To dip my toes into my first official history focused blog, I’ve decided to write about the memorable Villa Philmonte – a historic house I know well, something I share with a number of my readers, I’m sure! My toddler son, Turkey Butt, recently had his first trip to Philmont and Waite Phillips’ awe inspiring property, but the interior was not up to his standards, so we inspected the stone steps in the back garden instead.
I’m not going to speak about Waite Phillips’ early life too much, but I’ll give you the sparknotes version: he was born the seventh of ten kids, and a twin to boot (2 years after Billy the Kid was killed for anyone interested)! After his twin, Wiate, died at 18 due to appendicitis, Waite joined two of his older brothers (Frank and L.E.) on their oil ventures of Phillips Petroleum Company. When he set out on his own ten years later, he would buy oil leases and other properties, only to sell them all in 1924 to start Waite Phillips Company – which he then sold only one year later for $25 million (that’s over $450 million today… no wonder he had such beautiful and sizable homes!).
Anyway, a couple years after his bank account was more stuffed than I am following Thanksgiving dinner, he commissioned Edward Delk (an architect that specialized in the Italian Renaissance style) to build his home in Tulsa (the Philbrook), an office building (the Philtower), and a summer home on his 127,000-acre ranch in Cimarron (which he allegedly considered the name “Hawkeye” for the property before settling on Philmont… presumably for his home state of Iowa and not Natty Bumppo, frontiersman in The Last of the Mohicans – although that may have been fitting as well.). Supposedly, Waite and his wife, Genevieve, took a trip to Italy with the sole purpose of decorating the Villa Philmonte (I’ve been needing new dining room chairs… now to convince my husband!). Although the Villa is around 6,000 square feet less than the Philbrook, they managed to make the tiny space of 28,000 square feet practically livable with Genevieve’s thoughtful touches. Some of these Easter eggs include the Phillips’ brand UU Bar hidden in various places, or the inaccurate saguaro cactuses painted on a window depicting the Santa Fe Trail. The painting captures the more modern feel of the Westward Expansion in a pre-John Wayne pastel-sepia color scheme, and is a beautiful nod to what the land had been used for in its past, as part of a famous trade route coming through the 1.7 million acre Maxwell Land Grant, a grant that contains multiple stories of its own, which will be touched on in future blogs, unsurprisingly to those who know me!
Waite Phillips gifted much of his property to the Boy Scouts of America, his initial gift containing 36,000 acres (tiny in comparison to the original grant!). I’m sure there are many stories as to why, but the one I always heard was that some Boy Scouts had come to his Cimarron property and asked to do some Boy Scout type things. Waite ended up taking a shine to the program and ended up donating his Villa, the Philtower in Oklahoma, and all of his 127,000 acres in New Mexico to the Scouts. Around the same time he donated the Philbrook to the city of Tulsa, and today it remains an art museum (where, in the Phillips’ “Santa Fe Room,” visitors can still find a painting by Oscar Berninghaus, a Taos artist, called “Philmont Ranch Scene.” This piece was commissioned by Waite in 1927, and shows a beautiful, vibrantly green panoramic view of the Tooth of Time – they must’ve gotten more rain in the 20s).
One of Waite’s epigrams reads “Real philanthropy consists of helping others… from whom no thanks is expected or required,” reflecting the Boy Scout’s own sentiments. If you’re interested in touring the Villa, they provide free tours every day during the summer season!
E lucevan le stelle,
Mountain Girl
Mountain Girl Goes 
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