It would be tempting to move in at this corner just for cachet. One pictures thatched roofs and stone garden walls overgrown with vining roses. Alas, although this San Marino corner is mere blocks from the
Huntington Library and Gardens (a stroll through which evokes images of 19th century Europe), this corner is built with 20th century ranch-style homes, and expensive ones at that. The cachet here is
San Marino itself, where the median list price of a home, as of July of this year of all years, was just under two million dollars.
I wonder what
Geoffrey Chaucer, the 14th century poet/diplomat, would think of this corner. The guy was no slouch--even Shakespeare studied him. He was accustomed to wealth, not of the ranch-style home kind but of the castles and kings kind. If Chaucer came to town I suppose we could take him to the Huntington, but where else would we go?
Here's a Google map for you.
14 comments:
He'd probably love the mall.
Denny's
Haha! I was thinking we could take in a football game but you guys are way ahead of me.
He wrote about astronomy, so I guess he'd like a tour of Caltech.
And I bet he'd get a kick out of seeing his Canterbury Tales on prominent display at the Huntington Library, though I'm not sure he'd like us all thinking that he's the small fat man on the donkey in the illustration.
I know Chaucer was a genius and all that, but he was never my cup of Earl Grey. In fact, as an English major, all I remember is that "swive" was the nastier older brother of "f***."
I've always wondered about that too, Bellis. I don't think he'd have approved of that depiction.
My mother studied Chaucer in her graduate work, Hiker. She could even speak the "olde English." But she never quoted those words to me.
In reference to the median prices of San Marino homes and to Chaucer being used to castles, I was reminded of this sentence in a book I've been reading: "It is a cliche', but nonetheless true, to recognize that a middle-class family living in a developed twenty-first century country enjoys a life filled with luxuries that a king could barely afford two centuries ago."
Isn't someone in the vicinity trying to sell their 27-bathroom pile for, I think, $136 million? Maybe Chaucer would be more at home in a restored Craftsman bungalow, after all.
Two centuries ago....no two ply t.p.,
Chamber pots,.. so an introduction to a modern flush toilet would be a good demonstration of progress, from the ground up, so to speak....
Speedway, you've got that right. My husband often says, when he bites into a particularly good peach, "we live like kings."
PJ, good idea. I believe they have those at Denny's. Two birds with one stone.
Oops, my bad. The mansion I saw for sale is listed at $150M, not $135M. Big diff! ;-) Nowhere in the listing did I see mention of a library.
A friend and I thought we'd offer $150K, max out our Home Depot credit cards to add another bathroom,put in a few bookshelves then flip it for $175M.
I want to live right on the corner! My Senior English term paper in high school was titled "The Poetic Art of Geoffrey Chaucer." A+ of course!
Is that house in Pasadena, Speedway? I ought to see if I could get a picture of it.
Ann, I'm glad you got an A+ and I'm amazed you remember the name of your paper! Maybe I didn't get any A pluses because I don't remember the names of any of the papers I wrote.
love it, never saw it before, well done!
Merci, Des. It was one of those things that made me stop the car.
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