Dr. Warren Austin 1911-1999...
Dr. Warren Austin:
The following article was written by Elaine Griscom and originally appeared in Montecito Magazine in the Spring of 1994. Dr. Warren Austin passed away on December 16, 1999.
VAL VERDE'S
Dr. Warren Austin
By Elaine Griscom
Montecito Magazine, Spring 1994
Much has been written about Montecito's Val Verde estate, a classic villa set in the midst of 17 magnificently landscaped acres. A reminder of Montecito's golden era, Val Verde is the fitting residence of personable and charming Dr. Warren Austin.
Accounts of his early years in Montecito have been recorded in two recent best-selling Beryl Markham biographies: "Straight on Until Morning," by Mary Lovell, and "The Lives of Beryl Markham," by Errol Trzebinski.
In her book, author Trzebinski describes Dr. Austin: "Not easy to forget, he is tall and good-looking and his voice is not unlike that of Cary Grant, with that same debonair quality."
Born in Seattle in 1911, Dr. Austin grew up in Cosmopolis, a small lumber town on the Washington coast where his father worked as a civil engineer. His scholastic ability was such that he was able to enter the University of Washington at age 16 to study architecture, but
he later switched his interest to journalism and worked his way through the university as a reporter for the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer". After completing a Bachelor of Science degree, he moved to the University of Michigan Medical School.
He humorously recalls how he settled on a medical career: "It was during the Depression and medicine was the longest course of study I could find. I liked school, and under the circumstances wanted to stay in as long as possible."
He interned at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, and became an internist and endocrinologist. He then went on to postgraduate studies in Europe. "In my day you weren't considered a finished doctor unless you took postgraduate courses in Vienna," he adds.
Immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Dr. Austin enlisted in the army and was assigned a medical position at what sounded like a chilly post-the North Atlantic Division of U.S. Engineers. He found to his surprise that everything north of the equator was classified as the North Atlantic, and in 1942 Lieutenant Austin was ordered to the Bahamas, taking up the duties of head medical officer at the Nassau Army Hospital, newly established in a converted hotel.
The two years Dr. Austin spent in the Bahamas coincided with the Duke of Windsor's term as governor (HRH Edward VIII abdicated the British throne in 1936. He was assigned to the Bahamas in 1940 after four years of self-imposed exile in France). Dr. Austin first met the Duke through an aide-de-camp, Major Gray Phillips, who broke his finger in a freak bicycle accident and came to the hospital for treatment. "We became good friends and he invited me to all sorts of dinners and parties and eventually introduced me to the Windsors, who were charming hosts. I found the Duke to be easygoing and liked him very much. It was quite a change for me, a country boy, to be dining with the Duke," Dr. Austin recalls.
There had been no local doctor in the Bahamas until Dr. Austin arrived, and before he became their personal physician the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were flown to the United States when they needed medical attention.
Dr. Austin remembers the Duchess as a strong presence, not beautiful in the Hollywood fashion, but a gracious hostess with a sense of humor. She was reserved, however, and no casual acquaintance presumed to call her by her first name, Wallis.
Dr. Austin and the Duchess were always partners at bridge. "I played so poorly I think she wanted to protect the other guests from me, and they played for high stakes I couldn't afford."
"I was frustrated during those two years because I thought I had enlisted to help the war effort, and there I was attending black-tie dinners every night," Dr. Austin comments. After two years in the Bahamas, however, he was reassigned to Europe, where he served as surgeon with General George Patton's Third Army-from Omaha Beach to the Battle of the Bulge and Czechoslovakia.
He had previously considered Seattle and Santa Barbara as possible locations for his postwar medical practice and had sent for information from both cities. An inviting film he received, plus the gentle climate of Southern California, helped him decide to settle in the Santa Barbara area.
Earlier, at a Nassau farewell party in the Government House given for Dr. Austin by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, he had mentioned his decision to establish a medical practice in Santa Barbara. The Duke said, "You must get in touch with my dear friend Beryl Markham, who is living in Montecito. She has recently married and is Beryl Schumacher now."
Beryl Markham had spent some time with friends in Nassau in 1941 and was a close friend of Gray Phillips, the Duke's aide-de-camp. Because of Beryl's sensational trans-Atlantic flight in 1936 and her many unconventional romances, she had already received more than her share of worldwide notoriety.
When Dr. Austin arrived in Montecito late in 1945, he checked into the Montecito Inn and phoned the Schumachers, who invited him to dinner that same night. Learning of his connection with the Duke of Windsor, Beryl insisted he move out of the inn and stay with them. For the next six months he stayed with the Schumachers while he established his first medical practice in an office on Chapala Street.
He eventually rented a house, and in 1948 he opened offices in the new Montecito Medical Center, becoming the community's first medical doctor. "I was single then and made house calls morning, noon and night with scarcely any sleep," he recalled. Colleagues in town called him to check on their Montecito patients. He was active in his medical practice until the late 1970's when he "tapered off slowly and recruited Dr. Clausner from Stanford to take over." Dr. Austin is no longer affiliated with the Medical Center but keeps his California license active.
