Andrew McNally House, Altadena California


Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires
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Date added: January 11, 2025
South (primary) elevation, westerly end (2006)

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Andrew McNally House in Altadena California was built in 1888. McNally was co-founder of the Rand-McNally Publishing Company. He played a significant role in the founding of the City of Altadena. Tragically, the home was destroyed in the January 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires.

The Andrew McNally house was the first substantial home built along Mariposa Street ("Millionaire's Row") subsequent to Altadena's founding in 1887. Early newspaper articles, postcards, and professional photographs of Altadena often bore images of McNally's house. These, together with surviving pieces of his correspondence and his personal invitations to visit and buy property in Altadena, were evidence of McNally's role as an early civic booster, especially among his influential friends and business associates from the East. His house and its once-magnificent grounds served as a veritable icon to which later wealthy settlers along the street could aspire. The property has had only three resident-owners since the death of Mrs. McNally in 1924. The first subdivision of the McNally land occurred in 1925, when the property was reduced to just under four acres. In 1936, it was further reduced to one and one-half acres. Since 1955 the parcel's area has stood at 0.82-acre.

In May 1887, Andrew McNally, a founder and vice-president of the Rand-McNally Map Company of Chicago, commissioned renowned Pasadena architect Frederick L. Roehrig to design a $50,000 winter home for him and his family on a fifteen-acre parcel in the new community of Altadena at the southeast corner of Mariposa Street and Santa Rosa Avenue. The builder is unknown. While the house was under construction, McNally further improved the property with a carriage house, trees, gardens, fish ponds, an aviary, and other amenities. The property was reached via a railroad line that ran along the bottom of his property, giving McNally and his visitors direct access to Pasadena and beyond by private rail-car.

Residential development is the central theme in the history of the growth of Altadena, since commercial and industrial development has never been a significant factor in the make-up of the community. McNally commissioned the building of his house later in the same year (1887) that the short-lived Pasadena Improvement Company was founded and initially laid out a new community on the grounds of the old Woodbury Ranch. The Woodbury brothers, Fred and John, had purchased the 937-acre property in 1882 from the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association, the founders of Pasadena, who perceived the dry northern foothill land as "worthless."

The Woodburys, having built an Italianate-style house for Fred on the property, were the principal investors in the Improvement Company. They hoped to sell lots to affluent buyers. Probably inspired by what was happening along Pasadena's South Orange Grove Avenue, they envisioned visitors from the East who might want to buy rural lots and build winter homes in the new community they named "Altadena." Unfortunately for the Woodburys, just one year after the founding of their development firm, Southern California experienced a real estate bust, causing John Woodbury to leave California for good and his brother, evidently not an aggressive type, to tend to his ranch rather than attempt to sell real estate. The Woodburys had sold only a few lots before the bust occurred. One of the largest parcels had been purchased by Andrew McNally.

In fact, it was McNally, and not the Woodburys, who played the major role in Altadena's early development. Andrew McNally "proved to be one of Altadena's most influential and persuasive boosters".

It should be noted that a few other pioneer residents had settled in the area before 1887, including Eliza Johnston (1862) and James Crank (1883) near Eaton Canyon; the Giddings family near Millard Canyon (1878); and John Niles at Las Casitas near the Arroyo Seco (1875), but these properties were very much on the periphery of the early community and were not considered part of Altadena until much later.

Andrew J. McNally was born in Armagh, Ireland in 1835, the eighth child of a Scottish father and a mother of Dutch descent. He attended the "common schools," but at the age of fourteen was apprenticed to a John McWaters of his hometown from whom he was to learn the printing trade. After seven years of apprenticeship, and still in his early twenties, McNally emigrated to New York where he found work as a compositor for Know & Company. In 1859, McNally relocated to Chicago (stopping along the way for short jobs in Albany, Toronto, and Buffalo) and became a foreman in the "job shop" of the Evening Journal. (The job shop evidently handled printing jobs not directly related to the publication of the newspaper.) Not long thereafter, McNally found employment with William H. Rand who had been running his own print shop on Lake Street since 1856. Still not ready to settle down, McNally headed for Memphis where he went to work for a newspaper known as the Avalanche. Condemned for its anti-secessionist views, the newspaper was burned to the ground by angry critics. McNally then returned to the relative safety of Chicago where he found employment with the Chicago Tribune. In 1861, their job shop was put up for sale and McNally, re-teaming with his old boss William Rand, purchased it with borrowed money.

