Added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 5, 2001

The Samuel Merrill House is a low-key craftsman bungalow by Greene & Greene on the northern edge of Pasadena. It was completed it in 1910, three years after they finished the Blacker House (Etan Does LA visit #44) and one year after the famous Gamble House and Thorsen House. And while the Merrill House is small enough to fit comfortably in the front yard of the Gamble or Blacker, it’s a wooden jewel of a home, proof that Greene & Greene were pretty much incapable of designing a ho-hum building even when they were working with modest budgets and smaller lots.

The House

The facade of the Samuel Merrill House possesses so many of those visual cues that scream “Aah, this is the work of my brothers, THE brothers, Charles & Henry Greene.” Those projecting rafters that support the wide eaves? Signature G&G move. Same with the short retaining wall of river rock and clinker brick you can find bordering the terrace. A lot of their houses have those casement windows with lintels stretching left and right beyond the vertical parts of the frame.

There are some unique traits about the Merrill, like the entrance that faces away from the street, to the uncovered terrace in front (G&G usually did covered porches), to the clapboard siding (they typically preferred shingles) and horizontal gable ventings just under the roofline. Also how many other houses do you know of where the front door leads directly to a library?

The house’s interior exhibits a lot of the built-ins and high-quality wood (and woodworking) you’d expect from a great craftsman house, though there’s not as much custom work in the light fixtures, door hardware, etc. as on their bigger houses. I guess that’s the compromise you make when your client isn’t a millionaire.

When the Merrills bought this property, a covered porch on the south side of the house looked out on a thicket of orchards. The porch is still there, but the orchards were removed when the Merrills subdivided that part of the property and sold it to another homeowner in 1923. You can still see a vestige of the original borders of the Merrills’ property in the original cobblestone and clinker brick wall that runs down Summit Ave. in front of the two lots. 

The Greenes in Transition

The Merrill House was built during a time of transition for the Greene & Greene firm. In the period following their successful string of “ultimate bungalows,” the Greenes found themselves without any major new commissions, perhaps due to their growing reputation for costly, slow-moving projects. They bided their time on alterations to existing homes and smaller-scale commissions, like the Merrill. 

At the same time, Charles Greene was in England for much of 1910, and becoming increasingly dissatisfied by designing small residences. According to the NRHP nomination form, the Merrill children could only ever remember Henry being on site. While the design is credited to both Greenes, it’s quite possible that Henry took the lead on this one. He would continue to focus on smaller single-family homes for the rest of his career (including the Walter D. Valentine Cottages in Altadena, Etan Does LA visit #24), while Charles would move up to Carmel in 1916 and strike out on his own. 

The Client

This Sam Merrill fellow was a fascinating figure with a hell of a story to tell. He was born in Indiana, the grandson of the founder of the book publishing house Bobbs-Merrill Publishing Co. In the late 1860s, around the time that Sam Merrill was born, his family became dear friends with the famous environmentalist John Muir through a bizarre set of circumstances. Muir was working in an Indianapolis wagon factory to try to bankroll his botanical excursions while studying at the University of Wisconsin, at Madison. One day a sharp tool slipped out of Muir’s hand and stabbed him in the eye, causing him to go blind temporarily. He stayed with the Merrill family while he convalesced, and left notes from his earliest botanical studies at their house for decades. This was just a couple years before Muir moved to California to explore Yosemite. 

Merrill himself moved to California in 1884, and at Muir’s urging, became part of the first class to graduate Stanford University. After spending three years in India as the US vice-consul in Calcutta, Merrill moved down to La Crescenta, married his wife Emilie, and set himself up as a citrus rancher. The Merrills moved to Pasadena in 1908, purchased two lots, and lived in a small 566-square-foot structure on the southwest corner of their property while they were waiting for their new house to be finished. 

Starting in the mid 1910s, Merrill worked as a clerk to the Superior Court of LA County. When he wasn’t working Sam could be found hiking and donating his time to conservationist causes, especially the Sierra Club, founded by his old friend John Muir. Merrill was treasurer of the Angeles chapter from 1926-33, served as its Chairman of the Board from 1934-35 and on its national Board in 1936-37. Up until the very end, Merrill tended to the Echo Mountain, Castle Canyon and Sunset trails in the mountains above Altadena as unofficial “keeper of the trails,” a role he held for 13 years. Just a few days before he died in 1948, Merrill had helped to put out a fire on one of the trails he managed. 

Sam Merill passed away in his sleep in his beloved Greene & Greene Home on Summit Ave. The Sierra Club renamed the trail up to Echo Mountain “Sam Merrill’s Trail” in his honor. It still bears his name today. 

Post-Merrill

It’s tough to imagine a Greene & Greene abandoned and neglected, but that’s what happened with the Merrill House in the 1990s after its second long-term owners left. Washington Mutual Bank foreclosed on the property in 1998, and there was some talk of demolishing it. Thankfully Pasadena Heritage & Heritage Homeownership Partners (now Heritage Housing Partners) were able to convince Washington Mutual to sell it at a steep discount of $40,000 according to its Zillow listing. After a round of fundraising, restoration proceeded in late 2000. Workers reversed the few alterations that had been made over the years – for instance the non-original sliding glass doors leading to the living room were changed back to a window, replicating the original design. In 2002 the home sold to a new buyer. 

It ain’t easy being a Greene & Greene, but it’s worth it. 

Sources & Recommended Reading

+ “About: Chronologies” (Sierra Club Angeles Chapter)

+ Gregory, Tim: Samuel Merrill House’s NRHP nomination form

+ “John Muir And The Los Angeles Chapter” (Sierra Club Angeles Chapter)

+ “Samuel Merrill, Jr. House” (GambleHouse.org)

+ “Memorial Plaque Placed on ‘Sam Merrill’s Trail’” (Los Angeles Times, May 22, 1949 – via ProQuest)

+ Merrill, Samuel: “Personal Recollections of John Muir: A Camp-Fire Talk at Moraine Lake, July 17 1927” (Sierra Club)

+ “Preservation Groups, Bank Work to Save a Gem From Pasadena’s Past” (Los Angeles Times, February 13, 2000)

+ Samuel Merrill House Series II: Project Drawings (Greene & Greene Architectural Records & Paper Collections / Columbia University Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library)