Casa del Herrero, Montecito
Near Santa Barbara, California
Casa del Herrero, the House of the Blacksmith, is a National Historic Landmark tucked into the Montecito foothills east of Santa Barbara, and it is considered one of the finest examples of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in the United States. George Fox Steedman, a Saint Louis industrialist, purchased about eleven acres here and hired architect George Washington Smith and a team of landscape designers to build him a second home. Steedman spent years in Spain buying antique metalwork, hand-painted tiles, and carved stone details to incorporate into the design, which was completed in nineteen twenty-five.
The name refers to the extraordinary ironwork throughout the property, some of it centuries old. Steedman's family eventually gave the estate to a nonprofit, and it operates today as a house museum open by guided tour only. The gardens alone, with their terraced Mediterranean plantings and views toward the Santa Ynez Mountains, are worth the visit.