He remembers the beginning of his romance with Heath "Bunny" Horton, heiress to the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company fortune. Like the story line of a Hollywood film, they met in the 1950s on a westbound train in Utah, both of them en route to a Valentine's Day party in Sun Valley, Idaho, hosted by the wife of popular orchestra leader Eddie Duchin.
At the time, Dr. Austin was renting a redecorated gardener's cottage on the grounds of Val Verde, owned by art collector and philanthropist Wright Ludington. "Ludington was a hypochondriac who relished having his doctor close at hand," he comments.
Dr. Warren Austin and Bunny Horton were about to be married in 1956, just as Wright Ludington was selling Val Verde to Marjorie Buell, a horsewoman from Denver. Mrs. Buell immediately realized that Val Verde wasn't the right place to keep her horses, so without even moving in she sold the estate to Dr. Austin and Bunny Horton. Settling into married life on the estate, the Austins had one daughter, Dorothy, who presently lives in Connecticut.
Dr. Austin jokingly refers to Val Verde's Mediterranean architectural style as "Texaco Spanish." The home was originally commissioned by a wealthy coffee-trader from New York, Henry Dater, and work was completed in the early 1900s. Architect Bertram Goodhue, who later created the Los Angeles Central Library, designed the two-story, tile-roofed house, reminiscent of a Roman villa, in 1893. Landscape designer Charles Gibbs Adams did the original gardens, but after the property was purchased by Charles H. Ludington, they were substantially altered by noted landscape artist, Lockwood de Forest. After Charles Ludington's death in 1927, the estate was inherited by his son, Wright Ludington, from whom Dr. Austin rented the cottage.
The gardens of Val Verde are a horticultural wonderland of imported and indigenous plants, carefully planned to complement the house and frame the mountain views. Reflecting pools, terraces and oak-shaded Cold Springs Creek add to the estate's classic allure. When the Austins first purchased Val Verde it consisted of 9 acres, but for aesthetic reasons and added privacy they expanded
the grounds to 17 acres by acquiring land that borders Rivenrock estate on the east.
Seated in his living room, where soft light from a Moorish-tiled atrium filters through French doors, Dr. Austin reminisces about the highlights of his life and the celebrities who have graced it from time to time. The warm and inviting room is filled with his eclectic collection of priceless antiques and artifacts, along with numerous mementos of his beautiful wife, with whom he shared Val Verde until her death in 1991.
Photographs of the glamorous young Bunny Austin are displayed on the concert grand piano along with autographed photos of the couple's good friend, Dame Judith Anderson, who Dr. Austin first met backstage in New York when she appeared in "Mourning Becomes Electra."
As a young doctor interning in New York, Austin became passionate about the theater and spent much of his off-duty time attending plays. Even after settling in Santa Barbara and starting a medical practice, his love of the theater had not diminished. He was one of the original founders of the Alhecama Theater, lending a hand as a backstage prop man and loaning furniture and artifacts from his home as props. His acting career was launched as an understudy for the lead role in the production of "The Time of the Cuckoo". The star left the production week before opening night thrusting Austin into the starring role. It was the beginning of a long acting career at the Alhecama and later at the Lobero Theater.
Through the years the Austins generously contributed to many local cultural organizations, such as the Alhecama Theater, the Lobero Theater, the Music Academy of the West and the Santa Barbara Symphony. Dr. Austin frequently opened the gardens of Val Verde for the benefit of local nonprofit groups.
Some of Val Verde's neighboring estates benefited from having a medical doctor living nearby. Polish concert singer Madame Ganna Walska of Lotusland was Dr. Austin's long-time neighbor and patient. She could be a somewhat demanding friend. "I believe Ganna thought of me as her aide-de-camp as well as her physician, calling on me frequently in the years before my marriage to escort her to local parties and theatrical events. But she took my prescribed hormones, and like many of my patients she lived to be a hundred years old," said Dr. Austin.
A conservationist, Dr. Austin owned a 50-acre island in the San Juans dedicated to the preservation of native trees, plants and animals. The island is also home to the Arkadia project-a young people's camp that offers French language classes as well as instruction in manners and morals. Warren Austin, who kept his medical license current in California, Washington and Michigan, was the camp doctor. He summered from May until the first of September on the island, and sometimes in early spring he visited a home he owned in England. He prefered to spend winter months at Val Verde, his Montecito home of 38 years. His dream was to see the estate preserved and made available to the public in perpetuity.
Since his arrival in Montecito nearly half a century ago, Dr. Austin witnessed many changes to the area. As one of the first resident medical doctors to set up practice in the community, he had been a valued physician and neighbor to many. Always an active supporter of the cultural well being of the community, opening his estate to local benefits, Dr. Austin has remained a good friend to Montecito.
