Butterfly House (Carmel-by-the-Sea, California)

The Butterfly House was designed and built by architect Francis W. Wynkoop (1902-1978). The site borders two lots at 26320 Scenic Road. Construction began in 1951[1] and was completed in 1952.[2] The home has been featured numerous newspapers and magazines through the decades, such as The Californian on June 28, 1952,[3] the National Geographic in 1954[4] and Trendsideas on November 7, 2011.[5]

The Butterfly House was built for $135,000 (equivalent to $1,642,033 in 2022). Wynkoop lived in the house with his wife and children until the death of his wife in 1953 and his father in 1954 caused him to sell the house in 1955.[6] Wynkoop sold it to lawyer and Acting Chief of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) Steve B. Kahn, his wife Ruth and three children, who lived in the home for fifty years.[7] It is one of five houses on the ocean front at Carmel Point.[8] Among them is the Mrs. Clinton Walker House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1948 and completed in 1951 for Mrs. Clinton Della Walker of Pebble Beach.[9]

The Butterfly House is a one and a half story, Mid-century modern-style building. It has a wing-shaped hipped roof, lifted to take advantage of the view. The house was built with a deck cantilevered out over solid granite rocks, at the edge of the breakers, with views of Point Lobos and Carmel Bay. Inside the 3,700 square feet (340 m²) house are three bedrooms and four-and-a-half baths, an office, media room, and a circular fireplace in the center of a 48 ft (15 m) by 27 ft (8.2 m) sunken five-sided, glass-walled living room. The house had an U-shaped interior open courtyard and a kidney-shaped pool and hot tub.[6][2]

My father wanted to open the front area to appreciate the view, and he angled the windows and the roof so the wind and the surf would shed off to the sides.

— Thor Wynkoop[10]

Wynkoop had to drill into the granite rock to sink caissons 5 ft (1.5 m) below the ground-level and covered them with reinforced concrete. He used steel beams to support the roof that was lifted outward to give a sweeping view of the ocean. 18,000 pounds of steel are inside the home. The house is built of pumice block to blend into its surroundings.[2]

Recently the Butterfly House has been featured in several issues of the Architectural Digest magazines. The third owner, Joe Walter, purchased the property in 2008 and Wynkoop's sons, Thor and Jay Wynkoop, did the restoration of the home in 2010. They restored the home to many of its original features.[11][12]

The current owners purchased the Butterfly House in 2014 and renovated it.[6]

Francis W. Wynkoop (1902–1978), also known as Frank Wynkoop, was an American architect, known for building oceanfront homes and as architect for the Pacific Grove and the San Carlos high school buildings.

Wynkoop was born on January 24, 1902, in Denver, Colorado. His father was Frances Murray Wynkoop (1869-1954) and mother was Leona Mehan (1880-1951). When he was eight years old, he lived with his parents in Vallejo, California. He had one son, Thor and one daughter with Adabelle May Roberts (1899-1953). He moved to Long Beach, California in 1924, where he and his family lived. In 1931, during the Great Depression in the United States, Wynkoop moved with his family to Seattle, Washington where he was a draftsman at the Metropolitan Building Company. In 1935, he moved to Fresno, California. By 1938, he had relocated with his family to Bakersfield, California where he a partner with Adams and Wynkoop, Architects. The firm designed several school buildings in southern California and war housing in Deride, California. In 1945, he was principal for the Frank Wynkoop and Associates, Architects in San Francisco.[13]

Wynkoop and his family moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California in the early 1950s. He designed two houses on the Carmel Point coastline. The Butterfly House was the first one, which was his own residence for several years. The second one is a mid-century modern Expressionist-style house that was built in 1953 at 26200 Scenic Road, which was influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright's organic architecture style.[14] Wynkoop died on September 2, 1978, in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the age of 76.[15]

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  Butterfly House with flagstone patio
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  Butterfly House portrait view
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  Butterfly House landscape view
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  Butterfly House and beach
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  Butterfly House, Scenic Drive view
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  Butterfly House and rocks

• Timeline of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
• List of Historic Buildings in Carmel-by-the-Sea

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Butterfly House (Carmel-by-the-Sea, California).

• Frank Wynkoop (Architectural Designer)