lucinda reames house no. 2 2509 regent street berkeley ......2014/09/04 · lucinda reames house...

CITY OF BERKELEY Ordinance #4694 N.S.

LANDMARK APPLICATION

Lucinda Reames House No. 2 2509 Regent Street Berkeley, CA 94704

Fig. 1. Lucinda Reames House No. 2, May 2014

Fig. 2. Lucinda Reames House No. 2, c. 1939 (Ormsby Donogh files, BAHA archives)

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2509 Regent Street Landmark Application, of 37

1. Street Address: 2509 Regent Street County: Alameda City: Berkeley ZIP: 94704

2. Assessor’s Parcel Number: 55-1842-30 (Hillegass Tract No. 3, Block C, Lot 1)

Dimensions: 69.56 feet W x 60.78 feet N x approx. 70 feet E x 66.67 feet S Cross Streets: Dwight Way & Parker Street

3. Is property on the State Historic Resource Inventory? No

Is property on the Berkeley Urban Conservation Survey? Yes Form #: 17310

4. Application for Landmark Includes:

a. Building(s): Yes Garden: Front Yard Other Feature(s): b. Landscape or Open Space: N/A c. Historic Site: No d. District: No e. Other: Entire Property

5. Historic Name: Reames House, Culvyhouse House

Commonly Known Name: N/A 6. Date of Construction: 1903

Factual: Yes Source of Information: Contract notice, Edwards Transcript of Records, 24 December 1902; Berkeley Gazette, 17 January and 3 March 1903.

7. Architect: A. Dodge Coplin 8. Builder: Jacob House

9. Style: Wood-frame, 2-1/2-story Colonial Revival 10. Original Owner: Lucinda Reames

Original Use: Single-family residence 11. Present Owner: Jos Polman

2509 Regent Street Berkeley, CA 94704 Present Occupant: Owner-occupied

12. Present Use:

Residential: Single-family home Current Zoning: R-3 Adjacent Property Zoning: R-3

13. Present Condition of Property:

Exterior: Poor Interior: Unknown Grounds: Poor Has the property’s exterior been altered? Yes, a 6 ft x 12 ft x 12 addition was

built in the rear in 1927; the original narrow clapboard cladding (extant) was covered with asbestos shingles in the early 1950s; the dormer has been altered;

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the wooden front steps were replaced with concrete, and their clapboard-clad stepped parapets were replaced with wrought-iron railings.

Fig. 3. The 2500 block of Regent Street (Google Maps)

Executive Summary

On 1 May 2014, the Landmarks Preservation Commission initiated Lucinda

Reames House No. 2, 2509 Regent Street, as a potential City of Berkeley Landmark or Structure of Merit.

Reames House No. 2 is located on the east side of Regent Street, close to Dwight Way and People’s Park, at the northern edge of the Willard neighborhood. The house is the second from the north in a row of four Colonial Revival houses that also includes 2503, 2511, and 2517 Regent Street, all built between 1901 and 1903. It is one of three adjacent houses designed by the notable architect Albert Dodge Coplin (1869–1908). These houses represent the architect’s earliest residential work in Berkeley and demonstrate his departure from the conventional foursquare style prevalent in Colonial Revival “classic boxes.”

The immediate area is rich in history and historic resources. Within a block and a half of Reames House No. 2, there are eight designated structures (including Berkeley’s only National Historic Landmark, the First Church of Christ, Scientist) and a designated site (People’s Park). Two additional designated structures—the Blood House and the Woolley House—were scheduled to be moved to the parcel directly across the street (see Fig. 4) beginning 16 August 2014.



Across Dwight Way lies People’s Park, created in 1969 after the University of California acquired the land and demolished the buildings. The bloody events following the creation of People’s Park have become one of the most defining moments in Berkeley’s history.

The 2500 block of Regent Street is particularly vulnerable owing to its proximity to the UC campus and to Telegraph Avenue. Close to half of the buildings that stood on this block in 1911 have been demolished to make way for modern apartment buildings. There are now ten apartment buildings on the block, of which seven were constructed between 1958 and 1966. A new six-story building is currently being proposed for 2539 Telegraph Avenue. If approved, it would have a second façade on Regent Street, replacing a mid-block pocket park.

Lucinda Reames House No. 2 is an essential element in preserving historic fabric on this extremely fragile block of Regent Street and the northern edge of the Willard neighborhood.

Fig 4. Designated landmarks on or near the 2500 block of Regent Street

14. Description:

Lucinda Reames House No. 2 is a wood-frame, two-story-plus-attic building constructed in 1903 as a single-family residence. It is set back from the street, with a slightly raised front yard.

The parcel on which Reames House No. 2 stands constitutes the southern half of the original lot owned by Mrs. Reames (see Fig. 5). On the northern half, Mrs. Reames built a slightly earlier house (2503 Regent Street), designed by the same architect in a similar style and constructed almost at the same time.

A. Dodge Coplin designed the house in the Colonial Revival style, which was prevalent in the new streetcar suburbs of the 1890s and the first decade of the 20th century. The Willard neighborhood is a good example of such streetcar suburbs.



Colonial Revival houses lent themselves to row construction and were often grouped to present a unified streetscape. This was the case on the 2500 block of Regent Street and may still be observed in the two surviving rows on the block, from 2503 to 2517 on the northeast end and from 2528 to 2536 further south on the west side.

Fig 5. The original parcel, Lot 1, included 2503 and 2509 Regent Street.

Fig. 6. Colonial Revival houses at 2511, 2517 & 2521 Regent Street in 1939 (Ormsby Donogh files, BAHA archives)



Four types of the domestic Colonial Revival style are represented in Berkeley1:

• Colonial Revival House (aka “Classic Box,” known in the eastern United States as American Foursquare), identified by a hip roof (often with dormer); clapboard or shingle cladding; a front stoop or porch; and neoclassical ornamentation such as columns and/or pilasters on the façade, and corbels or dentil friezes under the soffit of the cornice.

• Colonial Revival Cottage—a one-story version of the Colonial Revival House.

• High-Peaked Gable Colonial Revival House, featuring an oversized dormered gable containing the upper floor[s].

• Dutch Colonial Revival—a two-story version in which the upper floor is enclosed within a gambrel roof.

