev'rc.) C.n covered W o O®-,"3, Approximate property size: Lot size (in.feet) Frontage Dcl 1, 7 z Depth or approximate acreage 3, ,Z,2 Net, Condition (check one): EXrellent (�) Good ( ) Fair (-) _�riorated ( ) No longer in existence ( ) Is the feature: Altered ?.(.) Unaltered? ( ) Location sketch map (draw and label site and surrounding streets, roads, and pro - minent landmarks)i_ ORDINANCE NO. HP -14 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SARATOGA DESIGNATING THE PROPERTY KNOWN AS THE MEAGHER- SMILEY HOUSE AND CASA TIERRA AT 15231 QUITO ROAD (APN 397 - 007 -20) AS A HERITAGE RESOURCE The City Council of the City of Saratoga hereby ordains as follows: Section 1: After careful review and consideration of the report of the Heritage Commission, the application and supporting materials, the City Council has determined that the findings per Exhibit "A" can be made and hereby designates the property at 15231 Quito Road. Section 2: This designation shall become operative and take effect thirty (30) days from its date of passage. This ordinance was regularly introduced and after the waiting time required by law was thereafter passed and ao p ted this day of September , 1988, by the following vote: AYES: Councilmembers Clevenger, Moyles, Peterson, Stutanan and Mayor Anderson NOES: None ABSENT: None ATTEST: Al—ec, ( Li��, City Clerk J., - lz�el" X__ Mayor a�A c� 14 Si Y July 13, 1988 13777 FR.UITVALE AVENUE • SAR.ATOGA, CALIFORNIA 95070 (408) 867 -3438 Mr. Jerome Field Trans - Optics, Inc. 300 Montgomery Street, Suite 500 San Francisco, CA 94104 Dear Mr. Field: COUNCIL MEMBERS: Karen Anderson Martha Clevenger Joyce Hlava David Moyles Donald Peterson The Saratoga Heritage Preservation Commission has recently completed a comprehensive Inventory of historic resources in our community. We are pleased to notify you that your residence at 15231 Quito Road meets the criteria for being included on this list. The purpose of the Heritage Resource Inventory is to establish a list of documented historic properties in Saratoga. The Heritage Preservation Commission was assigned the responsibility for preparing the Inventory by the City Council in 1982. Each property on the list has been identified as reflecting and being a part of the unique history of Saratoga. The Inventory has been prepared in accordance with guidelines established by the State Office of Historic Preservation, with data gathered from a variety of sources, including historic documents and books, interviews with local citizens, and existing county and state inventories that contain information on Saratoga properties. Being listed on the Inventory does not carry any form of special requirements or restrictions affecting the use, improvement, alteration or even the demolition of your property. As an Inventory property, however, you will be able to make use of the State Historic Building Code., an alternative set of building regulations that are intended to facilitate the rehabilitation and preservation of historic buildings. In addition, your property may qualify for designation as a Saratoga Heritage Landmark, a special category of outstanding and exemplary historic properties that are identified in the community by a handsome bronze plaque. We have enclosed the entire Inventory list and the individual Inventory form for your property, which gives information about the building, the property and its history. We would appreciate your review of this form to let us know if there are any changes or additions to the form you wish to include. We also anticipate that there are additional historic resources in the community that we may have overlooked or have not fully documented yet; if you know of any that are not on the list, please let us know. If you have any questions, please direct them to the Commission through Valerie Young, our staff person at City Hall (867- 3438). One of the Commissioners will be happy to'meet with you to discuss the Inventory and answer any questions you may have. Sincerely, Members of the Heritage Preservation Commission Elizabeth Ansnes Roy Cameron Norm Koepernik Sharo Landsness Barb i/ Voester. rren Heid, Chairman HISTORIC RESOURCES INVENTORY ( #51) IDENTIFICATION 1. Common name: Meagher /Smiley House 2. Historic name: Casa Tierra 3. Street or rural address: 15231 Quito Road City: Saratoga 4. Parcel number: 397 -07 -020 Zip: 95070 County: Santa Clara 5. Present Owner: Trans - Optics /Jerome Field Address: 300 Montgomery St. Suite 500 City: San Francisco Zip: 94104 Ownership is: Public: Private: X 6. Present Use: Residence Original Usk: Residence DESCRIPTION 7a. Architectural style: Southwest Colonial 7b. Briefly describe the present physical appearance of the site or structure and describe any major alterations from its original condition: This is a one -story sprawling house of natural- colored adobe. The house wraps around a central patio and is approached by an extensive entry courtyard of patterned masonry. The roof is tiled with deep red Spanish tiles. Stairs and walls in the courtyard area contain decorative ceramic tiles. It is set in overgrown grounds which also contain a barn. (photograph here) 0 8. Construction date: Estimated: Factual: 1941 -43 9. Architect: N/A 10. Builder: Maude Meagher & Carolyn Smiley 11. Approx. prop. size Frontage: Depth: approx. acreage: 3.22 12. Date(s) of enclosed photograph(s): 1988 13. Condition: Excellent: Good: Fair: X Deteriorated: No longer in existence: 14. Alterations: 15. Surroundings: (Check more than one if necessary) Open land: Scattered buildings: X Densely built -up: Residential: X Industrial: Commercial: Other: 16. Threats to site: None known: Private development: X Vandalism: Public Works project: Other: 17. Is the structure: On its original site? X Moved? 18. Related features: Barn Zoning: Unknown? SIGNIFICANCE 19. Briefly state historical and /or architectural importance (include dates, events, and persons associated with the site). This house was built in 1941 by Maude Meagher and Carolyn Smiley. They built the adobe bricks from clay on the site, leaving them to sun dry. The house was built without an architectural plan, and much of the engineering of the house, such as the method of attaching the roof supports, was done by trial and error. The tile for the roof was handmade in Santa Barbara, supposedly the last of the tile made for the California Missions. The house contains over 13,000 square feet, and is reported to be the largest residential adobe in California. Meagher and Smiley used the house as a base to publish a magazine, World Youth, designed to promote peace through international understanding. 20. Main theme of the historic resource: (If more than one is checked, number in order of importance.) Architecture: 1 Arts /Leisure: Economic /Industrial: Exploration /Settlement: Government: Military: Religion: Social /Ed.: 2 21. Sources (List books, documents, surveys, personal interviews and their dates). Article in World Youth (undated). Santa Clara County Heritage Resource Inventory, 1979. 22. Date form prepared: 4/88 By (name): SHPC Organization: City of Saratoga Address: 13777 Fruitvale Ave. City: Saratoga Zip: 95070 Phone: 867 -3438 Locational sketch map (draw and label site and surrounding streets, roads, and prominent landmarks): NORTH 13777 FRUITVALE AVENUE • SARATOGA. CALIFORNIA 95070 (408) 867 -3438 MEMORANDUM TO: Heritage Preservation Commission DATE: January 15, 1988 FROM: Valerie Yodng, Secretary to the Commission SUBJECT: Review planning application for 15231 Quito ad, Meagher- Smiley house ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The City Planning Commission will be conducting a public hearing on an application involving the Meagher- Smiley House at 15231 Quito Road ,�t its February 10, 1988 meeting. The purpose of this memo is to solicit the Heritage Commission's comments relative to the preser- vation issues involved with the project. Your comments will be forwarded to the Planning Commission in their February 10 agenda packet. The application involves the proposed subdivision of the existing 3.2 acre parcel into three smaller parcels. The existing adobe structure would be retained on one of the parcels; the other two would each be developed with a single - family residence. Further details of the proposal will be presented to the Heritage Commission at the meeting. V -1J -16-6 atbv YS� 55& a �It a# upwi 0 4 O 13777 FRUITVALE AVENUE • SARA-1 -OGA. CALIFORNIA 95070 (408) 867 -3438 COUNCIL MEMBERS: Karen Anderson Martha Clevenger David Movies Donald Peterson Francis Stutzman September 8, 1988 Peter Olsen P. 0. Box 620068 Woodside, CA 94062 Dear Mr. Olsen: At its meeting of September 7, 1988, the Saratoga City Council adopted Resolution HP -14 (attached) designating your property at 15231 Quito Road (Casa Tierra) in Saratoga as a Designated Heritage Resource. On behalf of the City and the Heritage Preservation Commission, thank you for your willingness to participate in the designation process and preserve this important heritage resource. We will now proceed with ordering the bronze plaque for the resource; you will be able to place the plaque on the house in an appropriate location. Again, thank you for designating the residence as a heritage resource in Saratoga. Sincerely, �a� Valerie Yo g Associate )P anner cc: Gene Zambetti Heritage Preservation Commission I� ORDINANCE NO. HP -14 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SARATOGA DESIGNATING THE PROPERTY KNOWN AS THE MEAGHER - SMILEY HOUSE AND CASA TIERRA AT 15231 QUITO ROAD (APN 397 - 007 -20) AS A HERITAGE RESOURCE The City Council of the City of Saratoga hereby ordains as follows: Section 1: After careful review and consideration of the report of the Heritage Commission, the application and supporting materials, the City Council has determined that the findings per Exhibit "A" can be made and hereby designates the property at 15231 Quito Road. Section 2: This designation shall become operative and take effect thirty (30) days from its date of passage. This ordinance was regularly introduced and after the waiting time required by law was thereafter passed and aopted this day of September , 1988, by the following vote: AYES: Council.members Clevenger, Moyles, Peterson, Stutzman and Mayor Anderson NOES: None ABSENT: None ATTEST: Atec.-' ( Li�oyk City Clerk Mayor t EXHIBIT "A" REPORT OF FINDINGS FOR HERITAGE RESOURCE DESIGNATION OF THE MEAGHER- SMILEY HOUSE /CASA TIERRA 1. The structure is the largest secular adobe in North America; 2. The structure was built by two women, with help from others, who made the adobe by hand from clay on site; 3. The structure was the site of the publication of World Youth, the international children's peace magazine; 4. The roof tile is from Santa Barbara, and is the last of the handmade tile used in the California missions; 5. The structure and property are unique and important architectural and cultural resources in Saratoga and the Santa Clara Valley and meet criteria a, b, c, e, and g of Section 13- 15.050 of the City Code for designation as a heritage resource. sit ; r , ,, 4: • S , I 1 , T + *'• :K rt ) '" 1 rT•. 1 Ys� T . ',h: I .'�' 4 `' : ~ ly ix au ''" v r G �'"": -� �Y 7 'a, ,i h < r� a} s _ 1 'mat\,.'^' { i n lrt-, r M _ it 'L Rr. t Y 2 r; (..' 'r t ', V+ Jd r - t t , • +%�8 tS+ - t ..tjw ?, .. (� '"Y, n•'t + t ' h 1 f .: }; < �� a i n r,'�:Peter Olsen', I : �rV ' � "4fa... s 1< t' h t 1111$r ",' \ ;'. ` &,r } 380 Mountain Home Road �'� A,s �< -, K a, _. f h, , \ r : T , r Woodside CA 9406�ZY �Y ` �� " a 'I} " ' ," , * . t r .( 5 '.in., 14�_ W� to , t �' .Sa. r y4 wf; 1 , .w , Y \ k t t t ` r r ti +.n iv �t,S'..+t �..+�,f' 1y \' d : I \ �11`1�1'.'� , 'tL ,1 S c r' .f F t t J J \ ti;t l h kyj a rr 7r .i^'. 1. 11 . t , 4 - .+ t +.. � r7. $ +- ' t t '! ' } .1' r '^"k� 7.� ws t' _.i, 't,. ; :. r. r. ' • a` r ! y t r 1(' .n lf..:K.t tpfF, { , } ` C a - + h � u'} , i "].,y y " Y, r4 k' Yafr�•,,. t` Jt �'„j \ rrr t �. r1 5y v z S.y S y Y : "A1 r c 1 `� -,+ 1 rte \ iF ,{� 4 '� 5 '} f } :� M. h1 1 y , ,.t ''.'S T.: f i �i ti,'� a '1 Y 1 _ rte' i t. s F .1 't , �t.i t 1''1 "�, '- �:. . Y,. , -,.. . ". [ . .� - y. r .� 3 � . r! I q c February 4,; ;1988' � � � }t \t F :,;, t }. C t. , t l C t S S rp )k . 3>,r� R 't^ t t �. I'1. , }.': 1. i i i x 1 (. t ta, w.ry ? \ y4xyt'' i'r'rl•� f ,ter i t`. Y0 k +at t' N1 wr ,G4. ,; yit r -r r� a Y , - y d 1 r 7 F,, Y �y >< * 1+ # Ut ; t , yt t ` i 'r1' - I 1 y,%4�x - y } n+�a � >; t \.: ro 1 L r7' t t lz Mt'JYQ0,'r ! ; i`7 .1 1.�. - ,.y , -y rt t R k f+ �. r \. L i LSi, ?,. I` ( 1 t, ,P' T 4r ,t r 4 {t; �I;R wY \tx n? <; `rilh k'`''$4 til r, �! j'.. Mr. ''Warren" Ike id 7 >;' R. ., - ^� ,t. � . .;Chairman'of , Heritage - Preservation . missiona - +.teak`%,` t tt�;n .14630: :Big.'Basin ;iWay : �, r} 3�fkS � F ��r 4, F `i . t ! Saratoga California'- '95070 ,a „ a"� 4 �,t' 1�i }1T 1 .x. b , , ! t vl u r q.} C K : r, 7S' - ^+ , A..: 1 `,• 1 T - t {, of r t t <1 .. X{t .y... t -4�, +^ - -.x� � t +L ' +,. ` k1 4''�t 4,V` i,��Ut'm. -, S 8 , vti r °. ,' _- lle.ar Mr . He id r z s ,i , i ^7 4 v 1 ?1 \ j b y4 5 J 4 P i �i . , 1 ti , r. n, ,� , f c '9y:.. 10 4Kry i >+ j r- '. .t ,. -Y, '. .r•';. . r.. -•r• r� i X:. •.: '�K^ 4;Tt t C ,,4 ( :r At ,,this' time it isrmy in'tentiori� to, preserve �andr� jXS1 ;.. 11 ,, rehabilitate' the:''Meagher %:SmI- eys" - "Casa Terra 'Y home�� `�,Y'r '` at..; 15231 Quito 'Road, t.`_Sar;a,toga� . Santa C,larajrCountyh, ,i ""F t , �:: ' California , =-' (USES Los ": Gatos 'Qua`drangle,,,,l nikversal+' ' ` �, , , ` ol l_ �1Transverse" Mercator`' �Coordinat.es -t ;:10 5 :89000 4�1:22510.)�;w�' ,;� , ,' I_ will make`'`.formal application and`designatlons''� , ` r a y �' f ai the :appropriate ti rtol'the� follow1ngsita�gencles4 ,�rP'��r�,;.�ti` {:�- �of government �� , u 4 ", y,I ~ 44ti " i r-:. 11 ti �.t �, i` t C J rr r, h ,� y 1�- P s, r, = t•.. 44, 1 „} . I ,� 1 -:r •, ��- +.d+. n �'�- it 'i+ I. 1 l' . r.. �. . - 5 7 4 t ... , .�i . •-c.`. s, .tom+' �,w', F '� rx'✓(S Sa 4t ,� ..:ii x,.12 "",, Heritage4Preser:vat'ion Commis.s ;ionlfor,��I , ��, L'' 1. ` °• Saratoga' Herit,a.ge t'Designati on - `� kt�11. i �` .: ,�" a .z , ; r ,� J ,., t r r . -'� $ '-` , I p ». - h �i+ -,i { --, K_ .i ?,;..r ,c'` d - ?\ _.KV 1. Y4 r 'n c r• ti S y.. - <- .: :, - `' . } +` '"-. �+�. I Y' -;cpst C -4;F'1 ay M o i"- ! i ".t`r.{,f R'=t `i S,d: c i. t z r yr } i R e ` L't ,-... x'w"�.,r a ,i�i� .F .'r w Ca11forni.a'.:'State Histor c � sourcest= �� r� =.; 1. ` , .+ ' 1° Inventory 'f,o,r, Cal!iforri ar State`;fI storric' `,. �tl ' �, . ., ,� 1, . `( C r rY �,,, e a 1 '� ~Landmark. :'Designatio...r.:' under Ar,ticlel2;, t , x,2� ��t1i .; Section' 5020 5025 3 State `of �Ca'lifornia "`'� ,t,t -., S.. . 1 Y -a. > A. •p , r >; W <r,�:rt.Y' i..t �.'t'*k .k r s.ti i�j'�`vm•. '. 1. z , i t j, -? 4S .v ( 4 W e l+ �S_ e Y wF E1 +° {t r United 'States' Depar•tmen't;.�of ;Interiors. �, �� }3 . ,f for'National :Registry Designat °ionunder aY +k,' r �.-� ` ..� r} '' '.� f_ 9 pfYr`;e r "' ,� ,'T� -''7.. 1fh�L 2*1.t N'.'fr6 R y \t t.. V, K,, National Pr:eservaC'"ion A&t��of�1_' �, �� w,s { , r ( s (Public Laws +89- 665); t ��1 !,: r yr = >.� t -, +c -` }:• ',' 1,� t.;, 1l ," ,..� ,'4.:., rla 1�� It rtitt t.7Yit'+S jj,n 4.tt 1�4 V� 7 Nt$.(• -I Qb_ rJ 1. tlr :Thank you for <your cooperation "�, },,- � T T , y,'. N; f ,' +1 . -� 1 tic x < f; �r 1 r < - ♦ -. + 3'. , �; + , f i ➢ . +1. ^t.1 1,�1 .'t' ' n .1, t a�'i }V'. (.ti+�'a 1Nh`1 4 al , .}y , ,i q t L 4,� t L h t n i �• I ,y •h�� , ,4' ti .1,Y�.'7"`- i 5? r Y j. r n X:,, �i.' N rt i'� I'"i•.;1. i" - .. r t . Q , . �d1T� x ! 1f ' r�I'- � 1 i r 5...,, q-.'[J ,,,� 11. 1 1 , ,.. t: t•' t t zs, }ns.ik" Sincerely Yours ` (fit I*t e W_" .., t s,, l +-t- J , c ... t i ; t .a. , ,e r r - I N . >r v.. t ,, j.,++. �, ''• C.;�' ' .t1 i 4 >'% , + 111 t ::� ' a..yws' 4 a,,Yt- 1 Ji gv ,"i .4.. ,, y " tI``CC h.s.r ct '" d �k, ..r'S ,. - r.0k ,� .iaF:• 9,. ! 1 f I its., y J. Q' T= a+'`f i y^ '� S. r; k. "�.r.r. t Pr '£ _ ' $ l �. ^J•,1 .1 - ` ,•' c ^ti F '4 �� •i., �.v / t ' rt.y l -ti at 1�k'.. y 1 - G ". r „ , �{H A w _ t v ,' 4 71= n D { i i 1( / a 1 � ; I, 3 ;G 4 . ,,.,�, . •t (r1•� s� ` I , 1 y 11 ,Fi - Y � i 4 4Y TY t e r�' 01 s ena't d4+ fi,' x ,� r` -�°Y F..^ c .1., t .C�. Y�',. 1t'th Ft4Ij f1 , .,, Y 'i ti ,r a Y, , M`> �„' \� '5,, 't ij'ti.� F ti ; ... -S`.. x -"�r,v 1 t .;'.: : ':+ ,, k ti. 1 - Sy A ,1 y,,,R y''r*7' r 5 r - 'X d .c ' ->t S.. ` t1 l ,i �+ tA. ,.,, 11 ,� 'q, Ztitd� 1'`-Kp t �h2F,l MI't; 7 ''�.r 1'+> � ,lF'y P 0• C a (S f 4 ^ 1 te ;+it'It J I 4 K � � y} C t 1 Ky; �. 1 , , 1 5 '.; t,' h` ,hit hr'J �y l 4j , } .+ ti .. r t 1'u a t; a s �r a .1 ] . 1 k ? ." t k: s r� R nR� cc - Valerie Young rF :f ,. JY ,Y� wsTd " t -, ;�, , 1 , it ; ft 'ar l y' " "1� �-Y� ,.�- ,'� I Y a?r� t s > s , i , , '. ' ' t -1 '> , 1 .q v .. i ti a? Nz, r % ''fi a•y $., any ' �1, .l 1. 1 i ' .. J-' �. L .!4i .1 .Y i ?�', 4 j } �f' ; t;• 1 __ . _ 4 ar 6,3 t f I t.- ;& 1. 4 l:,, i ` _ - ... t - - -'i Irl 4. a :.� {.i..]s_...:,...� 1 err _.:..i. �..u.ia'Lvd.'i> Mme, "�wI.. Evicted scientist keeps battling ''-- By Millie Bobroff For Dr. Maurice Tripp, noted research scientist and a much -loved Saratoga com- munity leader, eviction from his multimil- lion dollar Saratoga home has not meant the end of the world. "Nothing is really all that bad," Tripp says cheerfully. "In 1945, I was ship- wrecked on a coral island for three weeks while working on a geophysical survey of coral atolls. And in 1957, I was in an air- plane crash in Central America, nine days by mule from the nearest major road. Life is a series of problems that must be solved." Tripp's financial problems began when investors in his company, the SKIA Cor- poration, became impatient at the slow progress of the three- dimensional X -ray and fiberoptic equipment designed to detect cancer and other diseases which the company was developing. After a long and complicated court battle, the judge awarded their historical landmark home, set on four- and -a -half acres, to the in- vestors. "When the cost of raw materials rose from $7 to $100 a pound, the economics of the project changed," explains Tripp. "If we continued, only a few well- endowed hospitals in the world would be able to afford the X -ray machine. Luckily, we found a new process which was far superior and less expensive, but it took time. We are about 15 to 18 months away from a clinical prototype which can be tested for FDA certification." Since the laboratory was in their old house, Tripp is busy trying to find a new location. The new lab, he says, has to be capable of operating -room cleanliness, have reasonable temperature control, 800 to 1,000 amps of current capability, modest water and gas availability, and machine - shop space. He is also seeing a number of interested investors who are anxious for the product to be developed. "At this point, I would not be interested in seeing anyone who didn't appreciate technically what we are doing," he says quietly. Tripp and his wife, Catherine, are living with friends, and their belongings are stored in 23 locations from barns to schoolrooms. "Skip has lived with me long enough to take this philosophically," he adds. However, his eyes mist over when he talks about Casa Tierra, which the Tripp family, including seven children, occupied Dr. Maurice Tripp receives a 1982 Santa Clara community leader was recently evicted from his Valley YMCA Community Service Award during Saratoga home because of financial problems. happier days. The noted research scientist and `Nothing is really all that bad. Life is a series of problems that must be solved.' for the past 25 years. The house was built in the 1940s by two women, Carolyn Smiley and Maude Meagher, from adobe bricks made from the dirt on the site. Because they had no construction experience, they kept build- ing room after room around the property. The house is 13,000 square feet but only one room wide. The floors go uphill and some of the doorways are too small for people over 5 feet, 6 inches tall. From this adobe house surrounding a courtyard, the women published a chil- dren's magazine called "World Youth" that had a world -wide circulation. Dr. Maurice Tripp "People who read the magazine in their childhood or toured the house as Brownies or Cub Scouts would stop by," reminisces Tripp. "Once, an orphan befriended by the two ladies came to visit, and another time, a printer who worked on the magazine drove up in a taxicab to show his bride the house. "Our roots are so deep in Saratoga," he continues. "The daughter of Samuel F. B. Morse planted thornless white roses there. Violinist Yehudi Menuhin brought us a ginko tree from China, and there is a black fig tree from the Spanish Royal Gardens. I was also experimenting with various plants from the tropics to see if they would grow in our climate. No, I could never live in an apartment." The possiblility of -returning per- manently to Saratoga, Tripp says, are slim because of the tremendous legal fees that mounted over the years. He says he is grateful for the hospitality and generosity of friends, but feels guilty that he disrupted their lives. By the same token, he jokes that on moving day, it was a wonderful opportunity to see all their friends at once. (Over 100 people helped the Tripps move over a two-day period when the eviction notice was posted.) Is he bitter? "No," says Tripp. "My father once told me that nothing worthwhile is ever easy, so this certainly must be worthwhile. But I would love to see my X -ray machine save the lives, someday, of the investors and their attorneys." I �; :' 11,r ilJ �^ all sue, &MIber 20 19m 1:00 PA. Teter OWn, CUud a. ne /.S.V P. 008)393-0369 gene Z.mbeth, 8''''Extra'3 • San Jose Mercury News,® Wednesday, April'5,.1989 ommunity l�erivs H �s tor lc� dobe t.. d ..Kt •r: +�•r. •�. �,, Nom' ...�5�� • ' ,pld1ly urr ry e ♦r.. . receives , ,. .. .. it 1r.,;(.: y *: •.i rY, tl: ' try off �cial :d.es� nation, "', { �, .. BY Stan Moreillon After selling the W610' Tripp' Mercury News staff Writer ,, Meagher and Smiley' moved toy Sa ,iThe-presentation of a plaque last : Francisco and later to Switzerland.' Week "officially" designating the Smiley died of a heart attack i '- ,gracefully • sprawling Casa Tierra,.. 1960. Meagher,,once a foreign For - adobe home as' a Heritage•. Re- respondent for the San Francisco. 'source'`in: Saratoga was another Chronicle and London Times, died.' no of living history for two iny1975 in a Carmel rest'•home 4 men • — 'one who lived 'there 27, : 4Despite�the'Ca4a Ti6rra's7histor .' years, and the other a cousin of one• ' ical .and a rchitecturaLimportance, of the redoubtable women who ; it, was abandoned and faced demo'- ',built it. w lition by developers four;-years ago_ i :: "'Maurice Tripp, 73, ` who bought before Olsen-bought it.' 'the house in.1959 from the women .A .. who built the adobe with their-own Garden,. artworks hands— Maude Meagher and Car «: �r Over the years; the women accu= • ;olyn Smiley — and Meagher's first "' inulated; plants °and 'flowersf from ', cousin Fred Meagher, 72; were admirers throughout the;world and' among some two dozen history, an ;impressive collection of Chinese• 4,• dl.r •:buffs who attended the plaque cer- artworks. " -0` »; . ' ` ' - :emony at Casa Tierra, reminisced, +Ita is these that `Tripp, Fred, sipped ,wine and.,. toured its 17• Meagher;' and ,his wife;•: Betty; re'; rooms. member,most' fondly. ' "The house was once surrounded, Actually, the Saratoga Heritage, � • Preservation Commission " recom -,� by' lush plant life," Tripp recalled.',r mended that Casa Tierra be desig -: • Friends sent the women seeds and, nated a Heritage Resource in.. Sep=�� cuttings.: of exotic plants from all ,•'+ tember 1988, and the city counclt ^� u`�' = the s L '`': xt " }' ±�'e l.ot��e hac 1 w been,.vacant'for a couple of years.'. unanimously approved.'- : + The commission had =to wait "un =M, now 'and a lot' of, the plants have ' 'til last Wednesday to „present "thei dried ` -!. victims of gophers and ;plaque• because it took'that; long to drought <„ k x � , v a get it made and delivered:;, °;: ,i;«We loved the house," he contin ='i i' - It was supposed tq,,,go,'to''present ued,,,, "There's a feeling of warmth" Downer Peter Olsen'; `a.- ,- Woodside in an'adobe. The atmosphere is just' 4 businessman. But olsen.;;was in. ; different ' It -kind of spoils you .It's; •Mexico. So Gene Zambetti and; like having an air;` conditioner' in Jack Pricer, who are r renovating,?. the heat of summer; = and you *can. the house, called the Villa °Montal - keep "it`•• warm "in' winter,'•,with:.a ;vo'of, single - family dwellings;' ac% couple of. birthday candles.""" Cepted the plaque from Commis --, ,Tripp` pointed ° at' ;a 'few of the-. sion Chairman Warren�Heidon Ol Casa, Tierra's nearly 800 windows.; i; sen's behalf.r }�;�y ^��µ The were made from the lass of sY,t, y Svc Yrw4 y, g build MMi ha n"µ�} < W' several• hundred;'automobile ,'6 years to wind r shields that were discontinued, af- a! Meagher and Smiley 'built"'the ter Jegislation was `passed requirm. house at 15231 Quito,-Road brick by ing shatter proof safety glass m i brick over a six -year period in the' cars”" ars ,2 �'� ' 1940s. It is said to be the'largest secular adobe in North ,America. Frugal, New Englanders ' i� with: nearly 13,000 square feet: R;; '�';NThose ladies :.were .very , :frugal 'The. women used 500;000 tons ofa; }view Englanders,,-he laughed. We earth (Casa Tierra Ji - a,M sh for got:` to- know.'them`.'well after ,'we, 1,:.• M. Y . "House of Earth") mixed -', i4 4,cer bought the; ".home.``Maude'stayed• ;: straw and water for on"struct � "itf.= with' us; for.','a short time after she Waste oil was added,W..pidtect =the. came back from- Europe in 1960.. `. adobe against rain and 4erosion: 'y! ' � g. She was always, welcome : "• •' r•' - ` •', = They had no building experience .'