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Today’s Alameda Treasure – 2450 Central Ave., a Craftsman Beauty, Part 1

In this series of articles on our Alameda architectural treasures, we most often explore Victorian-era homes, in particular the Queen Anne style. Historically, the Victorian-era is defined as the reign of Britain’s Queen Victoria, which lasted from 1837 to 1901. In this article, though, we look at an example of one of the post-Victorian-era styles, a Craftsman style home. Whereas the Victorian-era styles such as Italianate (1870s), Stick (1880s), Queen Anne (1890s) and Colonial Revival (late-1890s into early 1900s) represented, in many cases, evolutionary changes that incorporated transitional elements, the Craftsman style (1905-1930) was a clean break and a totally different approach to architecture. In that sense, the style can be considered among the first “modern” styles, with the very first being the Prairie style (1900-1902), which began in Chicago under Frank Lloyd Wright.

Alameda Post - 2450 Central Avenue, a handsome craftsman home
2450 Central Avenue, a Craftsman-style home built in 1909 by Hans C. Andersen. Its original cost was $2,474. Photo Steve Gorman.

Arts and Crafts

American Craftsman is an architectural style inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement that began in England around 1860. The movement had its origins as a reaction against the perceived lack of quality associated with machinery and factory production, along with the resulting working conditions of the people. While British Arts and Crafts was as much a social movement as it was a design movement, the American offshoot was more a reaction against what was referred to as the “over-decorated” aesthetic of the Victorian-era styles—in particular the over-the-top exuberance of the Queen Anne style. In its proportions, the Craftsman style emphasized a horizontal orientation, unlike the verticality of the tall Victorians.

Stickley’s influence

Gustav Stickley (1858-1942) was a German-American designer, furniture-maker, publisher, and leading voice in the American Arts and Crafts movement. His magazine, first published in 1901, was called The Craftsman, and its design philosophy ended up being a major influence on American Craftsman architecture. His furniture emphasized quality, simplicity and honesty in its construction, often evoking a hand-crafted and pre-industrial look and feel. In 1903, Stickley started the Craftsman Home Builders Club, which provided architectural plans from The Craftsman magazine to subscribers. His 1909 book, Craftsman Homes, expounded on the “simplification of life”, and on high-quality, functional homes that “will last for generations and need few repairs.” The book featured numerous illustrations of Stickley homes designs, along with their floor plans.



Alameda Post, a photo of an Assessor's Map indicating where 2450 Central Avenue is, a photo of the front of The Craftsman magazine, and a diagram of a craftsman house
Left: An undated assessor’s map of the block bounded by Park Avenue, Central Avenue, Regent Street, and Encinal Avenue shows our featured property, 2450 Central Avenue, marked at the top with a red star. The large open lot to the left of the house is today a three-story apartment building at the corner of Central and Park avenues. Prior to that, the corner lot housed a gas station and auto repair facility, and prior to that a large, single-family residence. Image from the homeowners’ collection. Middle: The first issue of The Craftsman magazine, produced by Gustav Stickley in October of 1901. The magazine was influential in spreading the ideas of this new style that emphasized simplicity, function, quality, and lack of unnecessary decorations. Wikipedia image, Public Domain. Right: The common exterior elements of a Craftsman style home are featured in these drawings. Other publications list the date range of this style as being from 1905 to 1930. From City of Alameda Planning Department, 1978 architectural survey.

Craftsman elements

Homes in this style are often just one story or a story-and-a-half, though they can at times feature a full second story, usually incorporating dormer windows. Common elements include low-pitched, gabled roofs with wide, unenclosed eave overhangs, exposed roof rafters, large tapered or square porch columns, clinker brick chimneys, double-hung windows with small panes above a large panel (called 4-over-1 or 6-over-1), and wide wooden doors featuring beveled multi-pane windows in the upper section. Interiors are characterized by warm, earth-tone color schemes, relatively low ceilings, rich wood detailing, built-in cabinetry and seating (nooks), hammered copper hardware, stone fireplace surrounds, and an overall feeling of functionality and simplicity. While stained-glass isn’t as common in the Craftsman style as it was in Queen Anne style homes, clear leaded-glass can often be found both in windows and on cabinet doors.