Fig. 7. 2503 Regent St. (right) and Colonial Revival houses on Dwight Way in 1948 (Hughson family collection)

Lucinda Reames House No. 2 is an adaptation of the first category—the

Colonial Revival House, popularly known as “Classic Box.” The house differs from the conventional Classic Box in having a horizontally “stretched” façade rather than a square one. This stretched appearance was a Coplin device, also employed next door at 2503 Regent Street.

1 Emmington, Bruce, and Smith: “Ashby Station: a classic American streetcar suburb.” Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, http://berkeleyheritage.com/essays/ashby_station.html



General Description Lucinda Reames House No. 2 is a rectangular box crowned by a hip roof with

exposed eaves undermounted with fancy sawn rafter tails. The left-of-center front dormer (originally smaller, with a low hip roof and a single row of windows) currently has a gable roof and three windows on two levels in a pyramidal arrangement. Right-of-center, there is a small, modern square skylight dome.

A brick chimney is located on the north side of the roof.

Fig. 8. West façade (Google Street View)

The house is clad in asbestos shingles over the original narrow clapboard,

which can be glimpsed in several places (see Fig. 12 and 13). The house is distinguished by its elongated, “stretched” appearance and by

the flared roof slopes and flared skirts on both floors. The second floor overhangs the first floor with a flared skirt. The eaves of this skirt consist of narrow wood planks, and its north and west sides are ornamented by the same sawn rafter tails seen under the roof eaves (see Fig. 10).

A short flight of four concrete steps flanked by low, scrolled concrete parapets lead from the sidewalk to a front landing below the porch steps.

Six additional concrete steps lead to the porch proper. Flanking the porch steps are wrought-iron railings. Both the steps and the railings are replacements for the original wooden steps and their low, clapboard-clad parapet walls.

Historic photos suggest that Reames House No. 2 was designed to look more rustic and informal than Reames House No. 1, although the distinction between the two has become blurred as a result of alterations and the ravages of time.



Fig. 9. Mary Hughson with 2509 Regent Street in the background, 28 June 1932. Visible are the original clapboard and stair parapets. (Hughson family collection)

Fig. 10. Detail of second-floor skirt and rafter tails, northwest corner

West (front) Façade The west façade is asymmetrical. An off-center porch dominates the first

floor; it has a pent roof undermounted by sawn rafter tails and supported by two curlicued iron brackets that appear to be original (see Fig. 2).

On either side of the porch is a boxed, large double-hung wooden window in a narrow wood casing. On the second floor, there is an asymmetrical arrangement of single, double, and triple double-hung wooden windows in



narrow wood casings. Within the porch, an additional step leads to the slightly recessed entrance

door, which is wide, glazed, wood-framed, and located on the left. On the right is a small horizontal fixed window in narrow wood casing. Between the door and the window is an iron lantern that appears to be original (see Fig. 2).

Fig. 11. Front porch

Fig. 12. Clapboard visible in gaps between second-floor front windows



Fig. 13. Clapboard visible under asbestos shingles on south façade

South Façade The south façade is symmetrical. At the center of the ground floor is a slightly

flared triple window with double-hung wooden sashes and narrow wooden casings. Centrally located on the second floor is a quadruple boxed window with double-hung wooden sashes and narrow wooden casings.

Behind the south façade one can glimpse a rear addition with a shed roof (Fig. 13).

Fig. 14. West and south façades



Fig. 15. West façade in the 1950s, following alterations (Ormsby Donogh files, BAHA archives) North Façade The north façade is only partially visible from the street. It appears to be

asymmetrical, with two windows on the ground floor and three above. All except one appear to be double-hung wood-sash windows with narrow wood casings of the same type seen on the other walls. The ground-floor window nearest the street appears to have a double-hung aluminum sash.

Fig. 16. North and west façades



East Façade There is no public access to the east façade. In the southeast corner of the

property there is a small, disused flat-roofed garage built in 1920.

Fig. 17. East and north façades

The distinguishing features of Lucinda Reames House No. 2 include:

• Street setback, with a front yard that is four steps higher than the sidewalk

• Rectangular mass with an elongated front façade • Flared Hip roof with exposed eaves and sawn rafter tails • Narrow clapboard under the asbestos shingle cladding • Flared skirts on first and second floors • Front porch with hip roof and sawn rafter tails • Wide, glazed front door in a porch recess • Small horizontal window in front porch • Iron brackets and lantern in front porch • Boxed windows on west and south façades • Single, double, triple, and quadruple double-hung, one-over-one,

wood-sash windows with narrow wood casings and moulded sills • Brick chimney on north side

15. History:

The Tract and the Neighborhood Hillegass Tract No. 3, in which Reames House No. 2 is located, was part of

the 160 acres (Plot 71 on the Kellersberger map) purchased by William Hillegass in 1857. One of Berkeley’s pioneers, Hillegass (1826–1876) had met Francis K. Shattuck in the winter of 1851–52 and became his partner in an Oakland livery stable. In the late 1860s, Hillegass began building a country home in Berkeley (on



the current site of Kroeber Hall) and sold 53 acres of his land to the College of California, soon to become the University of California.2

Hillegass’s remaining land was leased to tenant farmers, principally Andrew Poirier, William Poinsett, and George Stutt, who cultivated wheat and vegetables. In 1886, ten years after Hillegass’s death, his widow had the tract mapped,3 and the first few lots were sold. The George Edwards House (A.H. Broad, 1886) was among the first houses to be constructed in the subdivided tract.

In the 1890s, building activity in the tract took place mostly along Dwight Way. The blocks to the south remained undeveloped until realtor Joseph J. Mason brought in Anson Blake to pave the streets. In 1899, Berkeley capitalist John Hinkel, in response to a plea by Mason, built four speculative houses on the 2500 block of Hillegass Avenue, and these sold very quickly, stimulating other sales and, subsequently accelerated building activity.

In its issue of 25 May 1901, the Berkeley Gazette reported that the “heretofore quiet and unassuming neighborhood near Dwight Way and Telegraph Avenue has evolved into a busy and disquieting scene of commercial activity.”4 The article announced the construction of two commercial buildings at the Telegraph-Dwight Way intersection. One of these, designed for the grocer Stella (Mrs. Edmund P.) King by A. Dodge Coplin, still stands at 2502 Dwight Way and is a designated City of Berkeley Landmark.