They established their own firm, to be known as Rand, McNally & Company, with Rand as president and McNally as vice president. Rand, McNally was immediately successful. Their earliest clients were railroads for whom they printed tickets (up to 100,000 a day), timetables, and stock reports. Gradually the company expanded its client base, so that it eventually became a general publishing house. Two of its earliest publications were the Bankers' Directory and the Bankers' Monthly. By 1886 it had become one of the largest publishing companies in the United States. As an outgrowth of its work for the railroads, the firm became most closely associated with the publication of maps and atlases for travelers, schools, and businesses. Rand, McNally developed a new wax engraving method that revolutionized map-printing technology. In 1876, it published the Business Atlas, the first atlas ever printed west of Philadelphia. Over 100 years later, Rand-McNally (family-owned until the late 1990s), is still known for its output of travel guides and maps. Andrew McNally was said to have earned "unusual esteem among the businessmen of Chicago … for his staunch integrity and genuine business ability".

McNally owned various residences in Chicago, one of which was destroyed in the fire of 1871 (as was the Rand, McNally headquarters which was later rebuilt on Adams Street). He later constructed five stone-front houses along Park Avenue, opposite Lincoln Park, one of which he occupied, and the others he gave to family members. They were designed by locally well-known architect Joseph L. Silsbee. McNally always considered Chicago his permanent home. He also owned an eighty-acre farm in Elmhurst.

In 1880, McNally traveled from Chicago to San Francisco with his wife, the former Delia M. Hyland (of a prominent old Chicago family), and their son and three daughters. They took the boat to San Pedro and from there made their way to a friend's home in Pasadena. Impressed by the clear air, arable soil, and availability of water in Southern California, McNally decided to establish a winter home in the area and try his hand at becoming a "gentleman farmer," as many other retired visitors from the East and Midwest were doing at the time. It was on a return trip that he purchased from the Pasadena Improvement Company, in 1887, fifteen acres at the southeast corner of Mariposa Street and Santa Rosa Avenue in the new community of Altadena-a property that had access to mountain water and a spectacular view over the San Gabriel Valley all the way to the ocean. One source even says that McNally came up with the name "Altadena," although that honor is usually given to John and Fred Woodbury.

McNally built a two-story carriage house as his first residence on the east side of his property and planted about ten acres of terraced land in orange, lemon, and plum trees. He also beautified the parcel with a conservatory and a number of shade and ornamental trees, flower beds (mostly roses), shrubbery, and vine-covered arbors. A vegetable garden provided for the needs of the family with some left over to sell at local markets. Date and fan palms leant a rather exotic touch (at least to Midwestern sensibilities).

Eventually, two large concrete plinths, topped by statues of griffins, flanked the entrance to the driveway at the corner of Mariposa and Santa Rosa. Two similar monuments were positioned at the other end of the driveway, off Santa Rosa Avenue. (The latter plinths, sans the statues, are still extant, situated next to the driveway to what is now 2518 Santa Rosa.) Stables were built in 1891.

McNally also developed a great interest in birds and, in fact, built an impressive aviary, mostly populated by golden pheasants, on his Altadena grounds. He also built concrete trout ponds on the property (which served double-duty as reservoirs) and several pools for rare tropical fish.

McNally evidently did not intend to live in the carriage house permanently. According to the May 7th, 1887 issue of the Los Angeles Times, McNally was preparing "to build a $50,000 house" on the property, a very substantial sum of money in an era when modest houses could be built for less than $1,000. The Pasadena Daily Union of September 8th, 1888, identified Pasadena architect Frederick Louis Roehrig as the designer of the large (eight-bedroom) house on the northwesterly corner of McNally's parcel. The builder is unknown. In late 1888, construction of the house, in the Queen Anne style, was completed and the McNallys moved into it. The property was eventually given the address 526 East Mariposa Street (changed to 654 in 1942).

