FLANDERS MANSION

I am walking in the Mission Trail Nature Preserve with a fellow gardener when we see a trail marked “Flanders Mansion”. We follow the trail up a hill and round the bend to this sight.

What a delight. There is no one around so we explore.

The handsome front door sits in ivy covered walls

with the door knocker that announces “Flanders”.

We walk around the north side of the home

and see the remains of a boxwood parterre.

Windows can barely keep out the ivy.

Small wildflowers are breaking through the pavement trying to reclaim the property.

Another door opens on the west to a patio that has seen many wonderful sunsets over the ocean.

Everywhere we look we see graceful architectural touches.

Finally we leave the grounds through a huge cedar hedge

and come onto an open meadow

with more fabulous views.

We ponder over this stone

– perhaps a memorial to several dogs buried here

and go on the path once more.

It is only later that I read about Flanders Mansion also known as “Outlands”.

In 1924, Henry H. Gutterson was hired by Paul and Grace Flanders to design their home and gardens. “Outlands”, an English cottage design which is a substyle of the Tudor Revival, was one of the first structures in Carmel of this pictorial style of architecture and is listed on the National Register of historic structures.

In 1924, the Flanders commenced work on their mansion, called “Outlands” due to its solitary location outside of downtown above what is now Mountain View and Forest Streets at the top of the hill accessed by a small bridge over the creek.  The mansion, 8000 square feet on huge grounds/acreage was in stark contrast to the small beach lots of artists, professors and other escapees who arrived at the turn of the century through the 1920s. The Tudor Revival, English Cottage mansion includes seven bedrooms, five baths, lovely living room and dining room with fireplaces and teak floors, all designed in the Arts and Crafts style of the time. These photos of the interior are  by Bill Englander.

The mansion was completed in 1925 at a cost of $17,500.  The basic materials for the home were of the new thermolite block, an innovative block created locally, which was is fireproof and very seismic resistant as well. The tile roof was made by Gladdy McBean, Berkeley style tiles. These are still being manufactured.

Grace and Paul Flanders loved to entertain in their new home and were a lively part of the Carmel scene. 

She and Paul Flanders had only one child, Barry, who died at age 11 very unhappily.  

In 1944 Paul Flanders suffered a major heart attack and died in Washington, DC.  He never saw his beloved Flanders and Carmel again.  Grace lived on at Flanders until 1967, in generally very poor health much of the time.

Upon her death, the estate tried three times to get a city approval for its development plans without success.  Finally, in 1972 the estate sold the 15 acres around the mansion to the city of Carmel for $275,000. The Flanders Foundation formed to protect this treasure. For over a dozen years,the foundation and the city have waged battle over the fate of the historic mansion.  Although the city would like to sell it for use as a single-family home, the foundation argues that the city might offer it to public agencies and there is the possibility that a government agency might buy the estate and turn it into a halfway house or affordable housing. By the time I post this blog, the 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose may have ruled on the issue, determining yet the next chapter in the Flanders Mansion’s history.