further explorations into Yelland

okay....

so where did I leave off?  Clarksburg California in the Sacramento Delta.  Great little town.  So there I am in this little town and I am surrounded by homes that look like they would fit onto my street back in San Leandro. Some of the homes even appear to share some "architectural DNA" to my parent's home, the Derry House.

So I am thinking that there must be something to this entire Yelland connection. This starts me on going out on weekends Yellanding, looking for home archived in the collections of U.C. Berkeley.  This journey takes me all over Northern California from as far North as Chico, Ca. and as far South as Monterey, Ca.

 In Chico he did the Chico Trinity Church at the corner of Fifth and Flume Streets.  A very nice building.  I Marysville he did the Sui Sing Benevolent Society Building.  In Auburn he did the Hislop Funeral Parlour, which is now the Chapel of the Hills.

In Modesto are some of his nicest buildings.  The Ritter and Wherry residences on Elmwood Court.  Wow these are some very nice Yelland styled homes.  A local builder made modern interpretive copies of them in a tract off of Orangeburg Avenue.

In Kensington, the homes along Coventry Road's 800 block are by him as well.  The home at the corner of Ardmore and Coventry is particularly beautiful in his earliest Storybook Style.  The home on Ardmore walk the Troxel Residence is very very nice as well and very much in his signature style.

In North Berkeley on Cragmont Avenue is a whole string of his designed homes with the crowning achievement being the Zoph Residence at the Acacia Walk.  (Public walkways appear to be a common thread for tracts with his involvement as part of the city beautiful movement at the turn of the century).

In Central Berkeley is his masterpiece Normandy Village apartment complex (now gone condo). This was originally known as Thornburg Village named after his client Col. Jack Thornburg.  This is a very neat place to google earth, Street scene on google maps.  It must be seen to be believed.

Also in Central Berkeley is the Tupper & Reed Music Store.  This building is now home to the Beckett's Irish Pub & restaurant.  This building is absolutely incredible.  It has a towering 4 story tall clinker-brick fireplace crowned with a 10 foot tall pied-piper weather vane. This building in the middle of a block on Shattuck Avenue has small courts on the left and right sides making this building look as if it standing alone. These courtyards provide the excellent location for exterior staircases to the second floor.  The building can be leased as a whole or leased as two separate businesses, very clever!

Seeing the Montclair library in person only confirmed the DNA to the Derry House.  Mrs Fischer, the partner of Chauncey Gibson responsible for getting the library built for the Oakland Children's club, had a home designed by W.R.Yelland....Hmmmm.  Do you suppose that one of the sketches for the proposed Fischer Residence was used as the inspiration for C.C. Rosenberry to design the library?  It's my guess that the answer to that question would be YES.

In Piedmont is the the Erskine Mansion, this home is monumental in scale and composition. This mansion sits high atop the best street in the best neighborhood in the East Bay.  This home is like Normandy Village but as a single residence, it has some fantastic detail.

In Oakland's Lakeshore Highlands is the home on Alma Place.  I have been fortunate enough to be holding this home open lately to secure the buyers for my friend listing agent Dona Pedvin.

Also just down the street is another home I just recently discovered is also a verifiable Yelland.  That house at the end of the street is in sad sad shape.  It's painfully clear that the people who have it don't have a clue as toward it's heritage and are in the process of gutting it and muckking it up.

well, I'll end it here today