Ainsley House and Gardens 300 Grant Street • Campbell • CA 95008

In 1925, in the twilight of a highly successful life as the founder of a local fruit cannery and export company, expatriate Englishman John Colpitts Ainsley built for himself and his wife, Alcinda, a lovely English Tudor Revival home. With 15 rooms (including a modern kitchen with a refrigerator, a six-burner two-oven stove, and adjoining maid's quarters), large bay windows, a swooping mock thatch roof, and blooming English-style garden, the Ainsley's home was one of the finest in the Santa Clara Valley.

During the years following JC Ainsley's death in 1937, family members used the house occasionally for Christmas parties and other reunions. In 1989, the family donated the historic house to the city of Campbell. It was moved from its original site on Bascom Avenue to its present location, and restoration was begun immediately. The result is a living museum with period furniture (most of it original to the house), walls covered in delicate silk fabric, glowing oak-paneled hallways, closets that display period gowns and tiny flapper-era shoes, and a kitchen stocked with cans of JC's fruit! Because of the fragile nature of these antiques and artifacts, the interior of the house is not available for parties. The parlor, however, may be used for an intimate ceremony (up to 15 guests), and couples getting married or having their reception here can also take wedding photos inside.

The gardens that now surround Ainsley House retain much of the character of the original gardens. Blossoming crabapples, rhododendrons, irises, and bridal veil encircle the house and back lawn. Several rose bushes were transplanted straight from the Ainsley's 1925 flowerbeds. The front of the house opens onto the Orchard City Green, a lush lawn used for a local concert series.

Weddings are held in the backyard, a large private lawn bordered by flowers and redwood trees, and enclosed by latticed fencing covered in climbing roses. For the ceremony, the bridal party emerges through French doors at the rear of the house, and walks across the lawn to the wisteria-shaded redwood arbor where the bride and groom exchange vows. Afterwards, guests are seated at beautifully set tables on the grass for an al fresco reception. With colorful English gardens all around and the Tudor house as a backdrop, the celebration is infused with considerable Old World charm. Dancing takes place in the arbor, which is romantically lit at night by hanging period lanterns.

Ainsley House provides elegance, beauty and a taste of a time when life was more relaxed. If JC Ainsley could come back for a visit, he would be pleased to see that his home is still one of the finest in the region.