In 1902, Coplin designed a two-story commercial building (demolished) at 2504 Telegraph Avenue for Antoine Eugène Marie Prenveille, a French-born house painter who opened a short-lived business dealing in “Real Estate, paints, oils, wall paper, glass and picture frames,” according to his 1903 city directory listing. Coplin also remodeled Prenveille’s adjoining older buildings on the southwest corner of Dwight and Telegraph, where Prenveille had lived and managed a grocery store from 1889 to 1892.

Also in 1902, orchardist Harvey S. Haseltine built a corner grocery and residence designed by A.W. Smith at 2447 Telegraph Avenue (now 2499 Telegraph, current location of Shakespeare & Co. Books). Haseltine advertised repeatedly with the headline “We’re in the SOUP Up in Our End of TOWN, Same as Down Town.”5

As John English pointed out in his landmark application for the Soda Water Works Building, 2509–2513 Telegraph Avenue:

By 1903, the Dwight/Telegraph vicinity had about 17 commercial

establishments (or at least storefront spaces), not counting the relatively isolated Gorman’s off to the south. Among them were a druggist/stationer, a meat market, a plumber, two shoemakers, and at least three grocers (the competition must have been fierce!).

That total substantially exceeded the number of establishments in the contemporary little cluster, near what was then the campus edge, just south of today’s Sather Gate. Back then Telegraph’s blocks in between the

2 Sulliger, Jerry. “William Hillegass: The story of the Hillegass land.” Beautiful Benvenue, Elegant Hillegass. Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, 2008. 3 Hillegass Tract deed. 1 May 1886. 4 “The heretofore quiet and unassuming neighborhood near Dwight Way and Telegraph Avenue has evolved…” Berkeley Gazette, 25 May 1901. 5 The Haseltine’s Corner Grocery ad ran in the Berkeley Gazette throughout August 1903.



two clusters were virtually all residential or vacant.6 The Creation of People’s Park

Fig. 18. The block across Dwight Way in 1911 (Sanborn fire insurance map)

Directly across Dwight Way from Regent Street lies Assessor’s Block 1875

(block 7 in the College Homestead Association Tract), bounded by Telegraph Avenue, Dwight Way, Bowditch Street, and Haste Street. This block was developed primarily during the first decade of the 20th century.

By the late 1920s, the block was fully built with single-family residences, flats, boarding houses, and small apartment buildings.

Fig. 19. The block across Dwight Way in 1929 (Sanborn fire insurance map)

In 1967, the University of California acquired, by eminent domain, most of

the land in this block. Intending to develop the land, UC evicted the tenants and, in February 1968, brought in bulldozers to demolish the buildings. Development funds not being available at the time, the land “remained a dusty weed-filled eyesore littered with abandoned cars” for the next 14 months. 7 6 Soda Water Works Building landmark application. Recorder: John English, 1 March, 2004. 7 Richard Brenneman: “The Bloody Beginnings of People’s Park.” Berkeley Daily Planet, 20 April 2004. http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2004-04-20/article/18700



Fig. 20. National Guardsmen confront People’s Park demonstrators on Telegraph Avenue, May 1969.

Reames House No. 1 is partially visible at top right. (photo © Bil Paul, www.sixtiespix.com)

In April 1969, at the instigation of Michael Delacour, community volunteers began creating a park on the vacant land.

On Wednesday, 14 May 1969, Berkeley Police and university workers surrounded the park with 51 “no trespassing” signs. The following day, “Bloody Thursday,” began with thousands marching in protest and ended with the fatal shooting of James Rector by an Alameda County Sheriff’s deputy. Mass protests followed the shootings, and Governor Reagan called in the National Guard, which deployed along Telegraph Avenue side streets behind barbed wire barricades.

The events of May 1969 have become one of the defining moments in Berkeley’s history. People’s Park was designated a City of Berkeley Landmark on 19 November 1984.

Riots erupted again on 13 July 1991, when UC built sand-filled volleyball courts at the southern end of People’s Park. The courts were dismantled in 1997.

The Block With the exception of a single 19th-century house that stood close to the

Parker Street corner behind John Gorman’s Telegraph Avenue furniture store, the 2500 block of Regent Street was not developed until the first half-decade of the 20th century. The street, which at that time extended from Dwight Way to Ashby Avenue, was called Manoa Avenue until 1903 (the name change to Regent Street was noted in the 1904 city directory).



Fig. 21. National Guardsmen patrolling the People’s Park fence along Dwight Way, May 1969. The two Reames houses are seen in forshortened perspective. (photo © Janine Wiedel, http://wiedel.photoshelter.com

Fig. 22. The block in a 1903 Sanborn fire insurance map



In 1903, there were 11 houses on the 2500 block of Regent Street. All the houses had been built during the preceding two years in the Colonial Revival style that dominated the streetscapes of turn-of-the-century streetcar suburbs.

The tiny store building on the corner of Regent and Dwight Way made its first appearance in the 1903 Sanborn fire insurance map. Jeweler Joji Yokoi, who occupied this building since 1973, told BAHA in 1978 that he had found newspapers as old as the San Francisco Examiner of 4 September 1889 inside the walls, where they were used as insulation.

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire sent a flood of new residents to the East Bay, and some of the consequences were soon seen on this block. The Berkeley Fire Department built a shingled fire station at 2542 Regent Street, initially known as Hose Company No. 5, Engine No. 1, and later as Engine No. 3.

Fig. 23. The Regent Street fire station. To the left is the Gorman House. (Berkeley Historical Society)

Fig. 24. Telegraph Ave., Dwight Way & Regent Street in winter, 1907 (BAHA archives)



Fig. 25. Regent Street firemen, 1907 (Veteran Volunteer Fire Association of Berkeley, 14th Annual Old Timers Affair, 1947)

Fig. 26. Detail from Fig. 24, showing 2503 & 2509 Regent on the right, 2504 Regent on the left, and the frame of the future Needham Building under construction.

In 1907, William G. Needham, proprietor of the Needham & Needham real

estate company (which was soon renamed Wm. G. Needham, real estate and insurance), constructed a mixed-use Mission Revival building at (per the Sanborn 1911 map) 2512–2514 Regent St./2525 Telegraph Avenue. It contained two storefronts on the Regent Street side, a meat market on the Telegraph side, and six apartments on the second floor. The 1909 city directory listed Needham’s



father, Adolphus, and his uncle, Arnold, as residents at 2512 Regent. Both worked for Needham, the father as manager, the uncle as salesman.

