Helena Modjeska Biography

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While she was still at the height of her American career, Modjeska and her

husband established a permanent home in Santiago Canyon, about sixty miles

south of Los Angeles. They had first visited the secluded site during their

Anaheim sojourn in 1876, when it was part of a 160-acre homestead owned by a

pioneer, J.E. Pleasants, and his wife Maria Refugio Carpenter. Seven years

later, in 1883, while on a California visit, the Chlapowskis bought a half interest in

the Pleasants ranch. In 1888 they bought the remaining portion of the ranch and

engaged New York architect Stanford White to design an addition to the original

pioneer cabin on the property. From 1888 until 1906 the couple spent vacations

and periods of retirement at their rambling white frame house, which also served

as headquarters for Karol Chlapowskis working ranch. Additional purchases of

land enabled Chlapowski to plant olive and citrus groves, and to build a dam for

storage of water from Santiago Creek. He raised horses, cattle, poultry, and

farm crops, and maintained a large apiary.

Modjeska named the estate Arden, after the forest setting for

Shakespeare's play, As You Like It. A notable feature of the house was the large

paneled library, with space for an extensive collection of theater memorabilia,

2000 books, artifacts, heirlooms, and art works including paintings by such Polish

artists as Jozef Chelmonski and Stanislaw Witkiewicz. Arden became famous as

a California showplace. Visitors wrote of the romantic dwelling beneath it

canopy of ancient live oak trees and its green lawns, rose gardens, wishing well,

rustic bridges, woodpeckers, and hummingbirds.

 

 

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