About San Leandro's The Broadmoor

Having seen the three homes on San Leandro's Superior Avenue that create the elevation for the home on Hayward's Prospect Avenue home.

illustration #1

537, 527 and 521 as they are on San Leandro's Superior Avenue

illustration #2

As photographed the same three houses as diagrammed above

illustration #3

537, 527 and 521 as they would be combined together.

illustration #4

The above combination is then mirror imaged and then you get "The house on Prospect" in Hayward. illustration #5

As photographed, the house diagrammed in illustration #4

Recently,

I've noticed that two homes on Superior Avenue when joined together also create a common variation to the storybook style architecture theme. The home in this puzzle features a shed dormer style roof over the window of the second house. Most commonly a front facing gable replaces that shed roof.

illustration #6

573 and 565 Superior as they are located in San Leandro

illustration #7

illustration #8

The puzzle house combined here would result in the following look

Homes like this are common to El Cerrito, San Pablo, Kensington, Berkeley and Clarksburg California. Another example of this style is the Oakland Public Library in the Montclair District (shown below).

illustration #9 The Montclair Library

This type of house always has a catslide roof off to one side and a wing coming off of that. On the wing coming off the catslide their is usually a dormer facing the same direction as the main catslide gable.

Another Puzzle home.

Another home located in San Leandro's unincorporated Ashland Distrcit located on 170th is a combination of 537 (Mayor/builder Earl Derry's House) and a home on the 700 block of Bridge Road (Tom Derry's House). Google map both Bridge Road and 170th Avenue.

illustration #10

Above is the Tom Derry House.

When it's combined with the familiar image of the catslide version representing Earl Derry's House you get the house below located on 170th.

illustration #11

The puzzle house located on 170th in San Leandro's unicorporated Ashland District.

My mother is having her roof redone.

This is the same house that my Grandmother purchased from the builder developer / mayor of San Leandro Earl Derry. It was Earl Derry's very own home until 1946 when Grandma purchased it.

My father grew up in this house. I grew up in this house.

I did the same thing to my house a few years ago. You can see it in the picture above. Mom's house is the one with the old roof being peeled away. My house is the brown house with the brown singles two houses to the right.

In my restoration of the house I made a mistake on the roof color. When looking up from within the attic, I would assume that the orignal roofing layer was cedar or redwood shingles. When the layers of my old roof came off I noticed I had it all completely wrong. The roof color was a hunter green painted shingle.

So It got me to wondering were the other homes in Derry, Weaver & Derry's Cherry City Tract in San Leandro also hiding painted colored shingles.

Back to my mom's house pictured above, I remember when I was a kid, seeing the red asphalt shingles that my grandmother must have had installed. My parents added the oversized brown/tan shingles in the 1970s.

Well with modern codes, and this being the fourth roof, the old existing three layers had to come off, there they were.....RED painted shingles. It would make perfect sense to have that red roof. The red brick walkway and front entry porch. The red bricks around the large front window. Even red bricks on the banding of the driveway as seen in the picture below. I remember there being red fabric awnings on the side breakfast nook windows too, A red roof makes perfect sense.

The picture above shows the history of the roof. From the right to the left, The original wood shingles painted red. In the middle are the "coral red" shingles that my grandmother must have put on in the 1950s. To the far left are the oversized brown tan shingles that my parents added in the 1970s.

So my question is, have any of you ever come across anything like this before? Is painted shingles really a rare thing?

The new roof, A 40 year landmark architectural series "resawn shake" brown/tan mix asphalt.

Dec 7, 1941 and the outbreak of World War II surely had an impact on development on The Broadmoor. Below is the listing of homes built in The Broadmoor for the year of 1942.

With home owners and construction works going off to war, work on the area homes came to an almost standstill.

One street was the exception to this rule and that would be Georgia Way off of East 14th Street.

1939, a year that stands out in the 1930s. One of the best years ever for Hollywood Glamour and the Art Deco lifestyle.

Such movies as Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Destry Rides Again, The Young Mr. Lincoln and Dark Victory.

Homes built in this era would reflect a 1939 Hollywood Glam Art-Deco feel to them. If this is the type of home you are looking for these streets would be the places to look.

The Lebon tract, which includes Diehl and Fortuna Avenue appear to have been the hot spots within The Broadmoor during this period. The Lebon tract was built by the Diehl Family as developers.

Across Dutton Avenue the New Broadmoor tract was begining with the Derry Bros., building the upper portions of Glen, Oakes and Begier as well as the newer section of Superior Avenue. This area is part of Estudillo Estates although the tract name is actually "New Broadmoor".

I'll have to do this series for Estudillo Estates next. I do have to admit I am having fun finding out what was built when and where.

Here in my second posting of this series, I wanted to share with you the timeline of what homes were built when.

Here is a list of homes constructed in San Leandro's "The Broadmoor" neighborhood in the year 1926. It looks like Alice and Helen Avenue was the hot construction zone during this year. 119 homes constructed during 1926 in this, our area.

Some contruction on Lewis, Diehl and Mitchell. Superior Avenue is just starting to gear up. West Broadmoor also has quite a bit of activity also.