The Needham Building and the fire station were the first to depart from the Colonial Revival style that dominated the neighborhood’s streetscapes.

Fig. 27. Needham & Needham ad in Pacific Monthly, October 1906

Fig. 28. Cellist Mary Jane Hughson, who lived at 2511 Regent St., circa 1930. The Needham

Building is visible across the street. (Hughson family collection)

In 1910, Bernard Maybeck’s First Church of Christ, Scientist was constructed a block and a half to the east. In the US census rolls of that year, residents of the neighborhood included a high proportion of teachers and people of independent means.

By 1911, the number of houses on the block had increased to 16 (one of these was a triplex). The house at 2504 Regent Street had become a Methodist Episcopal Chinese mission and marked as such in the Sanborn fire insurance map but not in the city directory.



The tiny store building on the corner of Regent Street and Dwight Way (later christened the Bonnet Box) was vacant.


Sanborn maps show that between 1911 and 1929, there were only two

changes in the block’s composition. By 1929, the Chinese mission had disappeared from 2504 Regent Street, leaving an empty lot that has been used as a parking lot for decades since but is soon to receive the Blood House and Woolley House.




In 1924, the first large apartment building, containing 17 units according to the Sanborn 1929 map and 16 at present, was constructed for F.M. Ament on a previously empty lot at 2535 Regent Street. The builder was Harry Ahnefeld. Directly to the north, at 2531 Regent, an apartment building of similar size and layout would be constructed in 1946. Its owners were the Bradshaw family, whose portfolio included several fashionable apartment buildings in the area, including one at 2508 Benvenue Avenue. The builder and co-owner, Ray Towers, was married to the Bradshaws’ daughter, Geraldine.

Also in the 1940s, milliner Faye Joyce opened the Bonnet Box in the tiny building at 2506 Dwight Way.

Fig. 31. Detail from promotional flier (BAHA archives, courtesy of Faye Joyce)

Fig. 32. The Bonnet Box (BAHA archives)




The Bradshaw/Towers apartments were the only addition to the block

between 1929 and 1950. There were no demolitions during that time, but a mid-block lot on the west side was excavated in 1941 for a new Safeway store at 2539 Telegraph Avenue, leaving a small open area that was turned into a pocket park in the 1960s. The Safeway store gave way to a British Motors showroom, which operated through the 1960s and early ‘70s. The building was taken over by the Center for Independent living in 1975. The parcel is currently proposed for a large apartment building project.

Between 1958 and 1966, four large apartment buildings replaced four historic houses (built between 1901 and 1905) on the east side of the 2500 block of Regent Street. From north to south, these apartment buildings are: Regent Manor Apartments, 2521 Regent (1958); Arthur Perrott Apartments, 2525 Regent (1963); Raul A. and Mary M. Del Piero Apartments, 2537 Regent (1966), and Sam Ruvkun Apartments, 2541 Regent (1962). On the west side of the street, the Wing Lee Apartments, 2510 Regent (John S. Fisher, architect, 1965), were built on a vacant lot that extended to Telegraph Avenue. The 3-story apartment building at 2520 Regent Street was built in 1968 on a vacant lot. The fire station at 2542 Regent was sold at auction in July 1962 to the Berkeley real estate and construction firm Values, Inc., whose president, James D. Glenn, paid $14,100 for the parcel.8 The following year, contractor Milton Lent constructed an apartment

8 “Fire Station Site Sold to Developer.” Oakland Tribune, 18 July 1962.



building on the site. The adjacent Gorman house at 2546 Regent St. was razed to make way for the Gorman furniture store’s parking lot.

Owners & Residents of 2509 Regent Street Lucinda Reames 1902–c. 1915 Jesse & Tinnie Culvyhouse 1921–1952 Verne B. Hughson 1952–1978 Jos Polman 1978–Present Lucinda Reames Lucinda Williams Reames was born on 3 November 1848 in Saint Joseph,

Missouri. In 1853, her family moved to Oregon, and in 1866 she married Thomas Given Reames (1838–1900), son of a Kentucky family that had arrived in Oregon in 1852. Owner of a livery stable in Jacksonville, Thomas later operated a prominent dry goods store and acquired large land holdings. In 1887, he entered into a partnership in the Beekman & Reames banking house. He held the office of sheriff of Jackson County for several years and, during President Grover Cleveland’s administration, served as post office inspector for the district comprising Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Alaska. In 1892, he co-founded the Oregon Publishing Company. Thomas Reames was a pioneer leader in Democratic politics9 and was widely known as General Reames.

Fig. 34. Ad in the Oregon Sentinel, 20 Oct. 1887

Thomas and Lucinda Reames had ten children, born between 1867 and 1891.

Following Thomas’s death, Lucinda and her five younger children established themselves in Berkeley, as many western families did, in order to have access to higher education. Daughters Lucinda (b. 1881) and Laura (b. 1882) received their 9 “General Reames Dead,” San Francisco Call, 23 February 1900



diplomas from Mills Seminary in May 1902.10 In September of that year, the younger Lucinda married Ira Robert Anderson (1882–1905) of Medford, OR.11 The marriage took place in the Reames family’s earlier Berkeley residence,12 whose location is unknown, since Mrs. Reames was not listed in the Berkeley directory until 1904.

In 1902, Mrs. Reames commissioned architect A. Dodge Coplin to design two houses for her at 2503 and 2509 Manoa Avenue.13 Coplin had designed Stella King’s commercial building on the southeastern corner of Telegraph Ave. and Dwight Way a year earlier and was making a name for himself in Berkeley and Oakland. The two Reames houses were built almost simultaneously but constructed by different contractors. 2503 Regent was the first to be completed and served as the Reames family home. 2509 Regent was rented to tenants.

Also in 1902, at 2515 Manoa Avenue, in the rear of the lot, farmer William Wilkinson built a brown-shingle house. In 1903, while living in this house, Wilkinson commissioned Coplin to design a house for the front of his lot, at 2511 Regent Street (the street was renamed that year). This eventually became his home.

