PAST Logo Palo Alto Stanford Heritage

Home Architects & Builders  Holiday House Tour Newsletters Walking Tours
About PAST Centennial Houses INVENTORY Preservation Awards Contact PAST
Advocacy History and Architecture Articles   Master Index to Houses Resources Join / Donate

Palo Alto Historic Buildings Inventory

411 Kipling Avenue

(405 Kipling Group)

HRB photo 1985 411
Inventory photo Photo taken May 2, 2015

 

The following is from the Historic Buildings Inventory as revised in 1985:

Physical appearance:   A one-story utilitarian version of the "four-square" form, with hipped roof, clapboard exterior, and small porch across the right front. Its modest ornamental elements include the porch columns, dentil cornices, attic dormer with diamond-pattern mullions in the windows, and wreath molding applied to the lower section of the front door. One of the early Palo Alto houses surviving in the commercial zone.

Significance:  It was built for Hiland H. Holly and first occupied by Mrs. M. M. Baker and Mrs. E. A. Sykes. Holly was a Civil War veteran and early Palo Alto resident who came to the new village so his sons could attend the University.

For a decade after 1906 it was the home of Fred F. and Granville Jeffers. The latter took his A.B. at Stanford and was superintendent of the Methodist Sunday School, then left to pursue a career in education in San Diego and Schenectady, New York.

Fred F. Jeffers was supervisor of music in the Palo Alto Schools, 1902-1913, director of the Methodist Church choir and of the Palo Alto Morris Club, a choral organization established by the realtor J. J. Morris. Later he became the school music supervisor in San Jose.

From 1923-1953, J. J. and Olive Stokes were the residents. Use of the building as a rooming house began after World War II.

2015 photo Lucy Spaziano photo
411 map
February 27, 2016 photo Location map

This house was built in 1902 and is a Category 4 on the Historic Buildings Inventory. The builder was G. W. Mosher. The property measures 40 by 112.5 feet.

Sources: Palo Alto City Directories; Palo Alto Times

Top


FaceBook f

E-mail us at either webmaster@pastheritage.org or president@pastheritage.org.

PAST Logo Palo Alto Stanford Heritage—Dedicated to the preservation of Palo Alto's historic buildings.