General Information

The Clarke Estate is open for Historical Tours and reservation information on Tuesdays and Fridays from 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. and the first Sunday of each month from 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. No appointment is needed.

The Clarke Estate is closed on all major holidays.

For Clarke Estate inquiries, please call (562) 863-4896.



Ceremonies

Clarke Estate offers the following accommodations for your ceremony:

The Courtyard
The Clarke Estate Courtyard accommodates a maximum of 110 guests for a wedding ceremony. The Estate provides chairs and a microphone for your officiant. The bride and groom will be responsible to rent/provide any and all items for the altar and an aisle runner if desired.  The Clarke Estate can also provide a white or natural arch, which can be decorated by the applicant.

The Backyard   
The Backyard accommodates a maximum of 200 guests. The Estate provides chairs and a microphone for your officiant. The bride and groom will be responsible to rent/provide any and all items needed for the altar. An aisle runner is not recommended for the Back Yard; however, flower petals are recommended and are the responsibility of the bride and groom.  The Clarke Estate can also provide a white or natural arch, which can be decorated by the applicant.

Dressing Rooms
The Estate provides two dressing rooms. One dressing room for the bride and her bridesmaids and a second dressing room for the groom and the groomsmen. These are only available if your ceremony is held on the Clarke Estate grounds.

Rehearsals
Rehearsals can be scheduled thirty days before your scheduled wedding date. The Clarke Estate staff will coordinate your rehearsal and ceremony for you.

Music
Music for your ceremony can be played by a DJ off of our exclusive list or you can hire a harpist or violinist, etc. Please check with staff for any other musical instruments desired.

Receptions

The Clarke Estate offers the following accommodations for your reception:

Receptions on the North Lawn 
The North Lawn accommodates a maximum of two hundred guests. The Estate provides tables and chairs. Your guests will be seated at sixty inch round tables that seat eight to ten per table. The Estate will provide eight foot or six foot tables for the buffet table, drink table and wedding party table. For your cake table, a thirty-six inch round or sixty inch round table will be provided. The Estate provides white canopies to cover your buffet, cake and wedding party tables.

Receptions in the Courtyard
The courtyard accommodates a maximum of one hundred guests. The Estate provides tables and chairs. Your guests will be seated at sixty inch round tables that seat eight to ten per table. Eight foot or six foot tables will be provided for the buffet table, drink table, gift table and wedding party table. For your cake table, a thirty-six inch round or sixty inch round table will be provided.

Kitchen 
The Estate has a large, luxurious kitchen and a caterer of your own choice will have full use of the kitchen. The kitchen is equipped with a stove/oven, two refrigerators, a small ice machine and a steamer. Table cloths, dishware, and any other decorative items will be the responsibility of the bride and groom to provide.

Reception Music
The Estate has a required DJ list that you must select from. Live bands are not allowed. Mariachis are allowed without amplification of any kind. A small amount of un-amplified instruments can be played during dinner with permission from the Community Services Division.

Meetings

The Clarke Estate is an ideal location to hold your next intimate professional meeting. The various meetings rooms can accommodate 2 to 25 people for your meeting, and we offer complimentary coffee service upon request. For meeting reservation information, please call (562) 863-4896.

• Mrs. Clarke's Room can accommodate meetings with a capacity of 8 people. 
• Rankin Room can accommodate meetings with a capacity of 10 people. 
• Siemon Room can accommodate meetings with a capacity of 12 people. 
• Dining Room can accommodate meetings with a capacity of 16-30 people. 

History of The Estate
The Clarke Estate was built as the home of Chauncey and Marie Rankin Clarke in 1919. A wealthy, socially prominent couple, they hired architect Irving Gill to build their country home on 60 acres of citrus groves in Santa Fe Springs. Gill build this elegant house in an unusual style for the era.

Using the feeling of Mediterranean and Mission Revival architecture, he designed this house without ornamentation. In describing his design philosophy, he wrote that architects "must have the courage to fling aside every device that distracts the eye from structural beauty." As a result of his philosophy, he became one of the most influential architects of this century.

Completed in 1921, the 8,000 square-foot home is constructed of poured-in-place reinforced concrete. The home is built around a central courtyard edged with Tuscan-style columns and graceful arches. The Clarke Estate, like many Irving Gill buildings, has an exterior pergola (covered walkway), casement windows, cubist structure, concrete construction, and unadorned surfaces.

The interior of the house has rounded corners and flush, unpaneled doors intended to deter the collection of dust. In a concession to decoration, leaf patterns appear in the walls and walkways, and an Egyptian motif was painted on the fireplace. This was probably due to the influence of Mrs. Clarke.

The Clarkes, who made their fortunes in distilleries and gold mining, were widely traveled. Antiquities from their travels to Asia and Greece were displayed throughout their home. The Clarkes lived in the home for a short time before the discovery of oil on their land led them to move to a less industrial environment. Before their departure, Mrs. Clarke made an important contribution to the arts. She acquired land for the construction of the Hollywood Bowl and oversaw its establishment. When Mrs. Clarke died in 1948, the home was left to her secretary's nephew, James Siemon, who lived in it until 1986. Over the years, very minor changes were made to the building. In recent decades, many of Gill's buildings in Southern California have been destroyed, and this estate may be the best intact example of his work in existence.

The recent restoration by the City of Santa Fe Springs includes improvements in the mechanical systems, landscaping and interior decoration. The estate is now available for weddings, receptions, meetings, and special events.

