{"nrhp_refnum":"87000002","name":"Steedman Estate","other_names":["Casa del Herrero","House of the Blacksmith"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1387 E. Valley Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Montecito","county":"Santa Barbara County","state":"CA","lat":34.435130974294346,"lon":-119.63649895394857,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1987-01-29","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"2009-01-16","areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly 11-acre country estate in Montecito, Santa Barbara County, California, known as Casa del Herrero. It includes a Spanish Colonial Revival house, outbuildings and designed gardens, begun in 1922 for George and Carrie Steedman of St. Louis.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the estate as one of the most intact and best documented examples of the American Country Place era. It combines a celebrated George Washington Smith house with gardens by Ralph Stevens and Lockwood de Forest, Jr. Its architecture, interiors, furnishings and landscape form a unified, authentic expression of Spanish Colonial Revival design adapted to the California climate.","narrative":"Casa del Herrero, or House of the Blacksmith, is an 11-acre estate in Montecito built from 1922 as a second home for George and Carrie Steedman of St. Louis. George Steedman, an industrialist, engineer and amateur architect, took part in every detail. He worked with architect George Washington Smith, landscape architects Ralph Stevens and Lockwood de Forest, and antiquarians Arthur and Mildred Byne, who helped him obtain antique materials from Spain. The result is a Spanish Colonial Revival house with patios, a loggia, tiled pools, exedras, pergolas, orchards and a cactus garden, all arranged along formal axes that give way to a naturalistic landscape. A separate pump house holds the estate's private water supply. The property is considered a leading example of the American Country Place era because the house, gardens, interiors and furnishings remain intact and well documented by drawings, photographs and invoices. A non-profit foundation now operates it as a museum.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Architect George Washington Smith with Lutah Maria Riggs; landscape architects Ralph T. Stevens, Lockwood de Forest, and Francis T. Underhill; Edwards, Plunkett and Howell (butler's cottage); Edwards and Plunkett (pump house); Floyd Brewster (shop); Snook & Kenyon, general contractors","architectural_style":"Late 19th & 20th Century Revival: Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Owned and operated as a historic house museum and garden by a non-profit foundation, which opened it to the public in 1993. The house retains its original furnishings and a high degree of historic integrity.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.585895-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/87000002_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87000002/50a4359f0e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87000002/50a4359f0e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"Mike Boucher","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Casa_del_Herrero_(Montecito,_CA).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Mike Boucher</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Casa_del_Herrero_(Montecito,_CA).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858097","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_del_Herrero","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2093816"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/santa-barbara-county/steedman-estate-87000002/"}