("''House on the River''") is an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

house built in 1936 to a Spanish theme, on the banks of the

river Yealm The Yealm is a river in Devon in England that rises above sea level on the Stall Moor mires of south Dartmoor and travels to the sea, passing through Cornwood, Lee Mill and Yealmpton, a mid-sized village with a population of c.2,000 which is ...

Newton Ferrers Newton Ferrers is a village and former manor and ecclesiastical parish in the English county of Devon; it is now in the civil parish of Newton and Noss. It is situated on a creek of the River Yealm estuary, about south-east of the City of Plym ...

South Hams South Hams is a local government district on the south coast of Devon, England. Services divide between those provided by its own Council headquartered in Totnes, and those provided by Devon County Council headquartered in the city of Exete ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, England. Once owned by the Berkertex family, the house was commissioned by the baker Walter Price, who had visited California in the 1920s, to research the bread trade there, and had met

Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films including '' The Thi ...

and

Mary Pickford Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...

at their house,

Pickfair Pickfair is a mansion and estate in the city of Beverly Hills, California with legendary history. The original Pickfair was an 18 acre (7.3 ha) estate designed by architect Horatio Cogswell for attorney Lee Allen Phillips of Berkeley Square a ...

, which served as Price's inspiration. The house's features include a marble staircase made to look like a piano keyboard, and an outdoor swimming pool, since filled in and grassed over. The exterior is white stucco. A basement bar, pool room and cinema have been added in modern times, in the former garage. , the house was available to rent as a holiday residence sleeping 20. The former servants' quarters are now a separate, ten-bedroom family home. In 2013, a full episode of the BBC programme "Art Deco Icons", presented by David Heathcote, featured the house.

References

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External links

Art Deco Icons episode
Houses in Devon South Hams Houses completed in 1936 History of Devon Art Deco architecture in England