Knave -- spotlighting architecture (p1)

Spotlighting From the OT until N gin building to KNAVE Architecture 1876 did home and was now the University of Calin Oakland be- ifornia on a tree - studded campus assume sufficient in Berkeley. importance as to compare in number and value with that of San Francisco, although there were several imposing dwellings erected here in the 1860s. "During 1876, however, the attention of all who contemplated building near the bay seemed directed to Oakland as a most promising field," wrote B. C. Vandall, publisher of Bishop's Oakland Directory for 1878-79. "Consequently, there were 1,300 homes, large and small, erected here during America's Centennial Year of 1876. "Lumber and labor are so exceedingly slow, as are also the rates of money, that a very general transformation of the rough material into stately and tasty dwellings may be looked for again before the close of the present year," he predicted. Among the large builders in Oakland who devoted their energies to the erection of houses for sale included •the Real Estate Union, George M. Fisher, W. C. Tyndale, John Ziegenbein, and Abraham C. Brown. The Real Estate Union was a corporation of considerable magnitude for that particular period. It had acquired an authorized capital of nearly half a million dollars by 1876. Horace D. Ranlett was president; Charles H. Gorrill, vice president; William H. Jordan, secretary and general manager. From the time the corporation was organized in 1874 the Union National Bank was listed as treasurer, and Henry Vrooman was the attorney. Burnham, Standeford &amp; Company were proprietors of the Oakland Planing Mills at the foot of Washington Street at the time, and T. Schoonover operated the Oakland Point Planing Mills down on The Point (West Oakland). George M. Blair had a planing mill at the northwest corner of Grove and First Streets, and James E. Blethen had the Pioneer Planing Mill on Broadway at First Street. The Grand Central Hotel was an impressive, block long frame structure on the south side of 12th Street between Webster and Harrison Streets, across from the equally imposing Dietz Opera House at the northeast corner of 12th and Webster Streets. The College of California had moved from its campus. in the same neighborhood 21-CM Oakland Tribune Sun., June 1850s to 1890s The Tubbs Hotel was a residential and resort type of inn on East 12th Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues, east of Lake Merritt. W. E. Dargie was gaining prominence as publisher of the twoyear-old Oakland Tribune. THOSE homes built in Oakland before and during the Silver '70s are representative of the early way of life on the eastern shores of San Francisco Bay on up through the Elegant '80s and the Gay '90s. They are the homes that will be the center of conversation next Wednesday night when the Alameda County Historical Society gathers its members for a final session before the summer vacation season. Wednesday night's meeting will be held at the Lakeside Park Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Avenue, across from Lakeside Park's Fairyland. It is scheduled for 8 p.m., without dinner or cost other than membership in the society. The discussion will be "Domestic Architecture of Oakland, 1850 to the 1890s," with comments by Edward T. Planer, instructor in history on the Merritt campus of Peralta college, and Henrietta Perry, executive secretary of the society. Rare slides and photographs from the collection of Mrs. Jane Voiles will be shown. Mrs. Voiles, born in West Oakland, saw the handsome old houses deteriorating in the 1930s and immediately set about gathering pictures and stories. Within a short time she extended her collection to all of Oakland and then to all of California. MIGHT be interesting to note some of the old homes in Mrs. Voiles' photographic collection. One house still standing is the Bendel home on Hawthorne Street near Merritt Hospital. It was built in 1869. Rose Cottage was the 1862 home of Capt. Ned Wakeman that stood on 11th Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets. Captain Wakeman was a friend of Mark Twain who included him as Captain Blakely in "Roughing It." Minnie Wakeman Walker, a daughter of Captain Wakeman, has a fascinating book on library shelves entitled "Log of an Ancient Mariner." The Curtis Forrest home, built in 1879, stood at Broadway and Webster Streets until 28th. Street was A The Dietz-Boyer home stood on San Pablo Avenue near 54th St. Rose Cottage built in 1862 was an Eleventh Avenue showplace Photos from the collection of Mrs. -Jane Voiles Curtis Forrest built this Broadway mansion in 1879 cut through from Broadway to Telegraph. Its last owner was Mrs. Flora Anderson who had the stained glass windows removed from the conservatory and took the weather vane from the carriage house for her new home on Barrows Road. The Dietz-Boyer house on the west side of San Pablo Avenue near 54th Street was occupied by Alfred C. Dietz and his family as early as 1878. Dietz was the owner of the Dietz Opera House on Oak- 2, 1968 land's 12th Street at Webster. He was also a San Francisco dealer in paint supplies. His daughter, Alice, married a Mr. Boyer. Mrs. Voiles also has pictures of the Pagoda Hill- home of J. Ross Browne who returned as United States Consul to China and made his home here; the F. M. "Borax" Smith mansion, Dr. Samuel Merritt's home, General Kirkham's residence, the Samuel Bell McKee home (still standing) where peaContinued on Page 24