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A private garden designed by the Olmsted Brothers firm and enhanced by owner Elin Vanderlip is one of Southern California?EUR??,,????'???s outstanding examples of Mediterranean landscape architecture.
Southern California is one of a handful of spots outside of the Mediterranean that enjoys the moderate climate of that name. The regions include California south to the Los Angeles basin, a portion of west South Africa, central Chile and coastal parts of southern and western Australia.
One of these spots most closely resembles the Mediterranean with open water, hills and islands?EUR??,,????'??+like the Aegean or the coast of Italy. This is the Pacific off Los Angeles, where the Channel Islands conjure up such images. A prime view spot is Palos Verdes, the elbow of the metropolis that juts into the sea. ?EUR??,,????'??Green Hills?EUR??,,????'?? in Spanish, development here only dates to the early 20th century, when New York banker Frank A. Vanderlip, Sr. purchased the land with plans for a Mediterranean paradise with villas, bougainvillea and Italian cypress.
Vanderlip called on the leading landscape-architectural hand of the era, the Brookline, Mass.-based Olmsted Brothers firm. According to the late landscape architect A.E. Hanson, Vanderlip hired the brothers (John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.) in 1914 to draw up ?EUR??,,????'??preliminary plans?EUR??,,????'?? for the seaside development. The First World War postponed his California Riviera, however. It would not be the last time history interfered with his plan.
Granddaughter Narcissa Vanderlip-Fuller tells how Vanderlip hired a climatologist to find the optimal hillside zone for a home and gardens. The consultant picked a spot about 700 ft. above the sea, above most of the fog but protected from the windy summit of the hills. Then the Olmsted firm laid out a geometric garden on the 12-acre site. It was divided into symmetrical halves by a pathway. The path still rises close to 250 steps to a Doric-columned pergola that crowns the top of the property. This cypress allee, as it has been known since, is crossed at midlevel by paths lined by olive and pine.
At the time of the garden?EUR??,,????'???s installation, Vanderlip planned a big house modeled on an Italian villa built by Pope Julius II in the 15th century. If the Depression had not intervened, this project would have put a landmark on the site to rival other West Coast flights of fancy.
?EUR??,,????'??He was going to build a Hearstian castle down there (below the garden and villa), but then came the 1929 crash,?EUR??,,????'?? Elin Vanderlip explained recently.
Today, the property?EUR??,,????'???s centerpiece is Villa Narcissa, originally intended as a guest house for the big home. Here, the Olmsted firm created a brick terrace shaded with the California pepper tree (Schinus molle), the drought-tolerant staple that would be planted liberally across the peninsula over the coming decades.
When Kelvin Cox Vanderlip married Elin Brekke Vanderlip in 1946, the couple moved into a smaller cottage that had been built around 1924. The pair enjoyed the grounds for a decade before Kelvin Vanderlip succumbed to cancer at age 44. Hit by the tragedy, the widow took her four children to Switzerland, where she spent several years skiing, reading and schooling the youngsters. Vanderlip also traveled through France and Italy, picking up ideas she would put to use later back in her California garden.
The family had an unpleasant surprise eight years later when it returned to Palos Verdes. The house was intact, but the central allee had been turned into a speedway by trespassing motorcyclists.
The incident, which occurred around 1966, prompted Elin Vanderlip to launch a rebuilding and replanting effort that would continue for the next 30 years. The Olmsted design had lined the central allee with dirt and railroad ties; now Vanderlip undertook to pave it with terra cotta chips set in rose-colored cement held by painted railroad ties.
?EUR??,,????'??It was a family project,?EUR??,,????'?? Vanderlip-Fuller recalled last year. ?EUR??,,????'??And we teenagers could hardly keep up laying the tile chips into the drying rose-stained cement before she had the next step poured and waiting. But with so many steps, it would have taken forever without her task-making.?EUR??,,????'??
Once underway, Elin Vanderlip turned into a force of nature. Her charisma focused the attention of all involved, and goaded family and workers forward. She drew on diverse influences, from her Norwegian childhood to her recent European travels to the influence of her late husband, who had studied architecture at Princeton.
