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Gamble House
Indonesia Media/Bryant Irawan
 You may have heard the brand names: Febreze, Swiffer, Old Spice, Tide, Crest, Duracell, Olay, or even Bounty, but did you ever realize only a single company owns them. The Procter & Gamble Company has been providing its customers with a huge myriad of house hold products ranging from health, child care, cleaners, and much more. William Procter and James Gamble came to the States in the 1800s as immigrants and married sisters. Later on, they started a company together called the Procter and Gamble Company. In their early years, the company experimented and marketed an unique version of soap that was healthy for the users’ skin and floated on water. After achieving to obtain contracts from the Union Army to supply the troops with their ivory soap, sales reached above a million dollars. As the company was passed on from generation to generation, the Procter and Gamble Company have been innovating new products to help make lives easier around the house.
 David Berry Gamble, a second generation member of the Procter and Gamble Company in Cincinnati, had retired from active work in 1895, and with his wife, Mary Huggins Gamble, began to spend winters in Pasadena, residing in the area’s resort hotels. After obtaining a strong liking for California’s weather, the two decided to build their winter house in Pasadena. Now, the house is a National Historic Landmark for its display of the architectural advancements from the transition of the 19 th century to the 20 th. Moreover, the house was designed by Charles Sumner Greene and Harry Mather Greene. The Greene Brothers were the most renowned architects in America at that time. Their work is recognized internationally by many architect  fanatics. Those two could be considered the architectural fathers of America for their application of creativity to every masterpiece they design. Completed in 1909, the Gamble House boasted many firsts such as being the first house to be powered by electricity. Fortunately, the house was also earthquake-friendly which helped preserved its foundation. In fact, even the exterior paint of the house has not been damaged because nine layers of pea green paint were applied when the Gamble Family constructed the house. In addition, the house has not experienced any termite damage. Normally once you enter  houses that reach up to fifty years old, that eye-watering stench rushes towards you, but I experienced no “drowning in rotten wood smell” period when I entered the Gamble House. No words could describe the sheer size and details of the cottage, but the whole construction process was done in only ten months. Nowadays, building a small house could take a whole year not including the drawing and the planning stages. The Gamble Family gave the house to the city of Pasadena in 1966 and it was open to the public ever since. With the help of the University of Southern California and the city of Pasadena, group tours are held from Thursday to Sunday at 4 Westmoreland Pl.
 
 
 
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