•"Maude. °'and ; Carol gave' the Yt!,. and little help. Once ,built, they house;' the`° feeling''that 4you'.were used the adobe as a' home..and; living in a Chinese museum," Tripp headquarters, for publication,, f, said: "Many of the artworks they "World Youth,' theiq�t,ation#.1I collected are now in the Chinese +' magazine. dedicated 'W16 ildeen museum in San Francisco's China- -- �( and ;world peace.;: t\ town, "t.�tu:,ris.a.ry. �.:. ,'•r S.'r•'.1t,' 4, Tripp, ,a :geophysical engineer with his• own businesses, now lives in-Santa Clara. Fred'and -Betty Meagher of San Jose visited Casa Tierra only once while Maude Meagher was living there. That was in December 1957. But they'' have ,' ret'drned many times since. Their first impression was ` "It's wonderful!" • ., �• "Maude had lots of Chinese arti- facts, Fred' Meagher said: "She was a, real collector." + His wife recalled.being especial 1. Jy impressed' ;with ` the : artworks. ;1 The daughter of Methodist''mis- �,sionaries, 'she':was'• born:'in China";', and livedAhere'until'age seven Fred Meagher -had been a map- ` ` rmakerwith the San'Jose'Planning ;,i Department:for 10,years when he retired ' "I -really -know know E Maude very,F'well,�•;:but, we -ex 2,, changed 'Christmas; cards, and'let ters," he said , i r Renovation'' under; way ` • Casa Tierra is:undergoing exten sive renovation. SoUa ,a It -has' cost ;� r about $300,000, • and, mor&iwill° be spent, .Zambetti ;said. `'" . " { i "We've�put ',in a modern lutchen,' st 'of `..;$20,0,00 -, pool; may.. bey-,,l ,wants to buy': Z NA ft AI - - TU, _ - - - s:. tom. - - - = - - - = — - - _. _ A- 21 MOO a, Z Et Mix - _ - , ._ . �.. - - _ _. :c. 3F'.. _ _ _.:. a.: .. . _ _ �T__._ ' - :,_:_ •_ -? -s- s ail _ _ _ - %_7 . .v. c: .. ...._u- - -- _ _ _ — - - �-__ ..v -_•_ __-_ ...c _ a. 3= ::_E� :: _'. :_'. - e::. -- .-�; - ....c_- _�ti-- •g- -� �z- :a- '^;..±{a_3"�-5�?°s:^, -e ' " -' >Y- '_"�' -. ._ _ - v--'+s _ _ _ _ v'a -x•o- .`�. •awl_._. � _ -. __ .. _ _ - -. .___ ::._� _. _--.. ..._ -. .- _..._ _ . _ _�.. __ • _• - _.. ._ •_- - _._.: ..... .. ___ - .s ... _ ._ '> - --c. - _. _ - -- }-- _" -;•_. .�,'._�"F - - � ._ - _L Na-ZIT-53 - - _- - :TC -.___ '_•_� _ -.__ -.c ... _ - .- � "S. 5'__ •F :._.. _'' &__'_ .__ � - -e*'.- __z _fie.__ -.+�._ - _ - -�. -_ _ �� S � -- _ �3' y,- `xL+^c.'- -`� -' 't_. � _ - _c - . -.- � _ -- E_ _sus$ - :.:�_ ::_. ___ �.:: ,: 3. -..�. :•"�i -.- a -: e _ cS� _ - S _ -- ,. # Judy Griesedieck — Extra Colorful ceramic tile covers the courtyard and also the -steps leading; up t6l Saratoga's Casa Tierra, largest secular adobe in North America'' ' Peace, -.ins ire -- builders. o huge -a o.be' _ _ By Michael Cronk Mercury News staff writer - i It's the Villa Montalvo of THERE'S NO FINER example of the mod- - ern -day use of adobe brick than Casa Tierra Single- family homes. 9 (H'ouse of Earth) in Saratoga. It's the ado_ be home of all adobe homes. -- Gene_ Zambetti - Reportedly the largest secular adobe in North - - -- Casa Tierra . America at nearly 13,000-square-feet, was fashioned with 500,000 tons of earth that was The basic floor plan of the 17 -room house is U- churned on site with rice straw and water, and shaped around a central courtyard, with the wings of waste oil to protect it against wet weather and ero- the structure extending out in two directions. Casa k R _ • 4 sion. Tierra's entire length is one -room in width. �- The home, located at 15231 Quito Road, was built The house sits back from Quito Road, with a brick in the 1940s by Maude Meagher and Carolyn Smiley driveway that circles a landscaped island. From the as a residence and headquarters for the publication 'driveway is a wooden archway leading into the en- of World Youth, the women's international maga- closed courtyard. zine devoted to children and world peace. The lavishly landscaped courtyard is a focal point r� Meagher and Smiley, who had no building expert- of the house. Diamond- shaped and roughly 50- by -70- ence and only minimal help, detailed the six years it - feet, the courtyard is etched with tile and has a se- rtes took to build the structure in their book "How We es of stepped terraces and walks leading from Built An Adobe House For World Youth." each of the wings. In the courtyard are varied plants Despite Casa Tierra's history and architectural and flowers, many of which were sent to the women Judy Griesedieck J:xtrss significance, it was abandoned and faced demolition. by their young correspondents, friends, and dignitar- by developers four years ago before it was pur- ies from around the worldL The city of Saratoga has designated the adobe as a Heritage Resour 6:- -; chased by Peter Olsen, a Woodside businessman, Casa Tierra has a multitude of other distinctive . °. •_ who is spending $200,000 to $300,000 to renovate the features - blue enamel with a silver lattice), Meagher and Smi- - -^ property. - Starting at the top are the more than 23,000 hand- ley used the silvery zinc cuts of line drawings and "It's the Villa Montalvo of single -family homes," made roof tiles — the last of the replacement tiles edged it with blue unglazed tiles. - said Gene Zambetti of Saratoga, comparing Casa for the California missions. They have the distinctive "There's a rather unusual warmth about the house Tierra to another famous area landmark building. narrowing width of mission tiles; a shape created by that I attribute to its being made of adobe," said ' Zambetti is living at the house, overseeing the repo- the California Indian women who used their thighs Maurice Tripp, a geophysical engineer who bought vation effort he estimates will take two years. to form the clay tiles Casa Tierra as a family home from Meagher and f. The renovation will include a modern kitchen, Casa Tierra's nearly 800 window panes were - Smiley in the 1950s and lived there for almost 30 modern bathrooms and fixtures, master bedroom, made from the glass of several hundred automobile years. updated electrical and plumbing, swimming pool, . windshields that were discontinued after legislation Caa Tierra is bright and airy. �z security system, and athree -car garage. was passed requiring shatter -proof safety glass in Tripp said the adobe walls and the file ceiling in- ' All the unique features of Casa Tierra remain in- cars. The l es are mortared into the adobe walls- - sulated the house and provided gentle currents of air tact Colorful handmade and manufactured tiles from that kept it cool on even the hottest days. In the win- " T "The house has a real positive spirit to it," said around the world decorate the inside and outside of ter, he said, "you_ could virtually heat it with a birth- - Zambetti. "It's certainly the most unique structure Casa Tierra: They include about 7,000 - square -feet of day candle." _ of its kind." floor tiles, mostly homemade, and 2,000- square -feet He added that the air circulation was such that he - _ Judy Griesedieck -- Extra - Meagher and Smiley published "World Youth" in of machine -made patio tile. The "World Youth" could be at one end of the house and smell what was Boston in 1939-40 and had readers and young corre- pressroom, offices and library, as well as the en- cooking in the kitchen, located at the other end of the . Windows are of windshield. g1SSS spondents in 47 countries. Publication was suspend - closed courtyard, were all laid with 12 -inch ma- home. - ed in June 1940 because of the spreading war in Ea- chine -made tiles. "The windows were mortared into position so you ideal for stringed instruments," Tripp said. ; rope, and the women moved their printing and office Four chimneys serve the six fireplaces in the couldn't open them," said Tripp, "yet there was no After the two women sold Casa Tierra they equipment to Saratoga in January 1941. - home. , feeling that you had to `open a window and get some moved to San Francisco, and later to Switzerland. _ ; They began planning the house and decided to The big fireplace in the living room (called the _ fresh air in here.' " Smiley suffered a heart attack while on a trip to Ita -`. build it in the old California tradition. Great Room) is faced with copper engraving plates Meagher and Smiley, both daughters of ministers, ; ly in 1960, and died several weeks later. Meagher, a >: In their book, published in 1950, Meagher and Smi- 'of photographs Meagher and Smiley had printed of were described by Tripp as strong and charismatic one-time foreign correspondent for the San Francis - , ley said they chose adobe because "It is probably the the young people from around the world who had personalities, - co Chronicle and London Times, lived in Ireland and ; oldest and most universal building material Long written for "World Youth" before the start of World Smiley, an educator and lecturer, "looked like an then came back to this area — living briefly with T before men had learned to make tools for shaping War H. Removed from the wooden blocks that earthborn angel, tall, straight, white - haired with the Tripp family and at Villa Montalvo on a writing stone and cutting wood they used the ever present backed them, the plates were fitted into a mosaic sky -blue eyes. And she acted that part," said Tripp. grant. She died in 1975 at a Carmel rest home. mud for building." and put on the front the fireplace. The plates were "Maude, who was the writer, was shorter and looked A group of investors secured Casa Tierra in 1984 - Desiring to make the house "fit" into its natural secured with expanding screws and edged with like a favorite aunt. She led an interesting life and it and planned to subdivide the property and demplish„; surroundings, Meagher and Smiley set the heavy green, unglazed tiles. The two women called it their bubbled all over." - the adobe house. But when the Saratoga planning:•: - adobe bricks so that they followed the contours of World Youth Friendship Fireplace. Casa Tierra attracted artists, intellectuals, and commission turned down the plan, the investori•..- the terrain. That explains the 11 levels that exist in A seven -foot fireplace in one study is faced with community leader& abandoned the property and it fell into disrepair:: the single -story structure. There are no major stair- the copper art-cuts in tiers to the open - beamed ceil "Yehudi Menuhin used to especially love playing Olsen stepped in. After purchasing the proper_t�-_4E= ways in the house, just a series of steps. ing, and in the blue room (where the ceiling is deep in the great room because he said the acoustics were " See HOUSE, P6W(Is: 6 ` '- ® Community News Judy Griesedieck — Extra Casa Tierra is roofed with tiles left from building of California missions Dreams of peace, youth inspired two builders of Saratoga adobe HOUSE, from Page 9 approached the city about helping save the historic structure. City of- ficials were only too happy to help. Early last month, upon the rec- ommendation of Saratoga's Heri- tage Preservation Commission, the city council unanimously approved Casa Tierra's designation as a Her- itage Resource. The planning commission last March approved Olsen's plan to subdivide the 3.25 -acre property, leaving Casa Tierra on 1.25 acres and splitting the remaining acre- age in half for the construction of two new homes. The approval was conditioned on the heritage desig- nation and Olsen's renoovation of the house. Olsen may move into Casa Tier- ra when the renovation is complet- ed, but Zambetti said it's more likely he'll resell it. But no matter what happens with its ownership, the adobe has been preserved. "Casa Tierra is an important part of Saratoga's history and a city treasure," said Mayor Karen Anderson. "We're thrilled we found a way to save it." t 13777 FRUITVALE AVENUE • SARATOGA, CALIFORNIA 95070 (408) 867 -3438 MEMORANDUM TO: Heritage Preservation Commission DATE: 7/15/88 FROM: Valerie Young SUBJECT: Application for Heritage Resource Designation, 15231 Quito Road --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Heritage Preservation Commission has received an application for Heritage Resource Designation for property at 15231 Quito Road, known as the Meagher - Smiley House and Casa Tierra. The attached application materials provide documentation of the historic value of the property. Action by Heritage Commission According to Section 13- 15.050 of the City Code, the Commission is required to render its recommendation on the designation in the form of a report to the City Council. The report shall set forth in detail the reasons for the Commission's decision and the information and documentation relied on in support thereof. In order for the Commission to recommend to the City Council approval of a heritage designation, the resource must satisfy one or more of the following criteria: asocial, It exemplifies or reflects special elements of the cultural, economic, political, aesthetic, engineering or architectural history of the City, the County; fhe Sta;.e� t - nation; or -'�(b� It is identified with persons or events significant in local, nty, state or national history; or tc It embodies distinctive characteristics of a style, type, period method of construction, or is a valuable example of the use of P indigenous materials or craftsmanship; or e ldeIt is representative of the notable design or craft of a r, designer, or architect; or o (e It embodies or contributes to unique physical characteristics representing an established and familiar visual feature of a neighborhood or district within the City; or 1 (f) It represents a significant concentration or continuity of site, buildings, structures or objects, unified by past events or la esthetically by plan or physical or natural development; or (g,) It embodies or contributes to a unique natural setting or environment constituting a distinct area or district within the City having special character or special historical, architectural or aesthetic interest or value. vatua Valerie Young Associate Pla ner VY /dsc E r 7-10ORD I ir Date P,=_ceived 4 � �d ' Designation No._ r +P -I , — - Meeting Date 201 ( & - Fee -- �(sci_on, Alteration: $2C CITY OF SARATOGA HERITAGE RESOURCE DESIGNATION /PERMIT APPLICATION FORM I. Identification of Heritage Resource A. Name 1) Common Name CASA T=A 2) Historic Name B. Location /Address 15231 QUITO ROAD C. Assessor's Parcel Number 397 -07-20 D. Use of site 3Rgg C 1) original Publishing house residence for World Youth •E. Present Owner - Peter Olsen (.Please attach.documentation of ownership) 1) Address P.O. Box 620068 Woodside, Ca. 94062 2) Phone Number L08_3a -0369 3) Public or Private Ownership Private 4) Has Owner been Notifies: of Application? Yes II. Purpose of Application A. Application for Designation or Permit? DESIGNATION 1. If application for permit briefly describe proposal and alterations required. . see attach letter B. Application for Heritage Lanamark, Lane or District? 1. If application for heri ge lane or district please attach required petitio (Section 6'(a) Ord. No. 66). III. Description - A. Briefly describe the present physical appearance of the site (including major vegetation features) or structure and describe any existing major alterations from its original condition: Ref.-- Historical & Descriptive Data NABS No. Ca-2111 B. Architectural Style Adob brink R Calif. l . mission ti C. Year of Construction_ 199 D. Name of Architect or Builder Maude Meagher & Carolyn Smiley E. Approximate property size in feet (please attach legal description if available) 1) Frontage 77 REF. SDR, 87 -020 2 ) Depth 281-79 — — 3) Approximate Acreage 472450 SF -NAT F. Condition of Structure and /or Site (circle one): 1) Excellent 2) Fai 3) Deteriorated G' Is structure altered or unaltered? Altered H. Secondary structures on site. Describe. None- I. Is this the original site or has the structure been moved? Original site IV. G' J. Photo (Date Taken: ( 6�1�8�8 Location Ma Attached Tentative Map '• r (Label site and surrounding star roads and prominent landmark;:) Significance A. Briefly describe historical and /or architectural importance of the resource (include dates, events and persons associate: with the site): Adobe structure built by Maude Meagher and Carolyn Smiley__ Tt is reported to be the largest secular adobe in North America, the two women, with help of a few others, ma e the adobe by hand from clay on site (Attach sheet if more space required) B,. List sources used to.determine'historic:al value (i.e. books, documents, surveys, personal interviews and their dates): HABS No. CA -2113 Santa Clara County Heritage Resource Inventory Mcn.r We Built An Adobe House For World Youth C. Does this site/structure have a county, state or federal historical landmark designation? Listed on the Santa Clara County Heri age Resource v. V. Form submitted by: 1) Name Peter Olsen 2) Address P.O. Box 620008 Woodside Ca. 94062 3 ) Phone Number . 408 -395 -0369 4) or Saratoc,a Heritage Preservation Commission I M P O R-T A N T Prior to submitting an application for heritage resource designation or permit application to alter such a resource, the following shoulc?, be read carefully. I, the applicant, understand that by applying for a permit to alter such a resource that the site of this resource will be subject to the limitations and provisions of Ordinance No. 66. I also agree that these limitations and provisions will be complied with .as well as any conditions upon which the application is g, ted. In witness whereof, I here unto set my hand this day 0/,f 'Tilly 1938. Signature ( �j jl/flf'L i_(/ / /,,•� ` ` Print Name �keter Olsen Address P.O. Box 620068 Woodside Cat 94062 Phone': Residence 408 -X95 -0 69 Business 408 -�95 -0369 VI. Recommendation of Commission to (circle one): City Council /Planning Commission /Community Development Department A. The Heritage Preservation Commission is for /against the proposed designation. /.permit application. B. Comments: C. Findings: Signed Chairman. of Heritage Preservation Commission Santa Clara County HERITAGE RESOURCE INVENTORY June 1979 San Jose, California 28. 14672 OAK STREET -- William King was one of the founders and owners of the Saratoga Paper Hill. This two -story redwood house was built for him in 1870. The Kings were prominent in community affairs. Mrs. King was one of the Charter members of the Congregational Church in 872. The house has been remodelled. 29. 14683 OAK STREET - -In 1905 the Congregational Church acquired this house. built by Clarence George in 1887, to use as a home for their missionaries when they were on leave. * *30. Saratoga Foothill Club, 20399 PARK PLACE- - The Clubhouse was designed by architect Julia Morgan in 1915, financed by public subscription. It has always been a woman's club and cultural center for Saratogans. * * *31. Paul Masson Mountain Winery, PIERCE ROAD- - Premium wines have been produced here since the turn of the century. Although twice partially damaged by earthquake and fire, the original sandstone walls still stand. The 12th century Spanish Romanesque portal came around the Horn from Spain and was originally part of St. Pat- rick's Church in San Jose. After the church was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake, the portal was installed in the winery. 32. Casa Tierra, 15231 QUITO ROAD - -In 1941 this adobe structure was built by Maude Meagher and Carolyn Smiley. It was the publishing house residence for wcrZd Youth, an international child- ren's magazine intended to promote world peace. The two women, with the help of a few area SARAT06A Indians, made the adobe by hand from clay on- site. The roof tile, obtained in Santa Ear�ara, is the last of the handmade tile used in the construction of the California missions. It is reported to be the largest secular adobe in North America; it has 13,000 sq ft of flocr space. * *33. Welch- hurst. Sanborn Skyline Park, SAN80RN ROAD- -This family retreat was established in the early 1900s by one of the County's most popular Judges on the Superior Court, James R. Welch. Its rustic architectural style is-expressive of the romantic "back to nature" movement that flour- ished at the turn of the century. The use of indigenous building materials and integration of the house with its site, a forested terrace of the Santa Cruz Mountains, is unique in the County. 34. 14005 SARATOGA AVENUE- -This house was built for the Meason family by Willis Morrison, the father of Mrs. John Cox of the pioneer Cox fam- ily, in the 1870s. It is redwood; the porch was added sometime later. 35. 1.4075 SARATOGA AVENUE - -E.M. Cunningham built this cottage in 1882. The Cunningham's daughter, Florence, authored Serc-,oca's First Fimdred Years. - 36. 14120 SARATOGA AVENUE - -The Cunningham family still occupies this home built in 1889 by J.C. Cunningham. 37. 14189 SARATOGA AVENUE- -This cottage was built in the early 1870s by Ludwig Thomy. EASTJfRONTI EIEvaTION 4T :E -FiPI� red000d Zodee in Sanborn Skyline Park, as dJVUn ty hAPS (historic Ar47rican buildirys SuMe1,) 23 Cz sa Tiezra 15231 Q..ito Ibad Sarat-Y3a Santa Clara. Ooumty Califon -Lia I Pi�(1?CG ?Apu5 HI STJRI %L AND DESC=I� L i01 �4 HA9S No. CA -2113 Historic Fmex3 -can Buildings Sur -Vey National Ar&dtectural and E�7Ginee =-ing BE -cord National Park Service De^ t of the Interior Washington, D. C. 20243 k DMEK TO Pi =.LPAPHS Casa Tie----a Z;BS NO. CA-2113 15231 Quito Road Saratoga Santa Clara County California DocLrnantatdon: 8 exterior photos (1980) 3 interior photos (1980) 5 data pages (1980) Jane Iddz, Phot-,)gra-,her Sourer 1980 CA-2113-1 E:,-.fRANCE FROM COURIYARD, L00KIlY,- 1-= CA-2113-2 SAPS TO EZMANCE, ICCK-ZZ VF= CA-2113-3 LIVING FOal W-1-NDOW, =-M NO=-NOR --,.R-Z-S-2 CA-2113-4 7=7' FCOFS AND =-VEY CA-2113-5 LIVING Foa4 cHrl= CA- 2113 -6 CEPA%lIC = =CE AT RIa:r OF CA-2113-7 DINING AREA ("G= HALL") IMWW, W=C G 1• CA-2113-8 CHLM--E-Y OF STUDY CA-2113-9 VIEW ICOKajG EAST FFCM DI T-% A--FZA CA-2113-10 GUEST SUITE CORRIDOR, =<LNG CA-2113-11 ADOBE WINDOW EEEMIL 4 J Location: Present Owner: Present Occuoant: Present Use: Sionificance: .+i.S OR.0". .A: :CI' :v :;UI LDIKGS SUrVr,� CASA TIER.RA HABS No. CA -2113 15231 Quito Road Saratoga, Santa Clara County, California USGS Los Gatos Quadrangle, Universal Transverse Mercator Coordinates:•10.589000.4122510 Dr, and Mrs. Maurice Tripp, 15231 Quito Road Saratooa, CA 95070 Dr. and Mrs. Tripp Residence and Office This adobe structure was built in 1941 by Maude Meagher and Carolyn Smiley as the publishing house residence for World Youth, an international children's magazine. The two women, with the help.of a few others, made the adobe by hand from the clay on site, and the roof tile is the last of the handmade the used in replacement.of tile on the California missions. it is reported to be the largest secular, adobe in North America, containing some 13,000 square feet of floor space. PART I. ARCHITEC ^JRAL INFOR_4ATICN A. General statement: 1. Architectural character: This large structure is a good exa=ple of latter day use of a very old building material, adobe brick,that adapts itself so well to the natural site. 2. Condition of Fabric: Good B. Description of Exterior: 1. Over -all dimensions: This one floor, multi -level structure has a U- shaped basic plan around a courtyard with wings extending out in two directions. 2. Foundation: Concrete 3. Walls: Adobe brick left natural. Adobe buttresses on some walls. 4. Structural system: Load - bearing adobe exterior walls with large timber structure. Some concrete is used for lintels. 5: porches, stoops, balconies, bulkheads: There is a covered rorch'at the , west ell of the house in the courtvard, with an entrance into the bedroom corridor. There.is a shed roof, tile floor, exposed'wooden structure ceiling and a very low tile base around the two own sides_ There is a set of curving the steps leading up to the porch from one of the terraces in the courtyard. / The courtyard, entered at the east corner of the U, is a series of stepped terraces, with steps and walks leading from each of the wings. The courtyard is very densely landscaped with a large variety of plants. There is a terrace on the south side of the kitchen at the rear entrance. It has a tile floor and has exposed wooden beams covering it in the form of a trellis. 