Like many foothill houses of that era, the McNally house was oriented toward a view of the San Gabriel Valley and, on clear days, of Los Angeles and the ocean beyond. The main facade of the house, with its prominent veranda, did not face Mariposa Street, but in fact faced the downslope to the south and a railway line by which visitors reached the McNally estate. Called the Altadena Railroad, it had been financed largely by McNally. It ran from the Santa Fe connection in Pasadena up Fair Oaks Avenue and easterly across Altadena along what is now the right-of-way of Mendocino Street. At the southerly end of McNally's property, visitors would alight from the train and be treated to a view of his majestic residence about 1,000 feet to the north. The house had a backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains, fronted by ponds and flowering gardens through which visitors would walk as they approached the house. The property contained a rail spur where private rail cars could be parked awaiting their return journey. (McNally was also a director of the Pasadena and Mt. Lowe Railway Company, incorporated in 1897 after ownership of the famed mountain railroad had been wrested away from its founder Thaddeus Lowe. In 1894, McNally and several other investors had incorporated the Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Altadena Railway Company.)

Andrew McNally made his biggest impact on the development of Altadena through his enthusiastic endorsement of its agrarian and esthetic charms to his friends and business associates in the East and Midwest, particularly those living in Chicago. His Altadena home even appeared on a series of tinted postcards and was written about and pictured in the February 17th, 1894 issue of the Chicago Herald newspaper. In the "purple prose" of its day, the newspaper called the McNally estate a "terrestrial paradise" with "surpassing beauties." The McNally family had evidently entertained twelve eastern newspaper writers (all but one from Chicago) at their Altadena home, which prompted the article.

Many other Chicago-area people, prominent in business and social life, visited McNally in Altadena (made easy by the railroad spur that delivered them right to his doorstep). Impressed with his home and gardens and with the general neighborhood, many opted to build their own winter residences along Mariposa Street, which soon gained the nickname "Millionaire's Row" and, because of its association with McNally and others of the printing industry, "Publisher's Row." Some elected to live in Altadena year-round. On September 10th, 1893, the Los Angeles Times reported that "as a result of the extensive advertising which this section has had in Chicago, we may expect to see quite a number of beautiful places erected here by wealthy Easterners." Besides his home place, McNally had purchased about 385 acres of sub-dividable land in central and eastern Altadena which no doubt added to his enthusiasm in touting Altadena as a great place in which to live and invest. His discovery of water in Las Flores Canyon in 1895 led to the formation of one of the area's first water companies and guaranteed an ample supply to his estate and to those new residents he had enticed to stay and buy property.

Among those luminaries who knew McNally, and themselves later became Altadenans: Kate Crane, heiress to the Crane Brothers Manufacturing Company (known widely as the makers of Crane plumbing fixtures), who with her husband Adolph Gartz built a home cater-corner to that of McNally; Alfred C. Armstrong, president of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, and Colonel George Green, a patent medicine tycoon and proprietor of Pasadena's Green Hotel, both business clients of McNally and both of whom settled along Mariposa Street on five acres each of land that McNally had purchased for them; Joseph Medill, editor of the Chicago Tribune, who built a house directly across the street from McNally; Daniel R. Cameron, a pioneer publisher and stationer of Chicago, who purchased the Medill property after it burned in 1894 and erected his own house; Hampton L. Story, owner of the Estey Piano Company, who purchased the Woodbury house, once home of Altadena's founders, at the east end of Mariposa and added an elaborate music room designed in 1899 by Frederick Roehrig; Horatio West, founder of West's legal publications, who built a house just a block away on Calaveras Street; and the Scripps and Kellogg publishing families who built houses adjacent to each other at the west end of Mariposa. By the turn of the 20th century, Altadena had fulfilled the Woodbury brothers' dreams, having become an affluent residential community, thanks largely to the publicity generated by Andrew McNally and his house.

Local newspapers made a habit of recording the comings and goings of the McNallys. They usually arrived from Chicago every January at the, foot of their Altadena property in their private rail car and would depart for the East around mid-May. In later years, they started arriving earlier, in order to spend Christmas in Altadena. During their stay in their winter home, Mr. and Mrs. McNally entertained socially prominent people from Pasadena and Altadena and would, in turn, be invited to the homes of others. Among them were people now considered local pioneers: Thaddeus Lowe, J. W. Hugus, de Barth Shorb, Stanley Jewett, Seymour Locke, Eliza Bangs, E. F. Claypool, John B. Miller, Arthur A. Libby, R. J. and Horace M. Dobbins, Charles B. Scoville, Charles Holder, A. R. Dodworth, Charles Daggett, Walter Raymond, Frank Childs, Thomas Wotkyns, and George W. Stimson. Mrs. McNally's favorite entertainment, evidently, was card games, particularly euchre, which was all the rage at the time. She also belonged to the Sans Souci Club for women and the Altadena Card Club. According to the society pages of the Los Angeles Times, she often hosted meetings of these groups in her home, as well as a number of well-attended receptions she and her daughters arranged, complete with lavish floral decorations and tasty refreshments. Reports of these affairs often used the superlatives "handsome," "beautiful," "spacious," "elegant," "charming," and "the showplace of the foothills" to describe the McNally house. Such a continuous flow of glowing descriptions doubtless inspired readers to visit the up-and-coming residential area of Altadena.

