page_title: Hazel Wood Waterman
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Hazel Wood Waterman / Career
caption_attribution_description: Main entrance to the Casa de Estudillo, San Diego, California. This 170 year old hacienda was built by Jose Maria de Estudillo, the commandant of the Presidio in 1827. It is furnished to represent how a wealthy Mexican family would have lived at that time.
context_page_description: Hazel Wood Waterman was an early 20th century American architect working in an Arts and Crafts—inspired style in southern California. She undertook the first major renovation of Estudillo House, which is one of the oldest surviving examples of Spanish architecture in California.
context_section_description: After training with Gill, Waterman wanted to go out as an architect on her own, and Gill helped her to do this. Her first commission came in 1905 from two of his former clients, the San Diego socialite Alice Lee (after whom Theodore Roosevelt named his eldest daughter) and her companion Katherine Teats. Lee wanted Waterman to design a group of three houses near Balboa Park, and she asked Gill if he would serve as the architect of record on the project while having Waterman do the actual design work. Gill agreed to this and supported the inexperienced Waterman by supervising her work. Waterman sited the houses in a U shape, giving them a common garden that was designed by Kate Sessions. The Lee-Teats house was completed in the Prairie style, similar to Gill's other projects at this time. Through her influence of Californian missions, her 1910 Estudillo House restoration showed the Mexican influence in her architecture. 
  In 1906, Waterman opened her own office, though she retained close ties to Gill throughout her career. For the first five years or so, she mainly designed Arts and Crafts style residences, many of them expressing her preference for designs that blended indoors with outdoors. In 1911, she received her first non-residential commission, a new building for the Wednesday Club of San Diego (of which she was a longstanding member). For this building, she extended her style to include elements—especially stucco—paying homage to the region's Spanish architecture.
  Waterman's most famous solo commission came in 1910 from businessman John D. Spreckels to restore Estudillo House in Old Town, San Diego. Estudillo House was one of the oldest surviving examples of Spanish architecture in California, and it had gained some national fame a generation earlier by being associated with Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 bestseller Ramona. Waterman worked with historical records in determining what materials should be used in the restoration and what the final plan of the rooms and gardens should be, while also trying to satisfy Spreckels's desire for a renovation that would make it easier to market the site as a Ramona-themed attraction. Her role in this restoration was recognized when Estudillo House was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey of 1937.
  Waterman also received a commission from the Children's Home in Balboa Park, and she designed a garden for Julius Wangenheim that in 1933 would be awarded a Certificate of Honor by the American Institute of Architects. She was able to employ several draftspeople over the years, including Lilian Rice and her own daughter, Helen. She collaborated with local designers and artists such as tile maker Ernest A. Batchelder. Her breadth of design interests showed in frequent papers she gave on diverse subjects to the Wednesday Club.
  Waterman took a break from architecture between 1915 and 1920, and seems to have stopped practicing architecture altogether in 1929. She retired in Berkeley, California, where she died on July 22, 1948. Her papers are held by the San Diego History Center.
caption: Casa de Estudillo - main entrance
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