Carmel-by-the-Sea · 1949

The Chapman House

A working archive of the house designed by Rowan Perkins Maiden for Dorothy Green Chapman—its architecture, garden, people, records, and next chapter.

Review the house timeline Read City documents
Street view of the Chapman House beneath mature Monterey pines
Chapman House from the street · Color archive
Commissioned byDorothy Green Chapman
Designed byRowan Perkins Maiden
Landscape attributionThomas Dolliver Church

Design direction

Preserve the idea. Improve the house.

Preserve

The house–garden relationship, original wood, indirect light, privacy, and compact scale.

Add

Officially convert the enclosed original carport into a bedroom. Add a flexible loft office or guest room and a guest bathroom.

Solve

The sliding entrance, roof drainage, clerestory waterproofing, and a coherent garden vision.

Secondary priorities

Bathroom and kitchen remodel; hallway sliding partition and storage; concrete floor restoration; piano placement and bookshelf revision; built-in sofa revision; fireplace; and other small fixes that would make the house feel restored.

Read the design brief

The photographic archive, rendered in color

Selected historic photographs, color-rendered with AI assistance for visual reference—not original color records.

View photographs & publications
Historic color street view of the Chapman House
Historic color view into the Chapman House courtyard
Historic color view from the house into the garden
Historic color photograph of the living room
Historic color photograph of the bedroom
Historic color photograph of the kitchen