Tales of Trips & Tours by Patty Gaffney … Historic Modjeska House
Despite temps in the mid 80’s, the grounds of the Helena Modjeska Historic House and Garden were pleasantly cool, and the herbaceous air delightfull filled with springtime birdsong. A five-gabled white house, the century-old home of world renowned actress Madame Helena Modjeska is tucked away amidst a live oak grove on the banks of Santiago Creek. Named for the grounds’ resemblance to the Forest of Arden in the Shakespearean play, “As You Like It,” Arden is designated a National Historic Landmark. On our docent tour, we learned that only 5% of National Historic sites feature a women’s story and the Modjeska House is one of two National Historic sites in Orange County. It was the perfect destination during March, Women’s History Month.
Helena Modjeska (1840-1909) was a revered Polish actress who specialized in Shakespearean and tragic roles. Immigrating to America in 1876, she went on to become this country’s most acclaimed stage star of her time. Though her life was devoted to theater, for 18 years of her peripatetic lifestyle, Arden was her place of preparation and rest for the next stage production.
A familiar name to the Garden Club, Theodore Payne was hired as head gardener in 1893 to landscape the grounds of Arden, and it was a seminal time for him from which he became our most famous and life-long student of native California flora. The internationally known Sun Valley foundation bearing his name is dedicated to the preservation of California’s wildflowers. Devoted docents shared aspects of Modjeska’s lifestyle, the details revealed by the elements of her home from the bison head above the fireplace in the book-lined great room, to the piano cove popular for evening entertainment, and the artifacts of a surprisingly spacious kitchen. They spoke of the water collection basin – the “pool,” the six surviving redwood trees of 30 originally planted, the remnants of a bear pen, and the memorial boulder commemorating Modjeska and her life at Arden.
Above the bear pen, Acorn Woodpeckers were putting on a display, flitting and swooping their mating dance with their graphic black and white feathering and flashes of a red cap. Their presence was also visible in the uniform holes in the side of a cottage where the birds stored their acorns. There was an abundance of song and movement of many different families of birds, Bushtits and Warblers, Finches with Red-shouldered Hawk circling above to name a few.
And for the best ending to a beautiful outing, past garden club president and daughter of an even earlier past president, Sandy Smith spontaneously invited us into her home and garden where we experienced her abundant and glorious creativity in her mosaics, her color palette and of course her garden design. She had painted eggs capping the tips of her agaves, created a mosaic pattern in her front garden where your foot stepped on a square of colored marbles, or pebbles or some other artful design. She had created a number of ethereal glass plate assemblages that resembled literal dinner-plate dahlias and succulent collections abounded in blue and green glazed containers. And her tile mosaic collages, from an art piece of a mosaic figure, to a repurposed fire pit, a conical garden spire, were a lesson in fine handiwork and her expansive imagination. We were indeed lucky guests to her garden and home, emerging inspired by this special finale.