Ira Anderson died in 1905. His widow Lucinda and her two young sons moved in with Mrs. Reames. The Reames family remained in Berkeley until the youngest son, Charles, had completed his university studies. They were last listed in the Berkeley directory in 1915. By 1920, the US census found them in Medford, where Mrs. Reames passed away in 1923.

Jesse & Tinnie Culvyhouse Jesse Lafayette Culvyhouse (1860–1927), a Tennessee native, was raised in

Whitley County, Kentucky. A physician’s son, he was a farm worker in his youth, as were his younger brothers.14 In 1890, he married Tinnie Jones (1872–1951), an Illinois girl. In 1895, they were living in Alma, Kansas, with young two daughters, Ethel and Bertha. Jesse was working as a railroad section foreman.15

The 1900 US census enumerated the Culveyhouse family—now augmented by the birth of son Edwin—in Belleville, a former mining town in San Bernardino County. Jesse was still working as a section foreman. Ten years later, they were living in Fresno. A fourth child, Marvin, had been born, and Jesse was now a roadmaster, an occupation he would retain for the rest of his working life.

The Culvyhouses arrived in Berkeley in 1915 and were first listed in the city directory the following year. Like so many other families who came here, they did so that their children could attend the university. All four did.

Ethel Olive Culvyhouse (1890–1950) graduated in 1920 and worked in the Department of Pathology and Bacteriology at UC Berkeley. In February 1921, the Journal of Infectious Diseases published a paper she had co-authored the previous year.16 The 1922 University of California Register listed her as a technician at it San Francisco hospital. She eventually moved to Alhambra, Los Angeles County. 10 “Twenty-four Graduate from Mills College.” San Francisco Call, 22 May 1902. 11 The marriage took place on 11 September 1902. California Index to Marriage Licenses and Certificates. 12 Reported in the Rogue River Courier on 25 September 1902. 13 Manoa Avenue was renamed Regent Street in 1903. The name change was noted in the 1904 city directory. 14 1880 US Census. 15 Kansas State Census, 1 March 1895. 16 Cook, Mix, Culvyhouse. Hemotoxin Production by the Streptococcus in Relation to its Metabolism. J. Infect. Dis., Vol. 28, No. 2, Feb. 1921.



Bertha Marie Culvyhouse (1892–1984) graduated in 1915 and taught high school in Le Grand before marrying a chemist in 1921 and moving to Southern California.

Edwin John Culvyhouse (1897–1948) completed his medical studies in 1928, established an osteopathic practice in Alhambra, and married a high-school teacher.

John “Jack” Marvin Culvyhouse (1905–1951) completed three years of mechanical engineering before going to work successively as a telephone supervisor, a PG&E switchman, and dial technician for Pacific Telephone & Telegraph. He was the only Culvyhouse child who remained in Berkeley.

While living in Berkeley, Jesse Culvyhouse worked as a roadmaster for the San Jose Railway Company.17

In 1920, Jesse Culvyhouse applied for permit #8729 to build a flat-roofed garage of 10 ft x 15 ft x 8 ft. The structure still stands in the southeastern corner of the parcel.

Jesse Culvyhouse died on 12 May 1927 and was buried in Sunset View Cemetery, El Cerrito. Two months later, on 22 August 1927, his widow, Tinnie, applied for permit # 28535 to add a bedroom with a kitchenette and bathroom in the rear of the house, under the existing sleeping porch, with a concrete foundation of 6 ft x 12 ft x 12 ft. The purpose of this addition was apparently to add rental space without carving out a separate apartment. The 1930 US census recorded six individual residents in the house. Jack Marvin Culvyhouse, his wife of two years, and their baby daughter were renting the house from Jack’s absent mother for $40/month. They lived with three male lodgers, all in their 20s: an engineer at an oil refinery, a state-employed mining engineer, and an insurance clerk. Tinnie Culvyhouse was presumably staying with her daughter Ethel in Alhambra.

By 1940, Tinnie had returned to Regent Street, and the US census reported her occupation as landlady. Renting for $47/month were her son Jack, his wife Georgie, and their daughter Barbara. No other tenants were recorded. Jack was earning $2,400 a year from his job at Pacific Telephone, and the house value was $6,000—the same as that of its neighbor at 2503 Regent Street.

Tinnie Culvyhouse outlived three of her four children. She passed away on 13 December 1951 and was buried next to her husband and her daughter Ethel at Sunset View Cemetery. The surviving daughter, Bertha, sold the house in August 1952 to next-door neighbor Verne B. Hughson, who owned 2511 and 2515 Regent Street.

Verne B. Hughson Verne B. Hughson, née Clara Verne Baldwin (1890–1990) to a farming family

in Kern County, was a widow when she acquired 2509 Regent Street from the Culvyhouse estate. Her husband, William Burke Hughson (1866–1942), was born in Maine, New York, to a farming family. Little is known about his life until 1900, when he was working as an art superintendent at the West Side Boys’ Home, a lodging house run by the Children’s Aid Society at 201 W 32nd Street in Manhattan.

17 “Jesse Culvyhouse Dies at Home Here.” Berkeley Daily Gazette, 13 May 1927.



Hughson first appeared in the Berkeley city directories in 1909. At the time, he was assistant teacher at the high school. The following year he was listed as teacher; the school’s name was not specified. In 1911, his occupation was described as assistant in manual training, Public Schools. By now, he will have begun his long career as a shop teacher. In his book History of the Berkeley Schools, S.D. Waterman refers to Hughson’s employment at McKinley School:

Miss Carmichael was the first teacher of manual training. She was

followed by Mr. W. B. Hughson, who has filled the position very satisfactorily ever since.18

William Hughson was a fine cabinetmaker and designed furniture and lamps

in the Arts & Crafts style (Fig. 35 and 36).

Fig. 35. Manual training exhibition at McKinley School (Hughson family collection) In 1912, Hughson, now 46 years old, was lodging at 2616 Telegraph Avenue.

Lodging in the same house was Clara Verne Baldwin, a UC student from Bakersfield. Although he was old enough to be her father, the two married that year. They lived for several years in a small brown-shingle house at 3014 Benvenue Avenue, where daughters Ermina, Ellen, and Mary were born.

The house having grown small, the Hughsons moved to a larger one at 2627 Ashby, just below College Avenue, but didn’t remain long there. In 1920, they acquired their first property, which included 2511 and 2515 Regent Street. The former served as their principal residence for the rest of their lives. Their only son, William Burke, Jr., was born there.