The result was a personal stamp that augmented, customized and improved the Olmsted Brothers?EUR??,,????'??? early 20th-century work. In her own history of the garden, daughter Vandelip-Fuller recalled the process.
?EUR??,,????'??That drive, her vision and her impatience to see the results, continually produce astonishing transformations in the garden. There is always something new: a fountain, an arbor, a maze laid out with a grandson, a mound to raise the crescent-shaped flowerbed?EUR??,,????'??? All these projects happen fast, with my mother overseeing every aspect, driving all over the county for the right plants or building supplies, plying the workers with iced tea and constant encouragement.?EUR??,,????'??
Around the time of the hardscape project, Elin Vanderlip noticed the California pepper trees on the home?EUR??,,????'???s front terrace. After her time in Italy, the New World trees clashed with her picture of Mediterranean landscaping. She replaced them with olive trees that now shade the marble tables, joined by blue hydrangea in pots. Similarly, in the east garden, Vanderlip altered the Olmsted design, widening the brick terrace to expand the social capacity of the space.
She followed with other innovations inspired by her work with Friends of French Art, the group she founded that raised more than $6 million by the year 2000 to preserve threatened spots in France. (The group paid to save a balcony painted by Renoir and a mill painted by Cezanne and Pissarro, among other projects.)
To create a meeting place, Vanderlip designed and an innovative amphitheater using recycled auto tires near the Doric temple. Through the 1980s and ?EUR??,,????'??90s, garden tours were one way the group raised funds for its work. Bringing Americans to France on art tours was another. The amphitheater and neighboring temple gave visitors a reason to climb the hill and explore the garden, and take in the Classic views from the top. At this point, the garden and its amenities had clearly evolved?EUR??,,????'??+into an art lover?EUR??,,????'???s fine-tuned creation.
The road to Elin Vanderlip?EUR??,,????'???s garden starts with a chance meeting at San Pedro, Calif. A Sunday drive leads to the Norsk Sjomannskirken, the church and support network run by the Norwegian government for ship crew visiting the port of Los Angeles. Oslo-native Gisle Meling, (he seems more soccer fan than Lutheran pastor) turns a conversation to Elin Vanderlip?EUR??,,????'???s garden and her vision of a Norwegian cultural center at Nansen Field, the athletic facility that is connected to the church (see sidebar).
Despite Meling?EUR??,,????'???s warning (the widow can be irascible, he cautions) she is pleasant on the phone. A visit can be arranged, ?EUR??,,????'??although you will have to hurry,?EUR??,,????'?? she says. ?EUR??,,????'??You want to get here while I?EUR??,,????'???m still alive.?EUR??,,????'??
The comment is typical of the 87-year-old?EUR??,,????'???s wit, which remains agile.
The meeting is set for Friday. The day is sunny, thick with the white light of the California coast. (LASN graphic artist Guy Nelson is along with his Canon Rebel XT digital.) Vanderlip has given us the code for the gate. The approach takes us up the pepper tree-shaded street, lined with the Olmsteds?EUR??,,????'??? pittesporum and plumbago. With help from gardener Jose Alvarez, we find Elin Vanderlip?EUR??,,????'???s door.
She?EUR??,,????'???s dressed in blue, her signature color. She welcomes us. A few minutes of instruction and photographer Nelson and I are set loose in the garden. Later, she screens a video produced by family members for her 80th birthday. Its theme music (from the 1949 film ?EUR??,,????'??The Third Man?EUR??,,????'??) replays in my head for days.
Preliminary research had turned up little on the garden. A Web search finds a couple of references, a Sunset magazine article from 1998 (?EUR??,,????'??Geometry and foliage are the essence?EUR??,,????'????EUR??,,????'??) and a quote from Estate Gardens of the West (?EUR??,,????'??a grand garden in the classic Italian tradition.?EUR??,,????'??
With that high praise, the garden?EUR??,,????'???s present state is a surprise. Algae has turned the pool into a turquoise pond, the upper hillside is singed by the October drought. Italian cypress lining the walk is stressed by the situation, and the lavender, pink and violet bougainvillea is unpruned and ragged. The upper portion brings to mind a rhyming verse from school days (Swinburne?EUR??,,????'???s ?EUR??,,????'??A Forsaken Garden?EUR??,,????'??).
