Demolitions

Landon House, 2743 Woolsey Street (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2005)

The new owners of the Howard P. Landon House (1909), an Elmwood Brown Shingle located at 2743 Woolsey Street, received a permit for a total remodel of the house, designed by David Trachtenberg. The original façade has been completely removed since the photo above was taken.


Campbell House, 2848 Derby Street (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2005)

The Campbell House (1889) at 2848 Derby Street was designed by the renowned Alameda architect Alfred William Pattiani, several of whose Berkeley Victorians, including the Whitham House (1889) at 2198 Blake Street, were featured in BAHA’s 2004 Spring House Tour. When the house changed hands earlier this year, we eagerly anticipated its restoration. One of only a handful of 19th-Century structures remaining in the Claremont district, its gingerbread had been hidden under a coating of stucco since the 1920s, but its interior was intact. The Whitham House is a mirror-image twin and could have been used as the model for reconstructing missing elements. BAHA staff suggested this to the new owners’ architect, who visited the BAHA office, and explained the building’s significance and its listing on the State Historic Resources Inventory. What a shock to discover that nothing remains but a shell and the framing. The opportunity to restore this special house is gone.