Early in the 20th century, diabetes was a devastating disease with little treatment available. When the young daughter of Bernhard and Irene Hoffmann, a wealthy couple in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, was diagnosed with diabetes in 1919, they were prepared to do anything to save her life. The consulted with Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch Potter at Columbia University and followed him to Santa Barbara, where he was to begin his new role as researcher for the new Potter Metabolic Clinic funded by the Carnegie Foundation.
After Dr. Potter’s untimely death, his work on insulin was continued by Dr. William Sansum, and Margaret Hoffmann was accepted as a patient. As her health improved, the couple enthusiastically settled into their new community. Coincidentally, Bernhard’s brother, Ralph, was named the headmaster of Cate School, and later became director of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
Already steeped in the tradition of community beautification and historic preservation that characterized their New England hometown, the couple was enthralled by the equally significant, yet very dissimilar Spanish-influenced heritage and architecture in Santa Barbara. They soon commissioned architect James Osborne Craig to design their expansive new home on Garden Street in the Spanish style. They named it Casa Santa Cruz.