The Gamble House: A Detailed Design for Living

By Julie Jaskol | November 1, 2025 | Photography by Christopher Gonzalez and Joshua Scheide

PASADENA, Calif.—It happens whenever a tour group steps into the Gamble House for the first time. “People come in and get quiet. They look around and absorb it,” said Jennifer Trotoux, director of collections and interpretation for the iconic Pasadena bungalow designed by Charles Sumner Greene and his brother Henry Mather Greene. “We like to give people a moment to feel what it’s like.”

It affects Trotoux too, even though she’s been connected to the house as a volunteer, board member, and staffer for 20 years. “Every time I come upstairs from my office in the basement, it’s such a sensory experience,” she said. “The design, authenticity, history, and the kind of care Greene & Greene took not just in the design but the execution.”

In fact, the staff repeat a running joke every time they examine the meticulous details that abound throughout the house, from the buttery soft wooden beams held together by sculptural joinery, to the elaborate art glass that imbues everything with a warm glow. “We say, ‘They didn’t have to do that,’” Trotoux said. “But they did, and that’s why we’re all here.”

Built in 1908 as a winter home for David and Mary Gamble, of the Procter and Gamble Company, the house and most of its furnishings remain intact, serving as the best-preserved example of the Greene brothers’ artistry. Open to the public for guided tours, it serves as a center of ongoing scholarship on the work of the Greenes and the Arts & Crafts movement.

The Gambles, like many of their friends, traveled to Pasadena each year to escape the Ohio winters. After staying in hotels for a few years, in 1907 they decided to build their own winter home there. They were attracted to a collection of bungalows built by Greene & Greene in the Park Place Tract along the Arroyo Seco in northwest Pasadena, a half mile or so from the grand mansions on Orange Grove Boulevard known as ‘Millionaire’s Row.’

The Park Place bungalows were more rustic and attuned to the natural environment of the Arroyo, with wooden shingles, peaked roofs, and stone retaining walls. The houses evoked Swiss chalets to some, who called the tract ‘Little Switzerland.’ Charles built his own house and office there, as well as a home for his three sisters-in-law, in addition to other commissions that still stand.

The Gambles bought land to the north, on Westmoreland Place, and presented Greene & Greene with the opportunity to fully express their maturing architectural style, firmly grounded in Southern California’s natural environment.

The Gambles seem to have been the right clients at the right time for the Greene brothers. They had recently received national press attention for their bungalows, and were refining their own style, influenced by artist and philosopher William Morris and the Arts & Crafts movement. They were also inspired by Japanese art and architecture, an interest the Gambles shared. The Gambles were receptive to their ideas, and had the resources to allow the Greenes to pursue their growing ambitions.

“That’s the great thing about commissions for wealthier clients,” Trotoux said. “Charles had a particular vision, and he wanted to see how far it could be taken.”

Collaborating closely with the Gambles-—and working with another set of brothers, the contractors Peter and John Hall, who would work on most of their major commissions in the coming years—-Greene & Greene created a masterpiece.

Its formal public rooms downstairs, paneled in teak, with fireplaces, an inglenook, and intricate built-ins, are warm and comfortable, featuring rugs and furniture designed by Charles. “The furniture has more softness than much of the furniture of the era. The chairs have a curve in the back; they’re made with the body of the sitter in mind,” Trotoux said. “It’s a continuation of how this house should be lived in.”

The fireplace surrounds, friezes, lighting fixtures, and leaded art glass evoke the birds, flowers, and trees outside. The dark woods shine in the bright San Gabriel Valley sun that streams through the windows.

Across the broad, welcoming mail hall are service areas used by staff, with adjoining kitchen, cold room, butler’s pantry, and airy screened-in service porch. These rooms are lighter and brighter, featuring sturdy and serviceable maple and sugar pine.

Upstairs are bedrooms specially designed for each member of the family, including custom-made furniture, with adjoining sleeping porches providing healthful fresh air.

“Everything faces north and west, to take advantage of the breezes and the mountain view,” Trotoux said.

Banks of windows look onto the expansive grounds, with a landscape design by Henry Greene. “We don’t have planting plans,” Trotoux said, “but the structures and hardscape are all intact.” In 2010, Henry’s granddaughter, landscape designer Isabelle Greene, examined photographs and letters and reinterpreted the garden with contemporary plant choices.

Topping the house is a one-room third story with windows on all sides. It was identified as a billiard room in the architectural plans, but the Gambles used it for storage. Today it serves as a meeting space and occasionally houses special exhibits.

There are several reasons the Gamble House has endured so beautifully, escaping the fate of many Greene & Greene homes that have been demolished or altered, their furnishings sold off. “It was built with incredibly high-quality materials in the first place, and enjoyed very careful stewardship by the Gamble family,” Trotoux said. In 1966, instead of selling the house, the family deeded it to the City of Pasadena, with a joint agreement with the University of Southern California, which operated it until 2020. Declared a National Historic Landmark, a California Historical Landmark, and a City of Pasadena Landmark, it is now overseen by the Gamble House Conservancy.

The Conservancy welcomes about 30,000 visitors every year for guided tours, special events, classes and exhibits. Some come because they are knowledgeable art and architecture enthusiasts. Others because they are visiting Pasadena and want to see the sights. Still others come because the Gamble House served as the 1955 home of Doc Brown in the 1985 movie Back to the Future and again in 1990’s Back to the Future III.

No matter the reason, the Gambles would have been delighted that so many visitors enjoy the house. “They were charitably minded and passionate about making Pasadena a better place,” Trotoux said.

They were a close family, as were the Greenes. Charles and Henry worked together for much of their professional lives and maintained a warm relationship even after Charles moved north to Carmel in 1916 and the firm dissolved in 1922. “They were close to their parents and close to each other. That’ll take you a long way in life,” Trotoux said.

Family and domestic life is at the heart of the Gamble House. “The way we talk about the house has changed over the years,” Trotoux said. “We talk more about the Gambles and about the details of daily life because the Gamble House is relatable to people as a home where people lived and worked.” As entranced as people are by the intricate teak staircase, they are also fascinated by the zinc sinks in the butler’s pantry designed to be gentle on china and glassware.

Perhaps the most spectacular aspect of the house is the first thing a visitor encounters: the front door. The doorway is filled with gold and green art glass depicting an enormous spreading pine tree. Beautiful from the outside, it is transcendent on the inside, where it fills the hallway with the glow that inevitably hushes the first-time visitor.

Trotoux describes it as a portal into the world of Greene & Greene. “As soon as you close the door, a real sense of calm and quiet comes over you,” she said. “It’s the idea of being enveloped by the materials and the details that people really feel.”

The Greenes didn’t have to do that, but they did.