The 15,000 square foot burnt shell of Jack London's dream house

Jack London didn't just want a house; he wanted a manifesto in timber and stone. In 1906, he wrote an essay about his dream home where utility and beauty were "indissolubly wedded." He hired San Francisco architect Albert L. Farr to build it. A 1987 study compared the design to a Greene and Greene "ultimate bungalow" mixed with an Adirondack mountain lodge. It was a 15,000 square foot beast with 26 rooms, a massive two-story living room, and a built-in vacuum cleaning system.

Construction began in late 1910 on his 1,200-acre "Wonder Ranch" in Glen Ellen. The crew used Coast Redwood logs with the bark still on them and blasted volcanic rock out of the ground to build the foundations. London and Farr designed the house for strength to withstand earthquake damage. They even planned for a laundry facility with a steam dryer rotary wringer. The design was a leading example of Arts and Crafts architecture.

Then came August 22, 1913. Arson was suspected as the cause of the fire, but no strong evidence was ever discovered. The house burned before the Londons could even move their furniture in. The fire gutted the interior and collapsed the red tile roof, but the massive masonry walls stood their ground. The foreman, Natale Forni, was described by Charmian London as being "like a father who had lost his child" due to the fire. London was crushed. He pledged to rebuild, but he died in 1916 before the redwood logs could even finish drying.

Today, the ruins sit within Jack London State Historic Park. You can still see the heavy masonry that survived the flames. It is a literal monument to a finished plan that never saw a single day of occupancy.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons