Blacker House
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Robert R. Blacker House
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Robert R. Blacker House (Greene & Greene 1907)
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| Location | 1177 Hillcrest Ave Pasadena, California |
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| Coordinates | 34°7′37″N 118°7′58″W / 34.12694°N 118.13278°WCoordinates: 34°7′37″N 118°7′58″W / 34.12694°N 118.13278°W |
| Architect | Charles & Henry Greene |
| Architectural style | Bungalow/Craftsman |
| NRHP Reference # | 86000147 |
| Added to NRHP | February 6, 1986 |
The Robert Roe Blacker House, often referred to as the Blacker House or Robert R. Blacker House, is a residence in Pasadena, California, which is now on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1907 for Robert Roe Blacker and Nellie Canfield Blacker. It was designed by Henry and Charles Greene of the renowned Pasadena firm of Greene and Greene. This house was a lavish project for the Greene brothers, costing in excess of US$100,000.00 ($2.57 million today). Everything for the house was custom designed, down to the teak escutcheon plates of the upstairs mahogany panel doors to the linen closets with their ebony cloud adorned keys.
Robert R. Blacker (1845–1931) was a retired Michigan lumberman. Nellie Canfield Blacker was the daughter of John Canfield, owner-operator of Canfield & Wheeler, a lumber mill based in Manistee, Michigan. Blacker was a member of several lumbering firms in Manistee, including R.R. Blacker & Company; Davies, Blacker & Company and the State Lumber Company. Among other interests, he was also president of the Michigan Steamship Company, original owners of the ill-fated SS Eastland.
Robert Blacker preceded his wife in death in 1931. Upon Nellie's death in 1946, the property went into probate as the Blackers did not identify any heirs. In her Last Will and Testament, Nellie specified the house, land, and its furnishings were to be sold as a whole and not parceled off.
Unfortunately, the representative of Nellie Blacker's estate decided to maximize the value of the assets instead. As a result the seven acre (2.8 hectare) estate was sold sans its furnishings, then subdivided by the purchaser into smaller parcels, destroying the gardens in the process. The main residence ended up on just one acre (0.4 hectare). The garage became a separate residence, as did the caretaker's cottage. The remainder of the gardens were subdivided into separate lots.
More notable, though, was the infamous "yard sale" conducted shortly after the sale in probate where the furnishing were sold off, in a yard sale fashion. Furniture built for the Blacker House is now in museums and in the hands of wealthy collectors and Hollywood luminaries. One family, the Andersons, lived down the street and were able to buy a large lot of furniture. In 1990, an Anderson family member offered the then-owners of the Blacker House the ability to purchase the breakfast room table for the remarkable sum of $390,000.00; the table was later sold at auction for approximately $70,000. On 19 June 2007, the following Greene and Greene items; living room chair, bedroom chair, and bedroom andirons were sold at Sotheby's fetching prices, including Buyer's premium and New York sales tax, of $913,600, $396,000, and $66,000 respectively.
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