Val Verde
The National Park Service has not published a boundary polygon for this district; the map shows the listed properties inside it and the district's reference point.
Why it's listed
Val Verde is a Montecito estate built around a two-story Mediterranean Revival house completed in 1918 for New Yorker Henry Dater Jr. Architect Bertram Goodhue designed the house of hollow clay tile and ochre stucco, arranged around an open patio, with flat-roofed wings, a red tile hipped main block and sparing ornament such as pierced concrete grilles. Goodhue's simple forms reflected a new direction in his career. In the 1920s and later, owner Wright Ludington, an art patron, worked with landscape architect Lockwood de Forest to add cottages, garages and walls, and to remake the earlier gardens by Charles Gibbs Adams. De Forest introduced reflecting pools, colonnades, stepped walls and clipped boxwood hedges, blending Beaux Arts planning with modernist simplicity. The 8.87-acre historic core was recognized for the house as the best, least-altered Goodhue work in Montecito and for the gardens as a major example of de Forest's design evolution.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · catalog entry. Generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29).
| Period of significance | 1918, 1926-49 |
|---|---|
| Styles | Late 19th and 20th century revivals: Mediterranean Revival |
| Areas of significance | Landscape Architecture, Architecture |
| Acreage | 8.9 |
| Boundary source | not published |
| Full listing page | Val Verde (property record) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.