The garden rooms that line the salmon and saffron walls are much better tended by Alvarez, Vanderlip?EUR??,,????'???s sole gardener. He waters the rose garden ?EUR??,,????'??for four minutes?EUR??,,????'?? each day, he says.
Asked about the hillside?EUR??,,????'???s old drip system (installed after a 1973 brush fire), Alvarez shrugs. ?EUR??,,????'??I always ask her if we should put more water down, she says ?EUR??,,????'??No, maybe later.?EUR??,,????'????EUR??,,????'??
She dreads the monthly water bill, which supplies the dozen-or-so cottages that dot the 12-acre grounds. The drip system (it was sputtering in a small zone the day we visited) helped new cypresses fill in after the wildfire, but were never intended to support growth. The winter rainy season that marks Mediterranean climes is the main source of irrigation here. For good reason, Vanderlip always holds garden tours in the spring.
Despite its drought-stressed look, it?EUR??,,????'???s a pleasure to see the garden intact and healthy. The biggest threat here is from catastrophic wildfire?EUR??,,????'??+or the sale of this property for future development. It?EUR??,,????'???s not surprising that this last threat comes to mind, given California?EUR??,,????'???s reluctance, on a statewide and municipal level, to pass legislation protecting historical structures and landscapes.
Elin Vanderlip is confident when asked about the garden?EUR??,,????'???s long-term prospects, however. The family is committed to its preservation, and son Kelvin Vanderlip, who lives in London, has plans to return when Elin passes the baton.
Daughter Narcissa Vanderlip-Fuller gave a similar upbeat assessment.
?EUR??,,????'??We want to do everything we can to preserve it for the long term,?EUR??,,????'?? she said. ?EUR??,,????'??My brothers and sisters have a tremendous amount of respect for the years of upkeep she?EUR??,,????'???s invested here. We?EUR??,,????'???ve traveled all over the world, but this always feels like home. We love it, and want to see it preserved.?EUR??,,????'??
And put to good use, of course. A fundraiser for the National Association of Olmsted Parks is planned for the garden in March. By that time, trees, shrubs, pots and beds will be rejuvenated by rain.
Elin Vanderlip?EUR??,,????'???s life started in Oslo, Norway, where her father, Guttorm Brekke, ran a lumber mill and sash and door company. In time, she landed in California. Young and blond and beautiful, she caught the eye of actor Sterling Hayden, who took her sailing on his 70-foot yacht, Quest, with the likes of Errol Flynn and Ida Lupino?EUR??,,????'??+and proposed. But this engagement too was short-lived. Not long afterward she met Mr. Right. It was love at first sight, and in 1946, less than three months after being introduced by his sister, Elin and Kelvin Cox Vanderlip, second son of banker Frank A. Vanderlip, who once owned all of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, were wed. They set up housekeeping in a small house on the grounds of Villa Narcissa. For a decade, the couple lived the good life. Kelvin Vanderlip had studied architecture at Princeton and, says Elin, who is not one to mince words over the direction that development of the Palos Verdes Peninsula has taken, ?EUR??,,????'??had the vision and the courage and the taste. If he had lived, this peninsula would be totally different.?EUR??,,????'?? The young Vanderlips had been married only 10 years when Kelvin died of cancer at age 44. Elin, devastated and seeking a change of scene, took her four young children to Gstaad, Switzerland. ?EUR??,,????'??Her in-laws kept telling her what to do,?EUR??,,????'?? recalls daughter Narcissa Fuller, ?EUR??,,????'??something that never went over very well with Elin.?EUR??,,????'?? She met former United Artists Vice President Lee Katz, whose children went to school with hers. They kept in touch, and after he lost his wife in 1963, he says, ?EUR??,,????'??we just kind of gravitated toward one another.?EUR??,,????'?? Some of their friends refer to him affectionately as her ?EUR??,,????'??perpetual fiance,?EUR??,,????'?? her companion for more than 30 years. (Katz died at 89 in 2003.) They spent a year in Rome while he worked on ?EUR??,,????'