All Aboard the Ship of the Desert
A deep dive into the history of fashion designer Trina Turk's streamline Palm Springs spread.
Perhaps best known as the residence of fashion designer Trina Turk and her late husband, photographer Jonathan Skow, the “Ship of the Desert” was first christened with its name in the October 1937 issue of Sunset Magazine. Built in the Streamline Moderne style, this stunner was originally designed by architectural duo Erle Webster and Adrian Wilson for Mrs. Mary Perinne Patterson Davidson, wife of Major General Howard C. Davidson. Born in Dayton, Ohio, Mary Davidson (1894-1950) was the heiress to the National Cash Register Company fortune, which was established by her father, Frank Patterson.
Mary’s was introduced to the desert through her mother, Julia Shaw Carnell, an influential Palm Springs pioneer who commissioned the early car-centric La Plaza shopping center and the Carnell Building downtown. Together, the architectural legacies of this mother-daughter duo would help cement Palm Springs as a center for Spanish Colonial Revival and modern style design. While her mother preferred to stay at the Nellie Coffman-owned Desert Inn, Mary Davidson would commission Erle Webster and Adrian Wilson to design her a one of a kind desert escape.
Built into the side of the San Jacinto mountains, the home’s clean and crisp curved lines provide a welcome juxtaposition to the site’s natural craggy environment. After arriving at the home’s entry court, guests are ushered up the entry stairway to the entry porch and front door, which provide sweeping vistas as the Coachella Valley below. Inside, the home’s entertaining spaces are organized around the spacious living and dining rooms, with both rooms boasting fireplaces and curved walls of glass to best enjoy the views beyond. And, most importantly, all the home’s first floor rooms easily connect to the surrounding terraces and patios, allowing for easy indoor-outdoor living when the desert climate allows.
Upstairs, Webster and Wilson created welcoming bedroom spaces with clear separation between family and guest suites. Note how only two bedrooms are accessible via the indoor stair hall, yet the three additional guest rooms are reached only through the use of the exterior balcony, revealing Webster and Wilson’s playful and experimental design outlook that more fully connects the home to its desert site. The home’s original gardens were designed by none other than Katherine Bashford and Fred Barlow, another dynamic duo that we’ve seen design gardens from the Palisades to Palm Springs and everywhere in between.
While the home was designed by Webster and Wilson, artist Millard Sheets also made his mark on the property. Known for his work as a California Scene painter, Sheets is best remembered for the expansive mosaic murals he would create for the Howard F. Ahmanson Sr.-owned Home Savings and Loan banks across southern California. Inspired by springtime desert blooms, Sheet’s would paint the home with sage greens, sandy browns, and vibrant yellows helping to anchor the home within it’s dynamic landscape.
Following years of neglect, Trina Turk and Jonathan Skow would purchase the home in 1998 before beginning a years long renovation of the historic property. However, just after beginning their renovations, a fire would sweep through the home, destroying about seventy-five percent of the home’s interiors. However, as the home had been put through a series of misguided renovations, the fire allowed Turk and Skow to faithfully recreate the home along it’s original 1930s floor plan. Following the fire, the pair would hire architectural firm Marmol Radziner to help bing the luster back into the home’s burned out remains. Following this thoughtful renovation, Turk would share that the home “looks more like it did in the 1930s now than when we purchased it.”1
Trina Turk’s stewardship of Erle Webster and Adrian Wilson’s Ship of the Desert is a testament to true architectural preservation—to preserving, maintaining, and sharing our architectural heritage for all to enjoy.
Project: The Ship of the Desert, 1936
Architect: Erle Webster & Adrian Wilson
Interior Designer: Honor Easton
Landscape Architect: Katherine Bashford and Fred Barlow
Location: Palm Springs, California
Lauren Walser, “Back Story: Trina Turk: National Trust for Historic Preservation,” Back Story: Trina Turk | National Trust for Historic Preservation, January 1, 2015, https://savingplaces.org/stories/back-story-trina-turk.