# Mrs. Clinton Walker House

Mrs. Clinton Walker House, also known as Cabin on the Rocks, is located on Carmel Point, near Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. The house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1948 and completed in 1952 for Mrs. Clinton "Della" Walker of Pebble Beach. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 17, 1977.

## History

In 1918, Willis J. Walker and his wife purchased 216 acres (87 ha) of land in Carmel, which included this lot on the ocean. In the 1940s it was deeded to Della Walker with the condition that she find a noted architect to design a house. Della reached out to Frank Lloyd Wright and told him she wanted a house “as durable as the rocks and as transparent as the waves."

## Description

The house, an example of Wright's organic architecture, is built on a mass of granite boulders, uses the local Carmel-stone, and has a roof the color of the sea that is shaped to resemble a ship. It is the only Frank Lloyd Wright house that overlooks the ocean.
It has a Usonian design; it was built as a 1,200 square feet (110 m$^2$), single-story house that incorporates a hexagon concrete floor with 120-degree angles, with three rooms completely open with views of the ocean. The low roof was once covered with triangular porcelain panels because of the copper restrictions during the Korean War in the 1950s, these were later replaced with copper shingles. The living-dining room is centered around a floor-to-ceiling fireplace with built-in furniture. The hexagonal modules of the floor plan gave the appearance of a honeycomb. The window frames are painted in Wright's signature "Cherokee Red" color with reverse-stepped glass windows.
In 1954, Wright said, "The over-all-effect is quiet, and the long white surf lines of the sea seem to join the lines of the house to make a natural melody." The grounds were designed by the landscape architect Thomas Church. Later, Walker had a studio addition to the master bedroom designed in 1956 by her nephew.

## A Summer Place

In the 1959 movie A Summer Place, the characters Ken Jorgenson (Richard Egan) and Sylvia (Dorothy McGuire) have a beach house, which was filmed at the Clinton Walker House. In the film, Sylvia tells Molly (Sandra Dee) that Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house, seemingly located on the East Coast near the movie's "Pine Island" location. The film shows views of the Walker house's interior, exterior and patio. Additional scenes were filmed at a cottage located at Mission Ranch Hotel and Restaurant in Carmel.

## Renovations

Della added an addition, in 1960, to the master bedroom based on a 1956 studio addition that was designed by Wright. It was completed by some of the original carpenters that had built the house.
In 1964, San Francisco sculptor Robert Howard installed a crushed stone and copper ore mermaid sculpture on the deck, called Undine. The 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m) two-ton sculpture sits on a base that can be rotated for viewing.
In 2010, the front living room window mullions were replaced, the front gate repaired, and the National Historic Register Plaque was installed at the front door. Other projects included replacing the rear yard windscreen, updating the garden, and repairing the radiant floor.
In 2018, the wall or ship's prow of the building facing the water was replaced because the Carmel stone had worn away and water had gotten inside the concrete.

## Gallery

* Ocean view of Mrs. Clinton Walker House
* Street view of Mrs. Clinton Walker House
* Side view of Mrs. Clinton Walker House
* Ocean view of Mrs. Clinton Walker House
* Prow view of Clinton Walker House
* Carmel has its own mermaid Undine