The Bellosguardo Foundation has been hosting tours at the Santa Barbara Clark Estate for about two years and plans to expand its offerings. 

There has been high demand for the guided tours, which are offered five days a week and feature the first floor of the estate and nearby grounds.

Visitors are shown around by knowledgeable docents and then given time to explore the grassy areas and gardens near the main house. 

Foundation president Jeremy Lindaman said the foundation plans to offer new sets of tours this year showcasing the waterfront estate’s vintage cars, gardens, and additional spaces in the house. 

“Bellosguardo is thrilled to be offering tours, lectures, musical performances, classes and other events to the public just as Huguette Clark wished,” he said. “As the foundation continues to grow, we do so with the goal of increasing public access and providing even more opportunities for the space to be enjoyed.”

Tickets are booked by first joining the foundation’s email list through the website. Tour slots are released every few months by email, and cost $100 per person. Tickets to special events such as concerts and choir performances are also sold through the email list.  

The current estate at 1407 E. Cabrillo Blvd. was built for Anna Clark, widow of copper tycoon and senator William Andrews Clark, and owned by their daughter Huguette Clark until her death in 2011 at age 104.

She bequeathed the property to a nonprofit foundation to foster the arts. 

The Bellosguardo Foundation was created to manage the property and the mission, and started public tours in late 2022. 

During an estate tour last year, docents shared that some of the visitor information was gleaned from Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell Jr.’s bestselling “Empty Mansions” book, which memorialized the history of the home and the Clark family. 

William Andrews Clark is “the richest man you’ve never heard of, second only to Rockefeller in his time,” docents said. 

The outside of the mansion is large and imposing, with a facade of concrete and limestone, while the inside is more intimate. It was, after all, essentially a beach house for a single mother and her single daughter, docents Eugene Galles and Sue Adams said. 

Inside, it’s like a time capsule, because it was only actively used for about 15 months since it was built in the 1930s, according to the docents. Huguette Clark had not visited Santa Barbara since the 1950s. 

“It’s like an undiscovered museum was dropped on the West Coast,” they said. 

The estate is known for its meticulous upkeep by caretakers and gardeners over the decades, with custom furniture covers and silk curtains laid in paper bags on the floor to keep them in good condition. 

When Bellosguardo was built, everything was “the best of the best,” Galles said. Some of the rooms were transported from the family’s New York mansion, he added. 

The library was a “very used room” with chairs near windows for good light. Bookshelves are lined with classics as well as contemporary volumes the Clark women enjoyed, like Agatha Christie mysteries. 

The music room was Anna Clark’s vision – “music was her first love,” Adams said. Huguette Clark’s passion for painting is seen in her studio and in her artwork hung all over the estate.  

There are also large family portraits throughout the house, including paintings and busts of Andrée Clark, Huguette’s sister who died at 16, in almost every room. 

Huguette Clark spent the last 20 years of her life living in a New York City hospital. She has been characterized by some as a reclusive, eccentric heiress, but Adams, one of the docents, said she sees it differently. 

“She kept connections with people, she just never added people to her circle after she lost them, really,” Adams said.  

“I think that hospital room was a lot less lonely than the New York apartment.”

The city of Santa Barbara is reviewing the foundation’s application for a conditional-use permit and coastal-development permit.

“The Land Development Team has been working closely with Bellosguardo to get a complete land development application before the Planning Commission for review,” City Planner Allison DeBusk said.

“The Planning Commission will need to make the necessary findings that the operations at Bellosguardo, such as estate tours and special events, are consistent with coastal regulations and will not be a detriment to public peace, health, safety, comfort, and general welfare of the community.

“Planning Commission will also need to determine that the access and off-street parking for Bellosguardo guests meets the demands of their events without impacting public streets.”