18 Waterman, S.D. History of the Berkeley Schools. Berkeley: 1918.



Fig. 36. William Hughson and his 3-year-old daughter Mary, c. 1918 (Hughson family collection)

Fig. 37. The Hughson family, 1926 (Hughson family collection)



In addition to teaching woodworking at the Berkeley Public Schools,19 Mr. Hughson was an instructor in the teacher training classes at the Oakland Center of Trade and Industrial Education and taught summer classes at the University of California’s Division of Vocational Education.20

In the early 1920s, Mr. Hughson built a house in Canyon, and the family lived there, selling chickens from a small store they had constructed. They returned to Berkeley toward the end of the decade, so the children could benefit from better education. For a few years, Mr. Hughson worked as a real estate salesman before returning to teaching. Mrs. Hughson worked as a private nurse, and they supplemented their income by taking in lodgers.

Mrs. Hughson was a thrifty woman, and with her savings she acquired several additional Southside houses, including 2515 and 2509 Regent Street, where she boarded tenants, primarily students.

The Hughsons’ third daughter, Mary Jane Hughson Claudio (1915–1977), was a gifted cellist. She studied in Paris with Pierre Fournier and was chosen by Leopold Stokowski for his All-American Youth Orchestra, which traveled to South America on a Good Neighbor Policy visit in 1940. For many years Mary Jane was a member of the San Francisco Symphony, becoming assistant principal cellist in 1968.

According to Mrs. Hughson’s granddaughter, Elisa Claudio Riley, it was her grandmother who had the asbestos shingles installed on 2509 Regent Street shortly after she purchased the house. Mrs. Hughson told Elisa that the siding salesman had promised her that she would never have to paint the house again. She regretted her decision ever since. It was also Mrs. Hughson who replaced the front stairs in the 1950s.

Verne Hughson sold the house to her tenant Jos Polman in June 1978, when she was 88 years old. She continued to live at 2511 Regent Street until she suffered a stroke in late 1984. The Architect

Albert Dodge Coplin (1869–1908) was born in California to Alanson Coplin

and Ruth Munsell Coplin. Alanson Coplin (1835–1906) was a Methodist minister who transferred to California from the Michigan Conference in the 1860s. Records show that he performed nine marriages in Santa Cruz County in 1867–186821 and married Ruth Munsell in Monterey on 7 January 1869.22 In the early 1870s, he was posted to Chico and Auburn. In 1874, he gave up his formal pastoral duties and, having moved to Oakland circa 1876, began a business career as an underwear retailer on Broadway.23 The 1878 Oakland directory listed him as agent for Dr. Warner’s health corsets and manufacturer of chemiloons (Dress Reform ladies’ undergarments combining chemise and pantaloons).

19 In the 1920–1921 edition of the California Board of Education’s Directory of Secondary and Normal Schools, William B. Hughson was listed as a teacher in mechanical arts at Willard School. 20 University of California Bulletin, Intersession and Summer Session, 1921. 21 Santa Cruz County Marriage Licenses-Certificates—From County Warehouse. Santa Cruz Genealogical Society: http://scgensoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Marriages-Performed.pdf 22 OneWorldTree http://trees.ancestry.com/owt/person.aspx?pid=182396005 23 Ruth M. Coplin’s obituary. Oakland Tribune, 1 Mar 1905



In 1883, Alanson Coplin withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church and organized the evangelical Church of Christ, who mission was to focus on holiness.24 From 1883 to 1890, he published the Holiness Evangelist, an 8-page25 annual26 newspaper.

Fig. 38. Oakland city directory, 1887

Albert Coplin studied at Oakland High School and was listed in its 1888

Register as a member of the class of 1890.27 It is likely that Albert did not graduate, since in 1889, the Oakland city directory listed him as a stair builder in San Francisco. He turned 21 in 1890, and his voter registration that year recorded his occupation as “merchant” (most likely employed in his father’s store). By 1892, while still living with his parents, Albert had become a contractor, as stated in his voter registration for that year.

Young Albert was mechanically inclined and a good draftsman. On 24 June 1891, aged 22, he applied for a patent on a hose-reel design he had invented. Patent No. 486692 was granted on 22 November 1892 (Fig. 39).

During most of the 1890s, Albert Coplin listed himself as a contractor. By 1898, his voter registration record showed his occupation as “builder.” He appears to have learned building design on the job, for there is no evidence that he had ever served an apprenticeship with an architect. Like many designer-builders of the late 19th century, Coplin is very likely to have made use of pattern books—at least in the early years of his career. Yet shortly after the turn of the 20th century, coinciding with his adoption of the title “architect,”28 he blossomed into an original designer with a strong personal style and became one of the more sought-after and prolific architects in the East Bay.

Fig. 39. Coplin’s drawing for hose-reel patent no. 486692

24 Charles Volney Anthony: Fifty Years of Methodism. San Francisco: Methodist Book Concern, 1901. https://archive.org/details/cu31924009150057 25 Oakland Newspapers. Oakland Wiki. http://oaklandwiki.org/Oakland_Newspapers_%28Past_%26_Present%29 26 Charles Edwin Jones: A Guide to the Study of the Holiness Movement. Scarecrow Press, 1974. 27 Register of the Teachers, Pupils and Alumni of the Oakland High School. Oakland, California, February 1888. 28 1900 US Census.



Coplin’s earliest recorded Berkeley project, dating from 1901, is the Stella (Mrs. Edmund P.) King Building on the southeast corner of Telegraph Avenue and Dwight Way (City of Berkeley Landmark, designated in 2004). The design of this Colonial Revival building is fairly conventional, no doubt owing to its commercial nature. By the following year, Coplin’s residential designs were showing increasing signs of individual flair, with exteriors notable for quirky elements that were often oversized or horizontally stretched; unconventional window placements; and unusually shaped clinker-brick chimneys.

Fig. 40. Mrs. Edmund P. King Building, 2502 Dwight Way/2501 Telegraph Ave.

