Mountain Views News          Saturday, March 3, 2012

17

HOMES AND PROPERTY

 Mountain Views News Saturday, March 3, 2012 

One Of A Kind: Featuring unique homes and gardens and the people who create them. Story and Photos by Chris Bertrand


PINNEY HOUSE WILL OPEN TO 
WISTARIA FESTIVAL TICKET HOLDERS

RARE PEEK INTO SIERRA MADRE’S 
125 YEAR OLD “GRAND DAME” 
VICTORIAN

Sierra Madre’s Wistaria Festival will have an added treat for attendees this 
year. The Pinney House owners, Greg and Judy Asbury, will open their 10,000 
square foot home to ticket holders during the once yearly celebration. Vine and 
Pinney House viewing will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 25.

The Asburys have spent nearly a decade restoring and rehabbing what’s known as “the Grand Dame of 
Sierra Madre” and formerly the Hotel Sierra Madre, back in the 1880’s. 

The home’s faded and dreary white exterior has been transformed into a sophisticated yet very 
Victorian, multicolor palette. Many of the home’s current Victorian accoutrements are vintage, yet not 
original to the home, like the parlor fireplace surround, transported back from an Asbury excursion 
to Arizona. 

In charmingly antiquated vernacular, the local Valley Vista newspaper of July 31, 1889 advertised that 
the hotel was “a quiet and comfortable home for sojourners and tourists. The Building and Furnishing 
Entirely New. Reached by carriages from station on the Santa Fe railroad one mile distant. There is 
from this House a fine view of the beautiful San Gabriel Valley, extending from on end of the valley to 
the other and from the mountains to the sea, presenting a picture grand, inspiring and never tiring, 
revealing to the observer new beauties each day.”

Since then, the Pinney House, named for its original owner, Dr. Elbert Pinney, has seen many storied 
chapters in its 125 year history. They include its use as a sanatorium, boarding house and apartment 
building. The home was also the location of movies like the Seven Little Foys starring Bob Hope and 
Barbara Stanwyck’s Great Man’s Lady.

 Local lore suggests the distinctive and intricate front porch was redesigned with pieces from a house in 
the Wilshire area, to the current design during its use in Stanwyck’s movie in 1942. Ahhh, Hollywood!

The three story, 10,002 square foot, Queen Anne home was designed by noted and prolific West Coast 
architects, Samuel and Joseph Cather Newsom, and originally contained up to thirty rooms for guests. 
Visitors often arrived by rail, and took advantage of drayage transportation by mule by “Uncle Henry” 
as Sierra Madreans called the owner of the service. 

Today, the floorplan has been lovingly reconfigured, to a magnificent estate home with six one and 
two bedroom suites, formal rooms with three fireplaces, a library, sun room, English garden, a main 
level studio plus a self-contained, 2500 square foot, staff, home office or extended family quarters on 
the top floor.

 The “open house” for Wistaria Festival ticket holders will help celebrate the 125th birthday of the 
structure, and offer the public a rare, “two-fer” opportunity to view another of Sierra Madre’s Treasures.

“We want to share our progress on this very special home with Sierra Madre, and this seemed the 
perfect time to do it,” said the Asburys. “As stewards of this unique property, we have appreciated the 
encouragement, cheerleading and appreciation from the community as we journeyed through this 
decade long project.” 

The Pinney House, located at 225 North Lima in Sierra Madre, is located about four blocks from the 
Wistaria Vine site. For more on the home’s history and vintage photos, visit www.PinneyHouse.com. 

Tickets can be purchased online at www.WistariaTickets.com, by contacting the Chamber of 
Commerce at 626-355-5111, or on the day of the event in downtown Sierra Madre. 

Tickets are $10/Adults; Seniors and children 6 -16,/$7, age 5 and under free. Ticket price is the same, 
for one way or round trip shuttle use, and there are no refunds or exchanges. Vine and home viewing 
will be from 9-4. Street fair with 150 artisans on Sierra Madre Boulevard is open 9-5. A shuttle bus stop 
has been added to the Wistaria Vine route, for drop offs and pickups at the Pinney House.