6. Chimneys: There are four chimneys through the roof, serving six fireplaces. The concrete chimneys are faced on the outside with various sizes and shapes of clay tile. The chimney from the living room fireplace is plastered and has a flat chimney hood. The other chimneys have gabled hoods covered with clay tile. 7. Openings: a. Doorways and doors: The main entrance is near the center of the west side of the U and opens from the courtyard into an entrance hall. The wooden door 'is vertical boards with large wrought iron strap hinges, and has wooden surrounds and a wooden framed screen door. Other exterior doors are exactly the same, these being in. the kitchen, hallway, and one study. There is a pair of large wooden doors, similar, in the printing room, for service and delivery. b. Windows and shutters: In each room there are multi -panel openings with steel reinforced adobe mullions that have rows of eight and ten across and two, three or four rows high fixed plate glass. The sloping sills are adobe. Above the lintels of some of these windows are openings with copper screen wire with hinged wooden panels. Other windows ace wooden framed casement sashes, some with diamond- pattern lights and others have four lights in.each sash. Inside sills are tile. 8. Roof: a. Shape, covering: The gable roof is covered with red clay mission tile. There is an addition to the south with a gable roof covered with wooden -shake shingles. b. Cornice, eaves: Open eaves with exposed beams in the wide overhang_ I, 0 C. Description of Interior: 1. Floor plan: The floor plan is one room wide as it continues around the U- shape. The entrance near the center of the west wina ounes into an entrance hall. Down two steps from the entrance is the dining room. The dining room has windows on both the east and west walls. A doorway on the south, in the east corner, leads into the tea room. This small room has windows on the east and west and a large opening on the south, with a very large square wooden column in the center of the opening, leading into the kitchen. -There are low divider walls, also acting as buttresses on each side of the opening. The large kitchen has windows on the south and west walls, an enterior doorway on the south, center of wall, and a large fireplace in the center of the east wall_ .There is an opening on the left side of the fireplace leading into a large storage room. The storage room leads into the former garage which is now a - - - - -- • - - -- -. -shop. An addition has been made on the south end of the garage which is also a workshop. From the entrance hall up three steps, is the living room. The dining room, entrance hall and living room all open togehter separated only by the floor level changes and small buttresses at each side of the steps_ There is a large window on,the east and west walls of the living room, and on the north wall is a large fireplace. -A doorway to the right of the fireplace and up one step leads into a narrow hallway. The hallway makes a right turn, forming an ell and extending along the north wing -, on the courtyard side, ending at a bedroom on the east. To the left of the hallway are a bedroom, study and bathroom. The study has a fireplace that backs up to the living room fireplace. In'the hallway are three steps leading back down to a lower hallway. There is an entrance on the east and south walls of the hallway to the courtyard. A small hallway leads off to the north that has an exterior entrance into the yard. In the center of the north wing are two bedrooms with a connecting bath located in a projection to the north. Between the two bedrooms are bact -to -back fireplaces. At the end of the hallway is a large bedroom with a large window on the east and a small window on the north. On the south is a large opening leading down a flight of eight steps into a study. The study has large windows on the east and a fireplace on the south wall. A door to the right of the fireplace leads into a small hallway with a bath,.and on into a large library. The library has an opening on the east wall leading into the workroom. From there the house makes an ell to the south, which houses the printing room. The library, workroom and printing room are now used as a laboratory and office. The courtyard enclosed by the house has several levels of terraces with steps and landscaped garden. There is an irregular pattern to the shape of the gardens and terraces. All the floor surfaces and the steps have tile covering. Some of the risers have glazed decorative tiles. 2. Stairways: There are no major stairwyas, only series of steps. The concrete steps, varying in widths have tile flooring and glazed decorative tile risers. 3. Flooring: Glazed and unglazed, decorative and plain clay tile, sane laid in patterns, others randomly laid. 4. Wall and ceiling finish: Walls are adobe brick painted with white cement paint. Ceilings in the living room, dining room, library, kitchen and print room have exposed redwood beams and wooden planking. Ceilings in the bedrooms and bathrooms are furred down with fibre board, redwood batters and painted. Ceilings in some bedrooms are papered :rit_n tea chest paper. There is a zinc plate frieze in the st _,dy off the bedroom in the west corner of the house. S. Doorways and doors: Wooden doors have five horizontal recessed panels and wooden surrounds. 6. Special decorative features, trim and cabinetwork: the fireplace in the - - - - -- - - - -- kitchen has a stepped, projecting chimney piece. The faces of each steo are covered with glazed tiles. There is a decorative tile lintel facing across the firebox opening, and there is no hearth. The fireplace in the living room extends almost across the north side and has a stepped chimneypiece. The plastered face of each step is edged with green tile. The firebox has a the facing around the opening. There is a low mantel shelf that extends across the room. The facing on those lower part of the mantel piece is faced with a mosaic pattern of copper printing plate from the printing room. The plates are photographs of many young people from forty -nine countries around the world. The two fireplaces in the guest rooms have stud chimney pieces, plastered and painted and edged in green tile. The stepped chimney pieces in the studies are faced with photo- engravin3 plates, one in zinc and, one in copper. The one witt-i zinc is edged wit� blue tile and the'tile and the copper one, in green. 7. Mechanical: 1. Heating: Gas -fired space heaters 2. Plumbing: Modern plumbing fixtures 3. Electrical: Modern lighting fixtures. D. Site: 1. General setting and orientation: The house sits back from 'the road on the west side. A brick driveway encircles a landscaped island. The driveway, with its two entrances from the road ends in a parking area on the south side, near the workshop. From the driveway there is a wcode-z archway leading into the enclosed courtyard. There is an adobe wall surrounding the two -and- one -half acre site on all sides. The wall encloses many landscaped gardens. Near the northwest corner of the sire is a terrace that is partially cove =ec with exposed wooden beans, surrounded by landscaping. There are si-nilar large landscaped residential properties on both sides, across the street and-behind. The rolling hillside is left virtually in its natural contour. Prepared by: John P. White Project Supervisor i August 1980 PART II. PROJECT INFORMATION This project was undertaken by the Historic nnerican Buildings Survey (NABS) of the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Ser, ice's National Architectural and -Engineering Record in cooperation with the County of Santa Clara, California_ Under the direction of John Poppeliers, Chie= of NABS and Kenneth L. Anderson, Jr., Principal Architect, the project was co= pleted during the suruner of 1980 at the HABS Field Office, Santa Clara, California by John P. white, Project Supervisor (Associate Professor of Architect =re Texas Tech. University) ; David T. Marsh, Jr., Project Foreman (Howard Universi= y):.Jeffery Flemming, Project Historian (University of Chicago); Jane Lidz, prcaitect /Photographer; and student Architects Kimberley E. Harden (Auburn University); Melody S_ Linger (University of Florida) ; and Mathew Poe .(Virginia Polyte=h7:ic Institute and State University)_ -.7 r NJ _��% cj 7 'lzOM'A'AicH0-q-c v V 4 0 Z4'F:,pl 0 to 0 7: 7" wnr- FLAG AR 30 240r 1 1,, i j e A.� 0 - -_�� ` �C -1` • .f �� s �,) I `1� - JI -lam -0iS', f �`�. .. IY ac' . ; ,` Exc"WDES FLAC) � 11 1 - I I �l i . , \ &��a -*. * I'll, V1 PC L" R f 5ulU`lPJ(7ARCA?' 04, f i 2— �� It - L4 AAREA ZaOK cA A ... . .... 24" \ MrAc., 4CO) \Jic i I T Y MAP A� a,*. K, 47 bK CA ola? Clow LOCATION MAP � •.� ' '\ J l li 18P ..Iy �Ct� `\ _ 1}e'P• � O�. Q' // � � ' __ _ \ LEGEND 0 - ------ OK OAK • P F1 I t4 E N R\AJD REDWOOD ACA ACA C (A tv 4 "Y EUC EUCALYPTUS ' SSE 9AAlTARYSEY4Eft LkW-M F AP 1.5b v OPL OFFICIAL PLAK, LIMF ok� [BATA: cl TI C5 'r- %nk Pap OWNER: TRANS OP Z2 Corte kmgcd, Darwille,cm. 514IP21- (v APPLICANT: Pett- Oisern I W(005D� CA 94rZ F- 0.1. EWGthlEF-R'- EDWARD T. HAHAmIAN IZII PARK AVE, No. ZlZ 6AKJOSE 13SIZ4.,TEL2:79-2S5¢' - Y" N AIZEA-- '3.22*AC TO 20 Fzlw LIRE QUITO Ro -7 60 5.05'tAC TO OFFICIAL PLAN LIRE(OXL) -RAGE 5LOPE r�3 I/. AVE SAMITARY GEVvER: CGDN*A-. DEVELOPER TO CL A- LAjuj ffRiYCDRNEK ToF-xt5T8'lLlAlElp4r- 4 7 �5p- . 24 -- d --N Ik5 tALLSEWER FROM Nw PROP--: 140 , , . , T wik CREEKS kD LEI 5AR TOMAS 1 —36 H ET, ': - . '\ . 1- .0 ..: , , : q- AQuttto CREEK. WATER S.TW CO., MAIN 12,,00 IN QUITO RIP. ELECTRIC. Ml�- E - POLE LjAE IN QUITO RD. DRAINAGE' OVER LAND to QUITO RD. QEmovE E)(,ST SEPTIC -ANIC: LOCATION APPROAIMATE-T'O BE ABANDONED J O `J ± - I I I r /� ( , 900 S.F No. OF LOTS: 5 7.�. ELEVA-rIOK5; SCVWD (05L)OATUM, 24' AM 3!)7-07-z?0 M. EL% .-24 Ir'.11 SCENIC EA SE MEM-rr- NOR -,UILD11,16G, ACCESSORY STRUCTURES OR FENCES 33 25 50 100 ISO Evs 7RA 'V5 0,0 7 5CALE IN F ET % TE WTATIVE PARCEL MAP 0 OF LAt\XD5 OF � TRAN5 OPTICS _ I SARATOGA. CALIFORNIA JAW IA 1588 SCALE: I"= 20' –7L- �V'P'Ap;(K Ave- ?4.2. 212 k' TEL Z7!)-zqIS4- 1- V , r - 'T -^— — 717 =,.7 �1� 1 _ „f I 5- Y• 'K � '� ! " Ac ti5 � if F j' 4 �� an Adobe House or l o .1 YOu h . • r HOB W. a Built f By Maude Meagher and Carolyn Smiley DURING January, February and March, 1941; we dug the foundation :trenches for Casa Tierra .It 1 ;, n i ti w as the siny season, which was a good'.thmg, for the rain softened the earth and.made it eas- } f` ier ,to dig We were wet through most of the time, of course, but activity kept us *arm and,we t the end of the day. And how "good it-felt ' changed into dry clothes as 'soon as we stopped work _ ga II,!. to relay over a cup of hot tea in.front of a fire each evening at�five o'clockl f r r TWO, young men helped us with the digging, but we made it a point of honor to keep pace with them, 1 strokeby stroke, from eight in,the morning till four thirty in the afternoon each day, never missing a day, no matter' what the weather. Our middle -aged muscles complained a :bit' at the, �,. unaccustomed work, but when they found they got nowhere with their creakiggs and grumb- lings, they pulled themselves together, hardened themselves .up, and soon the two of ns were feeling fine. Headaches -and backaches that had plagued us during our sedentary years left us; , under the cold whip of the rain our skin acquired a bright healthy - color; every ounce of super - t; .r fluous "fat .disappeared and, we felt better than ever before -in our lives as we, dug steadily across ., the gentleslope of.land ,on 1whieh our house was to be built. -, WE WERE guided in our' ^dlggiz by lines of string which we had laid out one January day. That was t. a wonderful day of plans and dreams. While looking for our. site we had 'made various sketches ' on the backs of old envelopes, aiid' even larger. plans on sheets of typing paper scaled a quarter q i , t Inch to the foot. None' 'of. these plans suited the gro und we finally decided upon as ours, for the' r : ' lines of a house, we feel,'should ,be adapted to the contour of the earth it stands on. This is partic, k i t . ularly ,true of a mud binck; house,''fb'r, oneight•say that it grows out of the earth as a tree grows, ti i r and remains even more`visibly a part of that earth ' i yf SO WE discarded all our plab of s,-:anii let::Athe contours" of o`ur little ,plot two acres decide she shape of the house that was to grow -from i We broke :up some orange crates and made stakes of them_ i 6 yl: 3. were' to be, ;Then, zigzagging, the. gentle dope and ��, ; • to indicate the corners of the <`roollis that r I i around, again to make an enclosed patio,-'we stretched, our lines of string 'to indicate the •ground ., }' AT FIRST we meant to level off. the floors by4haad, but it was poin ted out to ua .that a,bull dozer f could_do in a day what it would take us weeks to do ISo,when the bull dozer had finished its work, 1 r� ushmg up{great heaps of earth that was tokbe used'later in making bricka,hwe;replaced our quid- p • • < ing strings ariQ'began the slow job of digging. by.hand;.the trenches which, when filled with x ' cement` and: fortified with :gteel, were. to be the foundations. under our heavy adobe walla. s t (TO ICE CONTINUOS i WE MIXED OUR EARTH with water and oil and straw to make adobe bricks and laid them in the sun to dry. Strips of smooth pine, four inches wide, cut to the width and length we meant our bricks to measure, were nailed together to make open forms. The bricks in our walls are twelve inches wide, four inches thick, and eighteen inches .in length. We also made smaller forms; of various shapes, for moulding special bricks for our adobe window -bars, the sloping window sills, and elsewhere when special sizes or shapes were needed. WHEN THE MUD-had been well churned in the mixer described in the February issue of World Youth, it was brought in a wheelbarrow out into the field, which had been roughly cleared of grass and stones. We had bought a roll of cheap paper, and this was unrolled along the ground as we laid the wet bricks on it, in order to prevent their picking up weeds and gravel as they dried. THE BLENDED MUD was tipped from the wheelbarrow into the wooden form laid ready on the paper. With our hands we and the boys pushed the mud well into the corners of the form, smooth- ed over the top, then lifted off the form at once. Unlike cement, the oil -mixed mud need not stand in the form. Indeed it must not, or it sticks. The form, once it has been lifted off the glistening black rectangle of mud, is washed clean, ready to be laid for the next brick. SLOWLY THE LINES of wet bricks grew across the field under the blossoming fruit trees, for we had begun this part of the work in April in order to have the.whole of the hot summer in which to dry the bricks. Their surfaces dried quickly. On the third day after they had been moulded we were able to turn them up on, edge so as to allow the air to blow all around them. At this time also we peeled off the damp paper from their under surface. If allowed to dry on them it has to be scraped off with 'a rasp. The bricks stood thus on edge for a good six weeks of sunning be- fore we ventured to build them into the walls. IT IS IMPORTANT .that bricks be thoroughly dry before being built into a wall, for there is lit - tle chance that they will dry afterwards. Adobe walls are impervious both to moisture and to the sun's heat. WE TESTED the first bricks dried by immersing one of them in*a tub of water. We left it there for several weeks, and when we took it out the water ran quickly off its surfaces, which dried in five minutes. No single drop of water had penetrated. The brick was intact and bone dry. ... which would probably not have been "the case with any other building material under similar treatment. We also had' our bricks given a pressure test, for we knew that the lowest cburses of ` bricks in a ten foot wall would be carrying great weight. When dry-the bricks we made (18 by 4 by 12) weighed between fifty and seventy -five pounds each. We would not have been able to handle them when we started, but hard work in the open air soon hardened our shoulder muscles to the point of lifting them without great difficulty. (TO BE CONTINUED) � � . y� fit, .. ,-.. -'le ;� , ` -' `- ' "�" -"_" _ :.- •— Fa.� -.w -- BY THE time we had the foundation trenches dug, and boxed, and filled with concrete fortified with steel the bricks were dry. It is a good thing that the only real drudgeiy in building a mud house comes at the beginning when one's enthusiasm is high. Later, when one's energies have begun to flag a little one is carried along by interest in the processes involved, and by one's romantic excitement at seeing, day by day, some new bit of the house finished. WE BOUGHT an old truck and the boys brought the day's bricks in from the field each morning. The four of us, working together, found we could lay 200 bricks a day. One mixed the mortar and shovelled it on to the wall. Another spread it an inch thick evenly, while a third laid on the bricks, carefully overlapping them half their length over the bricks below. The fourth came along and "chinked ", that is, with a pointer's trowel; she pushed and packed the mortar down between the bricks so that no air pockets would remain in the wall, lest leaks develop. SINCE WE made our bricks eighteen by twelve by four inches, two hundred of them made a sur- prising amount of wall when laid the long way for a twelve inch wall. The machine shop, offices, and parts of the house were laid the short way, to make walls eighteen inches thick, which re- duced the amount of wall per two hundred bricks by one - third. But whichever way we laid them, the walls seemed to march up the slope with giant strides. Two hundred of our bricks, laid the long way, made the whole of one wall of a twenty -four foot room. In four days we had all four walls of a twenty -four foot room built, with door frames in and window spaces ready for glazing. We stood inside our first completely walled. in room and gazed up at the sky with thrills and chills of triumph. THE DOORFRAMES are built in as the walls go up. Having decided where your doors are to be you set up your posts (we used four by four redwood) on the bare foundation concrete and fix them upright. Then you lay your first brick against them and drive a heavy tenpenny nail across the surface of the brick and into the post for about half the nail's length. Over that goes your mortar. And so on up the wall, a nail for every brick. By the time you have reached the top and are ready to lay the lintel across your door, the doorposts are solidly fixed to the wall, and the heaviest door can be safely hinged to them. ; DOUBTLESS heavy window or shutter frames would be fixed in the salve way, but we had another plan for our windows, one which we have not seen elsewhere.' When we had raised the walls two or three feet high, we left the space we had decided for our long windows (some are as much as fourteen feet long) and built the wall up on either side to the top. Then with sloping bricks for which we had made special forms, we laid the window sills,level'inside, but sloping outside to allow the rain to run off. _ (TO BE CONTINIIIP) • ._ :.r .: -• . _. .. .� . . .. '. •. How We Built an Adobe r House, fo World Youth By Maude Meagher and Carolyn Smiley THE THRILLS and chills of triumph with which we looked up at the sky from between the walls of our first completely walled -in adobe room were not unmixed with apprehension. We had now to put a roof on that yawning open apace and we had not the slightest idea how to go about it. All the processes of building up to that point suddenly appeared to us to have been fantas- tically easy (just as putting a roof on appears to us now), but at that point we were stymied. WE READ our booklets, but the keywords in them were technical and incomprehensible to us. They were written by people who knew what they were talking about because they had already put on roofs. We hadn't, so we didn't know what their words meant. Now we can read their pamphlets intelligently because we have put up a roof ourselves and know what they' mean by their words. WE DECIDED to do this job as primitive people (who can't read) always have done: —by experi- menting, by using odd bits of experience that might apply, and, by using our heads every min - 'r, ute. Ignorant people can't afford to take chances, and we didn't. We were very, very careful, l testing everything, and bolting everything that could be bolted. Architects have told us since that our roofs are perfectly strong. OBVIOUSLY that first roof had to be fastened to something, and it could not be fastened to the top of an adobe wall. We had seen what looked like heavy beams running around the top of adobe 4 and brick walls, but we could think of no way to fasten a solid wooden beam through to the s brick wall beneath it. We didn't want a loose roof. It must somehow be bonded to the top of the wall. WITH THE BOYS' help we set two-by- twelve redwood 'boards on edge along the inner and outer edges of the eighteen inch wall and held them together first -by wooden strips nailed across and t then with iron straps made to measure by a local blacksmith turned iron worker. These straps were bent up at right angles, two inches at each end and perforated so they could be nailed half- way down the inside of the boards to hold them apart and on edge. Thus we had a box twelve inches deep running around the top of our wall. ACROSS THE iron straps we hung two lines of half inch steel, wiring them securely to the straps and to each other. Later we learned that old iron pipes would have done just as well to fortify the concrete with which the box was to be filled, but for that first room we were taking no chanc- es. Over the window and door spaces we laid two inch planks to serve as bottom to the box at 1 these points, and we drove many nails half -way into them. The nails' heads would catch and hold r�r the concrete, which will not make a proper bond with wood., THE BOYS mixed the concrete in a wheasy, hired concrete mixer on the ground, and :handed "it up . �,• to us in pails. Neither of us has a good head for heights, and, ridiculous as it seems now, we were so dizzy as we straddled the edges of the box, .ten feet -above the ground, that each time we reached down to take the heavy pail we expected to topple headlong. Also, as we edged ourselves in a sitting position gingerly backward along those rough -cut redwood planks, we fervently thanked Mr. Levi for having so strongly fortified the seats of our jeans. (TO BE CONTINUED) y� i by MAUDE MEAGHER and CAROLYN SMILEY Published 1950 by World Youth, Inc. Los Gatos, California ,y it ! •i j ar p Air f r i /j Casa Tierra, House of Earth, as it looks now, in 1950. Photo: Morton Harvey, ARPS — Los Gatos, U. S. A. Copyright, 1950, by World Youth Inc. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Published September, 1950 First Separate Edition To Young People Everywhere Irrespective of Age, Creed, Color or Race This little Book Is Dedicated /1 Note: The word Adobe is prounced with three syllables A — do — be Contents Preface Mud— Universal Mud String and a Split -up Orange Crate Our First Roof -tree We See Our House for the First Time Windows from a Junk Yard Roofs and Floors of Earth Paint and Ceilings Our Own Hearth -fires How Not to Build a Cesspool i A Garden is a Lovesome Thing Someday, Perhaps 13 16 '21 27 35 41 48 56 62 68 73 75 MR r Illustrations Offices and Press Room of World Youth Adobe Bricks Making the Bricks Digging the Foundations "This Old Ruin" "You two Kids" "Elderly Ladies from Boston" Casa Tierrra in 1050 Adobe Window Bars Tiles for Roof and Floors South Wall of Press Room The Roofless Press Room in 1941 Fireplace in the Kitchen The Patio in 1043 and in 1950 Fronds -piece 15 19 25 31 32 33 38 -39 47 55 60 61 67 72 rrFyF � r a I • I - I Preface N 1939 -90 World Youth, then published in Boston, Massa- chusetts, had readers and young correspondents in forty - 'seven countries of the world, who were working together to increase friendship and understanding among youth everywhere, irrespective of race, creed or color. But war was spreading like a blight across the face of the earth. In country after country youth went into the armies, into concentration camps, into exile. The spread of war cut them off from each other and from us, and so the war stopped us. But it stopped us only temporarily. We knew we would begin again when young people everywhere were once more free to work together for international understanding. We suspended publication of World Youth in June, 1990. We brought our printing and office equipment to California and began, in January of 1991, to build with our own hands the plant which was destined to become the new and permanent headquarters for the printing and publishing of our magazine. We bought two acres in the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains whose famous forests of redwood were to furnish the timbers for our roofs. A bull -dozer levelled off the ground for our floors, and in so doing pushed up great heaps of earth to be used as mud for the bricks, for we had determined to build in the old California tradition of adobe. The early Spanish settlers, with Indian help, built beautiful llis -simns and secular buildings with adobe in California and else - where, and so established the local tradition. Put we had it burger reason for choosing mud. It is probably the oldest and most uni- versal building material. Long before men had learned to make tools for shaping stone and cutting wood they used the ever present 13 .•43. mud for building. The huts of the poor and the palaces of their rulers were made of mud thousands of years ago; in Persia, where j the mud -built palaces were faced with beautiful picture tiles; in t � Babylon and Assyria, where mud walls thirty feet thick held great libraries of books . . . books made also of mud, incised with the blocky cuneiform characters; in Egypt, where the enslaved Chil- dren of Israel rebelled at being refused straw to mix with the mud bricks they made for their Egyptian overlords; in India where i ruined mud walls still stand to show the site of India's most ancient cities. And, too, mud is still being used for dwellings all over the world, from the haciendas of Latin America to the great country houses of China. So, for World Youth, we chose the universal and indestructible mud as our building material. Five hundred tons of it, no less, went into the building of this plant. It took six years to build. The first year we had on the average two young men to help us mix the mud, chopped straw and oil that went into the great adobe bricks, which vve turned and dried in the sun, then laid, one by one, in the walls. By the end of that first year the last of these young men had gone either into the services or into war work, and after that time we two went on building unassisted, except for the necessary plumbers and electricians. We put twenty -three thousand handmade tiles on the roofs. We Jai([ seven thousand square feet of floor tiles, mostly handmade, and about two thousand square feet of machinemade patio tile. We built six fireplaces and landscaped the grounds. In a word, we have now nut only a permanent headquarters for the printing and pub- lishing of World Youth, but memories of six years of work and fun in the building of it. 1 -1 . - •'ti' =° %�`.