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Palo Alto Historic Buildings Inventory

443 Kipling Street


Inventory photo	Photo taken 2015

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

Physical appearance: The Pueblo Revival style is here shorn of its rustic connotations and reduced to a severely abstract composition, very close to the massing and image of avant garde modernism of the early twentieth century. The original building, which had a peaked roof, was remodeled after a fire. The amount of change is conjectural, but it probably was considerable. The second floor side deck has been enclosed and iron work details are still later embellishments.

The original 1897 house was constructed of wood. The post-fire remodel was stucco and reinforced concrete.

Significance: This is a very fine example of the abstraction of period revival designs. The original house was built by and for the contractor, H. L. Upham and his wife Augusta, who kept it until 1912.

Its next occupant was Mrs. Lydia H. Barney, widow of General Benjamin Allen Barney, who moved to Palo Alto in 1913 from the Barney estate in Atherton. Evidently her tenure was ended by the fire which destroyed a significant portion of the house ca. 1915.

After remodeling, the house became the property of E. A. and Emma C. Cochran (1919–33). As a young man, Cochran learned the jeweler's arts in Alaska, after having left his position as superintendent in Rochester of the Eastman Kodak camera department. He returned from Alaska in 1913, came to Palo Alto ten years later, established a jewelry store, and then, after training in optometry in San Francisco, optometrist office. He retired in 1951, shortly before the death of his wife, and moved to Cleveland.

From 1934 to 1942, when Stephen Koss acquired the property, the house was occupied by Mrs. Meta Bachelor.



Historic Resources Board photo 1985	Location map

This house was built in 1897 and remodeled in 191 5and is a Category 4 on the Historic Buildings Inventory. The architect / builder was H. L. Upham. The property measures 42 by 112.5 feet.

Sources: Palo Alto City Directories; Palo Alto Times 5/21/97, 5/29/97, 10/26/05, 2/16/27, 4/1/38, 2/24/56; interview 1985, Stephen Koss

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