Know of an interesting home, garden, or person who helps create them? Send the contact information to 
C.Bertrand@MtnViewsNews.com today!


DON’T GIVE IT AWAY

While indicators show that housing is 
making a comeback, the glut of negative 
reporting is still making people skittish 
about buying a home. This has created a hot 
rental market, with few places available to 
lease and rising rent rates. Consider some 
reasons why it’s always better to own than 
to rent.

First, as owner, you are your own landlord. 
You won’t be kicked out for any reason other 
than not making your mortgage payments. 
You control every other aspect of how you 
choose to live in your home.

Even more important, those monthly 
payments are a kind of forced savings, 
helping you to build equity. Although it’s 
possible that home values could fall further, 
the same could happen to your 401(k). But 
over the long term, both types of investment 
are more likely to see gains.

Right now, interest rates are still very low, 
which means that if you choose a fixed-rate 
mortgage, that rate will never change, and 
you will build equity at an even quicker pace.

Another reason to opt for the ownership 
route is that you’ll find - particularly now 
with so few leases available - that the nicest 
homes in the safest neighborhoods with the 
best schools will be offered for sale and not 
for rent. Consult with an agent and turn 
that rent payment into savings and security 
instead.

CALIFORNIA PENDING HOME 
SALES HIGHER IN JANUARY; SHORT 
SALES RISE TO HIGHEST LEVEL IN 
THREE YEARS

According to the Arcadia Association of 
REALTORS®, pending home sales in California 
climbed in January from both the previous month 
and the previous year. This was obtained from 
data collected by the California Association of 
REALTORS® (C.A.R.). Additionally, distressed 
home sales rose in January, comprising about half 
of all homes sold.

Pending home sales: 

C.A.R.’s Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)* rose 
from a revised 91.0 in December to 102.4 in 
January, based on signed contracts. The index 
also was up from the 93.1 recorded in January 
2011, marking the ninth consecutive month that 
pending sales were higher than the previous 
year. Pending home sales are forward-looking 
indicators of future home sales activity, providing 
information on the future direction of the market. 

Distressed housing market data: 

· Equity sales made up 49.9 percent of home 
sales in January, down from 52.7 percent in 
December but up from 46.5 percent in January 
2011.

· The total share of all distressed property 
types sold statewide increased to 50.1 percent in 
January, up from December’s 47.3 percent but 
down from 53.5 percent in January 2011.

· The share of short sales rose to its highest 
level in three 
years since C.A.R. 
began tracking this 
statistic. Of the 
distressed properties 
sold statewide in 
January, 23.8 percent 
were short sales, up 
from the previous 
month’s share of 22.2 
percent and up from 
last January’s share of 
22.2 percent.

· The share of REO 
sales rose in January to 25.9 percent, up from 
December’s 24.6 percent, but down from the 30.8 
percent recorded in January 2011.

Representing local Realtors® in the San Gabriel Valley for 88 years, the 
ARCADIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (www.TheAAR.com) is 
one of the oldest trade organizations in CA. The AAR is dedicated to 
the advancement of professionalism in real estate and is an advocate for 
private property rights. A.A.R. is headquartered in Arcadia.

SHARE OF DISTRESSED SALES TO TOTAL SALES
(SINGLE-FAMILY)


LOVELY SIERRA MADRE LOCATION,

READY TO MOVE IN, PRIVATE CORNER LOT

304 Sunnyside Ave., Sierra Madre | Offered at $739,000

Beautiful, bright, open floor plan. Located in lovely Sierra 
Madre. This is a large corner lot; the home is 3 good sized 
bedrooms, 2 baths. The kitchen is open to dining room. 
There is an indoor laundry room located off the kitchen. The 
home has just been painted inside and out, pretty hardwood 
floors, the roof was put on in May 1999. All the windows 
have gorgeous wood shutters-. This home is ready for 
you and yours! Showing is easy, just call me!!! No need to 
preview, great condition!

Features: 1,590 sqft | 9,647 Lot Size | 3 BR | 2 BA


CAROL 

CANTERBURY

Prudential 

California Realty

626-252-6322 Cell

CarolCanterbury@
hotmail.com