�' rye �,�,'��' t `k •.` �'/ �� VµF�` X .�a y�l� e� �f�'yyl �ArvC ��TM'y r� r�� t \ :� •.f at �� • � a VA The bricks of which Casa Tierra, "House of Earth ", is inadr, the soil and straw they were made frown, the forms they were made in, and a drum of oil that makes them muter- yroof. The smaller bricks un the left are the adube tcindou, bars .Fete pro- jecting steel. .. Mud — Universal Mud 'Mud . . . We have a theory that the mud house must have been the earliest artificially made home. When mankind descended from the trees in which he must have taken his first refuge from the prowling sabre - tooth, he no doubt lodged in some convenient cave. 'But when the inevitable cave- shortage 'developed, man (or more probably his wife, she having the family's welfare more intimately on her mind) set to and built an artificial cave to live in. Tian is not endowed by nature, as the beaver is, with tools for cutting wood. Windbroken branches let in the rain. It was long be- fore man, having discovered how to smelt iron and make tools more durable than flint, better edged than copper or bronze, progressed backward to imitation tree houses made of wood for his private dwelling. 'Mud, however, was always ready to hand in those black marshes where the tree ferns grew. The first houses, we think, were built of sun -dried mud, plastered up, perhaps, against a cliff as swallows do, but lower to the ground, mankind being endowed with wings only in the mind. So, with only our man)' times great grandmothers to guide us, we undertook to build a mud house for ourselves and for World Youth. We knew nothing whatever about building. We had never done any rough work. one of us was a writer, the other a lecturer and educator, with book binding and amateur movies as her hobbies. But we both had college degrees, and we assumed that, since prim- itive people can build their own adobe houses, we could too, if we put our minds to it, solving each problem as it came up. 16 In 1941, when we began to build, war had not yet come to this country, and young men were still available to help. Two of these young men, clever mechanics, undertook to build a mud - mixing machine along the lines of one they had seen. They took an old Studebaker, cut it down to its engine, steering gear and platform, and laid on the platform a cylindrical water -tank cut in half length- wise. A heavy steel rod, on which had been welded oblique paddles, was hung in this half cylinder and hooked to the engine. As the rod turned, the oblique paddles pushed the mud as they churned it down toward a trapdoor at the far end, which, when opened, allowed the mud to flow into a waiting wheelbarrow. At the top of the contraption was fixed a square of one inch steel mesh through which the earth was screened as it was shovelled into the tank. Handfuls of chopped straw were thrown at intervals into the churning mud, and an emulsion of oil and water was bucketed in. The addition of oil to mud for making bricks is a new discovery or possibly a rediscovery of a very old process. We both knew, be- cause we are daughters of the manse and were brought up on Bible stories, that mud bricks have to be mixed with chopped straw. The main reason the Children of Israel struck against their Egyptian overlords was that they were expected to make bricks without straw. It could not be done. We ordered bales of rice straw for our bricks even before we had our soil tested. We are not told whether the Children of Israel knew it (they may have done, since their ancestors came from Mesopotamia with Abraham, and the Babylonians possessed a natural lake of asphalt which they used in building their roads in the twentieth century before Christ, just as we do in this twentieth century after Him) but the weather resistant qualities of mud bricks are enormously improved by an admixture of crude oil. The Israelites certainly knew the use of pitch, or crude asphalt, for keeping out water, since Moses' young mother smeared with pitch the little basket of reeds 17 1. ^tf• I 1A C.D.S. molding the bricks •�'•�' -� front freshly mixed mud �• "- t. S ^•.,V• tipped info the forins from Joe's wheelbarrow. ", / ;•. y� 4•x,1 o L The bricks are hard enough to turn up on their sides after three days in the sun. C.D.S. and M.M. taming them up uvrd removing the paper that has stuck to their walersides. 'F � 1 .pC.��-:,9yR'S1• in which she floated her baby down stream for Pharaoh's daughter to find. are and hruvy and moke a good W_L�,. However ancient this knowledge may be, more recent builders thick u•01. 11.:11. Laying %ran..ti�'...re "fi3C'sr.w with adobe bricks seem not to have had it. The adobe building, best i known in North America, those of the Southwest, have stood for a j century and more because of the thickness of their walls and a If periodical replastering with new mud on the outside to replace portions eroded by rain. ,t1 T.r Fifteen or twenty years ago a process was discovered, or re- ` ;� discovered, of mixing waste oil, so thick a substance as to be almost asphaltic, with mud for bricks. It is a sludge oil, a by- product left after the gasolines and fuel oils have been refined out, and mud mixed with the correct proportion of it dries into bricks that absorb no single drop of water and stand in all weather without eroding. We mixed our earth with water and oil and straw to make adobe bricks and laid them in the sun to dry. Strips of smooth pine, four inches wide, cut to the width and length we meant our bricks to measure, were nailed together to make open forms. The bricks in our walls are twelve inches wide, four inches thick, and eighteen inches in length. We also made smaller forms, of various shapes, for moulding special brick, for our adobe window -bars, the sloping window sills, and elsewhere when special sizes or shapes were needed. When the mud had been well churned in the mixer described earlier in the story, it %%-a, brought in a wheelbarrow out into the field, which had been roughly cleared of grass and stones. We had bought a roll of cheap paper, and this was unrolled along the ground as we laid the wet bricks on it, in order to prevent their picking up weed, and gravel as they dried. The blended mud was tipped from the wheelbarrow into the wooden form laid ready on the paper. With our hand, we and the boys pushed the mud Weil into the corners of the form, smoother) -I I8 I 1A C.D.S. molding the bricks •�'•�' -� front freshly mixed mud �• "- t. S ^•.,V• tipped info the forins from Joe's wheelbarrow. ", / ;•. y� 4•x,1 o L The bricks are hard enough to turn up on their sides after three days in the sun. C.D.S. and M.M. taming them up uvrd removing the paper that has stuck to their walersides. 'F � 1 .pC.��-:,9yR'S1• The brirks big are and hruvy and moke a good W_L�,. �' F thick u•01. 11.:11. Laying %ran..ti�'...re "fi3C'sr.w une: in place.t,a,r'��TOr^ 1l_ _ i If `N; "''' l ,t1 T.r ' t j over the top, then lifted off the form at once. Unlike cement, the ;j oil -mixed mud need not stand in the form. Indeed it must not, or it s sticks. The form, once it has been lifted off the glistening black rectangle of mud, is washed clean, ready to be set down for the next brick. Slowly the lines of wet bricks grew across the field under the l blossoming fruit trees, for we had begun this part of the work in J' April in order to have the whole of the hot summer in which to dry the bricks. Their surfaces dried quickly. On the third day after they had been moulded we were able to turn them up on edge so as to 7 allow the air to blow all around them. At this time also we peeled a off the damp paper from their under surface. If allowed to dry on them it has to be scraped off with a rasp. The bricks stood thus on edge for a good six weeks of sunning before we ventured to build i them into the walls. { It is important that bricks be thoroughly dry before being built into a wall, for there is little chance that they will dry afterwards. Adobe walls are impervious both to moisture and to the sun's heat. We tested the first bricks by immersing one of them in a tub of water. We left it there for several weeks, and when we took it out the water ran quickly off its surfaces, which dried in five minutes. No single drop of water had penetrated. The brick was intact and bane dry . . . which would probably not have been the case with any other building material under similar treatment. We also had our bricks given a pressure test, for we knew that the lowest courses of bricks in a ten foot wall would be carrying great weight. When dry, the bricks Nve made (18 by 4 by 12) weighed between fifty and seventy -five pounds each. We would not have been able to handle them when we started, but hard work in the open air soon hardened our arms and shoulder muscles so we were able to lift them without strain, . 20 String and a Split -up Orange Crate During January, February and March, 1941, we dug the foun- dation trenches for Casa Tierra. It was the rainy season, which was a good thing, for the rain softened the earth and made it easier to dig. We were wet through most of the time, of course, but activity kept us warm and we changed into dry clothes as soon as we stopped work at the end of the day. And how good it felt to relax over a cup of hot tea in front of a fire each evening at five o'clock! Two young men helped us with the digging, but we made it a point of honor to keep pace with them, stroke by stroke, from eight in the morning till four - thirty in the afternoon each day, never missing a day, no matter what the weather. Our middle -aged muscles complained a bit at the unaccustomed work, but when they found they got nowhere with their creakings and grumblings, they pulled themselves together, hardened themselves up, and soon the two of us were feeling fine. Headaches and backaches that had plagued us during our sedentary years left us; under the cold whip of the rain our skin acquired a bright healthy color; every ounce of super- fluous fat disappeared and we felt better than ever before in our lives as we dug steadily across the gentle slope of land on which our house was to be built. We were guided in our digging by lines of string which we had laid out one January day. That was a wonderful day of plans and dreams. While looking for our site we had made various sketches on the backs of old envelopes, and even larger plans, on sheets of typing paper, scaled a quarter inch to the foot. None of these plans suited the ground we finally decided upon as ours, for the lines of a house, we feel, should be adapted to the contour of the earth it 21 .a `1 a 1 i stands on. This is particularly true of a mud -brick house, for one might say that it grows out of the earth as a tree grows, and re- mains even more visibly a part of that earth. So we discarded all our plans, and let the contours of our little plot of two acres decide the shape of the house that was to grow from it. We broke up some orange crates and made stakes of them to indicate the corners of the rooms that were to be. Then, zig-iag- ging up the gentle slope and around again to make an enclosed patio, we stretched our lines of string to indicate the ground plan. At first we meant to level off the floors by hand, but it was pointed out to us that a bull dozer could do in a day what it would take us weeks to do. So when the bull dozer had finished its work, pushing up great heaps of earth that was to be used later in making bricks, we replaced our guiding strings and began the long slow job of digging by hand the trenches which, when filled with cement and fortified with steel, were to be the foundations under our heavy adobe walls. We did not dig all the foundations, then box them all, and fill them all with concrete anti steel as a continuous t process, when the during and after rain.• spell.;, when the groung weather cleared we made it batch of bricks. We tiled otu• tir;t roof lung befure the w all; of the upper rooms were even laid, and freshly Houle mud brick, were ;till 1 ing out in the field to dry. At the end of April our first lot of brick, were dry and the lunged fur moment of ;tarring the trst wall had come. It is a goon thing that the onlc real drudgery in building a mud house comes at the beginning when one', enthusiasm is high. Later, when one's ener- gies have begun to flag it little, one is carried along by interest in the processes involved, and by one', romantic excitement at seeing, clay by da >•, sunte new' bit of the house finished. N5'e bought an old truck and the boys brought the day's bricks in from the field each morning. The four of us, working together, 22 found we could lay 200 bricks a day. One mixed the mortar and shovelled it on to the wall. Another spread it an inch thick evenly, while a third laid on the bricks, carefully overlapping them half their.length over the bricks below. This was to "break" the courses, or rows of bricks. In laying a row you start with a half brick above the whole brick beneath it. Then the following whole brick lies across the chink between the two bricks under it, and prevents cracks developing down the wall. The fourth worker came along and "chinked," that is, with a pointer's trowel she pushed and packed the mortar down between the bricks so that no air pockets would remain in the wall, lest leaks develop. Also, working a day behind the others, after the mud or cement mortar had had time to dry slightly, she came along with her pointer's trowel and tidied up the walls, pushing back extrud- ing bits of mud or cement. Tastes differ on how smooth an adobe outer wall should be. It can be made quite smooth, plastered over and painted white until it looks like stucco. We decided to leave ours with its relationship to the surrounding earth still apparent. So we left it its natural color, and did not tidy it up too neatly. Since we made our bricks eighteen by twelve by four inches, two hundred of them made a surprising amount of wall when laid the long way for a twelve inch wall. The machine shop, offices, and parts of the house were laid the short way, to make walls eighteen inches thick, which reduced the amount of wall per two hundred bricks by one - third. But whichever way we laid them, the walls seemed to m:u•ch up the slope with giant strides. Two hundred of our bricks, laid the long way, made the whole of one wall of a twenty- four foot room. In four days we had all four walls of a twenty -four foot room built, with door frames in and window spaces ready for glazing. We stood inside our first completely walled in room and gazed up at the sky with thrills and chills of triumph. It should be explained that about half the space in the walls was left open for doors and windows. A solid wall with no apertures 23 �1 ! A would theoretically take about 300 brick for a 24 foot wall, since the bricks are four inches thick and lay approximately three to the vertical foot. (Ours were 18 inches lung, and so laid six to the hori- zontal three feet, vertical one foot.) The doorframes are built in as the walls go up. Having decided where your doors are to be you set up your posts (we used four by four redwood) on the bare foundation concrete and fix them up- right. Then you lay your first brick against them and drive a heavy tenpenny nail across the surface of the brick and into the post for about half the nail's length. Over that goes your mortar. And so Oil up the wall, a nail for every brick. By the time you have reached the top and are ready to lay the lintel across your door, the door- posts are solidly fixed to the wall, and the heaviest door can be safely hinged to them. Doubtless heavy window or shutter frames would be fixed in the same way, but we had another plan for our windows, one which we had not seen elsewhere. When we had raised the walls two or three feet high, we left the space we had decided for our windows (some are as much as fourteen feet long) and built the wall up on either side to the top. Then with sloping bricks for which we had male special forms, we laid the window sills, level inside, but sloping outside to allow the rain to run off. I � l i I .t '• ii 24 Levelling off the kitchen floor by hand. Between these foundations forms an 8 -inch slab of concrete was'pourcd as foundation fur the floor tiles. Forms for the concrete, steel fortified foundutions under the ,palls. That is the mud mixing machine in the background with a pile of rocks that were sifted out of the earth. We used these rocks for our retaining ,palls in patio and other sloping yarde,ns. The heavy mud flows into Joe's wheelbarrow from a 1 rent of the end of the F II �tl miring ,nachine. 4� Yr W ' K• i t a 1 In the euuuner of 1941, Lloyd, with Bill and Bob (two boys from San Francisco), joined the crew making adobe bricks. Like the workman of sixth century Constantinople who (in Procopius's account) carved a pillar for Santa Sophia, signed his name and added on the stune base, "Mar- vel, oh world!" Bill and Bob signed their names on the wet bricks they moulded. All across the field one saw, "Bill- Rob—Bill—Bob." Two years later they tame back in uni- funn with their best girls in attendance. The house was up by then. "We. made those bricks," they told the girls with a wide wave of the hand. "If you don't believe it, you can see our names signed on them." But alas! they had signed on the flat side of the bricks, and their signatures had necessarily been forever effaced by mortar. Our First Roof -tree The thrills and chills of triumph with which we looked up at the sky from between the walls of our first completely walled -in adobe room were not unmixed with apprehension. We had now to put a roof on that yawning open space and we had not the slightest idea how to go about it . . . All the processes of building up to that point suddenly appeared to us to have been fantastically easy (just as putting a roof on appears to us now), but at that point we were stymied. We read our booklets, but the keywords in them were technical and incomprehensible to us. They were written by people who knew what they were talking about because they had already put on roofs. We hadn't, so we didn't know what their words meant. Now we can read their pamphlets intelligently because we have put up a roof ourselves and know what they mean by their words. We decided to do this job as primitive people ( who can't read) always have done: —by experimenting, by using odd bits of ex- perience that might apply, and by using our heads every minute. Ignorant people can't afford to take chances, and we didn't. We n•ere very, very careful, testing everything, and bolting everything that could be bolted. Architects have told us since that our roofs are exceptionally strong. Obviously that first roof had to be fastened to something, ants it could not be fastened to the top of an adobe wall. We had seen what looked like heavy beams running around the top of adobe and brick walls, but we could think of no way to fasten a solid wooden beam through to the brick wall beneath it. We didn't want a loose roof. It had somehow to be bonded to the top of the wall. 27 With the boys' help we set two -by- twelve redwood boards on edge along the inner and outer edges of the eighteen inch wall and 'held them together first by wooden strips nailed across and then with iron straps made to measure by a local blacksmith turned iron worker. These straps were bent up at right angles, two inches at each end and perforated so they could be nailed halfway down the inside of the boards to hold-them apart and on edge. Thus we had a box twelve inches deep running around the top of our wall. Across the iron straps we hung two lines of half inch steel, wiring them securely to the straps and to each other. Later we learned that old iron pipes would have done just as well to fortify the concrete with which the box was to be filled, but for that first room we were taking no chances. Over the window and door spaces we laid two inch planks to serve as bottom to the box at these points, and we drove many nails half -way into them. The nails' heads would catch and hold the concrete, which will not make a proper bond ,,with wood. The box had no bottom along the top of the wall itself, of course, so that the concrete would harden directly on the bricks. The boys mixed the concrete in a wheasy, hired concrete mixer on the ground, and handed it up to us in pails. Neither of us has a good head for heights, and, ridiculous as it seems now, we were so dizzy as we straddled the edges of the box, ten feet above the ground, that each time we reached down to take the heavy pail we expected to topple headlong. Also, as we edged ourselves in a sitting po ;ition gingerly backward along those rough -cut redwood planks, we fervently thanked Mr. Levi for having so strongly fortified the seats of our jeans. Even so, we took on a number of highly embar- rassing splinters. Our cuucrete "beam" was now securely bonded to the top of our adobe wall, the lines of steel running through it paralleling the double line of steel that ran through the concrete foundations at the base of the wall. This tying together of all the walls of the house, 28 even the partition walls, with lines of steel, gave us a sense of se- curity, since we live in an earthquake zone. Now we could no longer evade the mystery of roof construction. Luckily the boys had repaired their mother's roof and knew how to figure angles. We wanted a low roof above our low earthen walls, for we wished the building to lie close to the earth of which it was made. We decided on a slope of one -in -four. That is to say, the roof would slope four feet before it came to be one foot nearer the ground. We worked this out theoretically in inches with pencils set point to point resting on a ruler. The easiest way to build a roof is to lay your crossbeams in position across the walls. Planks laid across these give you an el- evated floor. Our first room, which now holds World Youth's print- ing equipment, measures 45 by 23 feet. We built up a peak of adobe brick on the bondbeam at each 23 -foot end, setting back the courses of brick and seeing to it that the slant was correct. We had chosen an eight -by -eight redwood beam for our rooftree and had been oiling and seasoning it, along with the rafters, for months in the sun. Two seventeen foot and one fifteen foot lengths of this beam had been deeply notched on a slant to fit together, and holes bored through the fitting ends to receive two large bolts each. The two seventeen foot lengths were laid across the top of the two peaks, and fixed temporarily at their inner ends. Rafters were then bolted in at intervals along their length to hold them. Grateful for the boys' strong shoulders and intelligent heads, we watched the central length of roof beam eased into place between the two end pieces and securely bolted to them. The rest of the rafters were then cut and all of them bolted in between the cross beams, which we had laid in pairs, one pair to every pair of rafters. Then, to spread the weight of the roof, we set in two hanging V- braces, a third of the length down from each end of the room, bolting them into a pair of crossbeams. 29 1 �r i .I FVe now had the skeleton of our roof, and, since we are people iwho like to figure out the "why" of things as well as the "how" of l them, we stood off to work out if we could, in our amateur way, the j principle of this particular kind of construction. This little account i I of our adventure in building is not, in any sense, offered as a treatise on architecture. I merely say how the thing looked to us. We had, in our skeleton roof, a triangle, with the rooftree at the {{ apex. The slanting rafters were tied together at their outer ends by the bolts which held them rigidly to the cross beams. At the same i. •� time that the weight of the roof pushed them out over the edge of the wall, the cross beams pulled them in. This looked to us like a set of compensating tensions that should hold as long as the bolts and wood held, and redwood does not rot. ! From then on it was just a matter of laying the one -by- twelve ! redwood boards, the sheathing, across the rafters to make the outer roof, and we did this merrily, all together, but carefully seeing to it that each board had three nails in it across each rafter, missing none. And now at last we had our first roofed -over room. It was early May. 14141, and our first six months had been spent in a motorcourt cott,:ge at the edge of tu-n. Our goods were waiting in a steel car M the station. We had our printing machinery brought out by hence movers but we and the boys loaded the crates of office records and tiles and household furniture and the reA on to our old red truck and ,tacked them in our one roofed room. They filled it right up to the cross beams. We hung our clothes in dress bags front a I:rfter beside the printing press. ..We lice here now," said C.D.S. \u door;, no window.4 in, no neighbor, in sight. Only the rolling slopes of the orchard. Luckily we had thought to bring out sonic tanned goods from the town. We had a stereo stove. We dug out two folding cots and sonic blankets from among the packing case,, and set one cot up against the printing press, and one against the .;0 Oac midsanuner clay as we were working on the top of a malt it occurred to us that it nuast be rather hot, although, there being vro humidity, the heat was exhilarating rather than oppres- sive. Out of curiosity we got the thermometer out of the car, and set it up beside us. The mercury shot up to 127 and was still rising when we hurried it back into the shade. Jack on top of an office wall "Can you tell are the name of this old ruin ?" DI.AI. beside the half finished walls of her study. One warm .xinruacr day as we sat catiug our noon - saadreirhes in the' shade of a half built wall, ' a "c" ekyant /luirk drone in. from the road. and the 81 —nver nl its vhecl leaned out, tipped his hat politely, road asked in interested tour,, "Cur you ladies tell me the name of this old rain ?