Mortimer Fleishhacker House
Historic house in California, United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mortimer Fleishhacker House, also known as the Green Gables Estate, is a historic estate with an English manor house, built between 1911 and 1935, and located at 329 Albion Avenue in Woodside, California.[2] The house has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since September 26, 1986.[3][4]
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Bella Gerstle Fleishhacker
| Mortimer Fleishhacker House | |
|---|---|
Mortimer Fleishhacker House (1933) | |
  Mortimer Fleishhacker House Fleishhacker House  Mortimer Fleishhacker House Mortimer Fleishhacker House (California) | |
| 37.432792°N 122.268711°W | |
| Location | 329 Albion Avenue, Woodside, California |
| History | |
| Built for | Mortimer Fleishhacker Sr. Bella Gerstle Fleishhacker |
| Site notes | |
| Architect | Greene and Greene |
| Governing body | National Trust for Historic Preservation |
Official name | Green Gables – Fleischhacker |
| Designated | September 26, 1986 |
| Reference no. | 86002396[1] |
The main house is two stories tall, and was created in an English manor-style with an imitation thatch roof, a gunite exterior, and consisting of ten bedrooms.[5][6] The garden is Italian style and features four levels of terracing and a lily pond, a Roman reflecting pool, and a piano-shaped swimming pool.[5][7]
History
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The Fleishhacker family
Mortimer Fleishhacker Sr. (1866–1953) was an entrepreneur who co-founded (with his brother Herbert Fleishhacker) the Great Western Power utility company, which later became part of Pacific Gas and Electric and the City Electric Company.[8][9][5] He served as a director of the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Temple Emanu-El.[10] Fleishhacker had a second home at 2418 Pacific Avenue in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California.[10]
The Green Gables Estate was used and remained in the Fleishhacker family for five generations.[11][12]
Property and landscaping
In 1911, Fleishhacker Sr. and his wife Bella Gerstle Fleishhacker (1875–1963), commissioned Charles Sumner Greene of the architectural firm Greene and Greene to design a country home for them on a 45-acre property.[2][11] This was the largest of all Greene and Greene designs.[5] The interior of the house was designed by Elsie de Wolfe and the San Francisco design house of Vickery, Atkins and Torrey.[13] When designing the home, Greene also took into account the design of the landscaping and the driveway.[7][14]
The property's rolling green lawns were inspired by the Fountains Abbey of Studley Royal Park in 18th-century England, which Greene had visited in 1909.[14] The garden has used natural materials and design elements that complement the landscape such as terraces, walls, arcades, balustrades, and planting urns.[15] Over the years, the Fleishhacker family built out the estate, adding new structures and land.[16][17]
Modern history
The property was used to host family weddings, corporate retreats, and historic summits; including a United Nations 20th-anniversary gala in 1965.[12] The estate was filmed as the Martin family home in the 1999 film Bicentennial Man.[18]
Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes rented a house on the property with her partner from March 2021 until November 2022.[19][20]
In 2025, the house was sold for $85 million and remains a private residence, with its original 74-acre parcel intact.[21][22]
