They Can Menagerie Just Fine, Thanks

Mozart and Charlie Chaplin ran from the guests--acceptable behavior for llamas. The pygmy goats, Fred and Ethel, were friendlier, nibbling at outstretched hands. The peacocks fanned their flashy tail feathers. The geese honked.

So it went in the zoo at Belvedere, a showplace estate in Tustin’s hills owned by developer Richard Silver and interior designer John Benecke.

Silver and Benecke opened the doors of their 1929 home on Saturday for a small dinner party hosted by the Huntington Harbour Cancer League. The dinner--a thank-you to 25 couples, each of whom had donated $1,000 in conjunction with the league’s annual autumn benefit--was a lively, low-key affair. The star of the party was Belvedere itself--the house, the view, the vast grounds.

Home Style

The stats don’t begin to tell the story, but here they are: Belvedere is a 6,000-square-foot two-story home with a wine cellar, set on two acres with pool, colonnade, rose garden, nature path, mini-zoo.

The lushly landscaped yard sweeps uphill to the house, whose view, from the second-floor balcony--”the magic spot,” as Silver calls it--extends from Angels’ stadium to Fashion Island, from Palos Verdes to Catalina Island and the miles of blue beyond. After dark, the view is a carpet of lights.

Inside? The brain can’t process all the visual input.

The rooms and hallways and courtyards are filled with polished antiques, richly colored carpets, plants and books and framed photographs, genuine art and whimsical collectibles. On the second-floor landing stands a life-size statue of a robed woman--a 19th-Century artist’s work created for the competition to design the Statue of Liberty. Above the library sofa hangs an oil portrait of the animals in Silver and Benecke’s zoo. The refrigerator door is a trompe l’oeil painting of a pine hutch.

To one touring guest who’d gone glassy-eyed and wonder- struck, Benecke said: “It’s OK. Even our friends who come over a lot say they see something new every time they’re here.”

No Place Like It

The Huntington Harbour group came to Belvedere thanks to member Bobbitt Williams, who got a look at the home several years ago during a fund-raiser.

Afterward, she remembered, “I wrote a letter to John (Benecke). I said, ‘The first time I saw your house I just wanted you to move out so I could move in.’ I had never seen any place like it. Every single inch is filled with beauty and treasures.”

Barbara Snegg agreed. “Each room is so individual and so filled with unique items it’s hard to single any one thing out and say, ‘That’s my favorite.’ It just leaves you with an impression of so much beauty and such wonderful taste.”

Said Sandy Mauceli, roaming a garden path: “We get used to living on narrow lots, all crammed together--this is like being in some other part of the country. This doesn’t feel like Orange County at all!”

Who’s Who

Barbara Steinberg chaired the party. Among guests dressed in Gatsbyish whites for croquet and cocktails on the front lawn, followed by dinner and sundaes on the porch: Sally and Roger Fenton (she’s president of the Huntington Harbour Cancer League), Betty Jo and Jack Henry, Linda and Ted Cohen, Joy and Jim Connors, Virginia and Frank Buccella, Diana and Ernie Roehl and Phyllis and Dix Helland.

Quote

Yes, it’s odd to have 50 strangers cruising through your house. On the other hand, with a historic house like Belvedere, it’s kind of cool.

“We love the house so much, and we put so much into it,” said Benecke, who designed and supervised the gutting, remodeling and restoration that lasted two years.

“It’s fun for us to see it through other people’s eyes--to see their excitement. It lets us remember how amazing it is to live here.”