In Part 1 of this series, we learned that 921 Grand Street was designed and built by renowned local architect A. W. Pattiani in 1895. It was reported at the time to be a “new style” for Alameda, and represented a pivot away from the popular Queen Anne style and towards the more understated Colonial Revival style.
Irish-American roots
The first owner of 921 Grand Street was Joseph B. Mallon, a businessman who had emigrated as a child from County Tyrone, Ireland around 1854. First landing in New York, he eventually headed west and made his career in the mercantile business in Mariposa and Virginia City. By 1895 he was ready to retire from active business life and signed a contract with A. W. Pattiani & Co. to build him a home at the corner of Grand Street and San Jose Avenue in Alameda. Sadly, he only got to enjoy his early-retirement home for 5 years before passing away from complications of appendicitis and heart failure in 1900. Within ten years, his wife, son, and two daughters had moved two houses north, and were living at 1007 Grand Street. Why they moved just two houses north is something of a mystery.
Wealthy residents
Little is known about who lived in the home just after the Mallons moved out, though there are clues that the residents were on the wealthier side of the income scale. A classified ad in the Alameda Times Star, dated June 18th, 1918, read, “WANTED – Chambermaid and waitress for family boarding house; good wages; apply 921 Grand St.” Was 921 Grand Street acting as a boarding house in 1918, or does this ad refer to perhaps just a large family? Another classified ad, also in the Alameda Times Star and dated November 5th, 1920, seeks a missing item: “LOST – Gentleman’s plain gold link watch charm. Return to 921 Grand St. Reward.” Following the theme of lost items, in 1919, a woman at 921 Grand Street had lost a small black leather purse on the Santa Clara Avenue car (streetcar) and was offering a reward of $5.00 for the purse that contained $20. In a final sign of wealth, the family at 921 Grand was, in 1924, selling a “practically new” 1924 model Buick coupe for $1,850, because they recently acquired a new Pierce sedan. At a time when a new Ford Model T automobile was $300, cars in the $2,000 price range would have been considered luxury items.
Tracing history
Piecing together various clues, we know that Garry and Joan Deuel owned this home for a period of about thirty years, spanning from 1974 to 2004. After that, Ray and Tammy Shojinaga had their turn as caretakers of this historic property, to be followed by the current owners, Jeff and Natalee Thomas, who have been the proud owners since 2018. Throughout the decades, all of these owners have done their part to keep this almost 130-year-old home in the splendid condition it’s in today.
Meet the Thomases
Of all the owners of our Alameda Treasures that I have met over the years, Natalee Thomas is the only one who grew up on a Llama farm in Western Pennsylvania. Her husband Jeff grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and they’ve been married for 20 years. They have two young daughters, and Natalee’s mother Karen Pavlik also lives with them in her own spacious attic suite on the third floor. Karen came to live with them after their first daughter was born in 2015. Jeff works for the global financial marketplace NASDAQ, and Natalee is a jewelry designer. The Thomases are known for handing out 5,000 pieces of candy each Halloween, and for their elegant Christmas tree – lit all in white – that graces their front picture window every December.
Necessary upgrades
While the Thomases love the history and vintage style of their Pattiani-designed home, few people today actually want to live with authentic circa 1895 kitchens and bathrooms, and those are areas where the family has spent considerable time and effort on upgrades since moving in. In fact, an 8-month kitchen remodel has just been completed, and we will be exploring that in Part 3 of this series. Professional photos of the project are currently being processed, so hopefully we will get a look at those next time.
A discovery
While remodeling a bathroom some years ago, the Thomases came across a mysterious photo found inside of a wall. The old sepia-toned photograph shows a man in a military uniform, and suggests perhaps a World War I era look. Natalee reports that older members of St. Joseph’s church once told her that 921 Grand Street was owned by a military doctor in the past, which gives us a clue about this picture.
Also found during renovations was an Alameda Bureau of Electricity permit for electrical work at 921 Grand Street, dated November 11th, 1937. This permit was for the addition or upgrade of 12 outlets, 15 switches, 12 fixtures, and 10 plug receptacles. As the use of electricity increased dramatically over the years, this 1937 upgrade was surely not the last that was done.
The original ADU
When stepping out of the new kitchen doors and onto the brand-new back deck, the first thing I noticed about the backyard of 921 Grand Street was that there was a large house back there, facing the backyard. It sits just on the other side of a fence, and its address is actually on San Jose Ave., just around the corner. But this house seems firmly oriented towards the back of 921 Grand Street, rather than its own street, San Jose Avenue.
According to Natalee, many years ago a former owner of 921 Grand Street purchased the vacant property behind his house and built a house for his daughter back there, complete with a sidewalk path leading right up to its front door. That would explain why the house is oriented the way it is, and in that sense makes this home an early ADU – Accessory Dwelling Unit. A local real estate site describes the home, 1624 San Jose Avenue, as a Dutch Colonial style structure built in 1920. If that date is correct, it would date it to around the time of the second owners of 921 Grand Street, the ones who moved in after the Mallons moved out sometime prior to 1910. There are clues to the past all around us, and if we take the time to observe, the stories of the past start to come to light, and explain why things are as they are today.
Transit city
Alameda once had a vast system of trains and streetcars crisscrossing the island, with connections to ferries to San Francisco. By the 1940s, most of it was gone, as the automobile had taken over as the main form of transportation. At one time, though, a streetcar passed right by 921 Grand Street, as it made its way along San Jose Ave. That would have made this location even more convenient than it is today, with a streetcar ride to Park St. or the ferries on the west end just minutes away.
Next up
When our look into 921 Grand Street continues, we’ll meet Megan Warren, owner of Megan Warren Design, of Alameda. Her interior design company has just completed an ambitious remodel of the old kitchen of this house, and managed to overcome a unique challenge in expanding the room. How they overcame that challenge will be explored in our next chapter, and is an example of how previous additions create problems for future additions. And, Myrna van Lunteren, of the Alameda Museum, has searched the museum archives and unearthed a rare photo of 921 Grand Street, taken in 1956. Not only does this photo show the house in a very different condition than it’s in today, it also captures a spectacular example of a luxury automobile of the day parked in front. All of that, and more, 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.
