It is surprising but true that Bernard Hoffmann, an electrical engineer from Stockbridge, created the unified architecture of Santa Barbara, Calif. Hoffmann’s efforts to preserve Spanish Colonial adobe architecture and to establish a “good and appropriate architecture” for all of Santa Barbara connected the town to its historic roots and gave it unique charm and character. In recognition of the accomplishment, in 1923, at the age of 49, Bernard was inducted into the American Institute of Architecture as an honorary member.
This Stockbridge native was equally committed to beauty in his hometown and endeavored to assist in village planning and improvement supporting the Laurel Hill Association, the new library, and hiring Frederick Law Olmsted to design his own garden.
As a child, Hoffmann’s life was more austere. Letters sent to him by his parents in 1893, while he was a student at Cornell University, offer insight into what his early life and education.
April 23, 1893, My dear Bernard, I was delighted with the contents of your letter.
Aside from the choice of words and style which, I was much pleased to observe, were above the usual sophomoric standard, I was made happy by the tone which pervades the letter, in short, its ring of filial piety. Affectionately your father, F.H
The letter sounds like Professor Hoffmann of the Edwards Place School commenting on a student’s homework, not Papa Hoffmann writing to a son, and one almost expects a letter grade to follow. Clearly Bernard was well educated, but probably with the stern attention Hoffmann thought necessary, “boys being what they are.”
As if the father were aware that his parenting style might not endear him to his children, he writes Bernard:
Children, when they are children, are prone to bestowing a far larger share of their affection upon their maternal relative than they do upon the sterner parent. It is perfectly natural that this should be so. A mother’s care and love are more demonstrative and intense than a father’s … Not until the children have reached the age of discretion do they begin to find out and appreciate what share the father has had in the arduous task of bringing up children …
The father ends with another grading of his son’s letter:
It seems like finding fault…but I must in justice to yourself, call your attention to the well established orthographical fact that the word privilege spells without a ‘d’ as you have it…What would you say to a Cornell student who would write about his Colledge? A word to the wise, F.H
Many of Ferdinand’s letters to Bernard dealt with the domestic economy:
April 11, 1893
My dear B, I have looked over your Statement for March. I enclose my check for $100 (!!) which according to my calculation will get you nearly through to the end of the present month without compelling you to live on credit. Tuition $35.00, Shop 5.00, Lab 10.00, Shoes 3.00, Board 15.00,
Lodging 15.00, Sundries 16.00 (pocket money and washing) Do not fail to pay in advance. I do not wish you to live on borrowed victuals and to lodge on tick. Affectionately your father F.H
Ferdinand was also a strict accountant:
June 1, 1893, You state that fifty dollars will be sufficient to bring you home free from all debts. Mama writes that she sent you two postal notes in the amount of $4.99 each which I had sent to her. Hence your demand for fifty dollars is reduced by $9.98.
Mama’s letters of 1893 are quite different. The June letter from father deducting $9.98 from Bernard’s allowance is followed by one from Mama begging Bernard to understand and never to think his father “mean about money … it is just that there is so little of it.”
Mama contradicts Father over the issue of cost saving on shoes and insists Bernard buy the “$5.00 pair as $3.00 shoes can hardly be good for the feet.” In April, while father stresses the necessity for academic excellence, Mama cautions against too much studying:
Do not study before breakfast unless you have had some bite…Make an arrangement with your landlady for a slice of bread and butter and a bit of fruit, apple, banana or raisins. Please promise me that you will not study without eating first.
A postscript in one letter from Father holds a clue to Bernard’s future. It mentions the “Chicago matter.” The “Chicago matter” referred to Bernard’s desire to visit the 1893 Columbia Exposition. The fair was a grand event featuring statues by Stockbridge’s own Daniel Chester French and the White City. The White City set the standard for architectural excellence, city planning, and the beautification of American. It is not a stretch to say that it influenced the young Bernard’s lifelong quest to create architectural beauty in Santa Barbara and Stockbridge. Moreover, in 1903, Bernard married a Chicago girl, Irene Botsford.
In the marriage register, Bernard listed his occupation as electrician, a modest description of the man who was an electrical engineer and one of the managers of the New York Telegraph & Telephone Company. The marriage was of sufficient social consequence to be reported in the newspapers and described as “the social event of the season.”
