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Lecture/Tour this Saturday 9/24/2011, 7:30pm Berkeley, sponsored by BAHA. (http://www.berkeleyheritage.com/calendar.html)

On Saturday September 24, 2011, consider spending the afternoon in Berkeley, eat an early dinner in the excellent weather and then make your dessert a visit inside a most decadent building, the Bernard Maybeck-designed First Church of Christ, Scientist.

For your dessert, you will be joined by Mark A. Wilson, who will discuss his new book, Bernard Maybeck: Architect of Elegance, and Cherry Maybeck Nitler, Maybeck’s granddaughter, who will recount family stories.

The church is gorgeous and has a congregation of “architecturally religious” followers.  Many photos and details are highlighted on the Friends of First Church website. (http://www.friendsoffirstchurch.org/allHTML/takeAPeekInterior.html)

Maybeck is best known for his numerous buildings in Berkeley, but he also had commissions in SF and a few sprinkled down the peninsula. Only one Maybeck is still standing in San Jose – the Howard B. Gates home at 62 S. 13thSt. in Naglee Park.

The Gates home is San Jose City Landmark #25 and was described in the Fall 2002 PAC SJ newsletter by Jack Douglass.  (http://www.preservation.org/newsletters/fall2002.pdf )

Although we cannot see the inside of the Gates home, I hope you can visit the Church of Christ, Scientist either for this Saturday’s lecture, or one of their future once per month tours. (http://www.berkeleyheritage.com/calendar.html)

Cici

Every Friday, starting today, I’ll be highlighting a building from one of our research books.

Aluminum in Modern Architecture, 1958 mostly discusses office buildings, but I managed to find a very unique building that is also tied to Northern California history. The Kaiser Hawaiian Village geodesic dome was manufactured in Kaiser’s Oakland shipyards, then shipped to Hawaii and built onsite in a record 20 hours. The building made a great event venue, being that the interior was not interrupted by any structural supports and it could inherently withstand hurricane gusts. Unfortunately, it couldn’t withstand progress and it was demolished in 1998.

ps, the book itself is quite attractive, with the inside cover and first page made of shiny silver “aluminum” paper, followed by an overleaf of aged drafting paper.

photos:
Life Magazine 2 page ad about the dome:  click here
under construction:  Popular Mechanics 1967 article.

An interesting article on Henry J. Kaiser’s involvement in Hawaii:  http://archives.hawaiireporter.com

On May 13th, the California Department of Parks and Recreation released their proposed list of park closures due to a $22 million general fund budget cut. Of the 278 State Parks, 70 are slated for closure. These proposed closures affect many of the historic resources associated with the State Parks system and, in fact, would close 40% of all state parks categorized as historic.

What does this mean for the historic resources? The Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park can serve to illustrate the effect of such a closure. Constructed in 1822-1824, the Santa Cruz Mission is the only remaining building of Mission Santa Cruz and is the oldest building in Santa Cruz County. With the proposed closures, this site would no longer be available to the countless 4th graders who study mission history as part of their required California state curriculum. For the historic adobe building it would means deferred maintenance, such as a delay for the annual whitewashing or scheduled mud plaster repairs. Postponed maintenance can lead to significant problems, since water infiltration can cause adobe brick deterioration. Preservation of these historic sites is essential, with continued maintenance paramount. Closing these historic sites not only prevents the public from visiting the sites now, but it may endanger the very existence of the structures, thereby taking the site away from future generations as well.

Proposition 21 would have increased vehicle license fees in the state by $18 a year in order to raise about $500 million a year in a dedicated fund for the state’s parks. In turn, most California vehicles would have received free admission and parking at state parks and beaches. This would have ensured that the parks stayed open and received proper care. Short sighted citizens voted against this proposal and now the public must grapple with the concept of closing these important cultural resources.

In addition to the Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park, other parks near the South Bay and Santa Cruz slated to close are Henry W. Coe State Park (the largest State Park in Northern California), Castle Rock State Park, Twin Lakes State Beach and Zmudowski State Beach in Watsonville.

