Carmel Valley Manor: A Landscape & Garden History
Today it’s an arboretum for horticultural species from across the globe
“I pursued my way, soon crossing a bridge over a wide, shallow stream called the Carmel. A beautiful valley opens here inland. I had long wished to explore it, as well as to try my flies on the river.”
— J. Smeaton Chase, California Coast Trails
Story by David Laws
If Mr. Chase had detoured into this “beautiful valley” on his horseback adventure from Mexico to Oregon in 1911, he would have traversed a pastoral landscape coveted for thousands of years by the Rumsen Ohlone people for its bountiful acorns, berries, grasses, fish and game. By his time, the rich riparian lands lining the Carmel River had already passed through generations of owners from successive invasions by Spanish, Mexican, and American colonists. Vast Mexican land grants made in the mid-1800s had been subdivided into smaller, family-owned lots, transitioning from cattle and dairy ranching into pear orchards and produce to serve the growing population and visitors to the Monterey Peninsula.
John Steinbeck observed in Travels with Charley that by the 1950s, the valley was filling up with newcomers, so “where once we could shoot a thirty-thirty in any direction. Now, you couldn’t shoot a marble knuckles down without hitting a foreigner.” Today, a few plots remain in organic farming, but the orchards and dairies are gone, replaced by residential estates, retirement homes, wineries, and upscale resorts. And the diversion of river water to serve these communities has decimated the fishing.
But for those lucky enough to live at Carmel Valley Manor, the setting, nestled between the rugged arms of the Santa Lucia Mountains and the Ventana Wilderness, is still extraordinarily beautiful. The “Manor” is a senior residential community located on 28 acres of chaparral and oak savanna on a south-facing terrace overlooking the flood plain of the Carmel River. Situated five miles inland, in the sweet spot between the cool summer coastal fog belt and the temperature extremes of inland, the site enjoys a temperate Mediterranean climate with an average annual rainfall of 20 inches.
The landscape and gardens have evolved over the centuries from a hunting ground for indigenous people through service as a working ranch and a privileged playground for the wealthy to an arboretum for horticultural species from across the globe.
Pre-European history of Carmel Valley
The Monterey Peninsula lies on the granitic Salinian Block, a portion of the California Coast Range sliced from the southern Sierra Nevada range and thrust north by the tectonic forces of the San Andreas Fault. Over millennia, uplift followed by subsidence under the ocean has yielded a complex geology and terrain. The present Carmel Valley is said to have been carved by a great river that later rerouted to empty into Monterey Bay.
Indigenous people have lived in the area for more than 10,000 years. Archeological findings indicate that permanent human settlements existed in Carmel Valley 2,000 years ago. When Spanish mariner Sebastian Vizcano visited Monterey Bay in 1602, 100 to 150 Rumsen-speaking people occupied the valley. Their village of Tucutnut stood on the present-day Quail Golf Course near the confluence of Potrero Creek with the Carmel River. They lived by fishing, hunting, and harvesting acorns, berries, bulbs, and nuts and used fire to enhance the yield of nutritious seeds from grasses. Nearby Garland Ranch Park contains bedrock mortars created by centuries of grinding acorns for bread.
The Rumsen used many plant species that grow on the Manor’s terraced slopes for food, medicine, and tools. Typical examples include the flowers and leaves of the California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) that were eaten and their mashed stems and roots used for medicine, especially toothache. Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia) acorns were leached and ground for soup and bread, and the bark for medicine. Coyote Brush (Baccharis pilularis ssp. Consanguinea) crushed leaves made tea for a general remedy, and the twigs used for fire drills. Poison oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) leaves protected food baking in earthenware ovens, and the stems were prized for basketry warp.
The Rumsen way of life ended, and the church seized their lands following the establishment of Mission Carmel in 1771.
The Early American Era
After the Mexican government dissolved the mission system in 1833, the former Carmel Mission lands in the valley were sold or given as grants called ranchos. Rancho Palo Escrito in mid-valley passed through several hands before being purchased in 1848 by James Meadows (1817–1902), an English sailor who jumped ship in Monterey and found work as a vaquero on Rancho El Sur. Meadows owned 4,592 acres stretching from the ridge line down to the Carmel River, known as the James Meadows Tract.
