The Southern California Region of the Classic Car Club toured the famous Gamble House in Pasadena recently – not only did we get a nice tour, but they allowed us to put our cars on the driveway for some great photos
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Great cars and stunning architecture, in the Craftsman style that was prevalent from 1900 to 1915.
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Not sure if I can add anything here !
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If the house were a car and I was pitching it, it would sound something like this: Brass Era antique, custom one of one coachbuilt, high horsepower, totally original and extremely well preserved! 1 family ownership since new, then to museum status. Eligible for any event!
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Here’s the view from the porch ! Note the brick driveway, it’ll surface later in the presentation.
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Packard LeBaron
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What a setting ! They do not let just anybody drive on their driveway!
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Great!
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That’s where we all REALLY wanted to go, inside the garage !
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A good looking garage!
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there we are in front of the Garage – note the patterns on the doors, the entire house, including the furniture, had repeating design themes. It cost $108,000 to build the entire property in 1908. And it only took a year to build!
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A great car in front of a great garage!
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If you had a nagging feeling that you had seen this garage and driveway – look at the bricks – before, you’re right! It was Doc Brown’s garage in the movie Back to the Future in 1985 ! And the car was a ’48 Packard custom 8 Victoria, owned by my Dad and rented to Universal Studios for the film!
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They had the car for several months, and then they called us up because a scene had to be re-shot at the studio. So we went to Universal, and from 6 pm to 2 am, they shot, shot, and re-shot. At one point they wanted to remove the door of the car for a better shot, which didn’t seem like a good idea to my Dad ! Anyway, there I am with Lea Thompson, who was the co-star of the film. Those movie shoots are always fun. At the end, they only got about 4 seconds of all that effort into the movie! And, philosophically, we’re now about the same distance away from 1985 as they were in the movie – 1985 to 1955 ! Time does march on !
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Every lamp, fixture, and decoration was specially designed and built for the house. They wouldn’t let us take photos inside, though.
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So we used our top secret low light ultra-unobservable hidden camera to get these details of the inside ! Note the glass tree pattern on the front doors, and the incredible woodwork on the stairs.
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beautiful glass in the dining room, backlit by natural light.
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Note the special window treatment, and the original copper drain lines.
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A close-up of the copper drain lines.
And here’s a live view of the Classics driving off the driveway !