HISTORICALLY SPEAKING
Mrs. Robert Louis
Stevenson and
Redwood Retreat
“Mrs. Stevenson is a most charming hostess and no one
who was present last Saturday evening but felt the wonderful
influence of her magnetic presence. Mrs. Stevenson expects
to spend her summers here, where, with her relatives and
literary friends, she may enjoy the solitude and grandeur of
nature’s work.”
Gilroy Advocate, September 27, 1902
T
he story of Fanny Osbourne Stevenson, who spent
part of her later years in Redwood Retreat, is a tale
that encompasses love discovered, love lost, and
love found again. Her affair, and eventual marriage,
to Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson was a story in
itself. The romantic backdrop, one of crossing oceans and
continents to seek out one another, but added to the drama.
The pair first met in 1877 in France. After a short period
together, they were torn apart. Still married but separated
from her first husband, Fanny reluctantly returned to him
and their Oakland home. The ill and impoverished Stevenson
went back to his parents in Scotland, where he eventually
produced such literary classics as “Treasure Island,” “The
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” and “Kidnapped.”
In 1879, learning that Fanny was once again separated
from her husband and living in Monterey, Stevenson
departed for America. After enduring a long rail trip across
the continental United States, he arrived in Monterey, where
he found Fanny and her children living in a boarding house.
She soon returned to Oakland to file for divorce. Stevenson
followed, taking a room in San Francisco to wait for the
final decree. The pair was finally married on May 19, 1880.
Soon, the happy new family sailed across the Atlantic to
60
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
the Stevenson family home in Scotland, returning later to
America to spend a year in New York state.
In 1888, they returned to San Francisco, rented a
schooner-yacht, and sailed off to explore the South Pacific,
eventually settling in Western Samoa. They purchased an
estate, which they christened “Valimia,” located on the
island of Opolu. Sadly, their overseas adventure was short-
lived: Stevenson died in the plantation home in 1894 of a
brain hemorrhage.
Unable to continue managing the couple’s property,
Fanny sailed back to San Francisco, where she resumed
her social life with long-time friends. Encouraged by writer
Frank Norris, and in search of a quiet summer home with a
natural setting, in 1900 she found her summer property in
the wooded foothills west of Gilroy, purchasing the acreage
from the Sanders family. Soon, in those dawning years of the
20th Century, Fanny Osbourne Stevenson became one of the
Redwood Retreat area’s most colorful characters. She devoted
herself to constructing an English-style country home, which
she christened with the Samoan word, “Vanumanutagi,” or,
“Vale of the Singing Birds.”
While the cottage was being completed, Fanny’s artist and
writer friends would often come along with her from the Bay
april/may 2019
gmhtoday.com
MUSEUM
Written By Elizabeth Barrett