Architectural Features

We know very little about the original interior of Hilltop House.  The house was left empty and stripped in its history and has very few original fixtures and woodwork.  It retains its original chandelier and fireplace in the great room.  The quartz fireplace is 12 feet wide and 8 feet high; the granite mantle is almost 10 feet wide.  The fireplace had actually been painted bright yellow at some point in the past but had been restored by previous owners.  (In just the right light, you can still see a few spots of the yellow.)  The banister around the second floor was remodeled in the 1950s; every sixth baluster includes the cattle brand of the owner who remodeled the house: an item on our own restoration agenda.

The great room opens up two stories and has massive exposed beams – ten 18x18 inch beams, 40 feet long over the 36x36 foot great room.  Each beam was cut from a single tree and brought to the building site by mule-drawn wagon.  The beams were elevated to the two-story ceiling by a system of pulleys.  Thomas Hines, in his book Irving Gill and the Architecture of Reform, compares the interior of this house to the rustic design of the Bailey House in La Jolla.

There have been few changes to the footprint of Hilltop House, though many to windows and doors.  Three porches on the first floor were enclosed at some point in its history.  The house was intended as a summer cabin and these open porches were ideally suited for that purpose.  But over the years owners made this their home year round and probably made the practical decision to enclose the porches and the cool room to make the house more livable in the winter.  Sander is opposed to opening up the porches.  He doesn’t want the heat loss or the loss of the square footage.  He has said that if he’s the first to go, he won’t turn over in his grave if these porches are opened up. 

In closing the porches, the previous owners also closed off several doors leading into the porches, which effectively cut off any north-south ventilation through the house.  Airflow in the house is very good now, but we eye these doors and know that airflow would be exceptional if we opened them up again.  In replacing downstairs windows, some sliding doors were added as well, doors that will not be necessary when the porches are restored someday. :)

Hilltop House has a small house next door, probably built as a servant’s quarters.  The original building is about 500 square feet and has a small addition of some 250 square feet.