Called "Andy" by his friends, McNally does not appear to have taken part as wholeheartedly in social gatherings as did his wife, preferring to pursue his agricultural interests. In 1893, he purchased a 2,300-acre parcel in Orange County near Fullerton where he established a ranch he called "Windermere." Olive and citrus production on the ranch would later constitute some of the state's biggest single crops. McNally never lived there, but commissioned Frederick Roehrig, the architect of his Altadena house, to design a large Mission-style house on the property for his son-in-law Edwin D. Neff, husband of daughter Nannie, who became the ranch foreman. (Mr. Neff also appears to have acted as his father-in-law's general business agent in Southern California when the latter was away at his Chicago home.) The Windermere house still exists as part of a city park; the ranch was later developed into the city of La Mirada, a name which McNally is credited with coining when a railroad station was first built there. (One newspaper account claimed that he had also named his Altadena home "La Mirada," but that bit of information has not been found in any other source.) McNally also continued to develop his Altadena property which produced 160 tons of prunes in 1899 alone. He also took upon himself the maintenance of the over-150 deodar trees that lined Santa Rosa Avenue on the west side of his property, a route that later became known as Christmas Tree Lane.

McNally had other interests as well. He sat on the boards of many corporations and was the vice-president of the Chicago National Bank, the Equitable Trust Company, and the American Railway Publishing Company. An active Mason, he also belonged to the leading clubs of Chicago and Los Angeles, including the California Club, the Old Time Printers' Association, and the Union League Club. He tended not to join many clubs or organizations in Southern California, busy as he was with his agricultural interests.

William Rand retired from Rand, McNally in 1897 whereupon McNally assumed the presidency. His son Fred, who had started the company's book-publishing division in 1877, was appointed vice president. Although Andrew McNally delegated an increasing amount of responsibility to his son and others, he remained active in the management of the firm for the rest of his life. He died suddenly of pneumonia at the age of 68 in his Altadena home on May 7th, 1904, just before he was to return to Chicago. Described by a local newspaper as "greatly beloved" in Altadena (Pasadena Evening News: May 9th, 1904), he was survived by his widow, four children, and thirteen grandchildren. His funeral, attended by many people prominent in the railway and publishing industries, and his interment took place in Chicago. He was remembered as "one of the leading men of the [printing] craft in the whole United States. Every printer knows Andrew McNally and what he has accomplished in the trade". The Los Angeles Times called him a "pioneer of the Chicago colony which is now so numerous and prominent in Pasadena and other neighboring cities" (May 8th, 1904) and "one of those to whom is due, in great measure, the wonderful advance made by Southern California during the last decade" (May 10th, 1904). He was a millionaire several times over.

Mrs. McNally, described in one source as "cultured and refined," continued to use her winter home until her own death there on January 21st, 1924 at the age of 90. According to the death announcement, her funeral services were to be conducted at her Mariposa Street home, which the newspaper described as "one of the best known places in Altadena." Although the house was still intact, by then the grounds had become neglected and much of the once-exotic garden had died off. One of Mrs. McNally's survivors was a grandson, Wallace Neff. The son of Nannie and Edwin Neff, he was by then gaining fame as one of Southern California's most sought-after architects. Wallace Neff had spent much of his youth on the La Mirada ranch and at his grandfather's Altadena home. At the time of his grandmother's death, Neff was residing with his new wife in a house he had designed for them on East Mendocino Street in Altadena.

