Gray Dolphin House Has Sculptured Stability
By: Vee Smith/ Press Democrat - circa 1961?
The gray dolphin house which hugs
hard to a rocky cheek of the windward Mendocino shore, is this area’s
latest entry in the organic home
sweepstakes, a fad which may catch
fire and run as wild as the coast it
represents.
An organic house, according to
builder-designer Patrick Matlock,
who lives with his wife Sally and a
brood of five here, is a “house which
fits into the surroundings and takes
on the character of the area.”
Mr. Matlock, who might be called a
character in his own rights, is a
disciple of the late Cedric Hollingsworth who began building “Holly”
houses, five in all, on the coast before
his death, The houses all had one
thing in common-they were large
with heavy beams and “organically
oriented” to the site.
After working in such diversified
places as Thailand for the UN and
Wichita’s supervisor of the park
board’s Arts and Crafts Center for
Adults, Mr. Matlock and family
arrived on the Mendocino Coast in
May, 1962.
His family includes his wife Sally,
nee Spear; Sean Leigh, 7; Mava Lynn
11; Dala Jai, 5 Patric Rex, 9 and
Conor Ra, 3,along with the usual
collection of dogs and cats.
“When I saw that building was
booming in the area, I started doing
bits and ends of building, designing
and interior decoration. Later I
worked with Cedric Hollingsworth. I
have a strong personal concept of
house in. The house is like the body is
to the soul reflecting the people who
live inside it.”
A Certain Steadfastness
Mr. Matlock maintains that a house
should have a certain steadfastness
about it, should offer protection
“from everything on the outside,”
and give a strong sense of security
and permanency.
You might say that Mr. Matlock’s
conception of building is the antithesis of the present-day trend toward
“ticky-tacky” type houses now so
popular in the suburbs. It would have
to be, because a Matlock house is a
hand-built one.
The gray dolphin house was
constructed over an 11-month
period by Mr. Matlock who could be
seen firing up an outside forge to
fashion some bit of décor; Jose Cross,
a Mendocino sculptor; and William
Watson, a retired British naval
officer whose hobby is wood carving.
“The house is an individual effort
viewed as a personal sculpture. At no
time were more than two men working on it. In the Bay Area, the same
house would have cost (with 2 ½
acres of seacoast) about $100,000
here we were able to build it for
around $70,000 including land,” Mr.
Matlock said. “A smaller house would
run considerably less. I have built an
organic house for as little as
$11,000.”
Massive Beams
The house, which has its own
private cove with an immense water
blow hole and a string of reefs with
playing porpoises, was constructed
of beams from a bridge the Noyo
Lumber Co. built in 1916. The two
center beams of the house are
16x30x50 ft. (in comparison, if a
beamed ceiling was used in a regular
house, the beams would be about
4x12).
Rafters, as well as the upright
supports are made of 10x18 redwood
stringers taken from the same
bridge. These were hand-adzed to
form on the job and give a heavy
textural appearance.
Hand Carved
The beams were hand-carved to fit
the character of the area with both
center beams protruding from end
gables. These are carved with fivefoot-long dolphins which seem to be
running a race to the sea.
Interior capitals, protruding beams
ends, doors and kitchen cabinets, are
richly decorated with hand-carvings.
The interior paneling of the living
room, dining room and kitchen are
done with ancient redwood garnered
from historical Mendocino Coast Sites.
The planks are impregnated with
green and gray lichen with grain in
deep relief from severe coast winters
and lend color and warmth, as well
as age, to the home.
When the main framing of the
house was completed, the beams
were burnt with a flame thrower and
sand blasted to bring out the beauty
of the adzed surface and the redwood
grain.
No Straight Lines
Since workers were Mendocino
artists, and because the house was
“envisioned as a sculpture,” and to
maintain a great sense of age, there
are no square walls straight lines in
the 1500-squre foot two-level dwelling.
The living area is upstairs overlooking the cover and blow-hole and
includes a large living –dining room,
kitchen bath, sunroom-guest room
work-room with a splendid view of
the reefs and rocks. Downstairs is
the master bedroom with fire place, a
small guest room and master bath.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ridenoour
(he’s an investment company executive in San Francisco) come up whenever they can and plan to retire to
the area.
“They were ideal people to work
with,” Mr. Matlock said. Mrs.
Ridenour is a craftsman and artists
herself and they understood what we
wanted to create in the house.”
Mr. Matlock, who conceives his
ideas, designs them and finally
builds them, works alone except for
Al Pylie, a Mendocino draftsman who
takes care of the technical details.
For all its massive strength, the
gray dolphin house retains a dainty
air like the lovely, but strong-willed
mistresses of English manors
Daphne du Maurier is wont to write
about.
Indeed, she would have to be
staunch to withstand the winters
which howl in from an unfriendly sea
which long ago received the name
“the graveyard for ships” from shipwrecked sailors.
“I built the house to last. And last
she will - longer than any of us or our
children. That is the quality which
gives a house inner strength and
security for generations to come.
That is an organic house,” Mr.
Matlock concluded.