38 THE TROPICAL Garden Pacific Railroad, which completed the Transcontinental Railroad, but also the Chesapeake and Ohio railroads. Collis also founded the city of Newport News, Virginia, for shipbuilding. After his first wife died, he married a younger single mother, Arabella Worsham. He adopted her son Archer, whom he may have fathered. When Collis died, Henry Huntington married Arabella, who was close to him in age. Together, Arabella and Henry Huntington were passionate collectors of art and books. When a large ranch in San Marino went into foreclosure, Huntington bought it for $225,000. The construction of a 55,000-square-foot Beaux Arts home began in 1909. Today, the home is The Huntington’s European art museum. The couple’s book collection soon required a separate library, and as early as 1925, that library—which formed the basis of The Huntington—was opened to scholars. The building now houses more than 9 million items, including rare books, manuscripts, photography and prints. Arabella loved orchids, but collected only those with white flowers. The Huntington’s collection today comes in many colors, because Arabella’s original collection was sold during the Depression. Even though she had a hand in the design of their home, Arabella didn’t like southern California and spent most of her time in Paris and New York. She died in 1924; Henry Huntington died in 1927. They are buried in a mausoleum on The Huntington’s grounds. The Huntington’s Gardens William Hertrich, a landscape gardener, was hired in 1904 to work in the ranch’s gardens. He was born in Germany, studied horticulture in Austria and then in San Marino, and soon worked his way up to superintendent of grounds and buildings. He retired in 1948, but remained a consultant for the property until his death in 1966. Today, a California garden greets visitors with low-growing, drought-tolerant plants and a long, narrow water feature. It sings California, with ornamental grasses, succulents, stunning gray-leafed Acacia baileyana specimens, dwarf bottle brushes, lavender and poppies. In the palm garden, you will find imposing Chilean wine palms and enormous sabal palms, larger than any in Florida. European and California fan palms are accented with smaller understory palms, and Canary Island date palms reach 60 feet in height. Not far away, a monumental Agathis robusta, an Australian kauri tree, dominates its solitary place in the landscape. The gardens include dedicated plantings for roses, camellias, lily ponds, an Australian previous page (l-R) The 10-acre desert garden contains about 2,100 species. The Munger Research Center opened in 2005. ABOVE (L-R) The children’s garden is for kids ages 2 to 7. View of one of the lily ponds through bamboo.
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