Home Tour, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008.
Eureka Heritage Society - 2008 Annual Home Tour

1 F Street - Bayfront One
2007

Owners
Eureka Bayfront One, LLC, partners Greg Pierson, Susan Rasmussen, Larry DeBeni, and Catherine Dunaway

Architectural Notes: Local architect Philippe Lapotre designed this mixed-use development of seven residential units above street-level commercial space. The building exists to drink in the bay views, and it has a contemporary silhouette with a style in the tradition of early 20th century architecture and a complexity reminiscent of the historic waterfront.

Notable Features: Constructed by the Pierson Company, this is a building of many sides, angles, elements, shapes and sizes that combine to form patterns and symmetry. It includes a wide eave overhang, a third story in three separate portions, inverted angled bays, a belt course that separates the street-level commercial units from the residences above and false beams placed below the decks and in other cantilevered locations. The overall plan gives a sense of rotation as the building “turns” around the corner. The residential units feature solid wood floors, wood cabinets, granite countertops, gas fireplaces, large windows allowing natural light and views of the waterfront.

Historical Notes: This vicinity is where the first Eureka pioneer settlers spent their initial night ashore on May 9, 1850. The site has since been the location of the Vance Iron & Hay warehouse in the 1880s and the John Vance Lumberyard in the 1890s. In the 1900s, the Coggeshall Launch Building was built here, and from this site the Madaket was berthed as a water taxi for millworkers commuting to Samoa.  In 2005, a nearly completed Bayfront One burned down, and the structure has since been totally rebuilt.

1007 F Street
Circa 1870

Present Owner
Teresa von Braun

Original Owner
John Cushing or Edward Leary 

Architectural Notes: Built around 1870, this house is one of Eureka’s very few remaining vernacular settlement-era cottages. After decades of dilapidation, it was rehabbed in 2005 by Tony Lefevre, whose work included rebuilding the foundation and the reconstruction of the deteriorated front porch. New brackets on the porch were crafted by Blue Ox Millworks. The interior underwent a drastic conversion with all-new modern services.

Notable Features: The house still has its original, and rare, transom and sidelights around the front door. The southside square window bay and the front gable-end bargeboards were likely added in the 1890s.

Historical Notes: This house dates to the earliest years of residential development in this neighborhood between E and G streets and south of Ninth Street. An early drawing of the house can be found in the 1883 book History of Humboldt County by Wallace Elliott. During this era the house was bought by the Skinner family, who remained in-residence for 80 years. For 60 of those years, it was the “comfortable home” of Robert W. Skinner, a pharmacist and president of a large local drug company. In the 1970s, the route of the planned Eureka freeway threatened hundreds of houses, including this one, before the plan was abandoned.

Current owner Teresa von Braun says she appreciates the blending of new and old—the contemporary interior within a historical house.

1337 I Street
1910

Present Owners
Gene and Shirley Box

Original Owners
Lawrence and Mary Mahan

Architectural Notes: This classic four-over-four house is typical of the more restrained ethos of the transitional period between the end of the Victorian and the beginning of the Craftsman eras. Essentially a Colonial Revival, the house is built with simplified classical detailing and is fully shingled. The near-perfect symmetry of the structure is interrupted only by a two-story extension on the south side. Originally open porches, they were enclosed decades ago. The current owners recently enclosed the full-width front porch.

Notable Features: The Colonial Revival look is exemplified in the wide boxed eave overhangs and wide frieze bands, which offset the textured singles. Interior highlights are both original and recently crafted. The current owners have opened up the first-floor plan by removing a partition that hid and obstructed the stairway.  A large pocket door opening up to the formal dining room has been retained and is composed of numerous beveled lights.

Historical Notes: At 30, Adreon C. Johnson was an accomplished craftsman and builder of fine homes when he contracted to build this house. For 35 years, this was the family residence for Lawrence and Mary Mahan and their son. Lawrence and his brother James were partners in the Mahan and Mahan law firm. The brothers also lived close to each other, with James and his wife, artist Laura Perrott Mahan, residing five blocks away at 819 I St.  This is another sizable house on tour that is enjoyed as a gathering place for a large, extended family. The Boxes’ grandchildren provided the plaque at the front door: “Welcome to the Box House

2134 E Street
1906

Present Owners
Jeanette Cruz and Marc Matteoli

Original Owners
David W. and Lottie Evans

Architectural Notes: This early 20th century transitional house is a late Queen Anne with Colonial Revival details. It was constructed by Shepherd Hall, a builder who erected many fine homes for prominent Eurekans.  The differing heights of the truncated, or flat-topped, corner towers contribute to the artistic asymmetry of the house. Notice the classical detailing, including an entablature on the porch that continues around the house as a belt course. A similar classical band can be found below the boxed wide eave overhang as it makes a grand sweep around the second-story tower. Many windows also retain their original diamond-patterned muntins.

