Eugene O'Neil National Historic Site

When our sweet Brendan asked to go to a National Park for his birthday, it was hard for us to resist making this happen.  However, we had already gone to most of the parks in the area.  I suppose we could have gone to a site we had already visited but we did have this one elusive park on our list that we had missed.

The Eugene O'Neil site is just a small park surrounded by mountains to the east of San Francisco.  Visitors cannot even drive into the park in their own vehicles, taking a NP tour bus that must be arranged ahead of time.

When we tried to research the site at their website, it just mentioned that it was once the his residence.  Eugene O'Neil was the only American playwright to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

I used to love to read plays when I was in high school and recalled his name, but I did not recall any of the content.  I guess we kind of went into this park blind and open to its possibilities.  After all, it was obviously important or it would not be a national park...right?  Well, it was not the best plan but we were going to make it work.

We arrived in the afternoon just at the right time and the bus was waiting for us.  The park ranger was a young woman (She told us she was 25 yo when Brendan announced hid birthday.)  We also found that she was here in California just for the winter months and would return to her park in Alaska in April.  She was quiet but kind and patient.  Since we were the only one on the bus, we entertained her as much as she us.

The bus wound around the back roads of the small town.  Then we had to enter several gated areas to finally make our way into the inner property closest to the house.  I must say even on the ride to the house, little information was given to us about the site.

We stood at the waist high wall that surrounded the house, and the ranger told us that we should first notice the writing on the gate.  There were Chinese characters (in the wrong order) that were interpreted for us:  Tao House.

O’Neill and his wife Carlotta built Tao House and lived there from 1937 to 1944. It was there that he wrote his last six plays, including “A Moon for the Misbegotten,” “The Iceman Cometh,” and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”  Along with the house and surrounding property, the O'Neils owned over 150 acres.  This property is now cared for by the California State Park system.

Then the gate was opened to a path that zigzagged through the yard and to the front door.  O'Neil believed that this strange path would ward away evil spirits.  It seems that he was deeply influenced by Asian culture.  This was evident throughout the house and the property.  This has was built to his specifications.  I quickly noticed that there were recesses in the walls that normally would have had windows.  Instead there were shelves.  When we asked about these, we were told that the O'Neils were avid book collectors with over 8000 books.  It sounded much like our home!  I had often wondered if we could cut out places in the walls to make shelves!

One of the other favorite collections for O'Neil was masks from around the world.  Zaira did not like these masks.  Some of them were kind of scary, but the boys loved them.  They were also fascinated by the electric player piano (O'Neil called it Rosie) that supposedly still worked.  They begged me to give them a nickel to put in the slot but I had left my purse in the van.

The park ranger did not tell us a lot about the plays O'Neil wrote.  I guess they were probably not the best material for children.  She basically told us that most of his plays were dark and told a story of life's tragedies.  He had a hard childhood and he often told about his life through his places.  However, he tried to remain positive in his own life, and considered himself a "tragic optimist."  As a reporter stated, "Life is a tragedy. Hoorah!"

We were then taken through the house to see the various rooms.  The furniture that was collected was very authentic to the pictures we were shown, although none of the pieces were the originals.  We learned that the O'Neils had hoped to make this their final home and chose this location to move away from society.  However, neither Eugene or his wife were able to drive, so when their driver joined the Army during World War II they were left stranded in their place of retreat.  They were forced to move back into the city and eventually to Boston.  Their furniture was sold back to the company where it was purchased (a common procedure of that time period).  The owners of the home after the O'Neils made several changes, but when the property reverted to the National Park system tried to recreate the original designs.  Although they did not live here long (seven years), this is the longest O'Neil ever lived in one place (again we can relate with this).

One room we were able to visit upstairs was his office.  We were able to see some of his original scripts in his own hand.  We learned that he was very ill in his last few years.  He had tremors in his hands and he wrote in tiny print in order to control the effect of these tremors.  He would also destroy any papers, including full scripts, that showed these effects.  He wrote so small that it took a magnifying glass to read!

It also appears that he loved his dog, a Dalmatian that was called Blemie.  He loved his dog so much that it was given its own area in the house.  He also wrote a last will and testament for Blemie...known as The Last Will and Testament of a Very Distinguished Dog.  A very interesting (and short) read that any dog lover would enjoy reading.

Either the ranger was bored or she thought we were, but she tried to convince the children that we could end the tour and they could earn their Jr. Ranger badges.  Imagine her surprise when the children refused to leave until their activity books were complete.

She was also kind enough to take a family picture on the back porch of the residence with the beautiful view in the background.  And then allowed us five extra minutes to hunt down a geocache that was just on the other side of the gate.













For the most part, it was a beautiful park, but I would not list it as one of our favorites.  I am not sure if it was the best choice for a seven year-olds birthday gift but he was happy so I guess all is good.  It does pique my interest in his plays and I will probably read one in the near future.  I need to read a Steinbeck novel first (Did you know he lived in the Bay area also?  His history just continues to creep up on us!)

The best part about the day was the sun was shining and we were enjoying time together.