??Man of La Mancha.?EUR??,,????'?? Each year he helps her guide wealthy Francophiles on VIP tours to raise money for her organization, Friends of French Art. Among other projects, the Friends raised funds to preserve the mill at Pontoise, immortalized by Cezanne and Pissaro, but slated in 1978 to become a soccer field. The home Vanderlip and Katz shared, Villa Narcissa, stands on land bought by Frank Vanderlip in 1912. She says, ?EUR??,,????'??He was to build a great Roman villa copied from the villa of Pope Julius II, but the 1929 crash came?EUR??,,????'?? and the plan was abandoned. Today’s magnificent home, once the guest house, has been expanded over the years. Named for Vanderlip?EUR??,,????'???s mother-in-law, it was in the early ?EUR??,,????'??40s occupied by Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss; Myrna Loy and her husband, producer Arthur Hornblow Jr.; and honeymooners Burgess Meredith and Paulette Goddard. The villa, ochre with mustard trim, is a Tuscan hideaway overlooking the Pacific. Peacocks prance along the garden walls. Vanderlip, who studied the great gardens of Italy, has created a visual feast with cypress, olive trees and agave, punctuated with hydrangea and bougainvillea. ?EUR??,,????'??+From Los Angeles Times, July 14, 1999
Elin Vanderlip?EUR??,,????'???s life started in Oslo, Norway, where her father, Guttorm Brekke, ran a lumber mill and sash and door company.
In time, she landed in California. Young and blond and beautiful, she caught the eye of actor Sterling Hayden, who took her sailing on his 70-foot yacht, Quest, with the likes of Errol Flynn and Ida Lupino?EUR??,,????'??+and proposed. But this engagement too was short-lived. Not long afterward she met Mr. Right.
It was love at first sight, and in 1946, less than three months after being introduced by his sister, Elin and Kelvin Cox Vanderlip, second son of banker Frank A. Vanderlip, who once owned all of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, were wed. They set up housekeeping in a small house on the grounds of Villa Narcissa.
For a decade, the couple lived the good life.
Kelvin Vanderlip had studied architecture at Princeton and, says Elin, who is not one to mince words over the direction that development of the Palos Verdes Peninsula has taken, ?EUR??,,????'??had the vision and the courage and the taste. If he had lived, this peninsula would be totally different.?EUR??,,????'??
The young Vanderlips had been married only 10 years when Kelvin died of cancer at age 44. Elin, devastated and seeking a change of scene, took her four young children to Gstaad, Switzerland. ?EUR??,,????'??Her in-laws kept telling her what to do,?EUR??,,????'?? recalls daughter Narcissa Fuller, ?EUR??,,????'??something that never went over very well with Elin.?EUR??,,????'??
She met former United Artists Vice President Lee Katz, whose children went to school with hers. They kept in touch, and after he lost his wife in 1963, he says, ?EUR??,,????'??we just kind of gravitated toward one another.?EUR??,,????'?? Some of their friends refer to him affectionately as her ?EUR??,,????'??perpetual fiance,?EUR??,,????'?? her companion for more than 30 years. (Katz died at 89 in 2003.)
They spent a year in Rome while he worked on ?EUR??,,????'??Man of La Mancha.?EUR??,,????'?? Each year he helps her guide wealthy Francophiles on VIP tours to raise money for her organization, Friends of French Art. Among other projects, the Friends raised funds to preserve the mill at Pontoise, immortalized by Cezanne and Pissaro, but slated in 1978 to become a soccer field.
The home Vanderlip and Katz shared, Villa Narcissa, stands on land bought by Frank Vanderlip in 1912. She says, ?EUR??,,????'??He was to build a great Roman villa copied from the villa of Pope Julius II, but the 1929 crash came?EUR??,,????'?? and the plan was abandoned. Today’s magnificent home, once the guest house, has been expanded over the years.
Named for Vanderlip?EUR??,,????'???s mother-in-law, it was in the early ?EUR??,,????'??40s occupied by Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss; Myrna Loy and her husband, producer Arthur Hornblow Jr.; and honeymooners Burgess Meredith and Paulette Goddard.
