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According to Platt's biographer, Keith N. Morgan, "The [Stephens House] drawings in the Platt Collection, Avery Library, are variously labeled Santa Barbara, Montecito, and Pasadena. A June 1919 bill for decorating samples mentions 'for Montecito,' but it is addressed to Santa Barbara." (See "List of Buildings, Gardens, and Projects," Charles A. Platt The Artist as Architect, (New York: Architectural History Foundation and MIT Press, 1985], p. 251.) Morgan thought the house unbuilt. Architectural historian David Streatfield has visited the Stephens House in Montecito built by a family from MI that built a fortune in the lumber industry. A subsequent owner was Sterling Morton, of the Chicago salt family, as a summer house. (Conversation with Prof. David Streatfield, 01/18/2011.)

The Mortons sheared off a floor from the house, turning it into a one-story dwelling in the 1940s. Chester Carjola (1901-1985) did the architectural remodeling work at this time, and Lockwood De Forest III (1896-1949) designed the gardens for the house. This was De Forest's last major work before his death. The Santa Barbara architect Lutah Maria Riggs (1896-1984) did remodeling work on the Morton House in the 1950s. Subsequent remodels have turned the house into a mansarded chateau.

PCAD id: 8437