There was a fire last week in the Santa Cruz Mountains that got perilously close to the house Heinlein designed and built at 6000 Bonny Doon Road. As far as I can tell from this map:



the fire missed that house, but can anyone local confirm? Thanks in advance.

Dan

If you switch the map to satellite view and pan just west, you can see Heinlein's house at the point where Shake Mill Road hits Bonny Doon Road. It's the bright white flying saucer.

Looks as if the fire came nowhere too near.

I can confirm that the Heinlein house in Bonny Doon is unaffected by the fires. I drove up Boony Doon Road just this morning, and there's no telltales of fire. You'd never know.

Beautiful morning up there, too. The summer marine layer has combined with the soot & ash from all the various fires to gloom over the sky at sea level. However, this morning the Heinlein house and neighborhood were above all that, and sat awash in sun.

I took a couple of low-rez pics. If I ever find a place to post them, I'll include the link here. You can't see the house from the road, of course, just a glimpse of white.

Oh, certainly, the imagery is probably years old. (My house was stuck in about a 6 year old shot for quite some time, and was recently updated to something I can date to last summer.)

I was working from the outline of the fire on the map, which came nowhere near the RAH house's area.

The house really does jump out at you once you spot it, no?

Oh, it's white alright. Reminiscent of the homes in old Florida. I have no idea why Heinlein choose white, but I do know that it's the most energy efficient choice, particularly in the Santa Cruz mountains, which can get surprisingly hot in the summer. White = high albedo.

Circular? I remember reading a quote somewhere (Expanded Universe?) where RAH says something about "why a circular house? Because Mrs. Heinlein wanted a circular house."

This strikes me as amusing, even today.