The villa, ochre with mustard trim, is a Tuscan hideaway overlooking the Pacific. Peacocks prance along the garden walls. Vanderlip, who studied the great gardens of Italy, has created a visual feast with cypress, olive trees and agave, punctuated with hydrangea and bougainvillea.
?EUR??,,????'??+From Los Angeles Times, July 14, 1999
In those days, the freighters came up the channel for a couple weeks of unloading and loading (around 1948, before containers). San Pedro, Calif. was full of bars and whorehouses, and I recall many of our fine young men landing in jail. One day, Norwegian Consul General Kaare Ingstad asked if we could give some land so these young men could play soccer and get some land air. Kelvin Vanderlip knew the board would not give an outright gift of eight acres, so he decided to ask Norwegian Welfare for $4,330, the amount that the Palos Verdes Corporation had paid in taxes for the parcel since 1912 when Frank A. Vanderlip, Sr. had bought Rancho Palos Verdes. Deal done, and donors added buildings and created an excellent soccer surface. Some years ago ?EUR??,,????'??? as the advent of containers changed the nature of shipping ?EUR??,,????'??? the Royal Norwegian government decided to sell this land (even though Kelvin had given them a viewless vale) for about $3,000,000, and instituted a lawsuit to force the sale ?EUR??,,????'??? very costly to the Royal Norwegian Government and to the California non-profit board that governs the field, which still face $160,000 of the debt incurred in legal fees. A wonderful group are struggling to make Fritjof Nansen Field solvent and beautiful ?EUR??,,????'??? among them my daughter Narcissa. We have a vision of a small scale Maihaugen/Bygdo cultural center (two parks in Norway) featuring a simplified Stavkirke, a birch tree allee to a reception pavilion, sauna/dressing rooms on the south side of the field, pine tree shade on the north side, and a secluded memorial garden. The cooperation of the five Nordic countries and other donations could create this with classic Scandinavian architecture and landscaping. I have had one rendering painted, but will try to find an artist to interpret our dream. That Nansen Field becomes a self-supporting work of architectural and landscaping art for the community is my greatest dream. ?EUR??,,????'??+From Scandinavian Center at Nansen Field (SCAN) newsletter, Feb. 2002.
In those days, the freighters came up the channel for a couple weeks of unloading and loading (around 1948, before containers). San Pedro, Calif. was full of bars and whorehouses, and I recall many of our fine young men landing in jail.
One day, Norwegian Consul General Kaare Ingstad asked if we could give some land so these young men could play soccer and get some land air.
Kelvin Vanderlip knew the board would not give an outright gift of eight acres, so he decided to ask Norwegian Welfare for $4,330, the amount that the Palos Verdes Corporation had paid in taxes for the parcel since 1912 when Frank A. Vanderlip, Sr. had bought Rancho Palos Verdes. Deal done, and donors added buildings and created an excellent soccer surface.
Some years ago ?EUR??,,????'??? as the advent of containers changed the nature of shipping ?EUR??,,????'??? the Royal Norwegian government decided to sell this land (even though Kelvin had given them a viewless vale) for about $3,000,000, and instituted a lawsuit to force the sale ?EUR??,,????'??? very costly to the Royal Norwegian Government and to the California non-profit board that governs the field, which still face $160,000 of the debt incurred in legal fees.
A wonderful group are struggling to make Fritjof Nansen Field solvent and beautiful ?EUR??,,????'??? among them my daughter Narcissa. We have a vision of a small scale Maihaugen/Bygdo cultural center (two parks in Norway) featuring a simplified Stavkirke, a birch tree allee to a reception pavilion, sauna/dressing rooms on the south side of the field, pine tree shade on the north side, and a secluded memorial garden. The cooperation of the five Nordic countries and other donations could create this with classic Scandinavian architecture and landscaping.
I have had one rendering painted, but will try to find an artist to interpret our dream. That Nansen Field becomes a self-supporting work of architectural and landscaping art for the community is my greatest dream.
?EUR??,,????'??+From Scandinavian Center at Nansen Field (SCAN) newsletter, Feb. 2002.
Francisco Uviña, University of New Mexico
Hardscape Oasis in Litchfield Park
Ash Nochian, Ph.D. Landscape Architect
November 12th, 2025
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