Mrs. Clinton Walker House

In 1918, Willis J. Walker and his wife purchased 216 acres (87 ha) of land in Carmel, which included this lot on the ocean. In the 1940s it was deeded to Mrs. Walker's sister, Della Walker. It was given to her under the condition that she find a noted architect to design the house. Della reached out to Frank Lloyd Wright and told him she wanted a house “as durable as the rocks and as transparent as the waves."

Miles Bain and Mark Mills were hired by Wright to carry out the construction of the house.[1][3][4]

The house, an example of Wright's organic architecture, is built on a mass of granite boulders, uses the local Carmel-stone, and has a roof the color of the sea that is shaped to resemble the bow of a ship. It is the only Frank Lloyd Wright house that overlooks the ocean. The house has a view of the Carmel Bay and Pebble Beach.[5][6][7]

It has a Usonian design; it is a small (originally only 1,200 square feet), single-story house that incorporates a hexagon concrete floor with 120-degree angles, with three rooms completely open with views of the ocean. The low roof was onced covered with triangular porcelain panels because of the copper restrictions during the Korean War in the 1950s. Della later replaced it with copper shingles, which lasted forty-five years before being replaced with standing-seam copper sheets.[3] The living-dining room is centered around a floor-to-ceiling fireplace with built-in furniture. The hexagonal modules of the floor plan gave the appearance of a honeycomb. The window frames are painted in Wright's signature "Cherokee Red" color with reverse-stepped glass windows. A master bedroom was added in 1956. The house is similar to the Hanna House in Palo Alto.[5][6]

In 1954, Wright said, "The over-all-effect is quiet, and the long white surf lines of the sea seem to join the lines of the house to make a natural melody." The California Style landscape design was achieved by Thomas Church, who is one of the pioneer landscape designers of the 20th-century.[2][8]

In the 1959 movie A Summer Place, the characters Ken Jorgenson (Richard Egan) and Sylvia (Dorothy McGuire) have a beach house, which was filmed at the Clinton Walker House. In the film, Sylvia tells Molly (Sandra Dee) that Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house, seemingly located on the East Coast near the movie's "Pine Island" location. The film shows views of the Walker house's interior, exterior and patio. Additional scenes were filmed at a cottage located at Mission Ranch Hotel and Restaurant in Carmel.[9]

Della added an addition, in 1960, to the master bedroom based on a 1956 studio addition that was designed by Wright. It was completed by some of the original carpenters that had built the house.[10]

In 1964, San Francisco sculptor Robert Howard installed a crushed stone and copper ore mermaid sculpture on the deck, called Undine. The 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m) two-ton sculpture sits on a base that can be rotated for viewing.[11]

In 2010, the front living room window mullions were replaced, the front gate repaired, and the National Historic Register Plaque was installed at the front door. Other projects included replacing the rear yard windscreen, updating the garden, and repairing the radiant floor.[12]

In 2018, the wall or ship's prow of the building facing the water was replaced because the Carmel stone had worn away and water had gotten inside the concrete.[10][12]

The house sold off-market in February 2023 for $22 million.[13]

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  Ocean view of Mrs. Clinton Walker House
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  Street view of Mrs. Clinton Walker House
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  Side view of Mrs. Clinton Walker House
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  Ocean view of Mrs. Clinton Walker House
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  Prow view of Clinton Walker House
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  Carmel has its own mermaid Undine

• List of Frank Lloyd Wright works
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Monterey County, California

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mrs. Clinton Walker House.

• A Curated Tour of the Mrs. Clinton Walker House
• Frank Lloyd Wright Sites
• Frank Lloyd Wright: American architect for the twentieth century
• The life & works of Frank Lloyd Wright
• Home of the Week Overlooking Carmel Bay
• Mrs. Clinton Walker house (Carmel, California). Cabin on the Rocks