Christmas cheer, via vintage 1930s period decorations, illuminates the historic Malibu landmark for its 2011 Christmas Tours.
By Michael Aushenker / Special to The Malibu Times
Step into the Adamson House and you’ll walk into a winter wonderland, circa 1930.
In keeping with a tradition dating back more than 20 years, the Adamson House will be decorated and illuminated for the Yuletide in vintage turn-of-the-20th-century fashion. Starting next week, special holiday tours will be offered at the two-story, ten-room local landmark to usher in seasonal good cheer to the ‘Bu. It’s all part of the annual Adamson House 2011 Christmas Tours, which will be conducted on select evenings and afternoons through New Year’s Day.
“Every room is decorated with different lights and ornaments,” Shepard Vineburg, Adamson House volunteer docent and committee co-chair for 2011 Christmas Tours, said. “It’s all in its original condition [from the early 1930s], completely well preserved and utterly charming. We try to keep the Christmas ornaments from the time they lived there so it’s all very vintage.”
Built in 1930, the Adamson House remains an outstanding example of Mediterranean Rival-style architecture. Known as the “Taj Mahal of Tile” due to its extensive use of decorative ceramic plates from the now-defunct Malibu Potteries, the house was constructed within what is now Malibu Lagoon State Beach Park for Rhoda Rindge Adamson and Merritt Huntley (captain of the first USC football team to be officially named the Trojans). Rhoda Adamson was the daughter of Malibu founding father Frederick Hastings Rindge, who had purchased the original Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit land tract.
The Christmas tour will reflect the Adamson family’s aesthetic. Each room offers visitors a unique experience, explained Sandy Underwood, chairman of the Adamson House Christmas decoration committee.
“We have set the dining table as if we were welcoming guests for dinner with the family’s china and crystal,” Underwood said. “The sideboard in the dining room also has the family cranberry glass, that’s very special.”
Each room boasts its own Christmas tree, decorated in accordance to themes, such as music. The most striking decorations can be found in the big living room.
“The original family Christmas tree had icicles on it,” Underwood said. “We like to use the things we can that relates to the family. In homage to them, we put the icicles on.”
Another tree pays tribute to Sylvia, middle child of Rhoda and Merritt.
“Her favorite color was pink, so we have a pink Christmas tree in the bedroom,” Underwood said.
In an effort to avoid insolvency, Rhoda’s mother, May Knight Rindge, established Malibu Potteries in 1926. The facility grew into a major operation with more than 100 people employed and thousands of decorative pieces sold to public buildings throughout Los Angeles and private residences in Beverly Hills.
“That company was only in existence for six years, but they made a prolific amount of tile,” Vineburg said.
Today, surviving pieces of that original Malibu tile lend the Adamson House its identity. Malibu tile lines the house’s entryway and kitchen. The kitchen floor and walls are completely tiled over, while a ceramic vent can be found over the stove. Tile also flanks the exterior doors, walls, benches and the Star Fountain, an octogram-shaped pool that overlooks the Pacific Ocean.
But Underwood has no doubt about the centerpiece attraction of the landmark.
“The tile rug is the most famous feature,” Underwood said. “In the loggia [the downstairs hallway that leads from the entry of the house to the living room] is our famous Oriental carpet made of 674 tiles. It looks like a carpet, it even has fringes on the ends, but it’s all made of tile. It’s very beautiful.”
The rare Malibu tile helped land this 13-acre estate on the preservationist map. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Homes in 1977, and designated a California Historical Landmark eight years later.
Vineburg promised that visitors on this year’s holiday tours would not go home empty-handed, as “every guest will receive a special handcrafted gift.” (Hint, hint: Think May K. Rindge’s signature business.)
The expected steady stream of visitors will discover that going into the Adamson House this time of year is like entering a time machine.
“It’s really stepping back in time to when life was simpler and very cozy,” Vineburg said.
The Adamson House Christmas Tours 2011 will take place at 23200 Pacific Coast Highway on Sundays, Nov. 27, Dec. 4, Dec. 18, 2-5 p.m., Fridays, Dec. 2, 9, 16, and 23 from 7:00-8:30, Christmas Day from 3-5 p.m. and New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, 2012, from 3-5 p.m. Admission: $15. By RSVP only. For more information, and to RSVP, call 310.456.8432.