Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, The

If there was a reason to have a camera…

Speaking of benefactors…

What do you do when you have it all, own a fantastic thousand acre estate, own on the greatest collection of 18th Century British Portraits ever assembled…and can’t take it with you.

Well, you open the whole thing up to the public, and create Southern California’s first Public Art Museum.

Henry Huntington was born into the 1%, and seemingly schemed to get a little further than that. According to Wikipedia, he was a nephew and heir of Collis P. Huntington, one of the Big Four railroad tycoons of 19th-century California. After working with his uncle’s railroad, the younger Huntington began collecting art and rare books. He eventually divorced his first wife, Mary Alice Prentice in 1910, and subsequently married his uncle’s widow Arabella, and relocated from San Francisco to San Marino, which is the lush part of already lush Pasadena. He purchased approximately 1,000 acres from George S. Patton Sr. (father of exactly who you’re thinking of) and kept buying paintings lock, stock and barrel even though he never visited Europe until he was 63. By using experts to guide him and benefiting from a post-World War I European market that was “ready to sell almost anything”, Huntington amassed “far and away the greatest group of 18th Century British portraits ever assembled by any one man” before his death in 1927. In accordance with Huntington’s will, the collection, worth $50 million, opened to the public in 1928.

The grounds of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens are in a word, spectacular. This man lived well, very well. And he had pretty good taste when it came to art and rare books. (I don’t know, I find J. Paul Getty’s emphasis on French Revolution era art and furniture and little over the top.) You will see an original Gutenberg Bible. You will see that collection of 18th Century British Portraits, and you will see Mr. Huntington’s lovely home. If that were all, we could stop right there…

But it is the Gardens which keep bringing you back here again and again, particularly the awesomely serene Japanese Gardens, which…which…

Words fail. Just bring your camera.

They even have a lovely, first class tea room, which all the ladies love, and you can stuff your face at. There’s more than just a museum here.

IMPORTANT SAFETY TIP, PEOPLE: Yeah, about that Tea Room. You best find a way to make reservations before you get foot on the grounds, because that things popular and spots go fast. You can make reservations online, so…do that. Maybe you get lucky, someone cancels, and you can slip in. But it’s definitely better to plan ahead.

PARKING: The Huntington has its own lot, which is free. I have yet to go when its not crowded. At the same, I have yet to go and not find a space.

MAP DIRECTIONS:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
626.405.2100

Monday holidays: 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Closed Tuesdays.

The Huntington is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, and Independence Day.

From Memorial Day to Labor Day, The Huntington observes summer hours and is open from 10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. daily, except Tuesdays. (After Labor Day, hours are 12 noon-4:30 p.m. Mon., Wed., Thurs., Fri.; 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Sat., Sun.; closed Tues.)