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Canary Island palms stand guard in the front
garden at the Edgar Pankey family home
on Main Street. Many exotic trees and plants complement the Monterey
Revival
architecture of this stucco-clad residence
The gardens surrounding the Edgar Pankey family
residence at 320 Main St., southwest corner of
Main and B, are ample proof of why Tustin is the
“City of Trees.”
The front yard is landscaped with trees planted
by W. D. Allen, first owner of the property, as
well as exotic trees and plants popular when the
replacement Monterey Revival home was built for
Will Ferrey in 1928. The backyard in contrast
shows the influence of Allen, who owned the
original orchard and lived there in a two-story
frame house built before 1900, and the Pankey
family which has farmed in the Tustin area since
the late 1800s.
As you stand on the sidewalk in front of the
house, you see a magnolia estimated to be over
100 years old on the east side, just beyond the
driveway fence, balancing a 70-year-old Norfolk
Island pine on the west side of the residence.
Three Canary Island date palms and a Coast
redwood complete the tree front planting.
A boxwood hedge
on the B Street side of the yard provides a
background accent for colorful day lilies, bird
of paradise, dusty miller, impatiens and begonia
as well as a woodwardia fern. Yesterday, today,
and tomorrow, a plant blossoming with large blue
flowers, shooting stars, maiden hair fern,
scheflera and split philodendron surround the
front entrance.
Additional day lilies, clivia, aralia,
camellias, nandina, rapheolepsis, begonias,
impatiens, Mexican heather, iceberg roses,
gardenias and columbine planted against the
green of a maidenhair fern thought to be over 60
years old and sword ferns add color on the west
side.
Walking along B
Street to the gated driveway, you are in the
shade of Casuarina trees. You enter the gate
under a large Camphor tree. and continue up the
drive to a portecochere which extends across the
drive near the dining room windows. A dwarf date
palm, a Sego palm-cycadaceae and an aralia
thrive here.
It is a surprise
to find a native California sycamore estimated
to be 268 years old near the garages because
only the highest of its branches shows over the
house . This sycamore is one of the few
remaining from the time when Columbus Tustin
purchased the rancho property that became
Tustin.
A small avocado
grove, several citrus trees including a kumquat,
and a loquat tree by the back fence are
reminders of the time when Tustin was an
agricultural community and the Pankeys were
farmers. Agave succulents surround the rear
entrance to the home which has walls 18 to 24
inches thick. Lumber from the original home
occupying the property was used by builder Guy
Bolard in many places, including for the newel
post on the staircase to second floor.
A large
family-size swimming pool and a comfortable,
shaded patio make the commodious backyard a
wonderful place for everyday living as well as
entertaining large groups.
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