„ toy the frr,l brief: 1 rv, 7, y P�S•:.t -?.. i..a.."'�T(` = i4y` n �� it"�,., .tai, r • \�u%'1.1 -. f..; The "Two Kids and their helpers building forms for a deep foundation, with stair case, against an abrupt rise in our slope. An elderly gentleman well along in his eighties lived a mile or two farther up our road. One day he turned in to our unfinished driveway and said, "Now Pin not going to interrupt you. 1 just wanted to tell you (hat 1 have been going past here every day for three years watching you work. And every time as 1 go by 1 lift my hat high off my head and pretend to myself that 1 brought up you two kids:" Albert Solon of San Jose, uhase father 11.119 kuw,n as the greatest �erntn is[ in Europe, designrd and made the beautiful tiles of this stairway. r. IT��:ft!fs�r�l.�v.:: '•i'_ ": �' ;S in�j jl `(4:•j �•' -��+A: [��. ":.e ;L`- '4•.wr.11lt`��?s!t I1.K4S i�•�i Y�?:ri • The land at the beginning. This shored -up form will be a flight of eleven tiled stairs (- tentua ly. 4 3� ^, ; ' t Zi. r i �Y r •r { 'k tEf w Cam.. *� �r�. • i f y� „3- .�+ -•_.t r 6 t �"�.�, tr 4s' 1 y�r �Y u a 'r '�[ � f f Y � 4e��Mk 4„Y � i v�e,�, � .il' fi i t '��": •j �'r �� t s a iT« 1 yy� —i,*- .,f� •, •� .= 5-{,c.�', +w�ty- i �r4;'�r?i. ^t ,t'? i�•Ia ,. 4�-f� a. :r �.- a.�lu� 3' �.4� -,L'�• 0 4 C'� L � t t r i, t'tr 4� � Y� t� f i • Yid jP JS, t ;,� • j %;'S Ke , t ,'L 1 S n•,`�- -'-`r_ v� f` t t l �,'ya�'+s -' �. =d� �r•„�',•r�d °�L4y"�t�� #,�'tf.o�'f��y � %�Y, 't;� �•�,; - _ t�1: ►^�V '(t 1✓'`II7,�� '� \ r. '' Alp ' a., • � > '� r ,� t � J'� x,t 4 Ott t. �'h ,I .,h � 1 f.. •tom. ' a.� .��. .,•.•,r �" t" r+.• r � / ..�� .I tG ? -. - Vic' ^� FWW The "Two Elderly Ladies from 6cston" entertain a visitor. One morning two siyhtsee,s t,.ile(l across the ploughed "�`i,- ;t.::;•.' fields in our direction, hr:riny left their car beside the rand. We were com —led by fie wall ou which tee were - rurkiuy and we he I rireir t•oices clrarly (the tttart was apparently so)- tclmt dear.) "Who dirt you say was building this plum•!" he inquired. "{fell 1 don't know rnu•tlg," shouted the erouunt. "but 1 tnulerstnnt! it's '.+v�:•.'� -';- two elderly ladies ut Posh;n." 1 r ' a By now, midsummer, the prunes were ripening. As you turned in br the silver -grey olive tree at the edge of EI Quito P.oad, and followed the winding rutted lane made by our truck, you saw that the prunes were the colours of fuchsia, — crimson, scarlet. lavendar and purple among the green leaves. The apricots were saffron and goal on the ground. Across the creek the tall sycamores had cuv- ercd their white skeleunt4 -,with green and the oaks were heavy in the treat. The low, earth - colored walls of the house looked as if they had grown out of the soil, as indeed they had. It was hard for us, even then, to remember the had placed them there. Little friendly lizards ran over their yellow -brown surfaces, or basked in the sun con - tentedly. The house already belonged to itself, to the land, to the liz- ards, to the trees. Not at all to u . 39 We See Our House for the First Time .. . At the end of our first year of building, the last of our young helpers left us. The four of us, Archie, Jack, M.M. and C.D.S., were working on the last roof when we heard on our portable radio the declaration of war, and we all stood there, silent and appalled, on the roof beam of the living room to honor our National Anthem. The boys were now needed in war work, or were called into the services. The last of them, Jack Burke, who had been with us longer than any other — nearly a year —left us at Christmas time, 1941. Too old for war work ourselves, (not that we thought so, but the factory managers (lid!) we decided to go on building Casa Tierra by ourselves. The shell of the house was finished; the adobe walls were up,'the concrete floors were poured, the last of the sheathing was nailed on the last roof the day before Christmas, 1941. There were _livers of ice in the puddles that lay on the devastated earth around the house. Having made hot cocoa for the boys and wished them happy Clu•istolas, we dug out our fur coats from a cedar chest and went in to the local hotel Lyndon fur the first hot bath in a real tub that Nve had had in nearly a year. On the way back, walking around it curve in Quito road, we had urn• first sight of the house as a whole. Until then, laying brick on brick. beam against beam, we had been too busy to think of going out to look at the whole. So when, quite suddenly, we saw it, we did not believe it. We could not believe the hit(] built it because it seemed to us in- credibly big, and quite incredibly beautiful. The setting still brought out a rosy - saffron color in the mull bricks, and laid across them lung violet shadows, with highlights of yellow. Since it Ncau made 35 i = linotype machine. And there we slept for the next six months or so. I As we scrubbed in cold water in a tin basin at the end of each ! busy and very dirty day, we thought about warm baths in white porcelain tubs, but it was long before we got one, and by that time what had been a daily commonplace had become a luxes and a o y' 1 Y � joy. 1 t Doing without an experience certainly improves its flavor when it is resumed again. "If thou lovest, friend, abstain." Some Persian ii poet said that once. ! ; j That summer the walls marched up the slope as to the music of trumpets. Each evening we were amazed to see how much had been done in a day. We graduated from the sterno to an oil burning camp stove and did very well out tinder• the trees with it. Finally the elec- tric company was persuaded to run an electric cable out to us and we could hook up the refrigerator and the electric stove that stood t among the packing boxes. Now indeed we could dine in style on a jpacking box with the evening sun shining through the doorway and j it chicken in the electric oven. We even had our sherry first, and al- i ways we had tea, the moment work was finished and the boys went home at four thirty. By now, midsummer, the prunes were ripening. As you turned in br the silver -grey olive tree at the edge of EI Quito P.oad, and followed the winding rutted lane made by our truck, you saw that the prunes were the colours of fuchsia, — crimson, scarlet. lavendar and purple among the green leaves. The apricots were saffron and goal on the ground. Across the creek the tall sycamores had cuv- ercd their white skeleunt4 -,with green and the oaks were heavy in the treat. The low, earth - colored walls of the house looked as if they had grown out of the soil, as indeed they had. It was hard for us, even then, to remember the had placed them there. Little friendly lizards ran over their yellow -brown surfaces, or basked in the sun con - tentedly. The house already belonged to itself, to the land, to the liz- ards, to the trees. Not at all to u . 39 We See Our House for the First Time .. . At the end of our first year of building, the last of our young helpers left us. The four of us, Archie, Jack, M.M. and C.D.S., were working on the last roof when we heard on our portable radio the declaration of war, and we all stood there, silent and appalled, on the roof beam of the living room to honor our National Anthem. The boys were now needed in war work, or were called into the services. The last of them, Jack Burke, who had been with us longer than any other — nearly a year —left us at Christmas time, 1941. Too old for war work ourselves, (not that we thought so, but the factory managers (lid!) we decided to go on building Casa Tierra by ourselves. The shell of the house was finished; the adobe walls were up,'the concrete floors were poured, the last of the sheathing was nailed on the last roof the day before Christmas, 1941. There were _livers of ice in the puddles that lay on the devastated earth around the house. Having made hot cocoa for the boys and wished them happy Clu•istolas, we dug out our fur coats from a cedar chest and went in to the local hotel Lyndon fur the first hot bath in a real tub that Nve had had in nearly a year. On the way back, walking around it curve in Quito road, we had urn• first sight of the house as a whole. Until then, laying brick on brick. beam against beam, we had been too busy to think of going out to look at the whole. So when, quite suddenly, we saw it, we did not believe it. We could not believe the hit(] built it because it seemed to us in- credibly big, and quite incredibly beautiful. The setting still brought out a rosy - saffron color in the mull bricks, and laid across them lung violet shadows, with highlights of yellow. Since it Ncau made 35 of the earth on which it stood, it had serenity about it, as if it had been there always. "We never built it," we whispered. "No one built it. It materialized out of a dream." In this exalted mood, we had not the least inkling that it was go- ing to take us five more years of scuffed hands and aching muscles _. to finish what we had begun in the building of Casa Tierra, House of Earth, to be headquarters for our publication "World Youth," which would, we hoped, help young people all over the world to understand each other in a friendly way —to become, in fact, world citizens. It seemed to us that now we had the shell of the house finished, we could quickly do all that remained to be done: tile the roof and lay the floor tiles, make the doors and glaze the windows, paint the walls and ceil the bedrooms, plant the gardens in patio and in the various angles of the walls, and many other things we did not yet know needed to be done. 36 Windows from a Junk Yard I Under our roofs we now had large rectangular spaces of empti- ness where the doors and windows were to be. In this matter we had decided to depart from the usual tradition of small deep -set windows in the walls of adobe houses. Such windows are picturesque, and in countries of great heat, they are a good thing, for they make the interior of the adobe house a cool dim refuge from the glaring sun outside. But we wanted lots of light in our house, and especially we wanted plenty of light in our press room and offices and the World Youth Library. So, although the warmth from outside will enter through glass panes as it will not come through adobe walls, we decided to have big windows anyway, and really it has worked very well. Our rooms are cool even on the hottest day, thanks to the tiled roof, wider which currents of cooled air naturally flow, and thanks to the thickness of the adobe wall otherwise. The coolness is partly due also, no doubt, to the overhanging eaves, which we made 18 inches to 2110 feet wide, so that the windows are shaded from the direct sun. Some of our windows are fourteen feet long, and windows of I this length made of a single sheet of plate glass were not to be I thought of. Only an expert could handle them, and besides we did not think they would look right in the simple type of house we had in mind. Brad, one of our boys, had an excellent idea for windows. By ex- perimentation we improved on his idea, and finally worked out the very simple, easily constructed adobe barred windows we now have, 41 �1 k which are strengthened with a steel frame that anyone can con- struct. First we constructed forms of smooth pine that would turn out bricks with a sloping top. These were to be laid on the outer sills to provide for the run -off of rain water. Then we made forms for the adobe window bars. These were to be four by four inches in thickness, and in two lengths, sixteen and eighteen inches. When we had half filled these narrow forms with the fortified mud, we laid, down their center, pieces of half inch steel cut two inches longer than the forms, so as to project two inches through a notch at one end. Then we finished filling in the form with mud and turned it out to dry. We dug holes along the length of our window sills sixteen inches apart. These received the projecting ends of steel when the first row of upright window bars was set in. The steel was cemented firmly into the holes and left to set. Then we laid the cross -bars, cementing around their projecting steels laid across the top of the upright, and pushing into the hard- ening cement the projecting steel of the next row of uprights. Now it is no simple matter to set such bars exactly upright, even with a spirit level. They can and do lean forwards and backwards, and 'sideways in two directions. Inevitably, after the cement had dried, one discovered that all the bars leaned in one of the four pos- sible directions. So now we call them our Walt Disney windows, for they look like the windows in one of his quaint Toy -maker cottages. We tried our best to make our windows straight: they turned out crooked, every one of them. However, we console ourelve= with the knowledge that they are perfectly strong and steady (even though one of them, in the music room, is eight feet wide and twelve feet high), because of the inner framework of steel imbedded in the picturesque adobe bars. 42 Now let us tell you how we solved the problem of glass to fit into these irregularly sized spaces between the bars of adobe. The problem of fitting glass into the spaces between the adobe window bars looked at first to be rather a difficult one. By the time we had the window bars in all over the house there were about 800 of these spaces, and no two of them measured exactly the same ow- ing to the tendency the bars had, despite our best efforts, to lean in one direction or another. We had learned by now that if you start making a hand -made house you must go on with it in the same way, since you are not likely to find stock sizes to fit the odd angles that result, and which, we think, give handwork a spontaneous and legitimately picturesque quality. So we decided to buy the glass and cut the pieces, one by one, to fit the spaces for which they were intended. Paul, another of our boys, now came up with an idea. It seems that a law had been passed making it mandatory to use non - shatterable glass in automobile windows and windshields. Con- sequently the auto wrecking yards were stacked with many hun- dreds of discarded windshields made of good heavy plate glass. We bought several hundred of these for a very low price and we bought some glass cutters at the dime store. We asked the dealer to show us how to use the cutters. By this time we were ready to cement our floor tiles down and since Dl.M.'s hands were poisoned by wet cement, C.D.S. took over the tiling while M.M. cut most of the window panes. The boys had left us to go into the army, or war work, by the end of the first Year, 1941. liven Jack Burke, who was with us nearly the whole of 1941, could not come back in 1942, but he made, in his home work- shop, the wooden frames of our casement windows to hold the irregularly diamond - shaped panes of glass which were later cut from drop -off glass left from the larger panes. The larger panes, which are immovable, are not very large. They vary in width from ten to seventeen inches — averaging about 43 >y .i •,i � I1 l i 1: fourteen —and in height they average about fourteen inches, too. At first it was a matter of pride to cut the panes to fit exactly the space designed for them. But pride, in this case, went before a crack. In our general ignorance of everything to do with building it had never occurred to us that glass expands, or contracts, under heat and cold, at different rates from those of adobe brick. The perfectly fitted panes were casualties. Fortunately these were very few, less than a dozen, probably, in the hundreds cut. It was not for want of trying —but irregularities in the adobe window bars due to their having dried on the uneven ground, made a close tit nearly impossible, since glass must be cut straight - edged. At least that was the only way we knew how to cut it. We held the panes to the bars temporarily with finishing nails, outside and in, then enclosed them permanently with fine cement mixed with fire -clay, which we molded all around the edges, and later painted white inside like the walls. We like the result. The plate glass window panes, deep set in the walls, frame changing bits of the view as one walks by them. They are set in rows of eight and ten across, two, three, and four rows high and give plenty of light. Air is admitted by casement above or at the side, but we will deal with the matter of ventilation later in our story. In cutting the hundreds of panes one had time to dream. It was noticed that the plate glass, as one cut it, showed different colors at its edge. Sometimes the cross cut showed lime - yellow, sometimes blue, and sometimes emerald green, according to the chemical composition of the glass. Our native Boston shows old panes, on Beacon Street, that have turned violet with age. Will the glass of Casa Tierra color with time? Perhaps we two will return and see, 500 years from now! Since the panes of plate glass, which we cut from old automobile windshields and cemented between the adobe window bars, were immuvable, we had the problem of ventilation to consider. We solved 44 it in various ways, according to the uses to which the various rooms were to be put. Our problem for the press room was the elimination of the oily smoke that always rises when the ink is cooked out of the type metal. And we needed to get rid of the heat, in summertime, that rises from machines in action. Yet ventilators could not be kept permanently open, since machines must be kept warm in winter. The walls of the press room are nearly two - thirds glass, heavy quarter -inch plate glass set into them to give plenty of light to the workers there. The summer sun on that glass brought heat into the room as well. Cross ventilation was essential, but it must be at the top of the room only, since a direct draft is bad for paper stock and for machines, to say nothing of the health of the workers. Heavy beams held up the peaked roof, which had no ceiling so inky smoke could collect under the roof -tree. Where these beams crossed the bond beam at the top of the wall (projecting outward to make the low over - hanging eaves) was an open space of six inches between the bond beam and the sheathing boards of the roof. We had closed these spaces in with six inch red wood timber. We now removed these boards from between the rafters and tacked in copper screening. Then we put hinges on the closefitting boards, so they could be dropped open for ventilation or hooked back as desired. This gave us cross ventilation all around the room at the top of the wall under the roof. For the offices, where we had not the special problems of sen- sitive paper stock, tempermental machines, and oil smoke to con- sider, we had to think of the differing opinions about fresh air to be found among office workers. They want plenty of light, but no wind on their desks and shoulders. So above the row's of glass panes we fitted in wide redwood shutters that could be opened or closed at will, and in any case would let fresh air blow in across the room only at a height of about five feet above the flour. Thus there is never any wind on the desks, and the air that comes in is cool air 45 a 1: from under the eaves. The immovable glass panes, however, are set across the office walls at desk level and above it, to give plenty of light. Bedrooms, of course, must have plenty of air. The light is less important. So instead of setting in the immovable panes in the bed- room windows we lined the window openings with redwood window casings, and Jack, in his home workshop, made redwood casements into which M.M. fitted (with considerable difficulty) small diamond - shaped pieces of the heavy plate glass cut from the drop -off pieces left from the larger panes. Although it is harder by far to cut tiny panes of quarter -inch plate glass, than it is to cut big ones, the effect is well worth it, for the little panes, surrounded by thick wood, make an interesting glimmering pattern down the length of the bedroom wall when the casements are closed. 46 ti t t ) `#r r� : ." '. •� .• � S'1 _ �� :, �, .,.sf.!'� ( <. 'tom i P ��v -. 1 t k'�r�J�. l'huto courtesy San June Alercury herald Setting in the adobe window bars was a serious business. we never got them really s=traight. Y :Y II Roofs and Floors of Earth One morning a car turned into the field (we had as yet no drive- way) and the driver introduced himself as a maker of tiles. He ex- plained that lie had a quantity of hand -made roof tiles left from a large order for tiles to be used as replacements in repairing Cal- ifornia's Spanish missions. The story goes that the Indians who made the original tiles under the direction of the Spanish builders, molded them on their own thighs, thus making the characteristic shape, wide at one end, narrower at the other. Mr. Smith explained that his workmen, although they did not mold the tiles on their thighs, used molds of similar shape and size. We gazed at his tiles longingly, but hesitated at the price. "Will you be putting them on your roof yourselves ?" asked Mr. Smith briskly. "Yes, of course." "Then I'll give you the roofer's price," and he named a sum that brought the cost down amazingly to within it dollar or two per square of ordinary roof coverings. So we were able to get hand -made roof tile; to crown our hand -made house. «'e had already made up our minds to leave our house unpainted oft the outside, since we liked the earth brown of the untouched bricks, and these roof tiles have ,oft earth colors, rose and yellow and blue - black, which blend gently with the walls and with the earth on which the house stands. An hour's lesson suiliced to learn the very simple technique of laying tiles on a sloping roof. The only tricky bits were in the gut- ters, where two roof, joined at all angle, and laying the edging tile; which close in the whole at the peaks. These latter are specialh made, and are nailed on, with long galvanized nails, through holes 48 that have been made in the tiles before firing. There are right and left hand tiles for the peaks. On Mr. Smith's suggestion we bought at once a roll of thin copper wire, and a keg of inch and a half copper nails. It was fortunate we did so, for when the United States entered the war, copper was unobtainable for a time. ' The angles where two sloping roofs met were faced with galvan- ized tin, which the plumber bent to the proper angle down the center, with eighteen inches of tin on each side. The tiles were laid obliquely across the tin, but fastened by long wires attached to cop- per nails driven into the wood of the roof. Thus any possible leakage would run on to the tin where the tiles were necessarily laid in other than straight rows. The laying of the roof proper was simplicity itself. After the tar paper had been unrolled and tacked down, one started at the eaves with special hand -made "starters," shorter than the others, and laid on their backs to form the first row of the gutters, which would thereafter be made of machine -made gutter tiles. This was only because these first gutter tiles would show, since they were laid to project a few inches over the edge of the wooden eaves, and form a pretty fluted pattern when seen from inside the house. Then a row of machine -made gutter tiles were laid inside them across the roof, each one overlapping four inches. The copper wire was cut into 1:1 inch lengths, and a length twisted into the hole ready -made at the narrow end of each hand- made cover tile. A cover the was laid down across each two gutter tiles, so that rain water would drain over its rounded top into the trough they made. Four inches of gutter tile projected above the top of each cover the and the next row of gutter tiles was set into this, its lower end resting against the top of the lower row of cover tiles. Now the copper• wire was pulled back and twisted round the head of a copper nail that had been driven half way into the sheath- ing, then the nail w•as driven the rest of the way in, fastening the twisted end of the wire securely to the roof. Copper being virtually 49 e w indestructible, the roof tiles are thus soundly secured for centuries y i to come. Only the covering tiles and the first row of handmade gut- ter tiles are wired. The overlapping gutter tiles are held safely down by the weight of the overlapping and wired cover tiles. The gutter tiles are laid in rows from eaves to roof peak about an inch apart. It is important to keep this distance between them exact, both because it is inconvenient to drive the wired nails in a smaller space, and because a variation of only a small fraction of an inch at the eaves is likely to bring you out µith your tiles jammed together at the roof peak in some places and too wide apart in others. Our effort, as usual, was to get the thing perfectly straight, and we turned a deaf ear to artistic friends who suggested a deliberately planned unevenness on our roofs. When the first roof was finished (that of the kitchen), we both stood off to gaze upon it with pride, being very sure, from the care we had taken, that it was a straight and even piece of work. We took one look, gasped, and without a word rushed back indoors to look with apprehension up at the beams. The roof, seen from the outside, seemed to sag badly in the middle. We feared the weight of the tiles was breaking fit down. But seen from inside it was perfectly solid and perfectly straight. Outside again, we analysed the tiles. A slight deviation at the eaves, growing larger as it ran up the rows toward the peak, had __"giyen us