Francis Townsend Underhill

"Inellan," Walter Douglass house, Channel Drive, Montecito, CA, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1917. Architect: Francis Townsend Underhill, with changes for Walter Douglass ca. 1906. Landscape: Francis Townsend Underhill, from 1902

Francis Townsend Underhill (25 February 1863 – 1929) was a politician from the U.S. state of New York and an amateur architect in California.

Biography Born in Oyster Bay, New York, he was a ninth-generation descendant of Captain John Underhill. Underhill was raised by his aunts as his parents (James Week Underhill, 1819–1868; Margaret Varnum) died when he was of a young age. He was educated by tutors in the US and abroad, studying architecture and landscape architecture.

Underhill married Henrietta Graham Meyer in 1883. Their three daughters, Margaret Varnum Underhill (born 1885), Katherine Underhill (born 1892), and Dorothy Underhill (born 1894), were raised at the family's Oyster Bay estate. He was a member of Caroline Astor's Four Hundred social registry, the Knickerbocker Union, Society of Colonial Wars, Sons of the American Revolution, and the Union Club of New York.

The Underhill estate was used in 1916 as filming location for the movie Purity starring noted artists' model Audrey Munson.

1903-04, Francis Underhill house #1, La Chiquita, Santa Barbara 1904, Francis Underhill house #2, Santa Barbara 1906-07, Francis Underhill house #3, Montecito 1909-10, Francisca de la Guerra Dibblee house (mother of Carmelita Dibblee), near Mission Santa Barbara 1911, Walter Douglas house, Montecito 1911, Joseph G. Coleman, Jr. house, Montecito 1911-14, Peabody house, Solana, Santa Barbara 1914-17, Arcady garden, George Owen Knapp estate 1916, Roman Pool Pavilion, George Owen Knapp estate 1916-17, George C. Boldt house, La Manzanita, Montecito 1917, Robert Patterson house, East Valley Road, Montecito 1917, C. F. K. Billings house, Santa Barbara