From Opium Beds to Storybook Homes: Walking Havens’ Wildwood Gardens

Last Wednesday was a warm day and our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group decided to stay in the central part of Piedmont and the shade of Wildwood Gardens for our weekly walk. Wildwood Gardens was the site of Frank C. Havens’ early 20^th Century “Wildwood Estate” so there was lots of Piedmont history to discuss.

A large turnout of 47 walkers and three K-9 best friends were at the Exedra.

During a City Council meeting the prior Monday night a report was given on the new pool. It is scheduled to be filled with water by the end of August and there will be equipment testing for six to eight weeks. But issues could come up, so there’s still no defined opening date. A large number of plants had been received for landscaping, and we wanted to check it all out before going up to Wildwood Gardens.

Additionally, there was a historical connection with Frank C. Havens across the street from the pool at 801 Magnolia, which is now the home of the Piedmont Center for the Arts (PCA). We went down Magnolia Avenue and stopped across in front of it.

The first building at 801 Magnolia was built as a private residence around 1878. It is reported to have been a twin of the Wetmore House up Bonita Avenue at its corner with Vista Avenue and is considered to be Piedmont's oldest unaltered home. It was built in 1878 for Jesse Wetmore and his family as a summer home.

Frank C. Havens was born in 1848 into one of the founding families of Shelter Island, New York. He ran away from home at the age of sixteen and became a cabin boy on a sailing vessel which rounded the Horn on its way to California. He spent two years in Honolulu and went to China. After a year in the China shipping trade, he came to San Francisco in 1866. He worked in banking and became an Oakland attorney and real estate developer in the East Bay, particularly in Oakland, Berkeley, and Piedmont.

Havens was married twice. His first wife died when she was about thirty-three and for his second wife he married Lila Mandana Rand. The Havens family lived in the house at 801 Magnolia, which was the home of Blanche Wetmore Sherman. This location was convenient for Havens, as it was across from Piedmont Park which he was developing. Records show that the house was remodeled and converted into a Christian Science Church in 1935. A youth education wing was added in 1964.

The Christian Science Church building was purchased by the City of Piedmont in 2003 as part of its Civic Center Master Plan, which later stalled. After sitting vacant for years, the City leased the building to the PCA which began renovations in 2011 for its use as an arts center.

Coming back to Havens, in about 1880 he founded a stock brokerage and then created the Oakland-based “Realty Syndicate” in 1895 with F. M. “Borax” Smith. Through it Havens and Smith built the Claremont Hotel and other structures. The Syndicate was also originally the parent company of the Key System transit company and accumulated at least 13,000 aces of valuable hilltop land that stretched from near Mills College to the boundary of North Berkeley.

We went down Magnolia looking at the work being done on the pool and noted the large number of plants for landscaping. We went up Hillside and Vista Avenues to the City Hall. By chance, Piedmont’s new police chief, Frederich Shavies, was walking in front of the hall and stopped to talk with us. He told us he intends to come on a Wednesday walk with us.

We walked up Highland Avenue and down to Wildwood Avenue, then a short distance up to the entrance of Wildwood Gardens. Two partially hidden columns mark the former entrance to Havens’ estate. We entered the neighborhood and made our way through its streets. We noted a unique brick storybook home with a curved roof while looking for 101 Wildwood Gardens, Havens’ mansion.

Havens owned all the land from Crocker Avenue down to Oakmont Avenue and Oak Road and wanted to build his estate on this land. In 1906 Havens hired Bernard Maybeck to design his home. It was designed as an oriental home of teakwood and fine carvings from India, China and Japan. It took two years to build. Lila Havens was a student of eastern religions, and the Eastern motifs can be seen in the house. Legends say she picked a fight with Maybeck, and he quit. Havens was also a follower of Eastern philosophy and meditation, and the mansion had an opium smoking bed.

At the time of the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906 Havens resigned from the active management of the Realty Syndicate to become president of the Peoples Water Company. At some point before 1910, Havens and Smith came into conflict for uncertain reasons. On December 9, 1910 it was made public that they had divided their interests. Havens took over the water company and land holdings and Smith acquired the Key Route interests. Sadly, after they had created so much together, they never met or spoke again.

In 1911 Havens was sued by shareholders of the Peoples Water Company over his use of assets and later he developed significant financial problems. He had to sell many of his assets and was debt when he died on February 9, 1918 from ptomaine (food) poisoning at his home. Lila had to sell the Wildwood land to pay what was owed. The estate’s grounds were sold as the Wildwood Gardens Tract, and the current neighborhood is the result.

We made our way through the two loops of Wildwood Gardens, found the gated entrance to 101, and took the attached group photo in front of it. When we finished the loops, it was getting warm and time to retrace our steps back to the Exedra.