Palo Alto Stanford Heritage |
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| Photo taken in 1978. | Photo taken May, 2012. |
The following is from the Historic Buildings Inventory as revised in 1985:
This simple Eastlake house has few but telling decorative touches. The bay and gable composition is fine, and the porch retains its original inventive railing.
Built for Dr. E. W. Charles, a Civil War veteran of both Army and Navy service, who came to California in 1872 and to Palo Alto in 1892. He was the father of S. W. Charles, a respected local attorney and justice of the peace (see 251 Lincoln). For a short period after construction, it was a Stanford student rooming house [Utopia Rooming House 1900–1903], also occupied briefly by Professor P. J. Frein (1902) and Charles E. Hodges the resident architect at Stanford (see also 1146 Waverley). Hodges was the occupant in 1910–1919. Thereafter the house was occupied by a long series of one– and two–year tenants.
Charles E. Hodges, the Stanford "resident architect" at the time the house was built, and an early occupant, lists a house for S. W. Charles (251 Lincoln), son of the man for whom 451 Charming was built; it is possible, thus, that he also designed this building, among others for prominent citizens of the same period.
This house was built in 1900 and is a Category 4 on the Historic Buildings Inventory. The architect/builder may have been Charles E. Hodges. The propety measures 50 by 125 feet.
Sources: Palo Alto City Directories; Palo Alto Times 7/6/1900, 3/30/43, Palo Alto Live Oak, 6/16/1899; Charles Edward Hodges, "Partial List of Buildings Designed and Erected byCharles Edward Hodges . . ., " in Stanford Archives
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