James married Loretta Onesimo de Peralta, a widow of Rumsen lineage, and built an adobe home on the property. He operated a dairy and cattle ranch and a flour grist mill powered by mules. In 1859, he donated land for Carmelo School, the valley’s first. That building was replaced in 1916 by a larger structure that still stands beside the modern fire station.
Loretta and James raised four sons and a daughter, Isabel (also known as Ysabel and Isabelle). Isabel was born in Carmel Valley on July 7, 1846, the same day the American flag was raised over Monterey’s Custom House. She learned Rumsen from her mother, and as one of the last speakers of the language, she worked with ethnologist J. P. Harrington at the Smithsonian Institute in the 1930s to document her tribe’s history: a record that has proven invaluable in the preservation and revitalization of the Rumsen Ohlone tribal community culture. She sent home most of her pay to help raise nieces and nephews and care for her brother Thomas Meadows.
After James’s death, the ranch was partitioned into multiple lots, which were divided between his surviving children in 1905. Each child also received a parcel on the upper slopes designated “Mountainous Grazing Land.” The Manor is located on Lots 13A and B of the partition, which was deeded to Thomas Meadows. Their grazing lands form the steep, chaparral-covered backdrop.
The Johnson and Sullivan Years (1920s — 1960)
Architect Reginald D. Johnson FAIA (1882–1952) was an early designer of Mediterranean-style houses for wealthy clients and public buildings in Southern California, including the Biltmore Hotel and the Post Office in Santa Barbara. He has been described as one of “the great master architects of the early 20th Century whose practice focused on grand estates of the Golden Age.” His office applied for over 100 building permits in Pasadena alone between 1912 and 1921. Many of his large houses still stand in the Hope Ranch, Montecito, and Pasadena areas.
As a social activist and public housing expert during the Depression, after 1935, he turned his attention to projects for people of more modest means. Now a National Historic Landmark, his Baldwin Hills Village (today called The Village Green) is one of the nation's oldest planned communities and was named by the American Institute of Architects as one of the 100 most significant architectural achievements in U.S. history.
Architect and historian Robert Ooley described him as “an adoring husband and gracious father. He relished spending time with his family. Johnson’s passion for horses began as a child and remained with him through his adult years.” He indulged this interest by purchasing the current Manor site on Carmel Valley Road in the early 1920s as a personal equestrian center. James Meadows’s grandson Roy continued owning and farming thriving pear orchards on the ranch land astride Schulte Road.
Johnson designed and built a residence in the two-story, upstairs veranda Monterey-Colonial style, derived from the Larkin House in Monterey, which he described as the perfect combination of atmosphere and charm for California’s climate and landscape, together with a barn, tack house, and horse facilities. He often retreated to this home “for relaxation from his pressing professional life.” William W. Wurster, the founding dean of U. C. Berkeley’s School of Architecture, was a frequent visitor, probably based on a common interest in designing public housing. Although Johnson worked with notable landscape architects in the south, including Katherine Bashford, there is no evidence that he developed his ranch as more than an equestrian retreat.
Philanthropist Noël Sullivan (1890–1956) purchased the Johnson property and house in the mid-1930s. Scion of a wealthy and distinguished family, his uncle was U.S. Senator and Mayor James Phelan of San Francisco; he attended Jesuit colleges, where he developed an interest in music. In the early 1930s, he rented a cottage near the ocean in Carmel-by-the-Sea, where he met notables from the artistic world. He took an active part in the Carmel Bach festivals, served as organist and soloist at the Carmel Mission, and was the director of the board of the Carmel Music Society.
A contributor to humanist causes, Sullivan befriended African-American artists, including author, poet, and social activist Langston Hughes and famed tenor Roland Hayes. After threats of racist violence aimed at Hughes, Sullivan invited him to his Carmel Valley estate in 1939, “where his guests of all political persuasions could visit unmolested.” Here, Hughes completed writing his autobiography The Big Sea (1940), free from stress and strain among the “fragrant flowers and shrubs and green grass.” While he enjoyed the refuge as “a little Heaven,” he was not so thrilled at having to dress for dinner every evening.
Sullivan named the property “Hollow Hills Farm” after a verse sung by an immortal fairy maiden, Etain, in the opera The Immortal Hour. Written by Scottish poet William Sharp under the pseudonym Fiona McCleod. (Hollow hills are the habitations of fairies and other “little people.”)
How beautiful they are,
The lordly ones
Who dwell in the hills.
In the hollow hills.
