AKA: Double H Ranch, Carmel Valley, CA; Stonepine Estate, Carmel Valley, CA

Structure Type: built works - dwellings - houses

Designers: Hoffman, F. Burrall, Architect (firm); Porter, Bruce, Designer (firm); Francis Burrall Hoffman Jr. (architect); Bruce Porter (designer); Isabella Worn (landscape designer)

Dates: [unspecified]

150 East Carmel Valley Road
Carmel Valley, CA 93924-9605

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Building History

Helen Crocker Russell (1896-1966), heiress daughter of William Henry Crocker (1861–1937), (President of the Crocker-Anglo Bank), built this Spanish Colonial residence in the Carmel Valley, CA. The New York architect F. Burrall Hoffman (1882-1980) was the architect of the house, while San Francisco designer, Bruce Porter, who laid out the gardens of William Crocker's house, "New Place," also designed the gardens at the Double H Ranch.

While Helen Russell seems to have selected the landscape architect, her husband may have had the connection to the architect. Like Hoffman, Henry Potter Russell was also a Harvard alumnus and knew the architect socially in New York City during the 1910s and 1920s. In 1983, Gordon and Noel Hentschel bought the estate from the Russell heirs and renamed it "Stonepine Estate." They have transformed it into a hideaway hotel for the rich and famous. (Much of this information was obtained in conversation with Prof. David Streatfield, Seattle, WA, 01/20/2011.)

Building Notes

The Russells named the ranch the "Double H" for each of their first names. In 2011, the Stonepine Estate occupied 330 acres of land. Tel: 831.659.2245 (2011).

PCAD id: 16066