THE MEDITERRANEAN STYLE IS A DERIVATIVE OF CLASSICAL
Revival Style and includes light-colored stucco walls, tile roofs, window grilles and carved wooden doors, with elaborate ornament around openings, especially doors and important windows, and painted ceilings. Typical formal landscaping includes courtyards, patios, terraces, fountains, vine-covered arbors and trellises, and tropical plantings.

This classic formal floor plan was one of the largest and most impressive residential commissions for the firm of Soule, Murphy & Hastings. The formal grounds are directly related to the house, from the circular drive between sandstone walls continuing the home's symmetry, to the rear garden with a direct sightline from the front entrance through the terrace doors to the fountain at the rear. Soule's plans for this home can be viewed on the terrace.

In the rear garden, the Ficus pumila (creeping fig) hedge continuing in an arbor to the left is very likely original. It is one of the few plants that attach themselves like barnacles to underlying support, a wall inside this one. The formal gardens at the rear are divided into garden "rooms," separated by tall, vine-covered walls and hedges, each with its own special personality.

While the interior has been much changed over the years, many elements remain. The grand coffered ceiling seen in the gallery was not painted originally and was matched by now absent floor-to-ceiling mahogany paneling. The doors off the gallery into other rooms are interesting in that each side is paneled differently. The former dining room holds a beautiful crystal chandelier. The kitchen is largely original, but the current owner added the stairs from it to the grand stairway. The former servant quarters lie beyond the kitchen

ORIGINAL OWNERS IN 1921 WERE CAROLINE AND WALTER HODGES.
He was a Vice President of Santa Fe Railway and was instrumental in the development of Rancho Santa Fe north of San Diego. The home was purchased in 1 943 by Frances and Leo Sanders, a real estate investor and owner/operator of Stearns Wharf Company. Their 13 grandchildren spent much time here, sometimes selling Leo's homegrown carrots on the street. Wonderful large gatherings of family and friends here included a son's marriage. A large barbecue at the rear of the property sent aromas of Leo's cooking prowess throughout the neighborhood. Sanders descendants live locally and have shared old photos.

The property ceased to be a private residence in 195 1, when the Sanders sold the home to the Jewish Temple B'nai B'rith. It was followed from 1969-83 by the new age Church Universal & Triumphant, when the building was painted inside and out in bright and sparkly colors. In 1983, the Santa Barbara-founded Fielding Institute bought it and made changes to return the building to a more decorous look, adding offices and restoring the gardens. With its new president in 1999, it became Fielding Graduate Institute.

Fielding Graduate Institute and its co-sponsors welcome you and invite you to enjoy lemonade and cookies in the garden and the "Santa Barbara After Dark" art exhibit inside.