Herbert Heron (writer)

Heron was born, as Herbert Heron Peet, on September 9, 1868, in Englewood, New Jersey. His parents were Gilead Smith Peet (1847-1885) and Jeannie Spring (1843-1921). He came from a background of writers and dramatists. On July 17, 1911, he changed his name to Herbert Heron in Superior Court because he wrote and was known under that name.[2]

Herbert Heron in Romeo and Juliet (1912)

Heron grew up in Los Angeles and attended Stanford University but left to go on the stage. He joined the Belasco Stock Company, the Crawley-Meatayer Company, and the Morosco Stock Company in southern California. This experience taught him how to be a Shakespearean actor. He performed in San Francisco and went to Frank Coppa's restaurant, known among Bohemians in San Francisco. At Coppa's, he met George Sterling, who invited him down to the art colony at Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, in 1908. There, he met James Franklin Devendorf, co-founder of the Carmel Development Company, who sold him a lot to build a house where he lived with his wife and daughter. His wife was Sara Opal Piontkowski Heron Search, the daughter of a Polish Count, whom he married in 1905.[3]

In 1910, Heron approached Devendorf again to purchase another lot. This time it was in an area surrounded by oaks and pines, for an outdoor (open air) theater. Heron wanted to stage plays starring Carmel residents. At that time there were only three hundred residents. By February 1910, construction began on what would be called the Forest Theater with a platform stage and wooded benches. Devendorf paid the expenses knowing it would be good for Carmel.[4] There was no electricity at the theater, so Heron used calcium floodlights that were brought by covered wagon from Monterey to light the stage.[5]

Herbert Heron in Hamlet (1926)

On July 9, 1910, Heron put on the first of the annual theatrical productions at the Forest Theater. It was David, a biblical drama by Constance Lindsay Skinner under the direction of Garnet Holme of UC Berkeley. Heron was in the title role as David and writer Alice MacGowan as Astar.[6][4][7] The play was reviewed in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, and was reported that over 1,000 theatergoers attended the production.[8] The second play was the Twelfth Night, on July 3 and 4, 1911. Heron played the character Feste. He was part of the cultural circle that included Jack London, George Sterling, James Hopper, and Mary Hunter Austin, Alice MacGowan, and Sinclair Lewis.[7]

The Carmel Bay Company (once the Seven Arts Building).

In 1918, Heron opened the first Seven Arts bookstore, selling books, art materials, poetry, and antiques near the Forest Theater. In 1923, Heron commissioned Michael J. Murphy to build the Seven Arts Shop for he and Helena Conger at a new located on Ocean Avenue and Monte Verde Street, next to Edward G. Kuster's Carmel Weavers Studio. In 1925, he hired architect Albert B. Coats and builder Percy Parkes to build the Tudor Revival style building called the Seven Arts Building, located on Ocean Avenue and Lincoln Street. The building is now the Carmel Bay Company.[9] The building accommodated several art organizations, including the Carmel Art Association, and the studio of photographer Edward Weston.[10][11]

We remember this poet against a background of books which reached to the ceiling of the great living room in his "Eighty Acre" home being gentle host to celebrities of pen and brush. His private library of beautiful and rare books formed the nucleus of his Seven Arts book shop. A writer and producer of plays! an authority on Shakespeare; an actor.

— Carmel Pine Cone[12]

In the late 1920s, Heron, concerned about Carmel being commercialized, he entered city politics. He was elected to city council and served twice as mayor of Carmel. He was on Carmel's first planning commission.[13] During the 1930s, a heated dispute arose over the choice of paving material, either asphalt or cement, for the colored pavement. Heron advocated for asphalt while City Councilman John P. Jordan championed cement. Despite the fervent debate, no definitive resolution was reached on the matter of colored pavement, leaving the issue unresolved.[14]

In 1960, Heron finished his 50th year with the Forest Theater with his play, Pharaoh. By 1963, the theater had shown over 140 plays.[13]

Other plays included:

Heron died on January 7, 1968, in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, at age 84. Funeral services were private and held in the Little Chapel By the Sea in Pacific Grove, California.[1]

• List of mayors of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Herbert Heron.

• Herbert Heron Interview by George Robinson
• Downtown Conservation District Historic Property Survey
• Herbert Heron's 1903 Diary