George Becerra

THE CRAFTSMAN and ARTIST BEHIND SERRANO’S ICONIC STONE FEATURES

by BILL ROMANELLI photography by CHARLENE TAYLOR / CHARM PHOTOGRAPHY

hen George Becerra graduated from W high school in 1958, he wanted to join the U.S. Forest Service to fight fires. So it’s a little ironic that he actually made his mark on Serrano by building fireplaces. After six months in the Forest Service, he realized he couldn’t earn enough money to make a living. So, at 18, he started working as a mason’s helper, which led to an apprenticeship and, after a couple of years, he earned his stone mason’s card. It sounds easier than it is. Spreading mortar with a trowel is an art form, to say nothing of the skill needed to hand pick and arrange bricks, rock or stone in a structure that fits perfectly in its assigned space, functions properly and looks good. It’s a craft Becerra honed over a 42-year career that started in Palm Springs, where he did stonework for some high-profile clients. “I worked on homes for Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Harpo Marx, even a guy we all knew was in the mafia,” he says. “I never met any of the famous people, though and, unfortunately, that mafia guy never saw our finished work. We heard someone put on a contract on him, and he’d been taken out.”

Becerra started building fireplaces after about six years as a mason, and he says that while working on the first one, he was scared to death. It’s very easy to build a fireplace incorrectly and talking about that is where he gets excited. “You’ve got the firebox, (where the wood goes) that has to fit exactly in a certain spot, but the hard part is called the throat, between the firebox and the chimney,” he says. “ at has to angle up, just perfectly in the vertical space you have, so the smoke goes up the chimney and not into the room. You can’t get that wrong.” Fortunately, that first fireplace went perfectly, and he worked in Palm Springs until 1978 before moving to Newcastle, where he worked for Elliott Homes. His team then built one fireplace every ONE OF HIS first projects day, for weeks. WAS TO BUILD THE It became a FIREPLACES IN THE specialty. SERRANO COUNTRY In 1990, CLUB, WHICH TODAY Becerra’s ARE STILL REVERED employer won 30 YEARS LATER AS the contract works of art. to build all the stonework at Serrano. e tons of beautiful gray and gold quartzite Bill Parker had discovered on a hunting trip—and spent $1 million to truck in from a quarry on the Nevada-Idaho border—was now in his hands. One of his first projects was to build the fireplaces in the Serrano Country Club, which today are still revered 30 years later as works of art. “Each one took about a week. In a place like Serrano, you take a little extra time to make it perfect,” he says. “It was hard work.

Every stone was handpicked to fit exactly in the spot we needed it.” Becerra’s work at Serrano wasn’t limited to the country club’s fireplaces, however.

Nearly all the stonework at the club bears his fingerprints, and his characteristic attention to detail. It’s a source of pride that his work is still admired three decades later. It’s a legacy, and something he appreciates every time he visits his daughter, who lives in Serrano. e best part is when his grandkids and great-grandkids, point to the fireplace and say, “Grandpa built that.”