Cover story: Folger Stable revival Cover story: Folger Stable revival (May 26, 2004)

Historic Woodside stable wins national recognition and kicks off a $4 million campaign to restore its faded beauty

By Andrea Gemmet
Almanac Staff Writer

It's been a chaotic 24 hours for Pat Holmes, who runs the public boarding facility at the century-old Folger Estate Stable at Wunderlich Park in Woodside. Ms. Holmes has an orphaned filly whose mother died of colic, and she's just made a four-hour drive to bring the spindly-legged baby horse, along with restive foster mother Buddug and her equally unhappy 6-week-old colt Rhodri, back to the Folger stable.

In the next stall, a horse named April nuzzles her newborn colt like a peaceful equine Madonna, immune to the more dysfunctional family drama next door, where feeding time means wrestling with an unwilling wet nurse and a burgeoning case of sibling rivalry.

It's surely not the first time the stable has seen the drama of birth and death played out among its inhabitants. Built in 1905 by San Francisco architectural firm Schulze & Brown, the once-opulent stable became the possession of the county when the Wunderlich family donated it in 1974. The stable has become run-down in the intervening years, but the sights and sounds of the horses, the familiar smells of sawdust and leather, hay and manure, would make original owner James Folger II feel as if time has stood still.

The distinctive-looking stable, described as French baroque architecture influenced by the arts and crafts movement, is the centerpiece of the newly minted Folger Estate Stable Historic District and the focus of an ambitious fundraising campaign to restore and rehabilitate the property.

Its supporters, a group of local equestrian and history enthusiasts calling themselves the Folger Stable Committee, learned earlier this month that their efforts to get the stable and several supporting structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places were successful.

"I'm thrilled that the Folger Stable Historic District has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places," said Mary Burns, San Mateo County's parks and recreation director. "It is important to have this type of recognition to ensure the success of the generous people who are working so hard to preserve the area for future generations."

The stable was part of the country estate of San Francisco coffee magnate Folger, who bred horses and kept them for recreational riding as well as for transportation when the uncertain automobiles of the era weren't functioning.

It's increasingly rare to find a historic building still serving its original purpose, and although these days the equestrians aren't necessarily landed gentry, breeding and recreational riding continues. On any given day, you can see equestrians heading up the trails leading through Wunderlich Park and beyond, and young girls astride English saddles putting horses through their paces in the riding ring.

Woodside resident Susan Lang, co-chair of the committee, said the group of preservationists wants to keep the old building functioning as a boarding stable, as well as add equestrian programs for children and architectural and historic tours for adults, once the restoration work is complete. The ultimate decision on how the stable will be used, however, will be made by county officials, who are working on a master plan for Wunderlich and Huddart parks, she said.

Years of deferred maintenance, the result of chronic funding shortages for county parks, have left the old redwood stable with a patina of faded grandeur. Cobwebs cling to the beveled wood siding, and a temporary roof covers leaking shingles. The pink marble baseboards are virtually unrecognizable under a thick layer of dust, and the chandeliers and marble fireplace facings the stable reputedly once housed have long since disappeared.

"When we first got it, we thought it had been a ballroom," said Alys Wunderlich Bachler, whose father, Martin, bought the stable and 950 acres of the original estate from the Folger family in 1955. "It had mirrors and it was very elegant."

Her older sister, Joan Wunderlich Pearson, held her wedding in the stable, marrying a Stanford student in a double ceremony in 1971.

The Folger estate was master architect Arthur Brown Jr.'s first project in California, according to research done by Michael Corbett, the architectural historian who prepared the national registry application. Mr. Brown, at the time a recent graduate of the Ecole des Beaux Arts, would later gain fame for his role in designing San Francisco City Hall, the War Memorial Opera House, Hoover Tower at Stanford University and the federal triangle buildings in Washington, D.C.

The stable was built about a half-mile away from the main house on the estate, and the impressive outline of its hip roof is its most distinctive feature. The roof is a complex concoction of dormers, ventilating towers and chimneys, broad overhanging eaves and paneled soffits, Mr. Corbett said.

The nearby garage and the blacksmith barn a short distance away are built in a similar, simpler style, using fewer architectural flourishes. Along with stone walls and a dairy house built in 1874 during the estate's previous incarnation as a farm and ranch established by Simon Jones and his son, Everett Jones, the buildings form a historic district near Wunderlich Park's entrance on Woodside Road.

The national register evaluates the historic merit of applicants, and accepted the Folger Estate Stable district not only for its architectural significance, but for its importance to local history, reflecting the area's long equestrian heritage and preserving the era when Woodside became home to the "great estates" of wealthy and prominent San Franciscans.

"It certainly is part of the legacy of that turn-of-the-century type of wealthy suburban living that San Mateo County was so famous for," said Mitch Postel, executive director of the San Mateo County Historical Association. "And of course, the Folger family was an important cog in the economic and social milieu. It's great to have that recognition for it."

There's still a long road ahead to restore the old stable to some of its former glory. The Folger Stable Committee, an offshoot of the Friends of Huddart and Wunderlich Parks, raised money to pay for the national register application and spent around $130,000 on stopgap repair work and initial studies for rehabilitation work.

Besides the prestige the National Register of Historic Places lends, it confers some measure of protection against future attempts to demolish or significantly alter the buildings. The stable district will doubtlessly make its way to lists and guidebooks of places on the register, Mr. Postel said.

"This county park is one of our hidden gems, one of those places not a lot of people know about," said county Supervisor Rich Gordon. "I'm not sure that the people who use it want it to get a higher profile, but this designation increases its importance."

And, supporters are hoping that the designation will help with the fundraising that lies ahead. Ms. Lang gave a rough estimate of about $3.5 million to rehabilitate the stable building, and is assuming it will take about $1 million more to upgrade the rest of the district, including the paddock, riding arena and drainage system.

Portola Valley resident Bill Lane was among the early supporters of the fundraising, and Woodside resident Bill Butler donated his construction company's services to coordinate the project's preliminary studies.

The stable committee plans to runs a fairly low-key campaign to identify potential donors and will give tours, but probably won't have a flashy kickoff event, Ms. Lang said.

"It's such an incredible architectural treasure, our main focus is getting people to see it," she said. "The stable really sells itself."

The committee is also working on an oral history project, and is seeking people who have memories, photographs or memorabilia from Folger stable and the families who owned it, Ms. Lang said. An optimistic estimate would see work beginning on the stable in 2006, she said.

"It's going to be a multi-year project."

INFORMATION

** Wunderlich Park is located at 4040 Woodside Road, near the Portola Road intersection, in Woodside.

** Tours of the Folger Stable can be arranged through the Folger Stable Committee. For more information about the restoration and history projects, or to get involved, call committee co-chairs Jill Daly at 329-1610, or Susan Lange at 365-6477, or Ellen Schuette at the Friends of Huddart and Wunderlich Parks at 851-2660.

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