curving rows. The sag was an optical illusion. Building one's own adobe house conics down really to a matter of attitudes. The work itself is not difficult, and none of it is too heavy for people, however inexperienced, who use their heads. It' it Ue:mi, for example, is too heavy to lift directly into place, it caul he lifted partway, propped, and so on by degrees. This acceptance of a "little -Uy- little - but - stay - with -it" attitude is fundamental. Another essential is to ignore the condition of one's hands. One can't build all adobe house .uul keep the "soft, romantic" hands enjoined upon one by the lotion people. Our problem from the 50 first was not to soften, but to harden, our hands, which had never done any rough work. C.D.S. succeeded quickly. Her skin is white and thin, but has a fine close grain that hardened admirably. M.h1.'s skin is very different: soft, dark and absorbent, it proved a poor protection against dirt. At the end of the first year her hands were chronically swollen with what is called "contact dermatitis" from handling the oily mud of the bricks. Wet cement particularly poi- soned them. By the time the bricks were all made and the walls erected they were in really bad condition and painful. The roof tiles arrived when M.M.'s hands were at their worst. The two of us worked together on the kitchen roof, but C.D.S. then suggested that the laying of the other roofs should be hI.M.'s job. There were one hundred and twenty squares of roof to cover (a roof square is 100 square feet), and the work would take long enough to give the swollen hands time to heal. It would be clean work, no oily mud or wet cement to handle, and C.D.S. would meanwhile lay the floor tiles (of which there are 7000 square feet) on the four -to- six inch concrete floor slabs (made water -proof with hydroseal). It was not a fair division of labor, as M.M. protested, for our second winter was approaching and it was sure to be cold and damp working with wet tiles on the floors of the unfinished adobe rooms. Ilowever, there seemed to be no help for it, and for some mouths M.M. worked on the roofs with C.U.S. below laying tiles on the floor. The hands, encased in outsize camas gloves to protect them against the rough edges of the tiles, soon healed. We worked together as much as possible. C.D.S. mixed by hand an average of ten wheelbarrow loads of cement each day (3000 of them in all) while tiling the floors. Then she would climb up to the ruuf for an hour's work in the sun, and M.M. would descend later to help refill the tubs in which the tiles were soaked overnight. After the boys left, after the concrete foundations, floor slabs, and fireplaces had been poured, we bought it whole carload of ce- merit. We had used it all up by 1946 when all the tiles were laid. 51 �E i 1 7. t� The process of laying floor tiles on a concrete floor is simple. Our rented cement mixer could not be made to mix to exactly the right consistency, so into the garden wheelbarrow went nine spadefulls of coarse sand, three of cement, and enough water for a thick mix - ture. Two smooth three -foot lengths of one -by -one pine marked off a section of floor. The well -mixed concrete was spread an inch thick, and on it were laid the dripping wet tiles and settled in. A spirit -level and a "straight- edge" length of board kept them even. Each tile was tapped down into place with a hammer on a foot - length of two -by -four. When the day's section of floor had been laid, and all the three galvanized washtubs in which the tiles had been soaked over night had been emptied, any cement that had splashed on to the tops of the tiles was carefully wiped off while still wet. Next day a mixture of fine sand and cement (three to one) was smoothed in between it tiles which had set over night. This process is called grouting. Fi- lially the tiles were thoroughly cleaned with newspaper. Laying floor tiles is a monotonous job, and damp. It has to be done on hands and knees. let it is surprising how rapidly a floor can be covered when twelve -inch tiles are used. C.D.S. laid an average of fifty to sixty l:u'ge tile; a day. This covered fifty to sixty square feet of floor, about half a small room. Our big press room floor, which is covered with twelve -inch machine -made tiles, is forty -five by twenty- three, about a thousand square feet of floor. It took twenty days to lay it. However, a fair -sized living room, fifteen by thirty feet, should take about two weeks, or less. World tooth's press room, offices and library, as well as the mr- closed couriyard, are all laid with twelve -inch machine -made tiles. We bought seconds by preference, for the characteristics that made them "seconds" pleased us: unevenness of c0ur, -with h re jind there antique luoking crack, and chips. Also they were very The floor tiles of the living rooms in the house proper are mostly hand -made, most of them in the natural rosy terra cotta, deepened 52 and enriched with many applications of paste wax. One of the bed- rooms and all of the bathrooms are laid in glazed tiles. This bedroom has a floor in two shades of blue, a silvery fireplace, drapes and spread in silver and purple, with touches of rose and apple green, and a blue ceiling crossed by a lattice work of silver with a silver star lamp. One of the bathrooms has a black glazed floor, with a scarlet trim and scarlet curtains, another is blue and yellow, and a third is of yellow glazed tile on floor and part of the wall, with rose and yellow curtains. These floors were fun to do, for into them could be laid, at random, odd figured tiles picked up in our travels, such as a set of Don Quixote tiles brought from Mexico, and delightfully drawn and colored birds and fish and animals. The yellow bathroom, which is twelve by twelve, with dressing table and so on in it, belongs to the little guest suite of two bed- rooms and bath. We had an hilarious time tiling it. Being totally inexperienced (a kind tile- manufacturer having given us one hour's instruction only on how to lay floor tiles), we had to figure things out from thereon. A few floors having been successfully laid, we decided, with a sudden rush of self confidence, to tile the wall behind the tub and shower to the ceiling with yellow glazed tiles like those we had used for the floor. That wall fell down oil us three times, and still bulges noticeably, although, since the cement behind the tiles has hardened, it is perfectly safe. The trouble was that we did not at first realize that when tiling up a wall one must allow the lower courses to harden before laying those above them. We were so interested in laying up the yellow glazed pattern, and setting in the odd tiles of fish and birds in blue, that we worked on and on. The wet cement of the lower courses slipped down behind and added itself to the wet cement below. The wall bulged, finally, and although we threw ourselves against the tiles with arms out- spread to hold them back, down they came into the bathtub 53 f e r` b which we had fortunately protected with many layers of newspaper. At last we learned. No doubt professional tile layers know a bet- ter way, for obviously they cannot, as we did, lay a course or two against the wall, then leave them to harden while they go off to do other work. But though our wall still bulges here and there, where we were over - enthusiastic about the number of tiles we could safely lay vertically against an adobe wall, still the yellow tiled wall op- posite the windows pleases us, for it seems to bring sunlight into the room, whatever may chance to be the weather outside. It takes less than a minute to fix a single roof tile, twist in the length of copper wire and hammer it down. But on our World Youth roofs, which rise one above another up the slope and then come stepping down again to enclose the patio, there are twenty - three thousand roof tiles. It took time to lay them. It takes rather longer to settle a wet floor tile into its bed of cement, tap it down, level it, and clean it, and there are seven thou- sand square feet of tiles on the fioors of World y'outh's Casa Tierra. So the tiling was a longer job than raising the walls and roof hall been. But when the walls were up, the roof ant] floors tiled, the win - dows glazed, we felt that our Casa Tierra Was nearly ready to be lived and worked in. True, it was surrounded by a wilderness of weeds. But since neither of us had ever clone any gardening, we sup- posed one had only to take the weeds out and put plants in their place and all would be well. We knew that in California everything grows tremendously. We did not realize that includes also the weeds. 'there were also certain details: ceilings, doors, inside walls to be finished, fireplaces to be faced up and so on. We thought we could take care of these details in out' stride. ActUallt', the finishing of these details took longer, and required more thought and care, than erecting the completed shell of the house had clone. 5.1 You start tiling a roof at the eaves. These are the office roofs, started before the rest of the walls were up. N1 c went in our old truck fur many loads of floor tile, and stacked them in the patio fur safe keeping. It was about four years before the lust of them had been laid. ;i Paint and Ceilings About painting our adobe walls we had much conflicting advice, and most of it was discouraging. The traditional adobe house is lime - washed inside, and often outside, and this is an excellent idea, since it discourages insects. But white -wash flakes off and needs to be renewed each year, too big a task to contemplate in an adobe house of this size. When looking for a substitute wall paint we heard sad stories from people who tried oil paint, only to have the black oil inside the mud bricks seep through in ugly blotches. We asked authorities, and were advised to use cold water paint. But the, colors faded against the brown brick and the cold water paint failed to serve one im- portant function of paint on rough bricks: it did not seal them, As usual, when we needed it, the good counsel came. A chance visitor; a chemist, was told our problem. "I have an old adobe cabin on my place," he said. "I worked out a formula for painting it, out- side and in. Come and see it." We saw it. The outside walls were gleaming white and the paint had been on, he told us, for seven year:. The chemist gave us his formula for white cement paint and we hone been giving it to all who asked about it ever since. Ilere it is: take one part white cement, one part pure white sand, and one part hydrated lime. Mix these three equal parts thoroughly in a pail and after they have been well mixer] while dry, add water to bring the mixture to the consistency of thick cream. Don't mix more than a pailful at a time, making fresh quantities of the paint as you go along. Apply with a heavy plasterer's brush, made of fibre, and swish back and forth till all air bubbles are broken. 56 Before starting to paint an adobe wall it will save time and an- noyance if you brush down the wall with a steel brush first, and then with a kitchen broom. This takes off loose particles and dust that would otherwise mix with your paint. After it has dried for a day or two your wall should be brilliantly white, all cracks will have been sealed, and if you wish color, you can paint over it with any good cold water paint. If you like you can plaster up an adobe wall and make it as smooth as any other house wall, keeping the advantage of the thick, insulating walls even though you disguise them. We did not do this. We like the coarse textured look of the brick walls. The white walls inside look as if they had been woven on a hand loom, and the plain mud walls outside look as if they belonged to the earth they stand on —as indeed they do. This cement paint is the only kind we used in our house, except a little oil paint on the ceilings and some cold water paint on one wall where we needed color to back some ivory Wedgewood plates. During the eleven months that we had the help of our boys' strong shoulders we had laid the redwood beams across music room, kitchen, study, offices and press room. These were to be left open and they were given, in most cases, several coats of linseed oil to bring out the grain of the wood and help keep its natural colors of pinkish copper, dark gold and wine. In the kitchen the beams were painted with crude oil, which blackened them, to contrast with the white - painted underside of the sheathing. The bedrooms and bathrooms, however, needed ceilings to make them cozy, and easy to heat. As usual, we had friendly advice from the merchants and we got sheets of heavy wallboard which, when sawed to size, could be nailed up against the cross ties and their edges concealed under three- quarter inch redwood strips. Margaret Long, an old friend of earlier days in Cornwall, England, was stay- ing with us at this time, and she used her head to help us— literally her head, for the unwieldy sheets of wallboard had to be held 57 i �l against the crossties while they were being nailed up. The first sections of wallboard were fastened against the ties before we stopped to think how they were going to get themselves painted after they were up. Four coats of paint applied by brush to the ceil- ing, with most of the paint dropping on to one's face, or running down one's arm to the shoulder, punished our lack of foresight. Thereafter, we painted the sections on the floor, although it was hard to keep them from being finger - marked, and besides, none of the sections being exactly the same size there was always a search for the right one for a given spot. The ceilings went up with a good deal of mirth, most of it due to what Dr. Johnson called "sheer ignorance, madam." We had not even heard of spray -guns, or of one -coat paint. We did try the one - coat idea on the ceilings of the guest bedrooms. Since these rooms were comparatively small, and destined to hold, in the case of one of them, hangings and spreads of tribute silk in blue and gold with mahogany, and in the other, Chinese furniture of red lacquer and gold, we thought it might be a good idea to have ceilings and walls done in the Same dull white paint for simplicity of background. It was a mistake. The white paint that made a dead white finish to the adobe walls refused to cling to the walllward. The ceilings flaked off' and the bits of cement paint dropped upon the faces of our sleeping guests. The time came when we realized that, with putty knives and straining muscles, we must scrape the remaining paint off those ceilings and begin again. The remaining paint, with pecul- iur perversit%., however, stuck fast. It took us three hot midsummer days to scrape those ceilings clean! Then for another three days we pasted up gold tea chest paper from San Francisco's Chinatown, interspersed with posters bought one year in a village on the Grand Canal in China. We have always been interested in ceilings.'We think it is fun to lie in bed and look up at :111 interesting design 01• pleasant color,. One of our prettiest ceilings in a bedroom is rich blue latticed with 58 silver and hung with a violet - tasselled star lamp from Mexico. The guest room ceilings, with panels of flowered gold tea -chest paper and quaint colored posters from China are attractive too, the cross - strips, making the panels, having been gilded. One of the bath- room ceilings has a highly impressionistic school of fish painted on it, and another bedroom, to set off a Chinese bed of very old dark red lacquer and gold has a rough -cast lime -green ceiling. One of the pleasantest is the "batik" open - beamed top of M.M.'s personal study. This was a matter of selecting the sheathing of the roof beforehand. We are told that the boards we selected for their color are in fact the very worst grade of lumber, for they are spotted with interesting knots, and swirls and "rivers" of sap wood, creamy and golden - yellow, run through the usual claret, and copper and brown of the redwood. The design this sapwood made enchanted us, as we found random boards of it among our lumber, so we picked them out and laid them aside for this study -room, which was to have batik curtains from Borobodur, and other things from Java and Bali. These boards were given several light coats of linseed oil, which made the yellow sapwood gleam like gold, and laid diagonally in the roof to be seen past the open beams from below. The beams of the press room will remain open, but those of the offices remain unfinished for the present. Eventually, as our mag- azine becomes established in many countries, and our contacts grow, we plan to do our offices, ceilings, floor and walls, with things from all over the world, so the offices will be truly representative of World Youth. 59 The south wall of the press room where World 1,ont), is now printed each month. This was the first roof we put up . .. . Here we are, in 1941, worrying about it. The same press room wall seen from inside. The black line near the base of the wall is the niche left between the bricks for electric cables. Photo courtesy San Jose .1jercury Herald Iry L hA k- L CA, 7" VIM 1 1. Our Own Hearth -fires The fireplaces were the particular province of C.D.S. We both love open hearth -fires and we decided to have six of them. Each of us would have one in her private sitting room, there would be one in the big music room, one in each of the guest- rooms. The number remained at five until 1943 when C.D.S. looked at the end wall of the kitchen one day about six weeks before Christmas and said: "What this kitchen needs is a fireplace. It would be fun to have our breakfast coffee in front of the fire on winter mornings, and since we do virtually all our entertaining in the kitchen, we need a fire- place, especially at Christmas, to hang stockings on." By then the roof was on and tiled, but she climbed up, removed some tiles, cut a hole in the roof with a saw to let the chimney through, and had. the fireplace ready for Christmas morning 'and hung with eight small red stockings (for by then we had acquired a family of cats) :end two enormous paper stockings fur us. But of this more later. Iu the first place we had no idea how a fireplace should be built. We only knew they should not smoke, for we had both lived in apart- ments in various great cities of the world, all of them contain - ing the essential open fireplace. Most of those old fireplaces smoked. Knowing nothing we naturally took council of friends, neighbors and all who dropped in to watch the "two elderly ladies from Bustun" who were building their own adobe house. And as usual, someone gave us the information we needed. We were advised to see a certain Mr. Balser, then superintendent of the Cemetery of Santa Clara, an elderly man who had built many fine fireplaces in his day. We saw Mr. Baker, and although he said he was now too old and tired to build fireplaces any more, he became intrigued at the notion of our doing it ourselves, and on a piece of board, which he picked 62 up on the place, he drew a few cryptic symbols with a bit of chalk and said that was all the directions we'd need. C.D.S. seemed to un- derstand his diagram (M.M. could make nothing of it). So C.D.S. took charge. Under her careful direction the boys helped pour the first ones. It took the four of us three days to pour the fireplace in the living room. It is 14 feet wide with a five foot opening. Mr. Baker's directions were carried out to the fraction of an inch, and not a fire- place in the house ever smokes. How they were made will be de- scribed in detail later on in this chapter. We had brought out from Boston the accumulated copper plates from which we had printed the photographs of the young people, living in 49 countries of the world, who had written for us before the spread of war in Europe and Asia forced us to suspend publica- tion. It was decided to face up the big fireplace with these copper cuts of young people belonging to nearly all races, colors and creeds of the world and call it our World Youth Friendship Fireplace. The copper plates were removed from the wooden blocks that backed them, and fitted in a mosaic pattern on three - quarter inch plyboard cut to fit the front of the fireplace. These sheets were secured to the concrete by expanding screws and the whole edged with green, un- glazed tiles. One or two cuts were cleaned experimentally, but it was decided that, pretty as clean copper is, the best effect over so large a surface was gained by leaving the varying tones of aging copper inside the green tile frame. A seven foot fireplace in one study was faced with the copper art -cuts in tiers to the open- beamed ceiling, and in the blue room, Ni here the ceiling was deep blue enamel with a silver lattice, we used the silvery zinc cuts of line drawings and edged it with blue unglazed tiles. The process we used for building a fireplace that will not smoke, and draws perfectly, is as follows: a heavy concrete base below the fluor must first be poured to carry the weight of a concrete and 63 i rs' r brick fireplace and chimney. If this is not done the whole fireplace may lean, or even break away from the wall with a settling of the earth beneath it. A six to ten inch base of concrete is necessary, ac- cording to the size and weight of the individual fireplace. On this base a wooden form is built and strongly reinforced to hold the concrete core. Our first fireplace measured seven feet long with a shoulder high mantel and a three foot firebox. The entire fireplace was to be in the simplest possible shape: a series of three rectangular boxes graduating upward to the open roof beams. We poured each box separately, letting the concrete of each hardest be- fore pouring the next above it. The wooden form for the first con- i• crete box was 48 inches high and 28 inches deep back to the adobe partition wall. To make sure the concrete would hold against the I brick wall behind it, we climbed inside the box and drove heavy 1 li nails into the adobe, part way, so that their projecting heads would catch and hold the concrete. i The first form was really two pillar boxes, one on each side of the ftine r-Pening. Their inter sides were built up only to the height of the firui;ox between them. Across the top of this fire- opening we built I a trough to hold the concrete which would be the beginning; of the all- important flue. I To start the flue we took (for our first seven foul fireplace) two S -inch boards 36 inches long and fastened them securely together by nailing across them wooden strips on the outside. This made the 16 inch front of the trough —the front of the fireplace above the tir,box. A heavy 4 inch piece, 36 inches long, was nailed in to make the bultom of the trough, and two more S -inch pieces of the. s:une length made the back. We now had a trough 4 inches wide at the buttons and sixteen inches deep. We spread the top to measure ten inches wide, but in such a way that only the back of it sloped, to make the inward sloping flue while leaving the front straight. After firmly securing this spread, we set the little trough between the 64 two side pillar boxes at the height of the fire opening, secured it to the sides, and propped it securely with two by fours. The form now began to look like a fireplace, with a sixteen inch slope, starting 4 inches behind the front of the fire opening, making the beginning of the wide flue, which is the reason the fireplaces in Casa Tierra do not smoke. From there the flue sloped gradually up- ward to a point 14 inches from the wall, where the straight -sided i chimney began. Before the concrete was poured we fortified the box very secure- ly indeed, for wet concrete is unbelievably heavy and will burst out of what seem to be sufficiently strong boxes. Having filled the first form up to the level of the trough, and one inch higher to allow the concrete to run along the bottom of the trough, we sawed two lengths of one inch steel, 48 inches long, to lie across the bottom of the trough 3 inches apart and projecting over into the side pillars. Over these we poured concrete to nearly the height of the mantel, and there we laid in another length of one inch steel to fortify the concrete above the fire opening still further. In the second box the sides of the flue were made to slant inward to a puint at which they were 20 inches apart. From there on the flue went up 20 by 14 inches. The outside of the fireplace can be made any shape or size. It is the tapering inside of the flue, and its ample size, that carries the smoke up. The stark concrete cores of our fireplaces looked terrible when we took ufr the wooden forms, but we were not too depressed by them, since Nye knee: their rough grey faces could be covered with anything we chose, from carved wood to glazed tile. We thought of many fancy ways to face them, and two little ones —those in the guest rooms which have Chinese furniture and drapes —we merely painted with white concrete paint and finished the edges with dull green tile. We think someday we will paint them gold or green as a background color, and then glue against them openwork Chinese carving in colors and gold. 65 C- I Aleanwhile, before we could lay our first fire, the firebox had to be bricked in. For this we used special firebrick. First, in the gaping j hole in the rough concrete fireplace C.D.S. laid a bed of firebrick in cement to cover the floor of the opening. Then courses of bricks were cemented straight up both sides. The back was left unbricked until this was done. Next, with a piece of chalk, she drew a guiding line on both sides, slanting it upward gradually to meet the back edge of the flue opening. Each course of bricks laid at the back of the fire opening was slanted a little forward of the course beneath it, and not only were the end bricks cemented well to the side walls, but each forward leaning course was filled in behind with wet con- crete to hold it there, and to bond it to the adobe partition wall at the back. f t As the curving backwall neared completion the space for the worker and her pail of cement grew smaller, and the space where i the most cement was needed, namely the top course in the back wall, was by far the hardest to get at. C.D.S. was determined, 'j however, to have no flaws in our hearthfire; so at the cost of stiff neck and rasped fingers, the space behind the back wall was filled in solidly. ! •I It was a great temptation to skimp the time required for a thorough drying out of the cement in the firebox. Two full weeks are necessary, at least +'hen the partition wall happens to be adobe, f ,r if a fire is lighted too soon the concrete may crack. At last the time for testing %� hether or not the completed fireplace would draw c;emt -, and with trembling fingers we laid in paper and wood. beautiful great fan of flame arose and not a shred of smoke. We sat on the cold concrete fluor in front of it and hugged our knew. Then we went out into the patio to see if the smoke were actually coming out of the chimney. It was, and all the air outside was adrift with the sweet spicy scent of burning prunewood. Casa Tierra had become a home. 66 Photu courtesy San Jose Mercury Herald The Fireplace in the Kitchen of Casa Tierra. When C.I).j, wos ap n the kitchen runt sawing a hole thrvugh for the fireplace rhinwey. a friendly ncighhor yu- ing bu in her car and seeing C.D.S. ut uwrk, i s known to hove remarked luter to friends. "Thos,. poor dears, ih,:ir rout unrest leuk.'