San Leandro, CA

10. The Pink Storybook Castle on Callan Avenue. Why:It's position on the corner of Santa Rosa and Callan. It's Classic W.W. Dixon Storybook design. It was known locally as the Pink Castle because of it's original rose colored tinted stucco. the home is undergoing major renovation and promises to be a beauty again.

9. The Mirror Image Art Deco Houses on Glen Drive. Why: These two art deco houses on Glen Drive just West of Superior Avenue are Hollywood Glam art deco at it's best. Both Homes are mirror images of each other and play off of each other very well.

8. The Grey Victorian on Estudillo. Why: A very rare example of Italianate design in San Leandro. Just the vertical scale of this house alone on Estudillo makes it rank high on my listing.

7. The Craftsman on Dutton Avenue. Why:This home exudes craftsman details. This home has a twin on Alameda's Fernside Drive. Most people think that this house is a one of a kind, not so.

6. The Earl Derry House on Superior Avenue. Why: This French Provincial Tudor is one of the largest of it's kind to be built. Home of San Leandro mayor Earl Derry. This home has a mirror image twin located on Cherry Way in Hayward. The possibilities of this home being a Yelland are high.

5. The Judge Bruner House on Lee Avenue. Why:This large Tudor is possibly the work of William Raymond Yelland. Similar homes to it on a smaller scale can also be found in Berkeley's Brittany Village (directly behind Normandy Village)

4. The Mission Revival House on Beverly Avenue. Why: This mission revival villa along with it's own private greenhouses are being faithfully restored. When it was for sale the blue prints from a famous architect (Not Julia Morgan or John Maybeck) were on display. I wish I had taken note. It has an extremely dramatic living room ceiling and a central atrium courtyard.

3. The large Tudor on Glen Drive. Why: This home by Derry Brothers, has a presence on the street that just cannot be denied. It has been photographed and placed on many documents representing the city. It's San Leandro's ambassador to great homes.

2. The three peaked 70's home in Bay-O-Vista. Why: 1970's Bay-o-Vista architecture at it's best. Built to take in all of the views possible. This home is noticeable from all parts of the city. A landmark.

1. The Art Deco Home in Estudillo Estates. Why: This home was featured in the newspaper as being at one time the most advance home in the nation. It's Art-Deco Streamline with no apologies.

********* OF SPECIAL NOTE *********

The Mildred Cook Residence designed by William Raymond Yelland. The blueprints for this home are in the collection at UC Berkeley. It has a mirror image twin at 816 Alma Place in Oakland.

San Leandro's official W.R. Yelland.

Mirror image twin in Oakland.

Okay, where I left off we were in Oakland's Lakeshore Highlands with two Yellands on one street.

If we go back up into the hills into the Piedmont Pines neighborhood we will come across the Hildreth Residence. It was featured in Sunset Magazine for being a unique use of a down sloping lot. The article, "They Park their car in their Attic" was about the home.

The home is very unique looking from the street. The home shows a shift from the traditional sloping catslide roofline and into a more angular version of the roofline. The home is in a word a cubist version of what the earlier storybook home had been in the 1920s and early 1930s. Off of the sidewalk features a small tower down to the lower living level of the home. The siding of this tower are alternating zig-zag black and white siding.

I have dubbed this style of Yelland to be "Hyper-Geometry". What I call the "Puzzle Houses" is an off shoot of "Hyper-Geometry".

In the town of Hayward on Prospect Avenue is the Peter C. Hoare Residence. This property, I suspect Yelland to be the architect. It is what I like to think of being on the drawing boards at the same time.

[Peter C. Hoare Residence]

The Peter C. Hoare Residence is one of the puzzle houses. I think at this point I should explain what a puzzle house is. A puzzle house is a home that is made up of several elevations of different houses stuck together forming one larger home. (If you imagine Main Street at Disneyland all the smaller facades at the street front and one unified building behind them)

Well, the Hayward Hoare House (there I said it. Hoare House) is made up of the houses on my street, including the Derry house, my neighbor's house and my house. element by element, but in mirror image.

For example on my street (Superior Avenue) right to left

1. buttress

2. window

3. fireplace

4. window

5. door

6. dormer

7. fireplace

8. catslide roof

9. wall

10. gable (represents Master Bedroom of Hoare Residence)

On the Hayward Hoare Residence. left to right.

10. gable (represents garage of Derry Residence)

9. wall

8. catslide roof

7. fireplace

6. dormer

5. door

4. window

3. fireplace

2. window

1. butress

Okay. I am sure I have just confused everyone. It becomes clear that the homes on my street, which are rather ordinary house by house, but when viewed as a collection that they were designed as an entire streetscape. The Puzzle houses being a snapshot of that streetscape.

I'll look for some better photos (4-14-2008 posted new photo of San leandro)