Palo Alto Stanford Heritage |
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| 1978 inventory photo | Photo taken January 2010. |
The following is from the Historic Buildings Inventory as revised in 1983:
This simple singled, gambrel–roofed two-story Colonial Revival house is enriched by an asymmetrically–placed square bay flanked by prominent pilasters with composite capitals.
A fine example of Colonial Revival design. The original owner was Professor James Perrin Smith, a world-noted paleontologist who had taken degrees at Vanderbilt and Goettingen before coming to Stanford. Once a professional baseball pitcher, he teamed up with his neighbors Frank Angell and Augustus Murray to foster Stanford athletics. His wife, Frances Morris Rand Smith, was a writer and an authority on the history of California missions.
In 1919–1925 it was the residence of Edgar Williams. In addition to a career as a newspaper reporter and editor, he was State Civil Service Commissioner (1913), Clerk for the State Assembly and State Senate, and an Assemblyman.
Two generations of the McCully family next owned the house (1926–1947), John H. and Margaret T. McCully, and their son James T. and his wife Leona H. McCully. Leona McCully had a long and successful career in high school education. She was an aide to Stanford Professor of Education Elwood P. Cubberley (1926–1937), taught at Chico State College and Stanford, and was a leading social science teacher at Palo Alto Senior High School from 1922 until retirement in 1944.
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This house was built in 1899 and is a Category 3 on the Historic Buildings Inventory. The builder was M. P. Madison, the low bidder against Downing and Laumeister, K. A. Hettinger, G. Mosher, and J. W. Wells. The house was remodeled in 1937. The property measures 50 by 150 feet.
Sources: Palo Alto City Directories; Palo Alto Times 5/28/23, 1/1/32, 6/8/53, 5/8/57; AAUW, ... Gone Tomorrow?; P. A. Live Oak, 5/5/99.
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