They have faces like flowers
And their breath is wind
That blows over grass
Filled with dewy clover.
The house had a dozen main rooms, including six bedrooms and five bathrooms. Downstairs, there was a parlor, two dining rooms, and a servant’s wing. A swimming pool and gardens with “clear air and fragrance of flowers and trees” encouraged relaxation. In 1946, Sullivan added a two-story music room with an acoustically designed pitched wooden roof by noted local architect Jon Konigshofer.
Sullivan’s sexual orientation, an unspoken but widely known secret of that era, was evident in his relationship with Canadian author Leander (Lee) Crowe, who lived on the property and with whom he openly entertained visitors from the music and movie worlds at Hollow Hills. Their guests included Marion Anderson, Pablo Casals, Charlie Chaplin, Duke Ellington, Douglas Fairbanks, Joan Fontaine, Greer Garson, Roland Hayes, Cole Porter, Paul Robeson, Arthur Rubenstein, Isaac Stern, and Yehudi Menuhin. Author Arthur Miller and Una and poet Robinson Jeffers were among frequent guests from the local community. A portrait of Sullivan hangs in Tor House today.
Other hints at the farm’s landscaping include gossip column references to buffet lunches on “wide lawns” for Bach Festival participants. One guest commented on the forest of trees: “Poor dear Noël, he plants a tree but never thinks it will grow. When it does, he cannot bear to cut it down.” The driveway entrance featured gates and fencing built with bronze-plated cast-iron elevator grills from his uncle’s Phelan Building on Market Street, San Francisco. The grills remain in place today.
Hollow Hills allowed Sullivan to indulge his love of animals. A guest dubbed his menagerie of cats, dogs, rare birds, and exotic deer “Noël’s Ark.” Images of farm livestock by Carmel Valley artist and photographer George Seideneck taken circa 1948 include cows, goats, and sheep.
Despite his sexual preference, Sullivan and his family were devoted Roman Catholics. With stones from the Carmel River bed, estate manager Bill Scott built a stone chapel on the east perimeter road dedicated by Noël to “Our Lady of Carmel Valley” in 1946. Tiles on each side of the entry are inscribed with verses from “The Canticle of the Sun,” a poem by St. Francis of Assisi. Today, Hollow Hills Chapel serves Manor residents of all faiths. His sister, Mother Ada (Sullivan), a member of the Santa Clara community, gave her inheritance to build the Carmelite monastery on Highway One south of Carmel in 1931.
Noël Sullivan died of a heart attack on September 15, 1956. He left Hollow Hills to his nieces and a nephew, who used the farm as a holiday home. In 1960, they sold the land to the Northern California Congregational Retirement Homes, Inc., aka Carmel Valley Manor. The purchase of an additional nearly 5 acres bequeathed to Leander Crowe raised the original site of the Manor to almost 23 acres.
The Early Carmel Valley Manor Era (1961–2001)
Seeking a site to build a retirement home for seniors, Dr. William Pratt, Superintendent of the Northern California Conference of Congregational churches, visited Hollow Hills Farm in 1960. He was captivated by “the spell of the trees, the lift of the land, and the mood of serenity, which wrapped buildings, barns, livestock, and gardens.” In 1961, with Dr. Pratt as Administrative Director, a nonprofit corporation, d.b.a. Carmel Valley Manor, purchased the site for $125,000.
The San Francisco architectural firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill designed a campus that took advantage of the site’s topography and views. Plans to retain the Johnson House as a library, craft room, and guest facility were dashed when the building burned in January 1962.
According to the article “Environment for the Elderly: Retirement Village,” published in Progressive Architecture magazine in April 1964, the Monterey Colonial adobe style of the Johnson House influenced SOM’s architectural approach to the project. Project designer John Woolbridge, who later led the redevelopment of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., noted that “The design was influenced by the historic architecture of the Monterey area and its sources in the Mediterranean countries of Europe.”
Nathaniel A. Owings described the bold, white, geometric structures as “reminiscent of the cool, clear shapes of a Mediterranean village … combined with a crisp feeling of something very modern. Forms are mostly felt through the shadows they cast, and the almost stark, almost sheer lines of the galleries and roofs send strong shadows to the ground. … We hoped that there would be nothing faddish or dated about the place.”
