San Francisco Shares a Distinct Design Flavor during Fall Symposium

Our October 2025 Symposium in San Francisco, with optional tours in Palo Alto and Sonoma, thrilled participants with the diversity of decorative arts attractions and the hospitality of our warm hosts.

Pre-Symposium Tour in Palo Alto and Environs

The lovely college town of Palo Alto is home to Stanford University and the Cantor Arts Center, renowned for outstanding collections of European and Indigenous American art, as well as one the largest collections of Rodin sculptures in the world. After expert-led tours of the museum and a convivial lunch, we marvelled at the technological advancements in cartography at the  Rumsey Map Collection at Stanford University’s Green Library with Curator Evan Thornberry and prominent map dealer Barry Ruderman. The historic Gamble Garden offered a respite at the end of the day, as members enjoyed refreshments in the Carriage House and strolling among the award-winning plantings.

The second day brought the group to Woodside and Hillsborough, areas of prominent early-20th-century settlement. Carolands Château is Harriett Pullman Carolan’s 1912–15 mansion that embodies the Gilded Age’s aspirations to transplant European grandeur onto California soil. After a welcome by Mavie Mendelson, Executive Director, we explored the rarely-opened French-inspired house and gardens, tucked quietly away in a beautiful residential neighborhood. William Bourn’s Filoli estate is a grand home in the Georgian Revival style, spanning over 54,000 square feet. After a welcome from ​​President and CEO Kara Newport, participants enjoyed tours of the house and its extensive and stunning gardens with members of the curatorial and horticultural teams.

Main Symposium in San Francisco

The Fall 2025 Symposium kicked off at our headquarters, the 1907 Fairmont Hotel atop San Francisco’s Nob Hill. Architectural Historian Bridget Maley presented the Jonathan L. Fairbanks Lecture, San Francisco: Disaster, Recovery, & Resilience, and then the group enjoyed a festive Opening Night Reception sponsored by Freeman’s.

The first full day of the Symposium on Friday, October 24, began with two presentations: 50 Years of Preserving and Sharing Victorian Architecture by Stephen “Woody” LaBounty (President and CEO, San Francisco Heritage); and the John A.H. Sweeney Emerging Scholar Lecture, A Palace of Art and Memory: Founding Gifts for the Legion of Honor, by Isabella Lores-Chavez (Associate Curator of European Paintings, Legion of Honor). Tours of the 1927 French Gothic Revival Grace Cathedral and the 1915 Beaux-Arts San Francisco City Hall were followed by a scrumptious lunch at the 1920 Francisca Club. The afternoon featured tours of three private Victorian homes belonging to dedicated collectors: the 1886 Brune Reutlinger House, Tony Inson’s 1873 Italianate townhouse, and Phillip Strauss’s 1871 Italianate home.

Saturday took participants to the 1895 Swedenborgian Church, an early expression of the Arts and Crafts movement on the West Coast, and the Presidio Officers’ Club, now a museum detailing the site’s history from indigenous communities to Spanish settlement in 1776 to today. The McElroy Octagon House, named after the family for whom the residence was built, was saved by The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in California in 1952. Following lunch, members explored the two branches of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco: the Legion of Honor  and the de Young Museum. The former included Lores-Chavez’s 10th anniversary exhibition and an introduction to the impressive porcelain collection, provided by Trust member Jeff Ruda. The latter focused on the spectacular collection of American paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts.

The final morning of the Symposium included four fascinating lectures: A Princely Pursuit: Malcolm Gutter’s Bequest of Early Meissen Porcelain to the Legion of Honor Museum by the aforementioned Ruda (Professor Emeritus of Art History, University of California, Davis); the Marie Zimmermann Emerging Scholar Lecture Material Engineering: From Liebes to the Tech Textiles of Silicon Valley by Sarah Mills, (Assistant Professor of Art History, San Jose State University); and the James A. Sanders Lecture Tradition Meets Modernity: The San Francisco Bay Area Interiors of Frances Adler Elkins by Scott Powell (Design historian and author).

Post-Symposium Tour in Sonoma

An Optional Post-Symposium Tour took us to Sonoma, famed for missions, views, and of course, wine. Following a meal at a favorite downtown restaurant, participants continued for guided tours of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo’s Home, with an 1852 Carpenter Gothic style house and a Swiss-style chalet, and the 1823 San Francisco de Solano Mission, the final and northernmost of California’s 21 Franciscan missions. The day concluded with tastings and tours at the Buena Vista Winery, founded in 1857 by Agoston Haraszthy, who is considered the father of modern viticulture in California.

Overall, members thoroughly enjoyed our exploration of these gems of the West Coast! See our Calendar of Events for upcoming programs, and make sure you are subscribed to our email list for updates about registration openings.