National Register of Historic Places

Forster, Frank A., House

San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California
Listed
September 10, 1986
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
86002405

About this property

The Frank A. Forster House in San Juan Capistrano, California is a 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) stucco, Spanish tile roofed mansion built in 1910 for $10,000 by Frank Ambrosio Foster, grandson of rancher John (Don Juan) Forster. It is the only remaining home of its style and era in the area. It was designed as a 5-bedroom, 1-bathroom home in the Mission Revival style by Los Angeles architects Robert Farquhar Train and Robert Edmund Williams. Upon the deaths of Frank and his wife Ada, their daughter Alice Forster Leck inherited the house, and bequeathed it to her nephew Pancho Forster. The property changed owners in 1975, and was purchased as a fixer-upper in 1983 by interior designer Martha Gresham, who traded two Porterville ranches for the house. It came with a legend of a ghost, nicknamed "George the Ghost" by Gresham. She spent $350,000 restoring the mansion, and used it as a home and office until 1990 when she sold it to photographer Phillip Stewart Charis. The mansion is a San Juan Capistrano Historic and Cultural Landmark. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Orange County, California

Location

27182 Ortega Hwy.
San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California
33.50266, -117.65621

Categories

ARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Stroschein, Carl, House
Industrial
0.3 mi
Casa de Esperanza
Industrial
0.3 mi
Mission San Juan Capistrano
Colonial
0.4 mi
Esslinger Building
Industrial
0.4 mi
Egan, Richard, House
Industrial
0.4 mi

Questions about this property

When was Forster, Frank A., House listed on the National Register?

Forster, Frank A., House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 10, 1986.

What type of historic resource is Forster, Frank A., House?

Forster, Frank A., House is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Forster, Frank A., House?

The period of significance for Forster, Frank A., House is recorded as the industrial era.

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