Award Vase

HT sends me a photo of a sterling silver tulip-shaped engraved vase, won by her great-grandfather for ‘Best Dahlias’ in the 1904 Santa Barbara Flower Show. HT’s great-grandfather was quite adept at winning flower shows, as he was a Master Gardener trained in the fine mansion gardens of England. Relocating, he lived and worked in Santa Barbara in the first quarter of the 20th c., becoming one of the foremost authorities on our local foliage. His name was W. Stanley Davis, one of the best in the period of Montecito great gardeners; he was in charge of the gardens of Glen Oaks on East Valley Road, the large estate of millionaire J. Hobart Moore and his wife Lora Josephine Small Moore. HT, his great-granddaughter, writes me that her great-grandfather transformed an expanse of wild sage at Glen Oaks to a field of flowers, which became a show place for the Valley. In fact, the estate was formerly named “Field Place,” previously owned by Dr Alexander Blair Thaw and his wife Florence Dow Thaw; Moore purchased the estate in 1906. 

The Library of Congress has a special section called the Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection of Gardens and Historic Homes. Johnston was a photographer of gardens in the early 20th century. In the library’s collection we see a 3.25” x 4” glass lantern slide labeled “Glen Oaks: Rustic Bridges in Flower Garden” shot by Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952). “Lora” Moore, now a resident of Montecito, was interested in architecture and had her eye on a lovely property on Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe. She had a nephew by marriage in her social circle, an architect, who had built an estate in Montecito that he had designed in the Cape (South African) Colonial style, and another property in New York, designed in the old Swedish style. She was very interested in the latter. Her nephew’s name was Lennart Palme (1881-1971).

James Hobart Moore (NYC 1854-1916) was trained as a lawyer, but ended up one of the Nation’s wealthiest men. Along with his brother William, the pair, known as the “Moore Group,” formed at least four great corporations with a combined capital of $187 million, a princely sum in the early 20th c. Amongst their holdings were National Biscuit Co. (Nabisco), Union Pacific Railway, Diamond Match Co., U.S. Steel Co., and the American Can Co. He had a short marriage to Laura (Lora) Josephine Small, herself one of the wealthiest women in America. James Hobart Moore died in 1916; “Lora” married Harry French Knight, President of the St. Louis Flying Club, a club that was instrumental in Charles Lindbergh’s flight in 1927 across the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis. Lora Moore Knight had dinner with Lindbergh the night before the flight; she was one of his primary funders. Mrs. Knight, formerly Mrs. Moore, contacted Lennart Palme and asked for his help designing her Lake mansion, which became known as Vikingsholm on Emerald Bay (now owned by the Park Service). Thus, we see the Santa Barbara, Lake Tahoe, and St. Louis connection, and we will soon see the early 20th century connection to the early 21st century connection.

The former Mrs. Moore hired Palme to escort her to his native Sweden to research classic Swedish building techniques and styles which were to be used in Vikingsholm, which Palme began in 1929. Another Montecito architect, Myron Hunt, was busy building another estate for the former Mrs. Moore called “Cima Del Mundo,” which Hunt began for her in 1924. A connection between myself and the Palme family came in the form of Mr. Chris Palme in 2019, the grandson of the architect, an active realtor in Montecito affiliated with Sotheby’s International Realty, who hired me as an appraiser. When contacted for this story, Chris told me “I’ve been to Vikingsholm many times and I always enjoy seeing the references to my grandfather there.” 

And here’s another personal connection to the garden that W. Stanley Davis built from 1906-1916 for the Moore family in Montecito. When a scholarly paper I wrote for a gardening journal – about the historic Mission Cliff Gardensin San Diego – received nationwide attention, a law firm in Santa Barbara hired me as an historian for a case involving an early 20th century Montecito historic garden. That was my first experience in Santa Barbara, and I never went back to San Diego. What they say about 6 degrees is TRUE! The value of the sterling vase is $900.00.