Poor Matilda Gray. Back in 1942, the teenager, clad in a pink ball gown, tired of posing for a commissioned portrait by Mexican artist Diego Rivera. It had taken a few weeks.
The artist wasn’t happy either. Rivera disliked the finished work and asked Matilda for a second session so he could capture his own creative vision of her. She did so, very begrudgingly. Matilda was more interested in joining her aunt in Acapulco who was vacationing with a friend, the swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn. But Matilda was trapped, having to endure more days of posing.
Rivera’s re-do revealed a complete reimagining of the girl, standing tall in a short white tunic holding a long bow and arrow at her side. Its title? “The Archer”—a modern-day manifestation of “Diana the Huntress” (despite the teenage moodiness).
Matilda, sprung from sitting, went straight on to Acapulco, where the swashbuckling Hollywood actor taught her how to water ski.
So goes the story that Matilda’s son, Harold Stream III, recounts—because a copy of Rivera’s work comes with the purchase of his sprawling compound near the center of picturesque San Miguel de Allende, in the state of Guanajuato.
Known as Casa Stream, the property in the sought-after Centro neighborhood stands just a few blocks from San Miguel’s main town square. Three separate houses, each with their original footprints, were combined, renovated and remodeled in 2000 to form a single compound linked by lush gardens and pools.
Art As The Heart Of An Architectural Reinvention
New York architects Linda Warren and the late Spence Sutton oversaw the project. The idea was to update the quarters while staying true to the culture and history of the place. The result, what could be called Contemporary Colonial, echoes touches of the town’s historic Spanish Colonial buildings and the Neo-Gothic Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel cathedral with its famous pink towers—an inspiring canvas.
Mr Stream is an avid collector of art, including contemporary and modern pieces from Mexican and British artists. In 2005, he had the idea of melding an art gallery with a hotel and opened the nearby Hotel Matilda, rated by Condé Nast Traveler as the best hotel in Mexico for three years in a row.
(By the way, Harold’s mother, Matilda Gray Stream, who died in 2023 at age 99, was not put off by her early experience with one of Mexico’s most celebrated artists. She went on to distinguish herself as a notable philanthropist and land preservationist, overseeing the vast art and architectural collection amassed by her aunt, some of which is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.)
In Harold Stream’s collection of cleverly connected private residences, art played a crucial role in rethinking the main villa and casitas on the property.
“Everything started with the art,” says Chad James, a Nashville-based interior designer who lived on site for three years during the renovation. The color palette of the stone to the floor to the plaster acted as a canvas “so the art could be the colorful moments of the property as well as the landscape,” James says.
Indeed, artworks such as Mexican artist Marco Rountree’s abstract patterns built into a wall and artist Yolanda Gutierrez’s sculpture of small liquid-filled crystal balls, hanging like a delicate curtain over the dining area, are intrinsic and so also come with the property, on the market at $8.4 million. (Art and furnishings included with the sale are valued at $1 million.)
“It’s one of the largest properties in the Centro area, which is part of what makes it iconic,” says selling agent Crystal Calderoni of CDR San Miguel.
A Secret Sense Of Place And Space
Authentic touches that complement the art pay tribute to local materials, such as travertine limestone floors and walls covered with ancient Oaxacan plaster mixed with grains of sand. Neutral tones prevail in rooms with high ceilings, the feeling sophisticated and modern.
There’s beveled glass throughout the main house and, notes Calderoni, “the pond and the pools… it’s just breathtaking.” A second-story loggia overlooks one of the pools.
The main villa and two casitas or guesthouses total 12 rooms and 11 bathrooms. In addition, there are separate quarters for staff, a gym with steam/sauna, and a garage. The indoor-outdoor lifestyle plays out in entertaining spaces marked by the koi pond and two swimming pools.
Calderoni says the scale of the property makes it attractive to several types of buyer. It could become a 10- to 12-room boutique hotel, an exclusive wellness retreat or a private family compound.
Like many homes near the historic center, Casa Stream is surrounded by tall fences and gates, at once private and alluring. But it’s what’s inside that counts.
“Behind these massive gates, doors open,” says Chad James. “It’s Narnia, like going through the Wardrobe and discovering these unusual magical places.”
James recalls the first time he visited the compound. Crosswinds carried the aroma of jasmine in the air, which made him treasure the property as an oasis. “It’s not only beautiful to see, but it really entices all of your senses, from what you see to what you smell to what you taste and what you feel. There’s this feeling of retreat, there’s this feeling of oasis, that around every corner there’s something that says, ‘Oh I want to get to that spot.’ ”
CDR San Miguel is a founding member of Forbes Global Properties, an invitation-only network of top-tier brokerages worldwide and the exclusive real estate partner of Forbes.
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