The Clarkes
Chauncey Clarke was born in 1858 in Peoria, Illinois, where his family made a fortune by developing the Clarke Distilleries. In the 1890's, Chauncey moved to Phoenix, Arizona, for his health, and there he purchased hundreds of acres of desert land and established a successful gold mining enterprise.

Marie Rankin Clarke, an only child, was born in 1868 in Afton, Iowa. The Rankins were well established in Phoenix, Arizona, when Chauncey Clarke moved there. Her father, a mining engineer, encouraged her to excel in many masculine pursuits. Frequently, she rode horseback with him to the mines on prospecting trips. A lifelong friend of hers once said, "She could ride a horse with as much grace, and shoot as accurately, Annie Oakley."

One day, while riding horseback on his mining property, Chauncey met the high-spirited Marie Rankin. They were married in 1894, and made their first home in Peoria, Arizona, founded by Clarke himself. Their 35 year, success-story marriage began.

They moved to California in 1904, first to Altadena and then to Los Angeles. During this time, they purchased ranch property in Downey, Pico Rivera, and Santa Fe Springs. They chose the 60 acres of citrus groves they owned in Santa Fe Springs as the site for their country home. It is not known why Mrs. Clarke selected Irving Gill as the architect, but the choice of someone so innovative was consistent with her worldly and modern outlook.

Shortly after the Clarkes moved into their new home in Santa Fe Springs, oil was discovered on their land, and the smells and noises of oil production made it necessary for them to leave. Although they lived in the home for a short time, they sometimes entertained their friends by showing movies outdoors in the courtyard. The screen was rolled down from the upstairs balcony, and the projector was situated on a specially designed balcony on the opposite side of the courtyard.

During 1922 to 1926, the Clarkes began purchasing several parcels of land in the Coachella Valley. They reestablished themselves on a new ranch called "Point Happy Date Gardens". The property was developed into one of the finest date ranches in the Coachella Valley.

In addition to date farming, Chauncey Clarke began raising purebred Arabian horses. He believed that the climate of Coachella Valley was similar to the Arabian climate, and made the ideal environment in which to raise these horses. Because of failing health, he was unable to continue the development of Point Happy. He sold his horses shortly before his death in 1926.

Mrs. Clarke stayed on at Point Happy and pursued many interests, including the cause of world peace and education, motion picture photography, classic theater production, and reading. She was known as a superb conversationalist and narrator. She predicted the downfall of white colonialism in the Far East, and felt that wars could be averted if people would strive to find their common likes and similarities. She was known to have said, "He who is different from me, does not impoverish me; he enriches me."

When she died in 1948, the bulk of her estate was left to Claremont College. Since she had no children, the home in Santa Fe Springs was left to a friend and two relatives. Once of the heirs, James Siemon, lived in the home until 1986 when it was purchased by the City of Santa Fe Springs.

At her own request, her ashes, along with her husband's, were scattered in the mountains near their Arizona gold mine.

The Architecture
Most of the buildings in which we work and live have been influenced in some way by Irving Gill's architecture. Although he had little formal architectural education. Gill pioneered innovations such as tilt-up concrete construction, un-decorated wall surfaces, sky-lit bathrooms, built-in closets, and low-maintenance interiors. He did this at a time when popular architecture featured plenty of detailed ornamentation.

In 1890, at the age of 20, Gill set out from Syracuse, New York, for the architectural offices of Adler and Sullivan in Chicago. He was familiar with Sullivan's work and perceived this office as the best architectural training available. Three years later, Gill started his own practice in San Diego, California. Although his first buildings gave little clue of how his style would evolve, they did reveal his love for columns.

Gill had a passion for dancing and often went to dances at the Del Coronado Hotel, where many Easterners came for the winter. There he met Fredrick Law Olmstead, Jr. and his brother, Albert. Olmstead, a prominent landscape architect whose father designed New York's Central Park, hired Gill in 1902 to build his home in Newport, Rhode Island. The house, which contained thousands of feet of California redwood, as well as a tile roof and arches, created a sensation.

After his success in the East, he was in great demand back in San Diego. During this time, his style started to emerge and is evident in structures such as the Christian Science Church in San Diego (1904) and the Dodge House in Los Angeles (1916).

The Dodge house, once believed to be his last large residential commission, was destroyed in the late 1960's. The City of Santa Fe Springs' recent discovery of the Clarke Estate in its own backyard has been an exciting event for architectural historians.

Irving Gill's homes were planned with maintenance in mind. He often spoke of the practical details of housework and how they could be eliminated through planning. His serious interest in sanitation led him to eliminate ornamentation on his buildings such as moldings, wainscotings, and surface sculpture. Even the doors are flat surfaced so there is no place for dust to collect. His buildings, both large and small, also show a concern for lighting. The bathrooms and hallways in Gill's structures are always beautifully lit by skylights. Gill also helped popularize the idea of closets to eliminate the need for a piece of furniture to store clothes. The closets in the bedrooms of the Clarke Estate are luxurious even by today's standards.

Although Gill was a modest man, he was aware of his influence on other architects. While he was enormously popular with women, he didn't marry until he was 58 years old. Soon after his marriage, the stock market crashed, resulting in a serious setback to his fortunes. he died on October 7, 1936, almost forgotten. Fortunately, interest in his work has been rekindled in recent years. The Clarke Estate contains many Gill innovations that are common in our homes and work places today.

The Clarke Estate is located at 10211 Pioneer Boulevard, Santa Fe Springs, CA
Call (562) 863-4896 or E-Mail Clarke Estate
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