By Mary Cristy
 Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier |
New owners giving LAH historic mansion a needed face lift
Morgan Manor, architectural grande dame of Los Altos Hills, is having a face lift. Under new owners - 38-year-old Zap Ventures Managing Partner Kelly Porter, a Palo Alto native, and his fashion designer wife, Christina - who acquired the still elegant dowager in 1999, work is proceeding briskly.
“We hope to move in a year or so,” Kelly said.
Asked how he and Christina came into possession of this tarnished treasure and where they found the courage to tackle the monumental remodeling, Kelly, who looks like the slim kid next door, smiled. “We were looking for something far more modest in Woodside or Menlo Park. Then Jo Buchanan, a Coldwell-Banker realtor, suggested this.”
Kelly and Christina, who met and married in New York and have three daughters, confessed they fell in love again - with the house. The stately edifice kindled a quiet pride of ownership in Kelly. “A man’s home is his castle,” he said. “This will be mine. I intend to live in it a long time. But it’s not just for ourselves.”
Visions of a stewardship that will enable them to reach out and draw the community into non-profit activities for the benefit of others excite them. Having observed Hidden Villa and Westwind Barn, Kelly and Christina see in Morgan Manor potential for another significant venue for philanthropy.
Landscaping their 7.5-acre site will be designed, Kelly promised, “with sensitivity to water use and environmental impact.”
In similar, important ways, Kelly and Christina reflect the same desire to serve as its founder, British capitalist Percy Tredegar Morgan, who acquired l35 acres in l9l0 and built “Little Gables” for his aging parents.
The Morgans trace their ancestry to Welsh kings. During the Crimean War, in the battle of Balaclava, Godfrey Morgan, known as “Godfrey the Good,” survived the suicidal charge of the Light Brigade that cost the lives of 247 of its 637 members. Alfred Lord Tennyson, England’s poet laureate, immortalized them in “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” When, in l875, Godfrey became the baron of Tredegar estate, his charity was legendary.
Percy Tredegar Morgan was admired for his handsome appearance, as well as his widespread business ventures. In addition to mining from California to Wyoming, Percy served on 10 boards and was a founder of the California Wine Association. Fifteen consecutive terms as president of the association broke his fragile emotional health, but not before he’d made California’s wine industry a star in the viticultural firmament.
Pietro Rossi was one of many growers who expressed gratitude and regret when Percy’s deteriorating health forced him to retire. Prohibition was another bitter blow to Percy (and the industry).
Percy, his wife Alison and two young sons, retired at Morgan Manor, completed in l915. It is a near-replica of Liverpool, England’s, Speke Hall, a half-timbered Elizabethan Tudor, On a three-year tour of Europe they had acquired a collection of art, artifacts and furniture.
The 16th-century ceiling in the 30-by-60-foot grand ballroom is from the palace of a Venetian doge and features vibrant masterpieces in oil offset with gold leaf. Each room has an exquisitely wrought fireplace.
An l8th-century wood carving from the home of English dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan adorns a ballroom doorway. Above the decorative entry doors of another wing hangs a white stone plaque carved with a Latin inscription for “Peace in this house.”
However, in “California Wine Association and Its Member Wineries, l894-l920,” authors Pentinou and Unzelman wrote:
For Percy “there was to be no lasting peace in this house. Five years later, on the evening of April l6, l920, in his wood paneled library, Percy Morgan took his cherished shotgun and ended his life one month shy of his 58th birthday.”
Two months earlier Percy had sustained injuries in an auto accident. Although doctors assured him otherwise, he believed he would never recover. Gripped by depression, the highly regarded magnate chose to die.
With the passing of Morgan, the manor lay virtually tenantless for more than a quarter of a century. Rumor has it that it was a trysting place for lovers or a speakeasy in the roaring ’20s. John Ford, a Los Altos educator, saw in it his ideal and, in l955, founded Ford Country Day School. For 30 years the prestigious educational facility for children of upscale families rang with the voices of students. Then Morgan Manor was acquired by a third owner, who resided there for 10 years. Both tenants and manor survived the earthquake of 1989 with not much more damage than shaken nerves and shattered chimney pots.
When it came on the market again, some feared the building might be razed to make way for a glitzy subdivision. With the Porters at the helm, however, the grand old girl is assured of TLC and a new lease on life.
“We’re following Department of Interior guidelines, and these guys (his team of professionals) are incredible! They deserve all the credit for what’s going on here.”
“We’re working closely with Kelly to be sure we know what he wants,” said Project Manager Gary Worth.
The Porters plan a beautifully restored manor and grounds, a low profile for themselves, and a domicile that will serve their family and community for decades to come.
