Women’s History Month: Designer Frances Adler Elkins

Frances Adler Elkins painted by Eugenia McComas,  c.1920

Frances Adler Elkins (1888 – 1953) may have been born in Milwaukee, but Dorothea Walker, former West Coast editor of Condé Nast, dubbed her "the first great California decorator." A favorite of San Francisco society, Elkins often teamed up with architect Gardner Dailey and landscape architect Thomas Church. As the younger sister of architect David Adler, she frequently visited him in Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. Her travels introduced her to the minimalist designer Jean-Michel Frank and the surrealist sculptor Alberto Giacometti. She promoted their furnishings when she established her California-based design business in 1918.

George Coleman House Living Room, Pebble Beach, 1948, Photo: Fred Lyon

The late San Francisco photographer Fred Lyon shot many of Elkins' projects, where she fearlessly mixed modern designs with French and English period furnishings. His inaugural assignment for House & Garden and first meeting with the designer was in 1948 when he photographed art patron Whitney Warren Jr's opulent Telegraph Hill residence. It was a different design era; Elkins told her wealthy clients how to live, and they listened. She even had keys to their homes, would come in unannounced, and order changes to the interiors. Elkins presented the staff with charts for floral arrangements and table settings. Because of her attention to detail and design sense, Lyon felt her rooms remained timeless. 

1939  Golden Gate Exposition

In addition to private commissions, Elkins orchestrated avant-garde public spaces. She designed interiors for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, where the Division of Decorative Arts organizers wanted to showcase the emerging "American Modern" style. Modernist architect William W. Wurster built a light-filled asymmetrical wood and glass structure for the Yerba Buena Pavilion. Elkins decorated it with bold primary colors of reds and blues for the Victorian-styled sofas and draped the Jean-Michel Frank-influenced dining room in yellow velvet. While the exposition was an ephemeral stage set, the designer's legacy contributed to today's "California Look."