• Achrally u-rll -laid tiled rouJs never leak. d k a; traption made of tenfoot, four by six beams, spiked firmly together with nine inch nails. It looked like a cage for a traveling gorilla. So far from being able to move it, our combined weight failed even to shake it. It would have taken a derrick to lower it into the ground — How NOT to Build a Cesspool even provided it would fit, which of course it would not, not in that round hole. During the war years all labor, skilled and unskilled (except that of middle aged women, who were considered too feeble for munitions work), was at a premium, so we two, who belonged to this unemployable part of the population, went on steadily, rain or shine, 365 days of the year, building our adobe house alone. As we neared the end of 1946, the house was finished, all but a few details, one of which was a cesspool that needed to be dug for the bathroom of two little guestrooms at the back of the house. We were both lean and fit, having never had so much as a cold during our years of heavy outdoor work, but we contemplated the digging of a ten foot square, ten foot deep, hole in the ground with dismay. So when the incredible thing happened (incredible for those days) of two young men knocking at our door asking for work, we hailed them with grateful joy. Had they dug cesspools before? Oh yes, they knew all about it. So we took them to the spot, marked out the dimensions, and left them to it with a sigh of relief. We were working at the far end of the house, nearly half a block away, at the spine - twisting job of fitting screens in under the eaves, and somehow it was dark each evening before we remembered that we roally should go up and see how the boys' work was getting on. Each evening they came, collected their days' wages, reported that all was going well, and left. One morning they did not appear. This fact made us go up to see the supposedly completed cesspool. The young men had dug the hole, all right, and it was ten feet deep if you measured by a pole set upright in the center. It was just a big hole in the ground. We looked at it and groaned. On the bank beside it stood a most extraordinary square con- 63 We looked at each other wryly and went back to our screens. The situation was so obviously due to our own carelessness in failing to oversee the young men's work that we didn't even want to talk about it. We knew perfectly well that eventually we had to go back up there and take that bear cage apart. It couldn't be left sitting there, nothing could move it away, and besides those seasoned beams were far too valuable to waste. They were solid indestructible stuff, hard to obtain in 1946. We realized well how solid it was when, shortly afterwards, we took ourselves up the hill and started to work on it. It took us days of bruises, imprecations and downright bad temper before we had pulled the last of those nine inch spikes, shrieking like a mandrake uprooted, out of the last beam. Those boys had put in hundreds of nails; they had nailed from the top, from the bottom, from the sides, and nine inch nails, once in, expect to stay in. When we had got our pile of ten foot beams neatly stacked around us, we discovered to our dismay that we couldn't remember what to do with them. We had seen Don lay similar beams in the lower cesspool, yet now we had to say to ourselves, as Sherlock Ilolmes said to Dr. Watson, "You see, but you do not observe." And here I interpolate that one of the best things the building of this house has dune for us is that it has widened our angle of observation to include a myriad of things which, before, we had barely seen out of the extreme edges of our eyes, so to speak. Like most people we had watched idly, in passing, while a skilled workman did some job of work. We had nothing to tie it to, no reason for observing closely how he.did it. And so we passed on, ignorant as before, taking the 69 i completed work for granted, losing our chance to learn. We were by now thoroughly enraged about the cesspool and we wanted to get it done and covered in and off our minds. At the same time we did so want to get our kitchen done so we could begin to < live in it. We agreed therefore to divide, forces. C.D.S. should con- time finishing painting the walls of the kitchen and AL114. would take on the cesspool. Mr. N\Iilsou our plumber from Los Gatos, showed us how to saw the ends of the beams so they would interlace at the corners. You put no nails in the lining of a cesspool. They only rust away and your lining, if it depended on them, would cave in. First the hole had to be squared off properly to fit the ten foot beams around the sides. M.M. nailed cleats on a heavy board to serve as a ladder and lowered it into the hole. Then with a pick and C r a ten foot piece of one by four to serve , a measuring sticks she started in to smooth clown the sides and make the corners true. Each bucketful of earth and stone had to be carried up the ]adder 1 to be thrown on the heap at the side. Don had thrown the earth out in strattg shovelfuls. Not 111.11. She tried it mice, and down it all came back upon her head, having missed the top by several feet. The big - i ger rocks were laid on a special heap, to make, some day, a retaining wall, all 1'danted to \,alerian and Nemesia and Arabis and Lobelia. 1t b,st the side-; were fairly smooth and the corners , true as rocks jutting from the clay would allow, and it was time to start cutting the beams to tit. M.M. had cut one end of the first one under \1'ilsun's tutelage and silo cut all the others like that. Now one began to be really interested, the earlier rage having c� :rbaated. Not ninny of the people one knows have built a cesspoul all by themselves. At first C.D.S., seeing M.M. down there in the pit, scraping up rock and gravel and toiling up the sloping board with it, offered to lc :rvc hrr own job and help with this one. She was driven uff each time with cries of rage, M.ill. being too thoroughly exas- per:ated to cooperate with anyone. I;ut now, sawing the beams, I ushing them over the edge of the pit, then climbing down to lay M each one above another on the inner side, there began to be a swell- ing pride of workmanship. M.M. was going to.build the finest, the neatest, the most lasting cesspool anyone had ever built. At last it was built. And it was built quite wrong. .. . Mr. Nilson, who had come back to install a hot water tank be- hind the coal range in the kitchen, came up the slope to inspect the finished cesspool. Luckily the covering beams had not yet been laid across— because, to tell the truth, we had a niggling suspicion that all was not well with those walls. They seemed a little wockety. The ends had been sawed wrong. Both notches had been made on the same side of each beam. To make your beams interlace all the way up you cut your notches on opposite sides. Cut this way they interlock not only with their own course, but with the course above them, and when all is done, you have a completely interlocked lining of beams inside your square pit. The beams can't slip inward, since the notches hold them, and any caving in of the earth walls only serves to lock them more tightly. It only took Mr. Wilson a moment to show us this principle, and then he .went away. Then down into the pit KM. climbed, and up and out the beams were hoisted one by one, to be notched again. We dug a downward sloping trench to meet the pit a foot below the tup round of beams, and cut notches in two beams that were to pass this trench; notches three inches deep by six long. Placing these notches together, one up, use clown, made a hole in the side of the lining six inches square through which the terracotta drain could be inseried. No exit drain is necessary. You have left an earth fluor at the bottom of the pit, and eight foot walls all round with cracks for seep:,ge. Now you lay your cover beams across, and fill in over it with two goo,i feet of earth. Su, it was dune at last, and covered in. Concrete cesspools are more usual nowadays, but old settlers have told us that cesspools built of four -by -four redwood last indefinitely. We hope so. 71 N, L / 7 As M. .t • i a it td • 'I Q Patio garden as it is today, 1950 Photo: Morton Harvey ARPS Los Gatos, U.S.A. ell garden is a Lovesome Thing A Garden is it lovesome thing, God wot! Rose plot, Fringed pool, Fened grot .... The veriest school Of peace; and yet the fool Contends that Cud is not . . . . Not God! in gordens! when the et'e is Caul! ,Yny, but 1 have a sign; 'Tis very sere God walks in mine! But this is the way the patio garden looked before we set to work on it. TaoMAs EDWARD BR01ws _ .rye -4 `�fj �': �'.�n'.` .� 1('1, :: L$s>• �'Y: _ .r �`.'.:`+ A Garden is a Lovesome Thing The one thing we were determined to have was a completely en- closed patio, on to which the doors of the various rooms should open. Otherwise we built the house as we went along, with only the function of each particular room in mind as we put in doors and windows. Indeed, so little had we the house as a whole in mind as we marked out the various rooms on the ground that we had to add a long storeroom in order to get enough rooms to enclose the patio. Then In order to leave room for a gate, we had to shift the angle of that storeroom and build special forms for the corner bricks of it, which were very far from right - angled. The storeroom, by the way, immediately justified itself. We bought a whole carload of cement, four hundred sacks, at a great saving, and stated it there while we used it up, wheelbarrow load after wheelbarrow load, in the tiling. The patio turned out to be diamond shaped, roughly 50 by 70 feet, with the lowest point blunted by the gate. Our house is built on a slope, and its lilt, slope rose, we rose with it, putting in tw'o 01, three step; between the rooms. The bulldozer merely smoothed off the floors. Outside, the land was untouched; we did not wish to do any unnecessary violence to our lovely land. This left the patio sloping rough]. upward from the gate at its lowest paint. The difference was about sixteen feet to the highest point at the f:u• cornt,r opposite the gate. We noticed that we had worn winding paths t}trough the weeds as w'e moved across the patio from dour to du0r, and our first idea was to make these natural paths permanent with tiles. The idea was abandoned for reasons of drainage and the difficulty of tiling on it slope. If it hull been :ut eweu slope the problem would 73 2 have been simple, but our patio slopes in all directions and we fore- saw that heavy rains would drain straight into our doors, and water might bank up against the walls. Here was a problem indeed, since we couldn't get a bulldozer inside the gate to level off where levelling i was needed. We set to with spades and pickaxes, carrying earth from one side to level up another, and pretty soon we had four levels roughed 1 out, with short flights of steps, which we tiled with fancy colored 1 11 risers, from one to the next. On both sides of these steps we held { back the earth with rock retaining walls planted to various flower- ing plants, presented by friendly neighbors. i The top corner level was comparatively small. We tiled it with an odd lot of decorative tiles, set a flat roof over it on split redwood posts, and called it a porch. It faces southeast. We have tea there on hot afternoons. There is a tiled pool below it. The sun terrace opens out from our two little guest rooms. It is tiled with terra cotta and faces south. It is partly screened from anyone entering the lower gate by a row of Blue Law•sons. It has a few open beds and a border of flowers, and a wide bed of a copper- ' + colored Mesembryanthemum below the Blue Law•sons. The central terrace is by far the largest, and is also tiled with terra cotta. A Magnolia Grandiflora partly shades it. The main door of the living room opens off it, the pool is at one side, and the op- posite end, a narrow flight of tiled steps leads down to DI.M.'s study. C.P.S. built colorful seats of glazed tile here and there. From the patio gate one climbs eight or nine wide steps with colored risers between triangular beds of flowers edged with per- Petually flowering French lavejular to reach the central terrace. There are coral trees and silver birches and chiffon daisies and oleander and a great many rock plants in the stone retaining walls that hold back the various levels, and there are Dlarechal Neil ruses for perfume and moonflower vines and lemon verbena and a white �. flowering passion vine on the walls. 74 Some Day, Perhaps The time came when, the war and its restrictions on paper stock, metal and so forth having come to an end, we could resume pub- lication of World Youth, for which purpose our house had been built. No longer could we devote all day and every day to the satis- fying manual work of building. Now all our energies must be given to office and typewriter. We downed our building tools with real regret, for it had been fun all along the way. No matter when the time for changing -over had come, it was bound to find us with projects only partly completed. So now in 1950, after three and a half years of printing and publishing World Youth, we cross the patio from our offices to our living quarters and glance longingly at a still only half -tiled fish pond under the living room windows. People who drive in around the oval from the gate wonder why the center of that oval is weed - covered, with oddly spaced half - finished walls of concrete tiles showing here and there. That is to be, some day, it large pool with three irregularly shaped islands in it, rock islands in which will grow dwarf pines, azaleas and hanging flowers to mirror their colors in the dark water. A fountain will keep them moist, and gold fish can be fed from the concrete block path around the knee -high pool. When shall we find time to do this? After five (when we can finish so soon in the office) is the only time now available, and that is usually filled with other duties in house and garden. Life must be very dull, we think, for people who have got every- thing nicely done, with no half- finished projects pulling at their desires. Yet, as one dreams of case, one thinks how lovely it would be to wander idly through a perfect house, and grounds all neat and 75 y. weedless, and say, "Ah, this is it, the perfected dream made mani- fest!" And then, what would one do? Fortunately, in World Youth, we have an ever growing project which is potentially without end, for there are always young people, always some new corner of the world to learn about, always adven- ture in places near and far. What does it matter if weeds grow in a half - completed pool? Someday those few hours needed to cement and tile it will fall into our laps. Someday the weeping willow that now grows beside it will see its pale green beauty tipped with yellow flame mirrored in the dark water and gold fish will dart and feed in its cool shadow. Someday, perhaps, we'll even sit in the evening light and watch these things and note how the sunset warms the brown adobe brick of our house walls to saffron like the robe of a Buddhist monk, how the earth colors of the roof tiles, dark red, yellow, black and met- allic blue, rise roof above roof against the deep blue misty hills, how the sycamores across the creek stand in pure silver, trunk and twisted limbs, in a glory of tarnished gold leaves, and how the fruit trees and the pines and the purple -grey mimosa spread their leafy branches above the yellow, blue, pink and purple iris at their feet. These things we see now only in passing, and they are good. 76 'These chapters were first issued in serial form during 1937 -48 -49 in World Youth, Geographic Adventure Story Magazine, Los Gatos, Calif. This booklet was printed by PAUL MULLEN, in the press room of World Youth, Inc. Los Gatos, California, June 1950. CASA TIERRA House of Earth Casa Tierra House of Earth With a dream ... and strong, loving hands ... two women, a writer and an educator, devoted six years of labor to make their dream a reality! ' Portions of their book, HOW TO BUILD AN ADOBE HOUSE FOR WORLD YOUTH, have been reproduced to relate their thoughts in accepting this monumental task. We have taken the liberty to exclude the "how to's" in order to capture their feelings as they toiled with this new and fulfilling experience. We invite you to share with us the wonderful experience of restoring this ' historical resource for the people of Santa Clara County and for our world youth... This has been a long and, at times, frustrating endeavor to which only the never - ending, wonderful results provide its rewards! For Maude Meagher and Carolyn Smiley, our friends. and the people in the world community we dedicate Casa Tierra, House of Earth! Claudia Allcne Peter Olsen Geno Zambctti November 20, 1988 Preface In 1939 -40 World Youth, then published in Boston, Massachusetts, had readers and young correspondents in forty -seven countries of the world, who were working together to increase friendship and understanding among youth everywhere, irrespective of race, creed or color. But war was ' spreading like a blight across the face of the earth. In country after country youth went into the armies, into concentration camps, into exile. The spread of war cut them off from each other and from us, and so the war stopped us. But it stopped us only temporarily. We knew we would begin again when young people everywhere were once more free to work together for international understanding. We suspended publication of World Youth in June, 1940. We brought our Pe P g printing and office equipment to California and began in January of 1941, to build with our own hands the plant which was destined to become the new and permanent headquarters for the printing and publishing of our magazine. We bought two acres in the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains whose famous forests of redwood were to furnish the timbers for our roofs. A bull -dozer levelled off the ground for our floors, and in so doing pushed up great heaps of earth to be used as mud for the bricks, for ' we had determined to build in the old California tradition of adobe. The early Spanish settlers, with Indian help, built beautiful Missions and ' secular buildings with adobe in California and elsewhere, and so established the local tradition. But we had a larger reason for choosing mud. It is probably the oldest and most universal building material. Long ' before men had learned to make tools for shaping stone and cutting wood they used the every present mud for building. The huts of the poor and the palaces of their rulers were made of mud thousands of years ago; in ' Persia, where the mud -built palaces were faced with beautiful picture tiles; in Babylon and Assyria, where mud walls thirty feet thick held great libraries of books ... books made also of mud, incised with the blocky ' cuneiform characters; in Egypt, where the enslaved Children of Israel rebelled at being refused straw to mix with the mud bricks they made for their Egyptian overlords; in India where ruined mud walls still stand to show the site of India's most ancient cities. And, too, mud is still being used for dwellings all over the world, From the haciendas of Latin America to the great country houses of China. So, for World Youth, we chose the universal and indestructible mud as our building material. Five hundred tons of it, no less, went into the building of this plant. It took six years to build. The first year we had on the average two young men to help us mix the mud, chopped straw and oil that went into the great adobe bricks, which we turned and dried in the sun, then laid, one by one, in the walls. By the end of that first year the last of these young men had gone either into the services or into war work, and after that time we two went on building unassisted, except for the necessary plumbers and electricians. We put twenty -three thousand handmade tiles on the roofs. We laid seven thousand square feet of floor tiles, mostly handmade, and about two thousand square feet of machinemade patio tile. We built six fireplaces and landscaped the grounds. In a word, we have now not only a permanent headquarters for the printing and publishing of World Youth. but memories of six years of work and fun in the building of it. MUD - UNIVERSAL MUD Mud ... We have a theory that the mud house must have been the earliest artificially made home. When mankind descended from the trees in which he must have taken his first refuse from the prowling sabre- tooth, he no doubt lodged in some convenient cave. But when the inevitable cave- shortage developed, man (or more probably his wife, she having the family's welfare more intimately on her mind) set to and built an artificial cave to live in. Mud, however, was always ready to hand in those black marshes where the tree ferms grew. The first houses, we think, were built of sun -dried mud, plastered up, perhaps, against a cliff as swallows do, but lower to the ground, mankind being endowed with wings only in the mind. So, with only our many times great grandmothers to guide us, we undertook to build a mud house for ourselves and for World Youth. We knew nothing whatever about building. But we both had college degrees, and we assumed that, since primitive people can build their own adobe houses, we could too, if we put our minds to it, solving each problem as it came up. The addition of oil to mud for making bricks is a new discovery or possibly a rediscovery of a very old process. We both knew, because we arc. daughters of the manse and were brought up on Bible stories, that mud bricks have to he mixed with chopped straw. We are not told whether the Children of Israel knew it but the weather resistant qualities of mud bricks arc enormously improved with an admixture of crude oil. The Israelites certainly knew the use of pitch, or crude asphalt, for keeping out water, since Moses' young mother smeared with pitch the little basket of reeds in which she floated her baby down stream for Pharaoh's daughter to find. However ancient this knowledge may be, more recent builders with adobe bricks seem not to have had it. The adobe buildings best known in North America, those of the Southwest, have stood for a century and more because of the thickness of their walls and a periodical replastering with new mud on the outside to replace portions eroded by rain The bricks in our walls are twelve inches wide, four inches thick, and eighteen inches in length. When dry, the bricks we made (18 by 4 by 12) weighed between fifth and seventy -five pounds each. We would not have been able to handle them when we started, but hard work in the open air soon hardened our arms and shoulder muscles so we were able to lift them without strain. STRING AND A SPLIT -UP ORANGE CRATE ' During January, February and March, 1941, we dug the foundation trenches for Casa Tierra. It was the rainy season, which was a good thing, for the rain softened the earth and made it easier to dig. Two young men helped us with the digging, but we made it a point of honor to keep pace with them, stroke by stroke, from eight in the morning ' till four - thirty in the afternoon each day, never missing a day, no matter what the weather. Our middle -aged muscles complained a bit at the unaccustomed work, but when they found they got nowhere with their creakings and grumblings, they pulled themselves together, hardened themselves up, and soon the two of us were feeling fine. We were guided in our digging by lines of string which we had laid out one ' January day. That was a wonderful day of plans and dreams. None of these plans suited the ground we finally decided upon as ours, for the lines of a house, we feel, should be adapted to the contour of the earth it stands Son. This is particularly true of a mud -brick house, for one night say that it grows out of the earth as a tree grows, and remains even more visibly a part of that earth. So we discarded all our plans, and let the contours of our little plot of two acres decide the