The contractor, Williams and Burrows, broke ground in April 1962. Dr. and Mrs. Pratt moved into a cottage on the property known as the “Adobe” and lived there while construction proceeded.
In October 1963, the first residents moved into a campus of 170 residential units in 20 apartment-style buildings and 10 standalone cottages, a dining hall and lounge, a health center, and an auditorium meeting house.
John Woodbridge said, “The beauty of the site and density of building on it, as well as the program, called for a quiet architecture of simple forms in which individual buildings would appear as parts of the group, and the group would be constantly opening to views of the surrounding valley and hills.”
“The roof forms of the Manor are typically gables with their non-essential parts cut away to admit daylight to the entry courts. … The simple pyramidal roof of the Meeting House is intended as the fulfillment of all the other ‘incomplete’ roofs. … it is a symbol of the oneness of the community, expressed in one of the simplest of all geometric forms.”
The American Institute of Architects honored the design with an Award of Merit in 1964. The commendation described the development as “A refreshing accomplishment, as beautiful and human in scale as a medieval village. The buildings, displaying perfect harmony with the beautiful setting, provide a relaxing and intriguing atmosphere for retirement.”
Retired architect Russell Haisley, who has lived at the Manor for nearly twenty years, feels that “It has worn well. It’s timeless.”
The Manor Gardens: The First 40 Years
Founded in Watertown, Massachusetts, Sasaki, Walker, and Associates opened a regional office in San Francisco in 1959 and were engaged as landscape consultants shortly after completing the Foothill College campus in Los Altos Hills.
Dr Pratt reported, "The old Sullivan estate possesses hundreds of trees, many of them splendid specimens that will be the basis for further landscaping. Some trees are past their prime or are not suitable. Our landscape architects have selected the most aesthetic and useful trees. These have been flagged so that the grading contractor will guard them against damage. Of interest in this regard is the landscape plan, which calls for the planting of 584 new trees.”
Peter Walker designed the landscaping on most of the site as limited to existing or native trees and grasses. Nearly four acres of irrigated lawn flowed around and between the building clusters. Bulkheads and stepped planting beds articulated changes in ground level, but there were no steps in the walks or other paved areas.
Sixteen of the residential buildings are centered in groups of four around courtyards designed as community meeting spaces. The sheltered courtyards protected annual and delicate plantings. Colorful bedding flowers most frequently noted in contemporary newsletters and photographs include gazanias, marigolds, petunias, and viola hybrid pansies. More than a dozen camellia and rhododendron shrub varietals were selected for foundation plantings.
Early in the gardens’ development, fragrant wisteria vines, including American (W. frutescent), Chinese (W. sinensis), and Japanese (W. floribunda) species, were trained along the sides of the covered walkways. Sixty years later, their now woody twining trunks continue as one of the garden’s most distinctive and beloved springtime features.
Beyond the professionally landscaped common areas, each of the ground-level units included an individual patio, planting beds, and screening maintained by the residents. Head gardener Ted Gilles brought forty examples from local nurseries to demonstrate plants recommended for the area. Most residents set about beautifying their new gardens. One of the more memorable horticultural anecdotes involves the removal of a stand of opium poppies near the chapel after a visit from a federal narcotics agent.
A resident’s cutting garden on the perimeter road supplied flowers for the chapel and dining room. Ted Gilles also arranged for a neighboring field to be prepared for amateur gardeners to cultivate corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, and flowers.
Native evergreen Coast live oak and Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) screened the site from Carmel Valley Road. Lombardy poplars (Populus nigra ‘Italica’) lined the east perimeter road but were removed and replaced in 1972 by American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) after their roots undermined the road. While somewhat less aggressive, this species has also proved to lift sidewalks and curbs.
Other notable ornamental trees are Evergreen pears (Pyrus kawakami), native to China, which are pollarded in the fall to encourage a dense canopy and eliminate leaf fungus. Mayten trees (Mayten boria), from South America, offer yellow-green blooms in spring and weeping pendulous evergreen foliage year-round.
The Gordon Dill Era (2001–2024)
Gordon Dill was born in King City, California, and spent his early years in Salinas. After graduating from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, with a degree in landscape architecture, he worked on projects in Beverly Hills and Hollywood for Charles Hoffman. On returning to Monterey County, he collaborated with a partner on numerous landscaping projects in the area for over 15 years. In 1998, the Carmel Plaza shopping center owner hired Gordon to create and maintain a year-round showplace garden, for which he received an award from the Garden Club of America.
