Lost Mansions and Living Streets: Walking Glen Alpine and Sotelo

Last Wednesday our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group got lucky again with the weather. There was very heavy rain the following day, but our Wednesday morning was just cloudy. We were not surprised. We say it never rains during our walks and are almost always right. There was large turnout of 49 walkers and three K-9 best friends at the Exedra ready to enjoy our usually dry, weekly time together.

We try to walk every traffic-safe Piedmont street during the year, but one set of streets we hadn’t gotten to this year was the Glen Alpine Road/Sotelo Avenue loop. It has many beautiful homes and lots of Piedmont history. It’s a steep climb, but we were ready for the challenge.

Off we went up Highland, Sheridan, Wildwood, and Crocker Avenues, and then Hampton Road. We stopped in front of 395 Hampton Road at the foot of Glen Alpine. This elegant Mediterranean, 11,870 square foot home is known as the “Hampton House.” It was designed by Albert Farr designed in 1927 and has eight bedrooms and 9 baths in 11,870 square foot home on 1+ acres with space for eight cars.

Before the Hampton House was built, Louis Titus, a successful Berkeley real estate developer, bought 50 acres in these Piedmont hills in 1911. He intended to build a Spanish Italian mansion that he was going to call “Greenacres.” However, in 1912 the Piedmont’s Board of Trustees, now called the City Council, decided new property taxes were needed to pay for the new City’s public services. They passed taxes based on the amount of land owned, and Titus’ taxes were increased to a reported $200,000. He decided Piedmont was not such a great place for this mansion and Greenacres was never built.

We continued up Glen Alpine past a mansion that in an earlier time was a nunnery and came to the steep Indian Gulch Road. Jim Kellogg was once on the Planning Commission and shared that the approval process for a home at the bottom of this cul-de-sac required enlarging the road so fire trucks could access it. Almost all of us decided to pass on the descent and required ascent, and we continued up Glen Alpine for more neighborhood history.

James Tyson was a wealthy lumber and shipping businessman. In 1914 he purchased 30 acres from Titus’ tract to build his estate, “Oakmont,” at what is now 70 Sotelo. He also build a carriage house as a garage and servant quarters where he and his wife lived temporarily while supervising the construction of their home. This carriage house, which was built in 1913, is now a lovely home at 45 Glen Alpine with eight bedrooms and six and a half baths in 8,692 square feet. When we got to the house we were surprised to see a FOR SALE sign and a take-one box full of flyers. The flyer had pictures of the home’s beautiful interior and a lengthy house description. One bit of new information was that it was once a hunting lodge owned by Stanford University. One Cal alum was not surprised because he said everyone knows, “This is Bear Territory!”

At the very top of Glen Alpine is another very large, beautiful mansion. 75 Glen Alpine is a 5 bedroom/8 bath, 11,938 square foot, French revival chateau built in 1926 on 1.62 acres. Just to its right are Tyson’s original, two sandstone pillars with the words, “Oakmont” and “70 Sotelo.” However, Oakmont, which was completed in 1916, no longer exists. It was demolished in 1964. The pillars marked the entrance and long driveway to Tyson’s now-gone home. A gated driveway now leads to new homes built on the former Oakmont site. It was a great spot for a group photo. Also attached is an early map of the Glen Alpine Sotello Loop from Meghan Bennett’s History of Piedmont website, https://www.historyofpiedmont.com/.

We turned down Sotelo, and passed a front yard with a lovely succulent, drought-tolerant garden and were able to get a peak of Tyson Lake through the side of one of the homes. This lake was another Tyson creation. After he constructed Oakmont he dammed the creek that ran through his property and built a reservoir for his sons to swim. The lake is now owned and managed by a neighborhood association.

As we completed the loop at the foot of Sotelo was a very large, inflatable Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in a front yard to wish us an early Merry Christmas. He was just one more interesting thing for us to see before we retraced our steps back to the Exedra.