The McNally property has had only four owners since Mrs. McNally's death. None of them made any significant changes to the house and strove to preserve as much of the original fabric as possible. In fact, the most significant changes to the house occurred during Andrew McNally's ownership. In 1894, a Turkish Smoking Room was added to the east side, designed by Roehrig and containing many artifacts from Chicago's 1893 Columbian Exposition. (McNally had served as chairman of the finance committee of the Exposition.) Two garden urns said to be from the Exposition were introduced to the property at this time. A two-story servants' wing was added to the northeast corner of the house in 1897, again designed by Roehrig. A new aviary was built at about this time along the northern border of the property.

Although the loss of its once-extensive gardens has changed its immediate environment, the house itself has remained remarkably intact since 1897. The McNally house still commands its site and, both inside and outside, continues to convey the sense and feeling of early Altadena and the major role the property played in fostering that community's growth. It is much admired by Aitadena citizens and is a sought-after venue for house tours and community gatherings. It even serves as the logo of the Altadena Historical Society.

Building Description

Located on a .82-acre parcel in the foothills of Altadena, the McNally House is a three-story residence in the Queen Anne style with some Eastlake influences, called "simplified Queen Anne" by architectural historians David Gebhard and Robert Winter. Clad in a mixture of shakes and clapboard, the 6,938-square-foot house exhibits detailing typical of the Queen Anne style but without the flamboyance and "gingerbread" often seen on such houses in more urban settings. The primary facade of the house faces south, away from the street, since early residents and visitors most commonly approached it from a private railway line along the southerly edge of the property. Highlights of the design are a spacious front porch; circular tower on the southwest corner capped with a bell-like roof; sash windows decorated with small perimeter panes or stained-glass transoms; cut-up roof with both small and large knobbed finials and spacious public rooms with original paneling and stenciling. Although the estate has shrunk considerably form its original size, the house has retained remarkable integrity, both inside and outside. Still used as a private residence, no obvious alterations have been made to its exterior since 1897. The site also contains an aviary (now used as a covered patio and conservatory) and two nineteenth-century garden urns.

Detailed Description

The McNally House is a 2 1/2-story, basically rectangular asymmetrical residence measuring 128 feet east-west by 60 feet north-south at its largest dimensions. It is free-standing, set in the westerly portion of a gently sloped .82-acre parcel, and largely hidden from the street by perimeter vegetation. Its primary facade, containing the main entrance, is oriented south, away from the street and towards no- longer-extant gardens and private railway line. The original 1887 house still predominates the western and central parts of the building, but the Turkish Smoking room and the two-story servants' quarters, attached to the house in the mid- and late-1890s, dominate the eastern end.

The house exhibits boxy massing with a pronounced vertical emphasis. The steeply-pitched roof is a cut-up, but basically hipped, with shallow boxed eaves except at the round southwest corner where the roof is bell-shaped and has open eaves. The roof is now covered with treated wood shingles. Small metal finials appear at most roof apexes. The cladding of the lower first-floor walls and skirting consists of shakes, while higher on the wall the cladding changes to clapboard. Shakes predominate as the wall cladding on the second and third floors. Most of the windows, grouped singly or in pairs, are wood sash. The house was originally stained dark green with black trim, but by 1895 it had been painted cream with dark green window frames and black sash. The roof was originally stained red. The house exterior is now blue with white trim and the roof is a natural wood color.

The first floor of the main (south) facade has a covered porch along its entire original length that wraps around the southwest corner. This corner is rounded, and together with the two stories above, create a circular tower that rises above the house. The porch wall is covered in shakes and is interrupted in its approximate center by a flight of eleven scored concrete steps with solid concrete balustrades. The porch roof, the shingles of which seem to flow seamlessly from the second-floor walls above, is supported by square posts with curved vertically oriented brackets at each side. Recessed within the porch is the front door - a mixture of wood panels and glass, surrounded by plain molding. To the west of the door is a tri-partite window with frosted glass panes at each side of a clear pane. Above these panes is a transom of stain-glass bisected by an arched molding, a pair of large sash windows appear to the east of the door. The rounded southwest corner has three arched sash windows, the lower panes taking up about 2/3 of the window openings.

The second floor of the main (south) facade is composed of a recessed loggia, supported by two slender shingle-clad columns. Within the loggia is a door at the east end and two sash windows, the upper panes of which have stained-glass inserts around the perimeters. The loggia ends about fifteen feet from the east end, where the main wall juts out and has one sash window centered in it. The rounded southwest corner has three arched sash windows, similar to, but smaller than, those below.

