The Gamble House — Attraction in Pasadena

The Gamble House, also known as the David B. Gamble House, is an iconic American Craftsman home in Pasadena, California, designed by the architectural firm Greene and Greene. Constructed in 1908–09 as a home for David B. Gamble of the Procter & Gamble company, it is today a National Historic Landmark, a California Historical Landmark, and open to the public for tours and events.

Originally built as a winter residence for David and Mary Gamble, the three-story Gamble House is commonly described as America's Arts and Crafts masterpiece. Its style shows influence from traditional Japanese aesthetics and a certain California spaciousness born of available land and a permissive climate. The Arts and Crafts Movement in American Craftsman style architecture was focused on the use of natural materials, attention to detail, aesthetics, and craftsmanship.

The house is located on a grassy knoll overlooking Pasadena's Arroyo Seco, a broad, seasonally dry river bed. Because of the Gambles’ attraction to the environment, the Greenes designed the house to complement the rustic setting. The house's design reflected the Gambles' love of nature as flowers and trees were brought to the interior—creating pictures in wood, metal, art glass, and semi-precious stone. The building itself appears enmeshed with the landscape, achieved by a blend of man-made materials such as brick and rough dash-coat stucco and natural materials such as granite river stones and creeping fig that grows up onto the foundations of the terrace and steps.

The house displays a strong influence of Japanese architecture. The abstraction of clouds and mist as well as the other "oriental" characteristics applied to the house's doors, windows, screens, beams, chair, lanterns, and more were another way that the house showed its emphasis on nature as "forms found in nature are the inspiration for these patterns."

Another way the Greenes showed off the Gamble House's emphasis on nature was through the "theme of three," which was composed of three components that could be seen in every room. The theme of three grouped objects together, sometimes symmetrically arranged, but often not. The use of asymmetry alongside the classical balance reflects nature's welcoming of variety in...

The Gamble House, aka, Doc. Emmit Brown's crib is located in Pasadena and is an architectural masterpiece that take you on a journey back through time. I went in thinking I will learn some things about back to the future trivia, etc, but I was bitterlysweetly (I know that's not a word lol) suprised. From the moment we set foot on its meticulously maintained grounds, we was transported to a bygone era, where attention to detail and craftsmanship shocased in everything we came across.

We got tickets for "Behind The Velvet Rope" tour. The visit includes a guided tour led by knowledgeable docents who brought the history of the Gamble House to life with their years of experience, passion towards preservation of art and architecture and expertise acquired from over a decade. They regaled us with captivating stories about the Gamble family and pointed out the architectural features that make this house truly unique and one-of-a-kind.

For the back to the future fans, I'm afraid there isn't much here, other than seeing the Doc's house and garage from the outside. A little tip; if you are looking to see the inside of the house that was shown in the movie, check out Robert R. Blacker House which is less than 5 miles away. One of the little secrets the dosants shared with me while they rolled their eyes! Lol JK. They were super sweet! 🫣

That said, I wholeheartedly recommend visiting the Gamble House in Pasadena. It is an opportunity to witness architectural brilliance, get a glimpse into history and get transported to an era of unparalleled beauty, creativity and masterpiece.

Buying tickets in advance are recommended but not always necessary unless you are looking to do a special tour like behind the velvet...

This place is really quite remarkable and surprisingly very accessible! We were able to secure a same-day walk-up tour arriving around 1100 on a Friday. There is fairly ample parking out front, if it gets full, I'm sure you can park within a block radius on some open street parking and stroll on over. The grounds are kept quite clean and well tended to and the house is in remarkable shape for how old it is, and the fact that 2 students live in it on a rotating residency basis. I was also surprised at how little wear and tear seemed to be present in the house despite allowing tour groups to come in with their shoes on, which could very well be dirty, etc... As for the tour itself, you are shown basically every room with a pretty decent explanation and facts offered about each room. Our guide was friendly and informed. The one area of improvement/comment I have, however, is several members of our tour group were not adhering to the "rules" that were put out at the beginning of the tour and were blatantly taking multiple videos, stepping on the ends of carpets, touching items in the house that were not to be touched, etc... Not once were they reprimanded or asked to stop these actions which did not respect the historic elements in the house or the gracious docents. This is very unfortunate, as I feel a place of this architectural and historical caliber should be treated with respect. Personally, if it were up to me, I would have a no phones/cameras/pictures and no shoe policy, as well as a one verbal warning and then removal from the grounds policy. Anyway, definitely worth checking out and taking a guided tour of the inside...