Victorian Comeback Tour: Piedmont’s Hidden Architectural Gems

On a rainy morning the prior week, members of our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group went to six Victorian homes in Ann Swift’s 2007 book, "Cottages and Castles – The Centennial Houses of the City of Piedmont." Ann was the Piedmont City Clerk for 22 years from 1988 to 2010 and an unofficial historian for the city of Piedmont. She wrote this book on the city’s 100^th anniversary and describes 173 of the city's historic homes that were over 100 years old at that time.

Some of Ann Swift’s historical information was shared and architect Jim Kellogg discussed the homes’ features. On the week ago walk, we planned to continue on to two more Victorians down Oakland Avenue, but we decided to hold off because of the rain.

It was just cloudy last Wednesday morning and a good turnout of 46 walkers and three of their K-9 best friends were on hand at the Exedra to complete the tour. We could see the two homes we missed and more Victorians in the western side of Piedmont. Ann Swift’s house histories could be shared and Jim Kellogg was back to provide more architectural comments.

We started off going down Magnolia Avenue, across Hillside Avenue to Oakland Avenue, and down to Jerome Avenue. At 29 Jerome the house guard dog, Moose, announced our arrival to Christopher, who lives there, and he came out to greet us. It is a small Victorian that Robert Gray built in 1894. However, John Spring owned it by 1901. By the time of his death, Spring was a multi-millionaire living on a 16 acre estate in Berkeley. In 1895 he sued the Piedmont Consolidated Cable Company and was awarded $14,000. He invested in land in Berkeley, Alameda, and Piedmont that became very valuable after the 1906 Earthquake. Ann Swift speculated that Spring likely owned this cottage as a weekend retreat from his San Francisco residence. Jim Kellogg noted the house was originally a one-store Victorian cottage with a large front bay window below a projecting roof gable decorated with fish-scale shingles and a beautiful sunburst shingle detail at the ridge.  Our group picture was taken including Christopher and Moose from the entry steps to the house.

We continued on to Cambridge Way, went across Grand Avenue, and up Greenbank Avenue to Rose Avenue. Rose is interesting because the houses on the north side of the street are in Oakland and those on the south are in Piedmont. This split is because the founders of Piedmont used a sewer line map to define the city's boundaries during their hurried incorporation of the city in 1907. Piedmont residents had voted to become an independent city rather than be annexed by Oakland. To file the necessary paperwork in Sacramento quickly, the city fathers used the only detailed map available, one from the Piedmont Sanitary Sewer District. Its lines often ran behind houses or across lots rather than following streets, so the city’s border is irregular with approximately 136 parcels split between the two cities.

There are several notable Victorian houses on Rose Avenue, and we stopped first at the Victorian at 950 Rose. The Sanitary Sewer District assessed the property at $250 and the house at $400 when the house was built in 1901. The earliest description of the house in 1926 had having just one bedroom. It was reported that the Rose family owned the house at that time. So, it seems the street is named after them, rather than the flower. The expansion of the basement added bedrooms to the house and the tall Queen Anne style turret on its right was added in the 1970s. Jim Kellogg added that this house was built at the end of the Victorian era, and other houses built on Rose Avenue only a few years later illustrate Piedmont’s change to 20^th Century styles including: Bungalow, Craftsman, American Foursquare, and several Revival styles.

Up the street is 934 Rose. Peter and Christine Nelson immigrated to the United States in 1881 and built this house in 1895. He drove a water cart for a living and she cared for their daughter, Metta, and later a son. The Nelsons prospered over time. By 1907 Peter was a streetcar motorman and Christine ran a catering business from their house. That same year they built a second house next door at 938 Rose. Jim Kellogg commented the Queen Anne cottage that they built was just one story with a Victorian style root cellar, which was later raised to create a usable basement level, bay windows on the front and sides, and excellent Queen Anne style decorative carved wood features including sunburst pattern at the roof ridge, wood spindle supports and wood dentil trim along the perimeter of the front gable.  The original house even had a classic white picket fence at the front sidewalk. The neighboring house, built by Nelson in 1907, illustrates that in 10 years the Victorian style had faded from popularity in Piedmont, and the Bungalow style was now the preference. This house design includes: a horizontal proportioned front bay window to provide a larger living room, a front entry porch with classical Doric columns, a steep hip roof with a front dormer, and straightforward clapboard wood siding without whimsical carved detailing.

Also next door is 930 Rose. Welshman Hugh Davies immigrated to the United States in 1892 and built this house three years later at the same time as the Nelsons. He supported his wife and three children working as a carpenter for the Mountain View Cemetery and two more sons came later. Sometime before 1926 he divided the house into two separate living units. The Queen Anne detailing of the house includes fish-scale shingles in the gable, dentils and decorative corner brackets over the front bay windows, and the original stained glass entry door.

We navigated our way past tree trimmers and their trucks doing work on the Piedmont side of the street, but not on the Oakland side. We continued on to Linda Avenue and then back Kingston Avenue and down Greenbank this time. We crossed Grand Avenue and stayed on Greenbank to see 225 Greenbank. Ole Berg built this cottage in 1907. He was a 45-year Norwegian stevedore who worked on the Oakland docks. Ann Swift thought it was possible Berg did most of the construction himself. The then one-story home was a straightforward design with an angled bay on the left topped with a gable. The house did not have some of the details that would have required a finish carpenter, but is does have the typical fish-scale shingles, turned posts, and spindlework of Queen Anne designs. Berg added a garage in 1926, and the house was raised in the 1990s to have a second floor.

We climbed up Greenbank to Oakland Avenue. Just down the street is another Victorian at 1138 Oakland Avenue. This house was built by C. H. Hawley in 1901. It is simple late Victorian with a bay window on each side and multiple gables. Hawley’s original lot went through to what is now Fairview Avenue and a much newer house that is now located at 85 Fairview Avenue. We noted the Oakland Avenue Victorian, but it was time to return the Exedra via upper San Carlos and Magnolia Avenues.

It was a little longer walk than usual, but seeing these beautiful Victorian homes was worth the extra time and effort. The good news is that there are many more of Ann Swift’s Piedmont Centennial homes on Sunnyside Avenue and other Piedmont streets, but we would have to wait for a future Wednesday walk to see them.