In 2001, Manor CEO Jim Valentine hired Gordon as Grounds Supervisor. On arrival, his initial task was to build the morale of a crew of five gardeners who remained after six of their peers were fired. He gained their trust by helping them learn English, assisting with family and documentation issues, and teaching skills besides just cutting hedges and lawns, such as irrigation installation. They responded with an extraordinary dedication to detail and personal responsibility for their assigned areas that continue today.
With water bills exceeding $60,000 per year in the early 2000s, reducing consumption became a priority. In 2004, Gordon developed a plan to replace the 3.56 acres of irrigated turf with an eclectic mix of low-water-consuming natives and species from other Mediterranean climate zones. Rotor and spray head sprinklers were exchanged for drip and microspray irrigation as required to establish the new plantings. The putting green and croquet court were resurfaced with artificial turf. No areas of lawn remained.
The initial reaction to these changes was largely negative. Several residents were verbally abusive and, in some cases, threatening. However, the plan was implemented over several years with strong support from the CEO. Today, about 150 varieties of trees and 300 varieties of woody shrubs thrive in an arboretum-style landscape with dry stone creek beds and 75 varieties of ground cover.
Gordon created unique designs matching the location, soil, and exposure for each garden in all five major zones of the campus. The fact that residents living around all four sides of some of the gardens expected an equally attractive view presented some difficult design challenges.
An example of his notes for a bed around a residence overlooking the entrance driveway follows. The plant list for this area comprised 23 species; 25 percent of them are native Californians, including Arctostaphylos, Ceanothus, and Ribes varietals.
“Prior to the renovation, this area was lawn with some hedges around the building. This landscape needed to provide some screening from the road, a sound barrier, and visual interest since guests would see this area when they come up the road. Low water, less maintenance, and gopher and rabbit control were the top issues in this area. So, in planting, I placed the trees and large shrubs first to provide sound barriers and screening, and then I needed color with the lavatera and ceanothus. The area to the right of the driveway has a hardpan so when it rains, the water flows twelve inches under the surface and builds up at the driveway. So, in wet winters, the native plants would die, so I replanted with Verbena homestead purple, which seems to like the wet-to-dry conditions and tolerates the minimal drainage. I added Euonymus chollipo, which has yellow foliage for visual interest, so there is a nice color combination when the ceanothus is in bloom. I kept the planting along the road lower for better visibility for the drivers.” [28]
As the plantings took hold and their shapes, colors, and textures emerged, resistance to the changes mellowed, and most residents began to appreciate the new look. They especially enjoyed the accompanying wildlife, as bees, birds, and butterflies returned to their former haunts. However, an influx of deer and rabbits decimated many of the patio gardens, requiring adaptation to more resistant species.
A group of residents formed the Garden Appreciation Project to post identification labels in the garden and publish guides with the characteristics and maps of locations of the most visible specimens. Species described to date include Acacia (4 varieties), Camellia (21), Cypress (8), Leucadendron (9), Magnolia (10), and Wisteria (6).
Today, Gordon’s vision is enthusiastically supported by the residents and enjoyed as a vital asset to the community. Many manor newcomers say that the gardens were important in their decision to move to the facility.
The Future
Gordon Dill retired as grounds supervisor in July 2024. Long-time manor employee Rigoberto Rivera replaced him. BFS Landscape Architects' Monterey office was hired to develop a master plan for the future management of the garden, with a focus on creating a fire-safe campus. The plan includes goals for drought tolerance, reduced water usage, and compliance with state and local fire resistance mandates.
Work on upgrading the irrigation system, removing trees and vegetation containing combustible oils, and trimming shrubbery near buildings began in early 2025. These essential modifications will inevitably result in changes to the current view of the gardens, but with a diversity of plantings, including native and unusual specimens, the manor garden will continue to maintain its unique identity and the residents’ expectations for beauty and color throughout the year
“Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new.”
— From Lycidas by John Milton (1637)
End notes and Sources
This article was initially published as “Carmel Valley Manor: A Landscape & Garden History” in Eden, The Journal of the California Garden & Landscape History Society, Spring/Summer 2024, pages 36 to 58.
Sources of all quotations in this article are included in the original printed text that can be downloaded from the CG&LHS archives at: https://cglhs.org/page-18160.
Rev: 4.12.25