The third floor of the main (south) facade is evident through a pair of dormers centered in the roof-line above the front porch. The dormers are shingle-clad and have single-paned windows in their ends. The hipped dormer roofs are horizontally accentuated, the eaves almost twice as long as the dormers themselves and supported by Jong curved brackets. The rounded southwest corner consists almost entirely of sash windows, each positioned between solid curved brackets that support the eaves above. Outside the windows is a walkway with a shingled half-wall that is, itself, supported by similar brackets fastened to the wall below. The tower is topped by a unique (for Southern California) tall bell-shaped roof that is finished off with a ball-capped finial.

The first story of the east facade continues the wrap-around portion of the recessed front porch, but at its northerly end the porch steps down to reach the porte-cochere at the northwest corner of the house. Centered in the second floor above the porch is a tri-partite window opening that has two sash windows flanking a solid three-paneled wood infill. The upper glass of the windows has multiple small panes. Beneath the window opening is an accentuated sill supported by brackets.

The porte-cochere has its own gabled roof and runs horizontally about halfway along the westerly end of the north facade. The roof is supported by wooden columns that continue on from the front porch and by two independent columns in the same style mounted on brick bases. The main house wall inside the porte-cochere has groups of plain sash windows. The second floor above the porte-cochere has two evenly spaced sash windows, the upper sashes of which have small panes in their perimeters. A single thin vertically-oriented sash window appears on the westerly end of the wall. Rising mid-way in the middle of the peak of the hipped roof above these windows is a rectangular newer brick chimney with two low chimney pots.

To the east of the porte-cochere, the house recesses back about 14 feet. On both floors of the east and west walls of the recess are single-sash windows of varying sizes. The first floor of the southerly wall of the recess contains a single door on its east end that now serves as the residence's main door, since it is close to the street. In the floor above the door are two sash windows. The window at the east end appears truncated and may mark where the servants' quarters were added. To the west of the door is a two-story window that marks the landing of the main stairway inside the house. Its central section is an arched arrangement of panes with larger panes in the center.

Surrounding the arch motif are smaller square panes. The presence of the third floor is indicated by a large dormer with a hipped roof that juts out from the main roof above the south wall of the recess. It has a band of three sash windows, all of them with upper sashes having small panes around the perimeters.

As mentioned above, the northerly part of the easterly end of the McNally house is the two-story servants' quarters added in 1897. All of its windows are double-sash and most of them follow the pattern set in the older part of the house where the perimeter of the upper sash is lined with smaller panes. The first floor of the north side of the addition has a central service door recessed behind a flight of steps, its opening outlined in molding. It is flanked by sash windows. The upper floor has only one window, at its westerly end. The east facade of the addition has two single sash windows to the north of a band of three smaller windows on the first floor and two evenly spaced single sash windows on the upper floor. A single sash appears on the south facade adjacent to where the servants' quarters joins the Turkish Smoking Room. A slender brick chimney rises out of the roof near the eave.

In 1894, the 1½-story Smoking Room was fit into the southeast corner of the house in the angle formed by the juncture of the original house and the servants' quarters addition. Its east wall is recessed back a few feet from the facade of the servants' quarters but its south wall is in line with the front of the main house porch. In fact, the west wall of the Smoking Room serves as the east end wall of the porch. Like the rest of the house, the walls of the Smoking Room have a center portion of clapboard siding in between two sections of shingles. It has a mansard-style roof, its flat center supporting a square cupola with clapboard sides and a conical roof surmounted by a triple-knobbed Arabian-style finial. On the east wall of the Smoking Room are two sash windows occupying the entire height of the clapboard wall section. Unlike the rest of the house, their upper sashes are filled with diamond-shaped panes. On the south wall is centered a tripartite window that also has diamond-paned upper sashes. In the middle window the bottom of the upper pane has been cut out to resemble a Moorish-style arch. On both east and south facades of the Smoking Room, each upper wall is pierced by three round windows with diamond panes. In between the windows are square louvered openings with accentuated sills.

