Built in 1928 / 1999
Photos taken October 14, 2005 for the Holiday House Tour of which it was one of four houses in the Seale Addition. The following description is taken from the tour booklet.
The symmetry of this two–story Colonial Revival's brick walkways and retaining walls belies the unusual interests of this home's past inhabitants. Compactly set on a Seale Addition lot lined with mature magnolia trees, the lovely gardens give no hint that Gerda Isenberg, who began the famous Yerba Buena Nursery on her Skyline Ranch property, lived there. Or that her husband, Rudolph Isenberg, was a barnstorming pilot who helped establish the Palo Alto airport. A pioneer propagator of native plants in the late 1950's when they were considered to be no more than weeds, Gerda "the fern lady" began selling ferns and mimulus to El Camino Real nurseries from the back of her station wagon.
Originally designed for John P. Breeden by Irwin J.R. Reichel and constructed by W.M. Klay in 1930, the home cost $15,000 and $700 more for the garage. It epitomizes the Colonial Revival style reminiscent of early English and Dutch houses along the Atlantic seaboard.
Signature elements of the elegant dwelling include the medium–pitched, side-gabled roof with profiled cornice; front façade with symmetrically balanced window and center door; six–over–six double-hung windows throughout the structure with painted wood shutters sporting crescent moon cut-outs; an accentuated front entry with decorative crown extended forward and supported by slender tapering Doric columns. The exterior walls are clad in horizontally lapped wood siding.
The Historic Resources Board's Application for Historic Merit recognized this as the most elaborate and substantial of the 2100 block of Cowper.
It was deemed eligible for the National Trust and California Register of Historical Resources in 1998.
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