Commemorating High Style

The High Art of Mansion Life

Flagstaff's Riordan Home Celebrates a Centennial of Style by Peter Aleshire

YOU COULD ENVY THE RIORDAN families, whose century-old, 13,000-square-foot, 40-room, Arts and Crafts-style mansion stands out as the showpiece of the 6-acre Riordan Mansion State Historic Park, just east of Milton Road in Flagstaff.

The Riordan brothers owned a successful lumber business and contributed leadership and resources to civic affairs of the area, and the entire family dominated the Flagstaff social scene. They hired one of the nation's most innovative architects, built an oval dining room to enhance dinner conversation and chose furnishings fashioned by one of America's most renowned furniture makers.

The brothers married the Metz sisters and moved into an open, airy house designed to accommodate two adventurous and privileged families. Timothy and Caroline had two daughters, while Michael and Elizabeth had six children.

But just when you're tempted to envy their extravagant mansion and affluent circumstances, you come to Tim and Caroline's daughter Anna's room. Her picture sits on the dresser-showing a striking woman with strong, angular features and a certain, impishly fierce expression - the face of a woman used to getting her way and taking chances. Anna had a college degree, spoke several languages And played golf with her father. A beautiful, formal gown stands waiting for her on a dress-maker's frame in the middle of the room, the sleeves daringly cut away. A pair of roller skates sits on the floor. She couldn't skate on the precious maple floors throughout the house, but could skate up and down on the pine floor of her mother's large bedroom across the hall from her own.

At 26 years old, in 1926, Anna died suddenly of polio. She woke one morning paralyzed and died two days later. Within several hours of her death, polio also claimed the life of her cousin Arthur, who had lived on the opposite side of the mansion until he married and moved into town.

The Riordans had a private funeral in the billiard room for the two young cousins at the request of town authorities out of fear of the fiercely contagious disease that terrorized whole communities. No one knew where Anna and Arthur had contracted polio.

Anna's empty, expectant room lends poignancy to the oddly intimate tour of the rambling home. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the construction of one of the nation's best examples of the Arts and Crafts Movement, which shaped 20th-century architecture and

aesthetics. There are no records of the building costs, but after a century the mansion still displays the finest material, an efficient but luxurious design and the most modern conveniences of its time.

The story of the house has a connection to the Santa Fe Railway. To encourage travel to the West, the railroad hired architect Charles Whittlesey to design buildings along the route that would reflect the regional culture and offer the best accommodations available. He drew inspiration for his buildings from both Spanish missions and Indian pueblos, which evolved into modern South-western architecture.

He was influenced strongly by the Arts and Crafts Movement in England, a reaction to both the tenets of industrialization and the fussy decorative excesses of the Victorian era. The emphasis on craftsmanship and natural materials proved readily adaptable to American tastes-particularly in a setting as distinctive and natu-ral as the Southwest.

In 1902, Whittlesey wrote a letter to the Riordans seeking the lumbermen's advice on weathering and parasites as he designed El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon, the resort destination on the Santa Fe Railway. The inquiry eventually led to Whittlesey's commission to build the Riordan mansion.

The house fit snugly into its setting with picture-window views of the San Francisco Peaks and plenty of native volcanic stone. Whittlesey used log slabs from the mill-the curved outer layer of the milled logs-which he attached to the conventional frame construction, making the mansion seem like a gigantic log cabin.

He designed the house around the demands of an active, close-knit family. Each brother's family lived in their own 6,000-square-foot wing built as the mirror image of the other and connected by a huge, log slab-sided common room-with a cavernous fireplace,

A long pool table, beautifully designed wooden light fixtures and comfortable chairs for reading, chatting and playing games. As a final rustic touch, the Riordans used transparencies of Western landscapes, turning the windows into light boxes.

Whittlesey graced the house with numerous such touches, including skylights that spilled natural light deep into the two-story interior, equipped with windows that lifted open to admit cool, fresh air during the stifle of summer.

One of the most distinctive rooms is the oval dining room on Tim and Caroline's side of the mansion, designed around a table with pointed ends intended to promote conversation. The room includes curved, built-in seats and cupboardsa notable feature throughout the house. Caroline sat midway of the long, curved table, near the button used to signal servants in the adjacent kitchen when guests were ready for the next course.

Tim towered 6 feet 3 inches tall and insisted that he personally knew Paul Bunyon. When his grandchildren expressed skepticism, he had gigantic baby shoes sewn to prove his connections. He loved to chip and putt on his own three-hole golf course; each hole had three different approaches. But he didn't learn to drive a car until he was in his 70s and pressed his chauffeur to teach him.

Tim's tiny German-American wife, Caroline, stood barely 4 feet 10 inches tall and had a 22-inch waist. She loved to cook and brought her 1880s modelcoal stove with her to the house. She especially loved baking desserts and, as late as the 1960s, the family would fire up the old stove for special occasions because they said Caroline's pie recipes turned out best baked in it.

They filled the house with Indian art and some prime examples of the Arts and Crafts Movement. The stained-glass windows, decorative tulip-shaped wainscoting on the walls and wallpaper with nature scenes all bespoke craftsmanship. In addition, they purchased furniture created by Gustav Stickley and other renowned craftsmen of the era.

Among the remaining furnishings is an oddly fashioned chair with a back and sides of crafted oak slats. When turned to the wall, the chair could neatly contain a rebellious child for the duration of a "time-out." It came to be called the "jail chair" by the great-grandchildren of Tim and Caroline.

The very scope of the house and the life of the bustling, daring, loving family it sheltered for generations hint at a complicated story of gains and losses, just as the haunting roller skates awaiting Anna's return attest to the joy and frailty of life-which even riches cannot assure. All EDITOR'S NOTE: Riordan Mansion State Historic Park will celebrate the mansion's 100th birthday with two events. On June 18-20, the park will celebrate the Arts and Crafts Movement, with guest speakers and a historical play. On September 18, the park will mark the centennial of the original move-in date. Descendants of the two original families have been invited to join in the event.