Some mention should be made of the interior of the house, which, except for modernization of the kitchen and bathrooms, is remarkably intact. According to the County Assessor's tally there is a total of 22 rooms, including 5 living rooms, 10 bedrooms, and 4 bathrooms in 6,938 square feet. Approached by both the erstwhile main door on the south side and the current main door on the north side, the entry hall is lined with redwood and naturally lit by the large multi-paned window on the landing of the main paneled stairway. The two living rooms on the west side of the entry hall have coved ceilings with floral hand-stenciling (recently restored) and share back-to-back tiled fireplaces with carved oak mantels. The southerly living room is curved in its southwest corner, following the contours of the house, and the northerly living room, used as a library, has built-in bookcases and a bench. Both rooms still have functional gas lighting. The dining room to the east of the entry, hall has pocket doors of leaded glass, a beamed and planked ceiling, and wainscoting. The fireplace has built-in cabinets above. The Turkish Smoking Room, beyond the dining room, is octagonal, with carved and gilded bays and niches. Its walls and tapering ceiling are decorated with Moorish-style stenciling and quotations in Arabic said to be from the Koran. The covering of the ceiling is stretched canvas. A small fireplace is designed for both gas and electric use. On the north wall of the room above a built-in multi-pillowed seating area is a picture of Cleopatra and her barge that looks like tapestry but is actually painted on a ribbed fabric.

About 30 feet north of the house is an aviary dating from around 1895, now used as a covered patio and conservatory. Made of wood and metal-netting, it is basically rectangular but has a central small wing that protrudes south. The roof, of wood siding, lath and netting, is supported by plain square wooden columns placed at regular intervals around the perimeter connected by cross-beams. The exposed rafter tails have notched ends. The ends of the roof are curved up in a style that resembles Chinese architecture. The south end of the central wing is semi-circular. The floor is concrete.

About twenty feet southwest of the house are two urns, now used as planters, said to have been made for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The one closest to the house is in a classical style and made of cast concrete. It consists of a large carved bow] supported by a flaring, fluted column mounted on a square molded base. On the edge of the base is an oval metal medallion stating that the object was "Made in Chicago." The second um is in this Chinese style and made of metal. Its carved ovoid bowl rests in a frame, the legs of which flare out to the four corners of a molded square base.

About 30 feet east of the house is a carriage house that was built in 1971. The carriage house is a 1½-story Queen Anne-style building with a side-facing gable roof covered in composition shingles. At the apex of the roof on its westerly end is a square cupola with a pyramidal roof topped by a metal weathervane. Directly under the cupola on its northerly side is a large dormer with faux doors, resembling a hayloft. A set of double doors dominates the facade below the dormer. Another set of doors appears to the east. A pedestrian door occupies the west end of the front facade. The walls of the carriage house are board-and-batten, with all door openings outlined and decorated with light-colored boards. The owner said he copied the design from an illustration in a "Modern House" book published in 1885. After it was completed, he found it closely resembled photographs of the original carriage house, which was destroyed by fire in 1926.

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires Floor Plans
Floor Plans

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires Site plan
Site plan

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires Historic Photograph (Date Unknown)
Historic Photograph (Date Unknown)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires Historic Photograph (Date Unknown)
Historic Photograph (Date Unknown)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires Historic Photograph (Date Unknown)
Historic Photograph (Date Unknown)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires Historic Photograph (Date Unknown)
Historic Photograph (Date Unknown)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires Historic Photograph (Date Unknown)
Historic Photograph (Date Unknown)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires South (primary) elevation, westerly end (2006)
South (primary) elevation, westerly end (2006)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires Northwest corner of house (2006)
Northwest corner of house (2006)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires Northwest corner of house (2006)
Northwest corner of house (2006)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires North elevation (2006)
North elevation (2006)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires Northeast corner of house (2006)
Northeast corner of house (2006)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires East elevation (2006)
East elevation (2006)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires East elevation (2006)
East elevation (2006)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires South (primary) elevation, east end (2006)
South (primary) elevation, east end (2006)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires South (primary) elevation, detail of entrance (2006)
South (primary) elevation, detail of entrance (2006)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires Aviary, southwest corner (2006)
Aviary, southwest corner (2006)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires Aviary, southeast corner (2006)
Aviary, southeast corner (2006)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires Urn #1 (2006)
Urn #1 (2006)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires Urn #2 (2006)
Urn #2 (2006)

Historic McNally Mansion Destroyed in Eaton Los Angeles Wildfires Interior, Turkish Smoking Room (2006)
Interior, Turkish Smoking Room (2006)