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445 El Escarpado

445 El Escarpado

445 El Escarpado is one of four English Tudor homes built in the 1920s when four Business School professors commissioned prominent San Francisco architect Charles Sumner to develop the knoll. Professor J. Hugh Jackson, Dean of the Business School and namesake of the Jackson Library, lived there. The initials of the original owner are in wrought iron on the chimney of each home on El Escarpado.

Built in 1927, this home then overlooked Lake Laganita. Now large trees grace the vista from the terraces. All of the homes have an elegant, recessed arched entry door and a second similar door at the opposite end of the hall leading to the garden. Each also contains unique features. The house has a wood–paneled library complete with built–in file cabinets and drawers for cataloging the owners' collections. Sconces on each side of the fireplace carry the Stanford seal. Also original to the home are the paneled walls and fine hardware. Note the bell for calling a servant in the living room.

Provost Frederick Terman purchased the home in 1959. The well–known Engineering School Dean is also referred to as the Father of Silicon Valley since many of his students founded companies here. In 1966, with the help of Menlo Park architect Henry Blackbard, Terman remodeled the home's kitchen, added a redwood deck and the large wing beyond the kitchen with a master bedroom and student apartment.

The current owners purchased the home in the fall of 1985 and have done extensive remodeling and renovation.

Fortunately the original plans were available. Palo Alto architect Roger Kohler created the kitchen from several small rooms, made the Terman addition an integral part of the house, and replaced the redwood deck with terraces based on an original balcony. Sliding glass doors to the deck from the living room were replaced with doors similar to the original.

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