Notable Features:  The current owners have been sensibly and artistically rehabilitating the interior for 25 years to accommodate their large family, all the while being careful to retain its historic style and original components. The house continues to be a work-in-progress; future projects include reconstruction of the lost balustrades that originally topped the towers and porches. The house was featured in the March 2008 edition of Restore & Preserve.

Historical Notes: David W. Evans was named for his father, a Humboldt pioneer who was one of the outstanding men of the redwood timber industry and a two-term mayor of Eureka. Five years after his father’s death, young David had this house built for his bride, Lottie Belcher, in a growing and fashionable subdivision called the Prairie Addition. The Evanses’ only son was born two years later. The house remained in the family for 40 years.

2402 D Street
1923

Present Owners
Lynda Pozel and Jack Hopkins

Original Owners
Dr. Edgar and Agnes Holm

Architectural Notes: This house was built by prolific local contractor George S. Hugnin, whose work included the Banducci Building in Arcata and the modern Hunt dental office building in Eureka.  This two-story Mediterranean Revival’s front facade is a collection of carefully proportioned cubic forms, with matching flattened arches above the ground-level front windows and entryway. The stucco house also has touches of Prairie style with its low hipped roof with a boxed wide eave overhang and with the lowered appearance of the second-story portion of the house.  The interior features an elegant foyer and staircase, coved ceilings, built-ins in the dining room, a sun porch with mural work and a simplified fireplace surround in the living room.

Notable Features: The new owners have given the house warm Mediterranean colors and have dramatically redesigned the front yard into a semi-formal Mediterranean-style garden. The wide walkway leading to the elegant front entryway has been extended and additional small cement walls were built as a setting for 80 lavender plants along with juniper and cypress trees.  The homeowners run their business, Hopkins Fine Portraiture, out of their lovely home.

Historical Notes: The home’s original owners were Danish emigrants. Oscar and Avilla Swanlund and their three sons purchased the home in 1941. Oscar owned a photography studio and served as mayor of Eureka from 1957 to 1961. They owned the house until 1972. The house was featured in the September issue of Restore & Preserve.

305 O Street
1907-08

Present Owners
Niki Delson and Ron Kokish

Original Owner
Peter and Florence Rutledge

Architectural Notes:  The house retained its historical integrity during careful rehabilitation. The front entry is elegantly subdued. The classical porch has a shingled, pedimented gable end, with a diamond-shaped window above and diamond muntin-patterned window below.  Other exterior features include wide open eaves, angled two-story bays, shingles around the upper story and clapboard around the first floor.  Much of the original interior redwood millwork, moldings, doors and distinctive door frames were preserved.

Notable Features:  Beginning in 1990, the current owners of this Classical Revival house began converting it into commercial office space with extensive structural upgrades and accessibility modifications.  It is a prime example of how a residence can successfully be converted to another use, and it received the 2008 Eureka Heritage Society Preservation Award for Adaptive Reuse.

Historical Notes: Construction on this house began in 1907 or ‘08 for New Brunswick native Peter Rutledge.  At age 15, Rutledge began a long career in the redwood timber industry, which included 35 years with Dolbeer & Carson Lumber. He worked his way up to general superintendent and oversaw the mill’s electrification before retiring in 1935.  He married Florence Quill in June 1908, and they moved into the newly built house, which remained in the family for 70 years. The house was built at the southwest corner of Third and V Streets and was moved around 1980 to its current site.  It is currently the office of Making Headway, a nonprofit that helps patients recover from traumatic brain injuries.

15th & H — Christ Church Episcopal
1938

Original and Present Owner
Rector, wardens and vestry of Christ Church Parish, Eureka

Architectural Notes: This second-generation church was designed by San Francisco architect Lewis P. Hobart for the Eureka congregation. The first church was built 140 years ago at Fourth and E streets.  When this replacement was constructed in 1938, a newspaper article appropriately described the new church as “dignified architecture of Gothic influence.”  The church has a mellow redwood finish on the walls and open timbers and trusswork of the high Gothic ceilings.  The design also incorporates many features from the original Christ Church building, including stained-glass windows, pulpit, lectern, altar rails, pews and the five bells carillon.  The exterior of the church is covered with vertical board-and-batten siding and features superimposed gables that intersect at the sanctuary at right angles to form the entrance. Decorative curvilinear bargeboard is found on all of the gable ends, and prominently rising above the gabled entrance is the narrow hipped roof tower with a belfry punctuated by an arched opening.

Notable Features: The sanctuary has undergone some renovation to accommodate the new Kegg organ (installed earlier this year), the largest pipe organ in northwestern California.  It contains 1,917 pipes played on three keyboards. The façade pipes have been painted with bronze powder and lacquer to enhance the old-growth redwood interior. An organ has been a significant ongoing feature of the church since 1869. 

Historical Notes: Hobart’s design was built by the Mercer-Fraser Company using the finest clear old-growth redwood. In the 1950s, Lewis Hall was added, and from the exterior, it looks seamless.