4/1/2007 - HISTORIC REDLANDS
HISTORIC REDLANDS
Historically significant Barton House becomes Barton Villa
by Judith Hunt
In June of 2006, during its annual Heritage Awards presentation, the Redlands Area Historical Society bestowed a much deserved award on the beautifully restored Barton Villa. But how did this home become a Villa? Lets travel back in time to trace the naming of this historic structure.
Born in South Carolina in 1823, Ben Barton was a descendant of a prominent Colonial family. At age nineteen he left the family estate to study medicine at Transylvania College Medical School in Lexington, Kentucky. After moving to Texas he met and married Eliza Brite in 1851. Then in 1854 the couple came to California, finally settling in San Bernardino in 1857. They were among the first non-Mormon Anglo settlers of the new city. In November of that same year, following the Mormon recall to Utah, Dr. Barton purchased 640 acres of land from Elders Amasa Lyman and Charles Rich for a paltry $500. This was his first land acquisition in what would become the City of Redlands and included the current site of his home, the Asistencia or Estancia as it was known at that time, and a portion of the Mill Creek Zanja. He later added over twenty-five hundred acres more to this original purchase.
Barton planted 60,000 grape vines on his ranch, using cuttings he received from the San Gabriel Mission. This became the beginning of the famous Barton vineyard and winery. Through the years Barton farmed the land, growing grain, corn, fruit, nuts, oranges and raising sheep.
Finally, deciding to retire from his medical practice in San Bernardino, Ben Barton started, in earnest, in 1866 to build a simple two-story, L-shaped building with a hipped roof. It was the first fired brick building in what became the City of Redlands and the second in the County of San Bernardino. The clay, for the bricks, was dug and fired in kilns on site. Terry Vines, the current owner and conductor of the extensive renovations begun in 2003, estimates that the structure is composed of almost 120,000 original oversized kiln dried bricks. He found that the foundation sits 38 inches below ground and is five bricks thick. The first floor, approximately 47 layers high, is four bricks thick while the second floor (another 47 layers) is three bricks thick.
Over the years, extensive renovations were undertaken by Ben Barton, first converting the Villa into a Greek Revival style building. The Second Empire styling was accomplished in 1883 by converting the roof to a Mansard; which you see today. The Villa is the only remaining Second Empire residence in Redlands.
Ben Barton sold approximately 640 acres of land to Frank Brown and E.G. Judson to begin the Colony of Redlands. Barton also played a role in the development of Redlands water supply, when in 1881 he suggested to Frank
Brown the possibility of damning waters in Bear Valley.
The significance of the Barton Villa has been recognized by the City of Redlands with its listing on the Citys Register of Historic Resources in 1993. Then in 1996 it received designation on the National Register of Historic Places when it was extensively researched by Janet Hanson during the proposal process. It was during this research that Ms. Hanson discovered newspapers of the period repeatedly dubbed the house a Villa. Thus, the National designation was filed as Barton Villa and so it has been called by those in the know historically. Today the adaptive reuse of the Barton Villa as an office complex has made it possible for future generations to enjoy the historic significance of this vital piece of our local history.
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