1975 HERITAGE AWARD RECIPIENT
The Redlands Area Historical Society, Inc.
Heritage Award 1975
Henry B. Auchincloss Home
1403 Cajon Street
1891
As one cynic observed: History is the tricks and lies we play on the past. The history behind the Arthur S. Auchincloss home was, indeed, a “tangled web” now unfolded.
Thought to be the A.S. Auchincloss home, it was in fact built by Henry B. Auchincloss between March and June of 1892. The Citrograph weekly paper praised the structure, the homesite, and noted that the plans envisioned hand-cut stone fireplaces because Redlands bricks were poor quality compared to granite provided by nature.
Henry Auchincloss bought the property between Garden and Cajon Streets for $9,000 from G.P. Perley. The sale included 23 shares of Crafton Water Company stock and 7 Class A certificates of the Bear Valley land and Water Company. This transaction took place on April 16, 1891. Auchincloss was a resident of New York at the time.
In September of 1891 Auchincloss had a barn built by Jerome Seymour, owner of the planing mill in Redlands. The barn’s cost of $700 was about the going rate for the period. The house itself cost $8,900 according to the building lists published in the 1892 Citrograph. To manage the house and grounds Auchincloss hired two Chinese employees, one to cook, one to be housekeeper. They both lived upstairs.
Henry Auchincloss was connected with the New York Central Railroad and was also influential in the banking business. The Auchincloss family was well known in the New York financial and social circles. Auchincloss died in Santa Barbara in 1926 at the age of ninety.
Arthur Auchincloss, Henry’s son (who also occupied the house), was much involved in the local citrus industry and was superintendent of several large ranches in Riverside. Arthur was a charter member of the Redlands Chamber of Commerce, 1893, and in 1904 was president of the Redlands Country Club. He also served as secretary of the Redlands Trust Company. He died in 1922 at the age of fifty-five.
In 1909 on April 30th, Henry and Arthur Auchincloss sold their house and property and 36 shares of Redlands Heights Water Company stock to Samuel S. Sewall, Sr., for $10 in gold coin. Known owners in addition to the Sewall family were the Ray Williams family, a Mr. Logan, the Charles Crane family, and the present owners, Mr. and Mrs. Andy Testman.