Find out more or donate at: http://www.calparks.org/ or http://www.thatsmypark.org/

My application to place Seven Springs Ranch in Cupertino on the National Register of Historic Places was considered by the Keeper on March 29, 2011. The Keeper made a determination of eligibility, although did not formally list the property due to a protest by a bank in Kansas City, Missouri, who also claimed to be the owner in fee.  The Keeper forwarded the determination to Milford Wayne Donaldson, California State Preservation Officer, who then listed the property on the California Register of Historical Resources, pursuant to Section 4851(a)92) of the California Code of Regulations.

We prepared the nomination last summer for Grant Lyddon, grandson of industrialist Grant Stauffer. Grant and Gladys Stauffer bought the ranch, founded in 1866 by John Bubb, in 1936, and built the distinctive Spanish Eclectic house designed by local architect Ralph Wyckoff that still exists in its unaltered form. The findings of the Keeper are as follows:

“The Seven Springs Ranch is locally significant under National Register Criteria A and C in the areas of Agriculture, Exploration/Settlement and Architecture. Located in the now highly urbanized “Silicon Valley” area, the 37-acre Seven Springs Ranch property represents one of the last remaining agricultural settings able to convey the broad patterns of late nineteenth and early twentieth century agricultural development in the western Santa Clara valley. The northern California agricultural estate contains resources illustrating the early American-era agricultural period, the early twentieth-century experimental ranch efforts of William Radford, and the Stauffer estate ranching contributions. The resulting complex illustrates a broad array of ranch-related architectural facilities and conveys the historic evolution of historic period ranch design.”

Stauffer House at Seven Springs Ranch

The National Park Service (NPS) has begun a “special resource study” of sites that are significant to the life of Cesar E. Chavez and the farm labor movement in the western United States.

Cesar Chavez is recognized as the most important U.S. Latino leader of the twentieth century. During the 1960s, Chavez led a movement of thousands of farmworker families and their supporters as they created the nation’s first permanent agricultural labor union. Chavez’s advocacy helped secure the passage of the first law in the U.S. that specifically recognized farmworkers’ rights to organize unions and engage in collective bargaining. In 2008, Congress directed the National Park Service to conduct this study under P.L. 110-229.

The NPS study will identify sites that were significant to Chavez and the farm labor movement, evaluate a range of options for preservation and public visitation, explore ideas for using these sites to help tell important aspects of farm labor movement history, and determine whether there is an appropriate role for the NPS in preserving these sites or telling these stories. The study has just started, and is planned for completion later this year. The work will:

• Study sites in the State of Arizona, the State of California, and other states that are significant to the life of Cesar E.Chavez and the farm labor movement in the western United States;
• Determine whether any of the sites meet the criteria for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, designation as a national historic landmark, or inclusion in the national park system;
• Determine appropriate methods for preserving and interpreting the sites;
• Consult with the Cesar Chavez Foundation, the United Farm Workers Union, and state and local historical associations and societies, including state historic preservation offices; and
• Submit a report to Congress on the study’s findings and recommendations.

The first newsletter prepared by the NPS can be downloaded from here.

The NPS has set up a facebook page here. Martha Crusius of the NPS Oakland office is Project Manager.

Location of Sites Affiliated with Cesar E. Chavez

April 30, May 1st is a busy weekend, the official start of the Home Tours and Open Studios season.  This is a great opportunity to get inside some of those magnificent houses you may have been wondering about.

1) Sat: Bradbury & Bradbury historic art wallpaper studio
2) Sun: Stanford home tour, including a Frank Lloyd Wright home!
3) Sat & Sun: Willow Glen home tour.

1) Bradbury & Bradbury historic art wallpaper business Open Studio:
http://www.bradbury.com/emails/open_house_2011.html
The factory will be open Saturday April 30th 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. 940 Tyler Street, Suite 12, Benicia, CA. They will have silk screen printing demonstrations and some glimpses of new papers and fabrics.  If you’re an old home or house museum enthusiast, you have definitely seen some installations of their wallpaper.  Now you have a chance to tour part of the factory and learn how the wallpaper is made.

