Palo Alto Stanford Heritage
Homes on tour:
1005 Bryant — 1893
This three-story Craftsman shingled house has an unusual pattern of tall, thin indentations in the facade of the brick-work chimney. The first floor interior is paneled in redwood and has four hearths. It is said to be the first house in Palo Alto which was designed by an architect.
It was built for Professor Frank Angell, who came to Stanford as head of the Psychology Department. He was Stanford's first track coach, and Angell Field, Stanford's track oval, was dedicated to him. His wife Louise was an active supporter of educational and cultural affairs who financed the establishment of Castilleja Hall at 1129 Bryant Street in 1901.
Inventory sheet
This simple shingled box is decorated by a wider bank of shingles at the second floor and a Tuscan porch. The side of the house has a projecting square bay, two stories in height, supported at both stories by round–ended short corbels.
In 1985 it was wholly rehabilitated and relandscaped by its present owners. Its early years found this house primarily the home of successive Stanford professors. In 1924 it became the home of Charles and Martha Ellet, who owned it for 50 years. Ellet's father had bought the Mayfield Bank and Trust after he came to the city in 1908. Ellet opened the Stanford Realty Company the same year in which he acquired this house.
"Fowler Mansion" sits as an "anchor" house of the Professorville district. This large shingled Craftsman house presents a massive composition of sculptured roof and dormer shapes. Capped by a widow's walk, it sits on expansive grounds.
It was built by Gustav Laumeister for Mrs. Joshua Fowler, widow of a Spanish American War officer. Mrs. Fowler had come to the community in 1900 so that her son, Frederick, could attend Stanford. When Frederick married Else Branner, daughter of Stanford's second president, John Branner, they came here to live. From 1938–1974, the house was the residence of Professor Karl Brandt, a distinguished agricultural economist with the Carnegie Food Research Institute at Stanford.
Inventory sheet
262 Kingsley Avenue — 1908
A row of diamond–paned windows enhance the shingled second floor of this lovely home.
Samuel Swayze Seward, Jr. was the original owner and resident of this house, returning here after his marriage to Amy Holman in 1919. Samuel had come to Stanford in 1900 as a member of the English faculty, leaving during WWI to help in the war effort. For his service, he received the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, Croix de Guerre, Medal of King Albert of Belgium, plus two citations for bravery under fire. According to the present owner, neighbors call this house the "Hoover House" because Lou Henry Hoover was supposed to have lived here for a short while before Hoover House on the Stanford campus was built.
This small shingled hip–roofed house with suggestions of Craftsman origins shares a charming landscaped garden with its neighbor, 374 Kingsley. Eclectic arrangements of window styles offset the rustic wood interior of the original portion of the house.
Miss Eleanor Pearson had J.W. Wells build this cottage for her next door to Lucy Fletcher Brown, her fellow co-founder of Castilleja Hall. Dr. George B. Little, Palo Alto's first resident dentist, and his wife lived here from 1903–1911. In 1929, Professor Wilfred H. Manwaring, Stanford School of Medicine's outstanding bacteriologist and immunologist, purchased the cottage. The Manwarings sold it to the present [1993] owners in 1960.
Inventory sheet
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