Coplin’s Earliest Surviving Residential Projects in Berkeley29

• Charles Ravenscroft Greenleaf House, 2610 College Ave (1902) • Lucinda Reames House No. 1, 2503 Regent Street (1902– early ’03) • Lucinda Reames House No. 2, 2509 Regent Street (1902–early ’03) • William Wilkinson House, 2511 Regent Street (early 1903) • W.S. Morley House, 2745 Parker Street (early 1903) • Charles A. Westenberg House, 2811 Benvenue Ave (early 1903)

Fig. 41. A row of three early Coplins: 2503, 2509 & and 2511 Regent Street

29 Four additional surviving houses (2632, 2634, 2638, and 2704 Benvenue Avenue) were begun in the latter half of 1903.



Fig. 42. Ramsey houses (r, 1902–05; l, 1905–06) 2412 Piedmont Ave at Haste Street (demolished)

Fig. 43. Charles A. Westenberg House, 2811 Benvenue Avenue (1903)

Fig. 44. Adolphus Barnicott House, 2630 Piedmont Avenue (1905)



Fig.45. Roy Block House, 2920 Hillegass Avenue (1906)

Coplin’s Berkeley clients were well-to-do and prominent in East Bay society.

The owners of the houses illustrated in Fig. 42–45 were, respectively, Harry Ramsey, a mining magnate who had made his fortune in Tonopah; Charles A. Westenberg, a Methodist minister turned capitalist; Adolphus Barnicott, a manufacturer of artificial stone (used in the construction of his residence’s front porch); and Roy Block, owner of the Manasse-Block Tannery.

Ramsey, who had purchased a 1902 Coplin-designed brown-shingle house at 2412 Piedmont Avenue from Catharine A. Hathaway, commissioned Coplin in 1905 to expand the house. The following year, in the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake, he retained Coplin again to design an adjacent earthquake-proof house in the Mission Revival style. The Oakland Tribune reported on the progress of these houses four times between August 1905 and October 1906.30

Coplin’s civic activities A believer in the East Bay’s growth potential even before the 1906 earthquake,

Coplin led a club called the Oakland Boosters whose objective was to engineer passage of municipal bond measures “for the beautifying of the city and the consolidation of Oakland, Berkeley, and Alameda into a greater city.”31 In this endeavor, Coplin was allied with many prominent Oakland businessmen and was a key member of the Progress Federation, which was the major driving force behind the bond election of 1904. Eleven separate municipal bonds on the September ballot would have financed parks, boulevards, sewers, street improvements, a polytechnic high-school, completion of the public library, a new

30 Four articles in the Oakland Tribune: “Will Beautify Ramsey Home” (15 Aug. 1905); “Miner’s Wife to Build New Home” (25 June 1906); “Fine Residence for Berkeley” (28 June 1906); “Money Comes from Tonopah: H Ramsey, Capitalist, Invests Earnings in Palatial Modern Home” (20 Oct 1906). 31 “Boosters Hold Demonstration.” San Francisco Call, 23 March 1904.



city hall, and other infrastructure-related items.32 The voters, however, rejected the entire package.33

Fig. 46. Coplin as Grand High Booster (San Francisco Call, 28 March 1904)

Personal life In 1895, Coplin married Luella Wagor (1871–1946), a concert singer. Two

children were born to the couple: Laurence Keith Wagor Coplin (1898–1983) and Miriam Coplin Saal (1899–1990). In October 1901, Luella divorced Coplin on grounds of cruelty. She obtained custody of the children and thereafter supported herself as a music teacher. After the divorce, Coplin became “a man about town.”34 In November 1902, Mrs. Coplin filed an affidavit in court to stop her ex-husband from harassing her.35

By August 1905, Coplin’s architectural practice was flourishing enough to warrant a move to the new Flood Building at Powell and Market streets in San Francisco.36 The announcement in the Oakland Tribune included information that “Heretofore this architect has specialized on a high grade of residential work, and many artistic homes along the east bay shore for the better classes have been built from his designs and supervision.” The same article informed that the architect, “formerly of New York and recently of this city,” had taken abode in Cloyne Court, “the newly finished apartment hotel just north of the University campus.”

The residence at Cloyne Court was brief; in December 1905, Coplin embarked on a journey to the East Coast and possibly abroad, returning in June 1906. The Flood Building having burned in the San Francisco Fire, Coplin established a new office in the Bacon Block, 428 11th Street, Oakland.

32 “Bond Campaign Now Underway.” San Francisco Call, 1 September 1904. 33 “Oakland Voters Defeat Eleven Bond Propositions by Majority That Astonishes All Classes.” San Francisco Call, 28 September 1904. 34 “Tragic Death of Architect Coplin.” Western Architect and Engineer, March 1908, p. 75. 35 “Architect’s Former Wife Says Husband Is Annoying.” San Francisco Call, 15 November 1902. 36 “A. Dodge Coplin Has New Office.” Oakland Tribune, 7 Aug. 1905.



Large projects The most ambitious commission Coplin received in Berkeley was the design

of a projected 32-unit apartment building for G.W. Bryson of Grand Rapids, Michigan. This $48,000 building was to be constructed “in close proximity to Berkeley’s new business center […] at Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue.”37

“The exterior, being of a type peculiar to scenic California, will receive a cementive pebble dash finish done off in a light zinoleth buff. The other features will be consistent and complimentary in tone and the whole will be rendered in character peculiar to Mr. Coplin’s work. Inside the apartments will be assorted from four and five rooms to six and seven rooms,” reported the Oakland Tribune on 20 October 1906.

In its issue of November 1906, The Architect and Engineer of California reported that G.W. Bryson had contracted for this “fashionable apartment house.” Nothing further was published about this project.

Fig. 47. Leonore Apartments for G.W. Bryson (Oakland Tribune, 20 Oct. 1906)

Also in 1906, Coplin was commissioned to design two commercial buildings

on the corner of San Pablo Avenue and 18th Street in Oakland. The client was the widow of Pierre-Nicolas Remillard, principal owner of the Remillard Brick Company. The first structure was to be a $90,000, six-story retail/wholesale building, clad in semi-glazed terra-cotta tile brick, with trimmings and lamps in copper. It was described as “an innovation in the way of a clean cut, up-to-date and sharply defined business structure,” was to “represent the most advanced structural methods,” and to be “unique and the first [of its type] to go up in this city.” 38

Coplin’s sketch for the Remillard Block (Fig. 48) was published in the Oakland Tribune three times between October 1906 and April 1907. The building opened in October 1907 as a four-story structure,39 but otherwise adhering to Coplin’s design. It was torn down in 1989-90.40

37 “Elegant House in Berkeley.” Oakland Tribune, 20 Oct. 1906. 38 “New Building to Go Up Soon on San Pablo Avenue.” Oakland Tribune, 6 Oct. 1906. 39 “Avenue Grows Greater.” San Francisco Call, 21 Oct. 1907. 40 Information from Betty Marvin, Oakland Cultural Heritage Survey, via e-mail, 28 July 2014.



