Home > California > Danville vicinity > Eugene O'Neill House, Kuss Road, Danville, Contra Costa County, CA
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Item Title
Eugene O'Neill House, Kuss Road, Danville, Contra Costa County, CA
LocationKuss Road,
Danville vicinity, CA
Find maps of Danville, CA
Created/Published
Documentation compiled after 1933.
Notes
Survey number HABS CA-2078
Unprocessed field note material exists for this structure (FN-199).
Building/structure dates:
1937 initial construction
Building/structure dates:
1944 subsequent work
National Register Number: 71000137
Significance: House of playwright Eugene O'Neill until 1944. O'Neill played a central role in elevating the importance of theater as an artistic expression. Some of O'Neill's best work was written at this house. The Chinese motifs of the house were designed to convey O'Neill's concept of a serene Oriental existence. / Eugene O'Neill is held by many critics to be the central figure in the coming of age of American drama. O'Neill alone, among that generation of writers which included Hemingway and Lewis, succeeded in making of the American stage a vehicle of mature artistic expression. His was the achievement which ultimately proved the outstanding contribution toward a new dimension of realism and the attainment of great tragedy within the American theater, As one writer has observed: "Before O'Neill, the U.S. had theater; after O'Neill it had drama." During his peripatetic career, O'Neill inhabited a succession of houses. Tao house, however, has singular importance. Here the playwright did his final and some of his best work; and the seven years passed in this place constituted perhaps the longest period of relative happiness that O'Neill's stormy life knew. The house is an example of Spanish Colonial style. At Tao House, O'Neill wrote The Iceman Cometh (1939), A Moon for the Misbegotten (1943), and completed several plays -- including A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions -- through which he hoped to portray the saga of an American family. Finally, O'Neill here wrote the autobiographical masterpiece, Long Days Journey Into Night -- "a tale of old sorrow, written in tears and blood," and possibly his greatest work.
Subjects
Theatrical ProductionsL-plan BuildingsHouses
Related Names
O'Neill, Carlotta
Confer, Frederick
Corduroy Hills Joint Venture
O'Neill, Eugene
Reimers, Frederick
Simpson, Lloyd C.
Boucher, Jack, Photographer
McDonald, Melissa, Historian
Cox, Robert M., Historian
McCown, Susan, Historian
English, Fred, Photographer
Collection
Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)
Contents
Photograph caption(s):
1. GENERAL EXTERIOR VIEW FROM WEST
2. GENERAL EXTERIOR VIEW FROM WEST, CLOSEUP
3. EXTERIOR VIEW FROM SOUTHEAST OF EAST VERANDAH
4. DRIVEWAY-TURNAROUND, LOOKING NORTHEAST
5. ENTRANCE TO COURTYARD, LOOKING EAST
6. COURTYARD, LOOKING NORTH
7. COURTYARD, LOOKING WEST
8. VIEW FROM THE HOUSE BALCONY TOWARD THE OLD BARN, LOOKING SOUTHWEST
9. COURTYARD, LOOKING NORTH
10. COURTYARD, LOOKING NORTHEAST
11. COURTYARD, LOOKING EAST
12. VIEW OF BALCONY FACING TO THE WEST, LOOKING EAST
13. SOUTH SIDE OF THE HOUSE TOWARD THE GUESTROOM WINDOW, LOOKING NORTH
14. PORCH ON NORTHEAST SIDE OF HOUSE, LOOKING WEST
15. BALCONY AND ROOF CONSTRUCTION DETAIL OUTSIDE EUGENE'S BEDROOM, LOOKING NORTHWEST
16. EAST SIDE OF HOUSE, LOOKING WEST
17. DINING ROOM ADDITION, LOOKING WEST
18. NORTHEAST CORNER SHOWING KITCHEN/PANTRY AREA, LOOKING SOUTH
19. MAID'S ROOM AND PARTY ROOM, LOOKING EAST
20. GUEST COTTAGE, LOOKING NORTH
21. GUEST COTTAGE, LOOKING SOUTH
22. GUEST COTTAGE, LOOKING WEST
23. GARAGE, LOOKING NORTHEAST
24. ENTRY WAY AND STAIRS TO SECOND FLOOR, LOOKING WEST
25. VIEW LOOKING SOUTH OF ENTRANCE WAY
26. LIVING ROOM, LOOKING NORTHWEST
27. LIVING ROOM, LOOKING SOUTH
28. LIVING ROOM, LOOKING EAST
29. EUGENE'S STUDY, LOOKING SOUTH
30. GUEST ROOM, LOOKING NORTHWEST
31. ROSIE's ROOM, LOOKING EAST
32. ROSIE'S ROOM, LOOKING SOUTH
33. DINING ROOM, LOOKING NORTH
34. DINING ROOM, LOOKING EAST
35. DINING ROOM, LOOKING SOUTH
36. EUGENE'S STUDY, LOOKING NORTHWEST
37. PANTRY, LOOKING SOUTH
38. PANTRY, LOOKING NORTH
39. KITCHEN, LOOKING SOUTH
40. KITCHEN, LOOKING EAST
41. VIEW OF HALL AT TOP OF STAIRS, LOOKING SOUTHWEST
42. VIEW LOOKING DOWN THE STAIRS FROM THE TOP, TAKEN LOOKING NORTHWEST
43. CARLOTTA'S BEDROOM, LOOKING EAST
44. CARLOTTA'S BEDROOM, LOOKING WEST
45. CARLOTTA'S DRESSING ROOM, LOOKING WEST
46. CARLOTTA'S BATHROOM, LOOKING NORTH
47. EUGENE'S BEDROOM, LOOKING EAST
48. EUGENE'S BEDROOM, LOOKING WEST
49. EUGENE'S BEDROOM, LOOKING NORTHWEST
50. EUGENE'S BATHROOM, LOOKING SOUTHWEST
51. SECOND FLOOR DRESSING ROOM AND HALL, LOOKING NORTH
52. EUGENE'S STUDY, LOOKING NORTH
53. Photocopy of the original conception of Tao House drawn by architect Frederick L. Confer and inscribed by Mrs. O'Neill to the builder, Lloyd C. Simpson. Dated 1937.
54. Photocopy of photograph, 1937. HOUSE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
55. Photocopy of photograph. LIVING ROOM AT TIME OF O'NEILLS' RESIDENCE
56. VIEW LOOKING DOWN ON PROPERTY, TAKEN LOOKING NORTHEAST
57. THE POND, LOOKING NORTH
58. HISTORIC SCENE, SHOWING PASTURE, POND, ORCHARD, BARNS AND RESIDENCE, LOOKING NORTH
59. HISTORIC SCENE, SHOWING PASTURE, ORCHARD, BARNS AND RESIDENCES, LOOKING NORTHWEST
60. HISTORIC SCENE, SHOWING EUGENE'S BRICK BENCH, CHICKEN COOP, OLD BARN, OUTBUILDINGS, ETC. LOOKING NORTH
61. ORCHARD, LOOKING EAST
62. ORCHARD, LOOKING SOUTHWEST
63. ENTRANCE ROAD PYLONS, LOOKING WEST
64. DRIVEWAY FIGURE NEAT GUEST COTTAGE, LOOKING NORTH
65. BLEMIE'S GRAVE, LOOKING WEST. BLEMIE WAS THE O'NEILLS' PET DACHSUND
66. O'NEILL'S BRICK BENCH, LOOKING NORTHWEST
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