2)  Stanford’s tour:
http://histsoc.stanford.edu/hhouses.shtml
The Stanford Historical Society’s tour is of 5 homes in the San Juan neighborhood of the Stanford campus. The houses are a 20′s and 30′s mix, with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hanna Honeycomb House included.  The tour is Sunday, May 1, from 1-4 p.m. and the advance price is $30.

3) Willow Glen tour:
http://www.sjdn.org/Default.aspx?pageId=314015
The Willow Glen tour is a benefit for the San Jose Day Nursery school, and includes 5 homes. The tour is both Saturday and Sunday, April 30, and May 1, from 10-4 p.m. Tickets are available at several businesses on Lincoln Avenue and online.  The price is $30 before the day of the tour. See also http://www.mercurynews.com/campbell/ci_17668597 for a great virtual tour and article about one of the homes.

– Cici, the house stalker

Today’s extensive media coverage about Hanger One and the beginning of the project to remove the exterior skin of this monolith in Mountain View , California, reminded me of the photo I bought on eBay a number of years ago. The photo below shows Hanger One as it neared completion in 1932, just after the skin had been installed.

Admiral William A. Moffett is credited with the creation of two Naval Air Stations. Moffett Field housed the dirigible Macon, built in 1933, which crashed off the Monterey coast in 1935.

Hanger One at Moffett Field was named a Naval Historical Monument in the early 1950s, and is constructed of a network of steel girders sheathed with steel panels, now being removed. The floor covers eight acres, and is 1,133 feet long and 198 feet high.

One of the most recognizable landmarks in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hanger One and the original base are significant in the history of Naval Aviation. I had the experience of entering the hanger as a child at one of many airshows.

The Moffett Field Historical Society Museum website can be found here.

The Morgan Hill Historical Society will be hosting a presentation on the Rhoades Ranch by Architectural Historian Franklin Maggi at their quarter membership meeting April 27 at 7:00 p.m.  The meeting is at the Morgan Hill House, 17860 Monterey St., Morgan Hill.

Rhoades Ranch is located at the base of Anderson Reservoir, and was recently landmarked by the County of Santa Clara based on an evaluation by Archives & Architecture. The ranch was initially developed in the 1860s, and contains the circa 1870 house of County Supervisor James Phegley. Also on the ranch is the 1917 Spanish Eclectic house of IO Rhodes, designed by prominent local architects Howard Higbie and Andrew Hill Jr. Following the development of the Rhodes fruit ranch, strawberry scientist Harold E. Thomas occupied the site and established the Strawberry Institute of California, where many disease resistant varieties of today’s market strawberries were developed.

Owners Joe and Sheila Giancola will also be in attendance to answer questions. Contact the historical society if you’d like to attend. A group potluck starts at 6:00 p.m.

On April 5, 2011, Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga was added to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom sites. Madronia Cemetery is the burial site of Mary A. Brown, wife of abolitionist John Brown. The Network to Freedom sites program is being implemented by the National Park Service to coordinate preservation and education efforts nationwide by integrating local historical places, museums, and interpretive programs associated with the Underground Railroad. The program is based on the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act of 1998.

Mary A. Brown was born 194 years ago on April 15, 1817. She bought property in Saratoga in 1881, and lived there briefly before her death. She was interred in Madronia Cemetery. The Saratoga Historical Foundation commemorated her birth date with an event this last Friday, April 15, 2011 at the museum.

There appear to be two photographs of her that are archived at the Library of Congress, and reproduced on various web sites. The one below appears on the Virginia Historical Society web site.

Mary A. Brown and children

An interview in Alameda resulted in an almost-secret look over the fence at the Acania restoration, which is occurring at the Robertson-Stone Boat Yard site in Alameda. The Acania, a 1930 130-foot diesel yacht is rumored to have been owned secretly by Al Capone after being built in 1930. It is presently owned by David and Lynn Olson of Olson Metals who have been restoring it. The Robertson-Stone Boat Yard was established in 1922-1923 and is still active in the boat building industry.

The Acania is rumored to have been built for Al Calpone