Fig 48. Remillard Block (Oakland Tribune, 20 April 1907)

Early death

Fig.49. Oakland Tribune, 23 March 1908

Coplin’s life was cut short on 22 March 1908 by an accidental shot from his

own revolver. The architect, then aged 38, had gone for a drive to Lafayette with a young Oakland woman. On their return that evening, they stopped on a side street off Tunnel Road to give the engine a rest. Coplin had a gun in his coat pocket, and as he got out of the car to crank the engine, the gun fell out of his pocket and a bullet was discharged into Coplin’s head. He was taken to Roosevelt Hospital and died the following morning without regaining consciousness.

His death was widely reported throughout California, and the Associated Press carried the story nationally.



When approached for a comment, Mrs. Coplin said only, “I am too busy teaching to talk about Mr. Coplin. […] I am preparing my pupils for a recital to be given April 26 in my studio and you see that it takes up all my time. I will not take the time of my pupils to talk about Mr. Coplin.”41 16. Significance:

Lucinda Reames House No. 2, consistent with Section 3.24.110.A.1.c., is worth preserving for the exceptional values it adds as part of the neighborhood fabric. The 2500 block of Regent Street is particularly vulnerable owing to its proximity to the UC campus and to Telegraph Avenue. Close to half of the buildings that stood on this block in 1911 were demolished to make way for modern apartment buildings. There are now ten apartment buildings on the block, of which seven were constructed between 1958 and 1966. Reames House No. 2 stands in a row of four Colonial Revival houses that survived the wave of mid-century apartment construction. Reames House No. 2 is an essential element in this historic row, which is distinctive and highly visible owing to its location on the corner of Dwight Way and across from People’s Park, where nearly an entire block of historic houses was razed in 1968.

Although compromised by alterations, Reames House No. 2 possesses architectural value as a its architect’s distinctive variant on the conventional Colonial Revival foursquare format, presenting a “stretched” appearance with exaggerated horizontal lines.

Lucinda Reames House No. 2, consistent with Section 3.24.110.A.4., possesses historic value as one of the oldest surviving houses on its block and one of the oldest surviving houses designed by the notable architect A. Dodge Coplin in Berkeley. It was designed in 1902 and constructed in early 1903, when the blocks south of Dwight Way were just beginning their transformation from farmland to suburban neighborhoods.

Reames House No. 2 possesses a rich history that mirrors the chronology of Berkeley and the Southside over the past century. Its chain of owners and residents comprises a diverse group of individuals representing a cross section of Berkeley society in the 20th century.

Lucinda Reames House No. 2, consistent with Section 3.24.110.B.2.a(1), is contemporary with several designated landmarks within its neighborhood and close vicinity, including the Mary J. Berg House (William G. May, 1901) at 2517 Regent Street; Alexander C. Stuart House (Pissis & Moore, 1891) at 2524 Dwight Way; Mrs. Edmund P. King Building (A. Dodge Coplin, 1901) at 2502 Dwight Way/2501 Telegraph Ave.; and Needham-Obata Building (1907) at 2512–16 Regent St./2525 Telegraph Avenue. Two older landmarks, the George Edwards House (A.H. Broad, 1886) at 2530 Dwight Way and the Soda Water Works Building (E.A. Spalding, 1888; Henry F. Bowers, 1904–05) at 2509–2513 Telegraph Ave., are also located in the immediate vicinity.

Lucinda Reames House No. 2, consistent with Section 3.24.110.B.2.b., is compatible in size, scale, style, materials and design with the landmark Mrs. Edmund P. King Building (Albert Dodge Coplin, 1901) at 2502 Dwight Way/2501 Telegraph Avenue and the Mary J. Berg House (William G. May, 41 “A. Dodge Coplin Is Mysteriously Shot.” Oakland Tribune, 23 March 1908.



1901) at 2517 Regent Street, as well as with the two houses (2503 and 2511 Regent Street) flanking it, designed by A. Dodge Coplin in 1902 and 1903.

Lucinda Reames House No. 2, consistent with Section 3.24.110.B.2.d., has historic significance to the neighborhood, block, street frontage, and group of buildings. It helps preserves historic fabric on this extremely fragile block of Regent Street and the northern edge of the Willard neighborhood.

Lucinda Reames House No. 2 retains integrity of location, design, materials, setting, feeling, and association and would be recognizable by someone who knew it during its early years. Historic Value: City Yes Neighborhood Yes Architectural Value: Neighborhood Yes 17. Is the property endangered? Yes. Demolition by neglect. 18. Reference Sources: Building contract notices and completion notices. Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA). Building permits. BAHA, City of Berkeley. Alameda County assessment records. BAHA. Berkeley and Oakland directories. BAHA, Berkeley Historical Society, Ancestry.com. Block files. BAHA. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. BAHA. Assessor’s block maps. Alameda County Assessor’s Office. US Census and California Voter Registration records. Ancestry.com. Hillegass Tract deed. 1 May 1886. A. Dodge Coplin file. BAHA. Ormsby Donogh files. BAHA. Landmark applications for the Needham-Obata Building; the Mrs. Edmund P. King Building; the Alexander C. Stuart House; the Soda Water Works Buildings; the George Edwards House; and the Mary J. Berg House. Thompson, Daniella. “Westenberg House: The Grande Dame of ! Benvenue Avenue. ” East Bay: Then and Now. BAHA website. 27 April 2008. http://berkeleyheritage.com/berkeley_landmarks/westenberg.html Nelson, Marie. Surveys for Local Governments—A Context for Best Practices. California Office of Historic Preservation, 2005. http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/pages/1054/files/Survey Savvy CCAPA.pps 20. Recorder: Daniella Thompson 2663 Le Conte Avenue Berkeley, CA 94709 Date: 10 August 2014


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