Casa del Herrero

A century after Casa del Herrero was established as the private estate of industrialist George Fox Steedman, and more than three decades after it was turned into a historic house museum and garden stewarded by a nonprofit organization, the House of the Blacksmith remains one of Montecito’s best-kept secrets. 

The secrecy is not on purpose, and certainly something 18-month tenured Casa del Herrero Foundation Executive Director and Head of Curation Natalie Sanderson would like to change. She is fully aware of the nonprofit’s dedication to both Casa del Herrero’s preservation and its availability to the visiting public. 

“We’re very much a hidden gem, and that’s not by design,” she said. “We want more people to visit and I’m doing a lot to open up opportunities for the community to come.” 

Part of the issue is that the Casa has a restrictive county use permit, largely due to parking limitations and its location deep within a residential area on East Valley Road.

“However, we do have docent-led tours (by reservation) twice a day now on Fridays and Saturdays, three times during the summer, and I just began a weekly specialty garden tour that starts in the workshop honoring Carrie Steedman’s legacy,” Sanderson said, referencing the original owner’s wife, who remained in the house after he passed in 1940 until her own death in 1962. “You can see all of her awards for flower arrangements and more that she achieved in horticulture and at garden shows. Then you go into the garden itself where you can see up close the recent preservation work that we’ve completed.”

That is a large part of the significant change at the Casa in recent months, largely due to the organization being the only one in California to receive a Save America’s Treasures grant from the National Parks Service, Sanderson said. “We started this amazing preservation opportunity last year, and we’re just wrapping it up, having restored horticultural spaces, our gardener’s tool shed, our glass house, and the Douglas Fir-painted wood lathe. We restored 10 fountains on the property and worked toward conserving historic tiles some of which are hundreds of years old. It’s a beautiful garden space that has been all very lovingly restored. The goal is to give our guests more opportunities to see things still looking their age, but also at their best.”

That includes inside the home, which was originally built as a vacation home and later became the family’s full-time residence, Sanderson said.

“He was very much involved in the design process of Casa del Herrero. We have in our archives hundreds of letters between the client and the architect George Washington Smith (who also designed the Lobero and many other structures in town) about what the family desired. Even in the working blueprints that we have, they’re very detailed and show things like the artworks and objects that were important to the family. He’d detailed where pieces came from, and where they wanted them to be displayed.” 

Steedman was an industrialist by trade but also a practicing blacksmith during his retirement in Montecito.

“We have a fully intact workshop where he enjoyed and endeavored in multiple hobbies, including blacksmithing, silversmithing, woodworking,” Sanderson said. “He did photography, and he also made wine.”

In addition to the regular weekly tours, there are a number of special events at Casa del Herrero that also welcome guests, including the educational salon series launched earlier this year that feature talks on local architecture, art or design guests, as well as a gallery walkthrough to view the Steedman Family Collection of 15th and 16th century fine and decorative arts from Spain. There’s also a revolving exhibition schedule showcasing metalsmithing and woodworking equipment, antique books, craftsman’s sketchbooks, architectural drawings, and horticulture records. 

Other Casa opportunities include wellness-oriented one-offs such as a sound bath and tai chi class. Meanwhile, the annual Holiday Open House is less than three months away, slated this year for December 12. At that event, Casa del Herrero will also be honoring Albert P. Hinckley, Jr., Carrie and George Steedman’s grandson, an architect who is also on the nonprofit’s board of directors. 

“He has a wealth of stories and great memories to share,” Sanderson said. 

More ways to open up to visitors are also in the works now that Casa del Herrero has found firmer footing after a number of years with an ever-changing staff and direction. Also welcome? The increase in memberships that help support the foundation and, of course, donations and other planned ways of giving. It is all of a piece, as Sanderson deftly summarizes.  

“I am happy to share that we are a more stable organization both financially and in our programming and commitment to the community.”  

Visit www.casadelherrero.com