California Craftsman

According to Virginia McAlester’s Field Guide to American Houses, “This was the dominant style for smaller houses built throughout the country during the period from about 1905 until the early 1920s.The Craftsman style originated in Southern California and most landmark examples are concentrated there. Like vernacular examples of the contemporaneous Prairie style, it was quickly spread throughout the country by pattern books and popular magazines. The style rapidly faded after the mid-1920s; relatively few were built after 1930.”

The Craftsman style gained a strong foothold in California due largely to the architect brothers Henry and Charles Greene, of Pasadena. Examples of their work, such as the Gamble house in Pasadena, still stand today as paragons of the Craftsman style.

Alameda Post - the front gate and foyer of 2450 Central Avenue
Left: One of the key ideas of the Craftsman style was a return to nature and a sense of relaxed comfort in a less formal setting. The welcoming entry gate on Central Avenue perfectly reflects that feeling. Right: A view of the foyer, looking towards the dining room pocket doors. In general, Craftsman homes featured an open plan, where rooms easily flowed from one to another, to maximize social cohesion and contact. Photos Steve Gorman.

The Davis house

Here in Alameda, 2450 Central Avenue was built in 1909 by Hans C. Andersen. The original owners were Ralph C. and Daisy M. Davis, who purchased their new home for $2,474. The Davises were married on April 11, 1906, in Santa Clara, California, just a week before the great San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906. Their son, Wesley Mead Davis, was born on January 14, 1909, and the Davis family moved into their new home on Central Avenue later that same year. Prior to moving, the Davises had lived on San Jose Avenue near Broadway. The move to 2450 would have put Ralph just a half-mile from his parents, Thomas and Gracie Davis, who lived at 2052 Central Avenue, in a Craftsman cottage built in 1907. The Davises—Ralph, Daisy, and Wesley—would live at 2450 Central Avenue until at least 1940, the last year for which census records can be found showing them living at this address. Based on this census data, we can determine that all three of them lived in this home for at least 31 years, if not longer. Mr. Davis was in the printing business, and worked for his father Thomas’s firm, T. J. Davis and Son.

Alameda Post - a cozy, built in bench and seating area by the front windows of a home
The front corner of the living room, featuring a built-in bench. According to the philosophy of The Craftsman magazine, “We like it (the living room) to have pleasant nooks and corners which give a comfortable sense of semi-privacy and yet are not in any way shut off from the larger life of the room.” Photo Steve Gorman.

Tracing history

Following the trail of ownership gets a little faint after 1940, but City of Alameda permit records show a re-roofing job done in 1948, with the homeowner still listed as Ralph Davis, who would have been 64 years old at the time. The oral history of the house, passed down by later owner Christ Surunis, suggests that the Davis’s son, Wesley, lived in the house until the early 1950s. If that is indeed the case, then the Davis family residency in this home lasted over 40 years.

Dental office

That same oral history also states that 2450 Central Avenue was once used as a dental office, for a period of about five years. Permit records bear that out, with a 1973 entry showing “Alterations for dental office” costing $8,000, for owner R. F. George. That dental practice lasted just a few years though, and a 1977 permit record shows “Converted dental office to single family dwelling” at a cost of $750 for a new owner named Fredrickson. As late as 2013, however, owner Christ Surunis reports that when removing Persian carpets from the floors, he discovered poorly plugged holes that had been drilled for water and air hoses, along with electrical conduits used by the dental equipment back in the 1970s. Fortunately, he had an excellent flooring contractor who made those holes in the hardwood floors disappear.

Alameda Post - photos of a remodeled kitchen in a craftsman home
Left: Classic Craftsman elements fill the kitchen, including a copper range hood, rich woodwork, casement windows with small panes above, ceiling beams, and leaded-glass in cabinets. Photo Steve Gorman. Right: The current owners of 2450 Central Avenue have remodeled the kitchen, but have kept the warm, cozy vibe of the Craftsman style intact. A Siamese cat on the stove adds to the attractive scene. Photo from the homeowners’ collection.

Next up

When our look into this classic California Craftsman home continues, we’ll attempt to trace the ownership history forward, and look into the changes these various owners have made over the years. We’ll also see how the dental office legacy continues on this block, and glimpse a hidden studio in the backyard of 2450 Central Avenue that features the same warmth and beauty of the main house. All that, plus many more photos, when our story continues.

Contributing writer Steve Gorman has been a resident of Alameda since 2000, when he fell in love with the history and architecture of this unique town. Contact him via [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Steve-Gorman.

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