Our Piedmont Recreation Department's Walking on Wednesdays group had another special walk through the center of Piedmont on July 10th. Architect Jim K was going to take us for the second half of the tour and discussion of Piedmont's early 20th Century architectural development that he started in June. There was a strong turnout of 54 walkers three K-9 best friends on hand.
Before we started off, thanks was given to Lois P and Sherry J who organized our participation in Piedmont's 4th of July Parade, and the 25 walkers and one K-9 best friend who marched. A parade group photo is attached.
The focus of Jim's tour was the distinctive architectural character of early Piedmont. He noted that when Piedmont was incorporated in 1907, it was a small community of only 1,700 residents, and was thought of as "The Queen of the Hills." It was a beautiful place to live and included homes with exceptional architectural character that are still appreciated today. The city's architecture was influenced by many families from around the country who moved to Piedmont in early 1900 and wanted their new homes to recall the style from where they came. The city center provides examples of French Colonial, Victorian, English Tutor, Colonial Revival, American Foursquare, Bungalow, and Craftsman styles.
By 1920, Piedmont had more than doubled in size to 4,400 residents. During the "Roaring 20s" Piedmont was referred to as "The City of Millionaires" because it had the largest number of millionaire residents per square mile of any city in America. Many of the homes reflected the success of its residents.
The walk was to be about two miles, and go through parts of the early city center and include Bonita, Park Way, Mesa, Highland, upper Oakland, Pacific, and Mountain Avenues. It started at the Piedmont Center for the Arts, which was built in 1926 and designed by Albert Farr, then passed by the Jesse Wetmore House for a view from the Bonita Avenue side of this beautiful French Colonial house built in 1878. This house was restored by Alice Erskine in the 1940s and listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The Wetmore House is noted for its colonial wrap-around front porch and beautiful wood "fretwork" detailing.
The tour continued on to the Rupert Whitehead House on Bonita Avenue, built in 1907. We gathered for a photo in front of it and discussed the English Tutor style with unusual detailing which includes a stucco exterior finish and a unique double arched overhang at the front entry. Further up Bonita, we visited several examples of houses built in a variety of styles. The first was a French-style bungalow with a pair of "oxeye windows" at the corner of Oakland Avenue, then the noteworthy Berkenfeld Victorian built in 1895, with extensive Bavarian style carved wood detailing, and the humble Craftsman shingle-style house next built in the same year but with a
completely different style than the Berkenfeld Victorian.
We walked to Mesa and stopped at the Lowell Hardy house, built in 1905. This house is an excellent example of Berkeley craftsman shingle-style influenced by Bernard Maybeck. The house includes a complex gable roof, projecting bay windows and sun porch, and hand crafted wood front entry. The next stop was the John Rackliffe house at the corner of Oakland and Highland Avenues, built in 1899. It is a distinctive Queen Anne shingle-style, designed with a steep multi-gable roof, distinctive "Witches Cap Turret", wrap-around front porch, and whimsical shingle detailing. Many people do not know that an extensive second story addition was added to the house about 10 years ago, designed by Greer Graff. The scale and workmanship of the addition fits perfectly with the original house, and received a Piedmont Planning Design Award.
We then moved on to the house next door on Oakland Avenue. This is a great example of a mid-century International Style. It was built in 1952, and is completely different from Queen Anne Victorian. The style is quiet, restrained, with an open plan layout focused on a large private back-yard atrium, and the architectural detailing includes full height expansive glass walls, low-slope hip roof with a raised interior ceiling below and no-frills detailing using natural materials. Which house was more appealing was left up to each member of the group to decide.
The final stop on this week's tour was the Hugh Craig House, built in 1879. It is an excellent example of Victorian Stick Italianate, designed by Charles L. Bugbee who was a partner in San Francisco with his father, S.C. Bugbee. They had many notable clients, including Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, Richard Tobin, and David Colton. And they were the architects for Mills Hall at Mills College. The Hugh Craig House was thought to be Charles L. Bugbee's last work, because he died of a heart attack in January, 1880 just after the Craig House was completed.
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