Casa Del Herrero: The Romance of Spanish Colonial

Casa del Herrero—House of the Blacksmith—stands today as one of the most fully developed and intact examples of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture. It was designed and built between 1922 and 1925 as a second house for George Fox Steedman, a St. Louis industrialist. Thought principally to be the work of George Washington Smith, the architect, Steedman himself generated many ideas during the initial design phase that were both a blessing and curse to Smith. Steedman’s vision prevailed, and throughout the decade following the house’s initial completion, he continued to rework both house and garden, engaging the architects Lutah Maria Riggs, Edwards, Plunkett & Howell, and Floyd Brewster, and garden designers Francis T. Underhill and Lockwood de Forest, Jr. The result today is the most magnificent of the California Spanish Colonial Revival-style houses now standing.