Lotusland's Timeline

1896

Stevens dies. His struggling widow operates the property as a guest ranch, leases it to a school and eventually rents it out to winter visitors until selling it seventeen years later.

1914

Hanna adopts the stage name Madame Ganna Walska and studies singing in Paris with Polish tenor Jean de Reszke.

1916

New Yorkers E. Palmer and Marie Gavit purchase the property, naming it Cuesta Linda. Pasadena based architect Reginald Johnson completes the main house in 1920.

Ganna Walska is a singer at the Century, a French theater in New York. A throat ailment takes her to Dr. Joseph Fraenkel. They marry ten days later. He supports her ambitions for a musical career.

1920

Ganna Walska is devastated when Dr. Fraenkel dies of a stomach ailment.
Three months later, aboard the Aquitania en route to Paris, she meets Alexander Smith Cochran, the sole heir of Smith Carpet Manufacturing. He proposes two days later and several times again until she accepts, and they marry on September 15. Harold McCormick, who had received a divorce from Edith Rockefeller and is in love with Ganna Walska, comes to Paris to ask her to leave Cochran. Though regretting her marriage, she refuses.

Continuing her lifelong interest in the meaning of life, Madame Walska examines Numerology, Rosicrucianism and Eastern religions, as well as yoga, astrology, and meditation.

Cochran’s jealously over her career, forces Ganna to cancel her long-anticipated performance with the Chicago Opera.

1923

The first half of Ganna Walska’s 13-city U.S. concert tour is cancelled when McCormick undergoes an emergency appendectomy. She completes the tour with a performance at Carnegie Hall and returns to America for other concert tours in 1925, 1928, and 1934 (again playing Carnegie Hall).

1927

Ganna Walska goes into the perfume and cosmetic business, creating numerous fragrances and beauty products to help defray the costs of her theatre and its renowned orchestra.

1929

Madame Walska wins her U.S. Customs case, establishing the right for American women to have a separate domicile from their husbands. She also purchases the Chateau de Galluis, a country estate outside of Versailles and Ganna begins cultivating the property with gardens, an orangerie, tiled fountains and fields of tulips. She has a shell chamber and interior grotto installed.

1937

Madame Walska is introduced to Harry Grindell-Matthews, a physicist and inventor who shares her love of opera. Their engagement is announced in August. She is bothered by his egotism and jealousy.

1940

Ganna Walska escapes France on the last commercial clipper plane, before the German occupation. She returns to New York and begins writing her memoirs. She takes yoga lessons and attends seminars with self-proclaimed “White Lama,” Theos Bernard.

1942

Ganna Walska and Theos Bernard are married in a secret ceremony in Las Vegas; a prenuptial agreement protects her property in case of divorce.

At the request of Madame Walska, De Forest replaces the traditional landscaping in front of the main house with cacti before he departs to serve in the army.

1945

Theos Bernard serves Madame Walska with divorce papers and removes many valuable furnishings and books from the house on the estate. He sues for separate maintenance, which is refused when he is caught committing perjury about his financial situation. Their divorce is final in 1946. Madame renames the estate Lotusland after the abundant flowers that remained in the original lotus pond.

1953

The Cactus and Succulent Society tours Lotusland as part of their biennial convention.

Madame Walska almost single-handedly oversees the conversion of the old swimming pool into a water garden, completed in 1956.

1957

Topiary animals from the Osaki Plant Zoo in Los Angeles are planted around the horticultural clock.

Madame Ganna Walska establishes a foundation to protect her legacy and open the gardens to the public after her death.

1966

Madame Walska begins her collection of bromeliads from Carlsbad Garden and from orchid grower, Fritz Kubisch. He completes the layout of the original Bromeliad Garden in 196

1971

Madame Walska auctions her extensive jewelry collection and reinvests the funds back into the garden.

1984

Madame Walska dies on March 2 and leaves Lotusland to the Ganna Walska Lotusland Foundation.

1993

A docent program is established, and expanded staff are hired. A Conditional Use Permit to open the garden is granted by Santa Barbara County.

The Visitor Center is completed in time for the first scheduled tour on September 15, 1993. The adjacent Australian Garden is designed by Sydney Baumgartner.

2000

The Topiary Garden is restored by Lori Ann David, who replicates the original figures.

2009

The Water stairs, Cypress Allee and foyer in the Main House, all created during the Gavit era, are renovated.

The loss of a large California live oak and the removal of a beetle-infested Monterey pine result in the need for renovation of the Lower Bromeliad Garden.

Ganna Walska Lotusland is reclassified by the IRS as a public charity.

2016

The Insectary Garden is renovated for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility, improved aesthetics and optimum effectiveness in attracting pollinators and beneficial insects into the garden.

2018

Ganna Walska Lotusland celebrates its 25th Anniversary of being open to the public with a special exhibition, Building a Botanical Nirvana: The Story of Lotusland.

2021

“Save the Cycads,” a remediation project is launched to protect and preserve Lotusland’s Cycad collection and eliminate Armillaria.