The place behind the detail.

Henry E. Huntington bought the San Marino Ranch in 1903, and his mansion, by the architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, was completed in 1911. In August 1919 he and Arabella Huntington signed a trust that made their private estate a public institution.

The Huntington opened to visitors in 1928, a year after Henry’s death.

The library holds some 12 million items, including the 15th-century Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and a Gutenberg Bible printed on vellum.

The Huntington Art Gallery opened in the former mansion in 1928, displaying Thomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy and the portrait known as Pinkie.

• Read the history of The Huntington→

Of the estate’s 207 acres, about 130 are open to visitors, across sixteen themed gardens. The Desert Garden has been planted since 1907, the Japanese Garden is more than a century old and Liu Fang Yuan, the Chinese Garden, was dedicated in 2008.

This history belongs to the place and the people who shaped it. The History page offers a longer introduction, and the timeline gives a short route through selected milestones.

• Read the history of The Huntington→
• Explore the timeline→