shape of the house that was to grow from it. We broke up some orange crates and made stakes of them to indicate the corners of the rooms that were to be. Then, zigzagging up the gentle slope and around ' again to make an enclosed patio, we stretched our lines of string to indicate the ground plan. We did not dig all the foundations, then box them all, and fill them all with concrete and steel as a continuous process. We dug during and after rainy spells, when the ground was soft; when the weather cleared we made a bath of bricks. At the end of April our first lot of bricks were dry and the longed for moment of starting the first wall had come. It is a good thing that the only real drudgery in building a mud house cones at the beginning when one's enthusiasm is high. Later, when one's energies have begun to flag a little, one is carried along by interest in the processes involved, and by one's romantic excitement at seeing, day by day, some new bit of the house finished. We bought an old truck and the boys brought the day's bricks in from the field each moming. The four of us, working together, found we could lay 200 bricks a day. Tastes differ on how smooth an adobe outer wall should be. It can be made quite smooth, plastered over and painted white until it looks like stucco. We decided to leave ours with its relationship to the surrounding earth still apparent. So we left it its natural color, and did not tidy it up too neatly. Since we made our bricks eighteen by twelve by four inches, two hundred of them made a surprising amount of wall when laid the long way for a twelve inch wall. In four days we had all four walls of a twenty -four foot room build, with door frames in and window spaces ready for glazing. We stood inside our first completely walled in room and gazed up at the sky with thrills and chills of triumph. OUR FIRST ROOF -TREE The thrills and chills of P Y triumph with which we looked u at the sky from P between the walls of our first completely walled -in adobe room were not unmixed with apprehension. We had now to put a roof on that yawing open space and we had not the slightest idea how to go about it..All the processes of building up to that point suddenly appeared to us to have been fantastically easy (just as putting a roof on appears to us now), but at that point we were stymied. We decided to do this job as primitive people (who can't read) always have done: - -by experimenting, by using odd bits of experience that might apply, and by using our heads every minute. Ignorant people can't afford to take ' chances, and we didn't. We were very, very careful, testing everything, and bolting everything that could be bolted. Architects have told us since that our roofs are exceptionally strong. No we could no longer evade the mystery of roof construction. We wanted a low roof above our low earthen walls, for we wished the building to lic close to the earth of which it was made. And now at last we had our first roofed -over room. It was early May, 1941, and our first six months had been spent in a motorcourt cottage at ' the edge of town. Our goods were waiting in a steel car at the station. No door, no windows in, no neighbors in sight. Only the rolling slopes of ' the orchard. Luckily we had thought to bring out some canned goods from the town. We had a stem stove. We dug out two folding cots and some blankets from among the packing cases, and set one cot up against the ' printing press, and one against the linotypc machine. And there we slept for the next six months or so. ' As we scrubbed in cold water in a tin basin at the end of each busy and very dirty day, we thought about warm baths in white porcelain tubs, but it was long before we got one, and by that time what had been a daily commonplace had become a luxury and a joy. Doing without an experience certainly improves its flavor when it is resumed again. "if thou lovest, friend, abstain." Sonic Persian poet said that once. ' That summer that walls marched up the slope as to the music of trumpets. Each evening we were amazed to sec how much had been done in a &w. Finally the electric company was persuaded to run an electric cable out to us and we could hook up the refrigerator and the electric stove that stood among the packing boxes. Now indeed we could dine in style on a packing box with the evening sun shining through the doorway and a chicken in the electric oven. We even had our sherry first, and always we had tea, the moment work was finished and the boys went home at four thirty. WE SEE OUR HOUSE FOR THE FIRST TIME... At the end of our first year of building, the last of our young helpers left us. The four of us, Archie, Jack, M.M. and C.D.S., were working on the last roof when we heard on our portable radio the declaration of war, and we all stood there, silent and appalled, on the roof beam of the living room to honor our National Anthem. Too old for war work ourselves, (not that we thought so, but the factory managers did!) we decided to go on building Casa Tierra by ourselves. The shell of the house was finished; the adobe walls were up, the concrete floors were poured, the last of the sheathing was nailed on the last roof the day before Christmas, 1941. There were slivers of ice in the puddles that lay on the devastated earth around the house. Having made hot cocoa for the boys and wished them happy Christmas, we dug out our fur coats from a cedar chest and went in to the local Hotel Lyndon for the first hot bath in a real tub that we had had in nearly a year. On the way back, walking around a curve in Quito road, we had our first ' sight of the house as a whole. Until then, laying brick on brick, beam against beam, we had been too busy to think of going out to look at the whole. So when, quite suddenly, we saw it, we did not believe it. We could not believe we had built it because it seemed to us incredibly big, and quite incredibly beautiful. The setting sun brought out a rosy- saffron color in the mud bricks, and laid across them long violet shadows, with highlights of yellow. Since it was made of the earth on which it stood, it had serenity about it, as if it had been there always. "We never built it," we whispered. "No one built it. It materialized out of a dream." In this exalted mood, we had not the least inkling that it was going to take us five more years of scuffed hands and aching muscles to finish what we had begun in the building of Casa Tierra, ffouse of Garth, to be headquarters for our publicalion "World Youth." which would. we hoped, help young people all over the world to understand each other in a friendly way - -to become, in fact, world citizens. WINDOWS FROM A ,JUNK YARD ' Under our roofs we now had large rectangular spaces of emptiness where the doors and windows were to be. In this matter we had decided to depart from the usual tradition of small deep -set windows in the walls of adobe houses. Such windows are picturesque, and in countries of great heat, they arc a good thing, for they make the interior of the adobe house a ' cool dim refuge from the glaring sun outside. But we wanted lots of light in our house, and especially we wanted plenty of light in our press room and offices and the World Youth Library. So, although the warmth from outside will enter through glass pants as it will not come through adobe walls, we decided to have big windows anyway, and really it has worked very well. Our rooms are cool even on the hottest day, thanks to the tiled roof, under which currents of cooled air naturally flow, and thanks to the thickness of the adobe wall otherwise. ' Brad, one of our boys, had an excellent idea for windows. By experimentation we improved on his idea, and finally worked out the very simple, easily constructed adobe barred windows we now have, which are ' strengthened with a steel frame that anyone can construct. Now it is no simple matter to set such bars exactly upright, even with a I spirit level. They can and do ]can forwards and backwards, and sideways in two directions. Inevitably, after the cement had dried, one discovered that all the bars leaned in one of the four possible directions. So now we ' call them our Walt Disney windows, for they look like the windows in one of his quaint Toy -maker cottages. ' We tried our best to make our windows straight: they turned out crooked, every one of them. Now let us tell you how we solved the problem of glass to fit into these irregularly sized spaces between the bars of adobe. We had ]earned by now that if you start making a hand -made house you must go on with it in the same way, since you arc not likely to find stock sizes to fit. the odd angles that result, and which, we think, give handwork ' a spontaneous and legitimately picturesque quality. So we decided to buy the glass and cut the pieces, one by one, to fit the spaces for which they ' were intended. Paul, another of our boys, now came up with an idea. It seems that a law ' had been passed making it mandatory to use non- shattcrablc glass in automobile windows and windshields. Consequently the auto wrecking yards were stacked with many hundreds of discarded windshields made of good heavy plate glass. We bought several hundred of these for a very low price and we bought some glass cutters at the dime store. We asked the dealer to show us how to use the cutters. ' At first it was a matter of pride to cut the panes to fit exactly the space designed for them. But pride, in this case, went before a crack. The perfectly fitted panes were casualties. Fortunately these were very few, less than a dozen, probably, in the hundreds cut. It was not for want of trying - -but irregularies in the adobe window bars due to their having dried on the uneven ground, made a close fit nearly impossible, since glass must be cut straight - edged. At least that was the only way we knew how to cut it. In cutting the hundreds of panes one had time to dream. It was noticed that the plate glass, as one cut it, showed different colors at its edge. ' Sometimes the cross cut showed lime- yellow, sometimes blue, and sometimes emerald green, according to the chemical composition of the glass. Our native Boston shows old panes, on Beacon Street, that have ' turned violet with age. Will the glass of Casa Tierra color with time? Perhaps we two will return and see, 500 years from now! IROOFS AND FLOORS OF EARTH One morning a car turned into the field and the driver introduced himself as a maker of tiles. He explained that he had a quantity of hand -made roof tiles left from a large order for tiles to be used as replacements in repairing California's Spanish missions. The story goes that the Indians who made the original tiles under the direction of the Spanish builders, molded them on their own thighs, thus making the characteristic shape, ' wide at one end, narrower at the other. Mr. Smith explained that his workmen, although they did not mold the tiles on their thighs, used molds of similar shape and size. We gazed at his tiles longingly, but hesitated at the price. "Will you be putting them on your roof yourselves ?" asked Mr. Smith briskly. "Yes, of course." "Then I'll give you the roofer's price," and he named a sum that brought the cost down amazingly to within a dollar or two per square of ordinary roof coverings. So we were able to get hand -made roof tiles to crown our hand -made house. We had already made up our minds to leave our house unpainted on the outside, since we liked the earth brown of the untouched bricks, and these roof tiles have soft earth colors, rose and yellow and blue - black, which blend gently with the walls and with the earth on which the house stands. An hour's lesson sufficed to learn the very simple technique of laying tiles on a sloping roof. Building one's own adobe house comes down really to a matter of attitudes. The work itself is not difficult, and none of it is too heavy for people, however inexperienced, who use their heads. If a beam, for example, is too heavy to lift directly into place, it can be lifted partway, propped, and so on by degrees. This acceptance of a "little -by- little- but - stay - with -it" attitude is fundamental. Another essential is to ignore the conditions of one's hands. One can't build an adobe house and keep the "soft, romantic" hands enjoined upon one by the lotion people. Our problem from the first was not to soften, but to harden, our hands, which had never done any rough work. We worked together as much as possible. C.D.S. mixed by hand an average of ten wheelbarrow loads of cement each day (3000 of them in all) while tiling the floors. Then she would climb up to the roof for an hour's work in the sun, and M.M. would descend later to help refill the tubs in which the tiles were soaked overnight. Laying floor tiles is a monotonous job, and damp. It has to be done on hands and knees. Yet it is surprising how rapidly a floor can be covered when twelve -inch tiles are used. C.D.S. laid an average of fitly to sixty large tiles a day. This covered fifty to sixty square feet of floor, about half a small room. Our big press room floor, which is covered wish twelve-inch machine -made tiles, is forty -five by twenty- Ihrce, about. a Ihous,ind Isquare feet of floor. It took twenty days to lay it. Being totally inexperienced (a kind tile- manufacturer having given us one hour's instruction only on how to lay floor tiles:), we had to figure things out from there on. A few floors having been successfully laid, we decided, ' with a sudden rush of self confidence, to tile the wall behind the tub and shower to the ceiling with yellow glazed tiles like those we had used for the floor. That wall fell down on us three Imes, and still bulges noticeably, although, since the cement behind the tiles has hardened, it is perfectly safe. The walls bulged, finally, and althought we threw ourselves against the tiles with arms outspread to hold them back, down they came into the bathtub- -which we had fortunately protected with many layers of newspaper. It takes less than a minute to fix a single roof tile, twist in the length of ' copper wire and hammer it down. But on our World Youth's roofs, which rise one above another up the slope and then come stepping down again to enclose the patio, there are twenty -three thousand roof tiles. It took time ' to lay them. PAINT AND CEILINGS About painting our adobe walls we had much conflicting advice, and most of it was discouraging. As usual, when we needed it, the good counsel came. A chance visitor; a chemist, was told our problem. " I have an old adobe cabin on my place," he said. "I worked out a formula for painting it, outside and in. Come and see it." We saw it. The outside walls were gleaming white and the paint had been on, he told us, for seven years. If you like you can plaster up an adobe wall and make it as smooth as any other house wall, keeping the advantage of the thick, insulting walls even though you disguise them. We did not do this. We like the coarse textured look of the brick walls. The white walls inside look as if they had been woven on a hand loom, and the plain mud walls outside look as if they belonged to the earth Ihcy stand on - -as indeed they do. We have always been interested in ceilings. We think it is fun to lie in bed ' and look up at an interesting design or pleasant colors. One of our prettiest ceilings in a bedroom is rich blue latticed with silver and hung with violet - tasselled star lamp from Mexico. The guest room ceilings, with ' panels of flowered gold tea -chest paper and quaint colored posters from China arc attractive too, the cross - strips, making the panels, having been gilded. One of the bathroom ceilings has a highly impressionistic school of fish painted on it, and another bedroom, to set off a Chinese bed of very old dark red lacquer and gold has a rough -case lime -green ceiling. The beams of the press room will remain open, but those of the offices remain unfinished for the present. Eventually, as our magazine becomes established in many countries, and our contacts grow, we plan to do our ' offices, ceilings, floor and walls, with things from all over the world, so the offices will be truly representative of World Youth. OUR OWN HEARTH -FIRES The fireplaces were the particular province of C.D.S. We both love open hearth -fires and we decided to have six of them. Each of us would have one in her private sitting room, there would be one in the big music room, ' one in each of the guest - rooms. The number remained at five until 1943 when C.D.S. looked at the end wall of the kitchen one day about six weeks before Christmas and said: "What this kitchen needs is a fireplace. It would be fun to have our breakfast coffee in front of the fire on winter ' mornings, and since we do virtually all our entertaining in the kitchen, we need a fireplace, especially at Christmas, to hand stockings on." By then the roof was on and tiled, but she climbed up, removed some tiles, cut a hole in the roof with a saw to let the chimney through, and had the fireplace ready for Christmas morning and hung with eight small red stockings (for by then we had acquired a family of cats) and two enormous paper- stockings for us. In the first place we had no idea how a fireplace should be built. We only knew they should not smoke, for we had both lived in apartments in various great cities of the world, all of them containing the essential open fireplace. Most of those old fireplaces smoked. Knowing nothing we naturally took council of friends, neighbors and all who dropped in to watch the "two elderly ladies from Boston" who were building their own adobe house.. And as usual, someone gave us the information we needed. ' We were advised to see a certain Mr. Baker, then superintendent of the Cemetery of Santa Clara, an elderly man who had built many fine ' fireplaces in his day. We saw Mr. Baker, and although he said he was now too old and tired to build fireplaces any more, he became intrigued at the notion of our doing it ourselves, and on a piece of board, which he picked ' up on the place, he drew a few cryptic symbols with a bit of chalk and said that was all the directions we'd need. C.D.S. seemed to understand his diagram (M.M. could make nothing of it). So C.D.S. took charge. ' We had brought out from Boston the accumulated copper plates from which we had printed the photographs of the young people, living in 49 countries of the world, who had written for us before the spread of war in Europe and Asia forced us to suspend publication. It was decided to face up the big fireplace with these copper cuts of young people belonging to ' nearly all races, colors and creeds of the world and call it our World Youth Friendship Fireplace. A beautiful great fan of flame arose and not a shred of smoke. We sat on the cold concrete floor in front of it and hugged our knees. Then we went out into the patio to see if the smoke were actually coming out of the chimney. It was, and all the air outside was adrift with the sweet spicy scent of burning prunewood. Casa Tierra had become a home. HOW NOT TO BUILD A CESSPOOL As we neared the end of 1946, the house was finished, all but a few ' details, one of which was a cesspool that needed to be dug for the bathrom of two little guestrooms at the back of the house. We were both lean and fit, having never had so much as a cold during our years of heavy outdoor ' work, but we contemplated the digging of a ten foot square, ten foot deep, hole in the ground with dismay. So when the incredible thing happened (incredible for those days) of two young men knocking at our door asking for work, we hailed them with grateful joy. Had they dug cesspools before? Oh yes, they knew all about it. ' Each evening they came, collected their days' wages, reported that all was going well, and left. One morning they did not appear. This fact made us go up to see the supposedly completed cesspool. ' The young men had dug the hole, all right, and it was Ien feet, deep if you mcasnred by a pole set upright in the center. It was just a big hole in the Iground. We looked at it and groaned. The situation was so obviously due to our own carelessness in failing to oversee the young men's work that we didn't even want to talk about it. ' We had seen Don lay similar beams in the lower cesspool, yet now we had to say to ourselves, as Sherlock Holmes said to Dr. Watson, "You see, but you do not observe." And here I interpolate that one of the best things the ' building of this house has done for us is that it has widened our angle of observation to include a myriad of things which, before, we had barely seen out of the extreme edges of our eyes, so to speak. Like most people we had watched idly, in passing, while a skilled workman did some job of work. We had nothing to tie it to, no reason for observing closely how he did it. And so we passed on, ignorant as before, taking the completed work ' for granted, losing our chance to learn. Now one began to be really interested, the earlier rage having evaporated. Not many of the people one knows have built a cesspool all by themselves. ' But now, sawing the beams, pushing them over the edge of the pit, then climbing down to lay each one above another on the inner side, there began to be a swelling of pride of workmanship. M.M. was going to build the finest, the neatest, the most lasting cesspool anyone had ever build. At last it was built. And it was built quite wrong... The ends had been sawed wrong. It only took Mr. Wilson a moment to show us this principle, and then he went away. Then down into the pit M.M. climbed, and up and out the beams were hoisted one by one, to be notched again. ' So, it was done at last, and covered in. Concrete cesspools are more usual nowadays, but old settlers have told us that cesspools built of four -by -four -, redwood last indefinitely. We hope so. ' A GARDEN IS A LOVESOME THING The one thing we were determined to have was a completely enclosed ' patio, on to which the doors of the various rooms should open. Otherwise we built the house as we went along, with only the function of cacti particular room in inind as we put in doors and windows. 1 Indeed, so little had we the house as a whole in mind as we marked out the various rooms on the ground that we had to add a long storeroom in order to get enough rooms to enclose the patio. Then in order to leave room for a gate, we had to shift the angle of that storeroom and build special forms for the comer bricks of it, which were very far from right - angled. Our house is built on a slope, and as the slope rose, we rose with it, putting in two or three steps between the rooms. Outside, the land was untouched; we did not wish to do any unnecessary violence to our lovely land. SOME DAY, PERHAPS The time came when, the war and its restrictions on paper stock, metal and so forth having come to an end, we could resume publication of World Youth, for which purpose our house had been built. No longer could we devote all day and every day to the satisfying manual work of building. Now all our energies must be given to office and typewriter. We downed our building tools with real regret, for it had been fun all along the way. No matter when the time for changing -over had come, it was bound to find us with projects only partly completed. So now in 1950, after three and a ' half years of printing and publishing World Youth, we cross the patio from our offices to our living quarters and glance longingly at a still only half -tiled fish pond under the living room windows. People who drive in ' around the oval from the gate wonder why the center of that oval is weed- covered, with oddly spaced half - finished walls of concrete tiles showing here and there. That is to be, some day, a large pool with three irregularly shaped islands in it, rock islands in which will grow dwarf pines, azaleas and hanging flowers to mirror their colors in the dark water. A fountain will keep them moist, and gold fish can be fed from the concrete block path around the knee -high pool. When shall we find time to do this? After five (when we ' can finish so soon in the office) is the only time now available, and that is usually filled with other duties in house and garden. ' Life must be very dull, we think, for people who have got everything nicely done, with no half - finished projects pulling at their desires. Yet, as one dreams of case, one thinks how lo%,cly it would be to wander icily 1 through a perfect house, and grounds all neat and wcedless, and say, "Ah, this is it, the perfected dream made manifest!" And then, what would one do? ' Fortunately, in World Youth, we have an ever growing project which is potentially without end, for there are always young people, always some new corner of the world to learn about, always adventure in places near ' and far. What does it matter if weeds grow in a half - finished pool? Someday those few hours needed to cement and tile it will fall into our laps. Someday the weeping willow that now grows beside it will see its pale green beauty tipped with yellow flame mirrored in the dark water and gold fish will dart and fccd in its cool shadow. ' Someday, perhaps, we'll even sit in the evening light and watch these things and note how the sunset warms the brown adobe brick of our house walls to saffron like the robe of a Buddhist monk, how the earth colors of the roof tiles, dark red, yellow, black and metallic blue, rise roof above roof ' against the deep blue misty hills, how the sycamores across the creek stand in pure silver, trunk and twisted limbs, in a glory of tarnished gold leaves, and how the fruit trees and the pines and the purple -grey mimosa spread their leafy branches above the yellow, blue, pink and purple iris at their feet. These things we see now only in passing, and they arc good.