Pioneer Information
Born into an affluent and socially prominent family in Oyster Bay, Long Island, Underhill was educated by private tutors. In his youth he traveled to Santa Barbara, California, and extensively in Europe, where he studied both architecture and gardens. With homes in New York City and Oyster Bay, Underhill lived the life of a typical New York “swell.” He was a member of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor’s “400” and was a friend and neighbor of Theodore Roosevelt, with whom he served as captain of artillery during the Spanish-American War. Underhill was also an accomplished yachtsman, horseman, and polo player, authoring Driving for Pleasure, or the Harness Stable and its Appointments (1896), which became a standard book on horsemanship.
Suffering from bouts of poor health, in the 1880s he returned to Santa Barbara, where he purchased several large ranches. In 1900 he moved to California permanently, and in 1902 designed his residence, La Chiquita—a single-story, redwood bungalow, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Soon after, he was engaged by friends to design their respective gardens and homes and from 1910 to 1917 maintained a landscape architecture and architecture practice. Based in Montecito, the firm varied in size from four to six assistants and employed the landscape architect Daniel Hull. Serving socially prominent winter residents of southern California, Underhill was responsible for more than 30 architectural commissions and several gardens, including the pool house and terrace garden at George Owen Knapp’s estate Arcady, in Montecito. In the 1920s Underhill assisted in the restoration of the historic Casa de la Guerra (now a museum), a significant surviving Spanish-Mexican adobe house in Santa Barbara, and, with landscape architects Lockwood de Forest, Jr., and Ralph Stevens, designed the grounds of the Spanish Colonial Revival and Moorish Casa del Herrero, the Steedman estate, also in Montecito.
Underhill passed away at the age of 66 and is buried at Santa Barbara Cemetery.
