Julia Morgan and John Hudson Thomas in Northbrae and Thousand Oaks, Berkeley

An architectural tour of houses designed by two great California architects of the first half of the twentieth century. Julia Morgan and a contemporary, John Hudson Thomas.
We''ll also be passing by the homes of two of the most renown Landscape Architects/Engineers of the period, see below for more info about them.*

(Some details about the tour today.)
The photo above is a water color of an English cottage in Croydon, England which a client asked JM to design a house similar to. The house below on the right is the house she designed based on the water color and is at 62 Farragut Ave. in Piedmont. There is a Julia Morgan house on Yosemite Rd. in Thousand Oaks, though smaller, but very similar. We'll compare the two photos to the real thing and see what we think?
(My favorite band in 1970 was Blood, Sweat & Tears. A founder and drummer for the band was Bobby Colomby. In the liner notes from a very early album it mentioned that he moved from NYC to San Francisco to find his happy place. Bobby Colomby lived in this house. An event attendee who had lived in this house just happened to mention this on a tour.)

The Bell house is located at 2118 Marin Ave. between Shattuck and Oxford.
The interior photos are worth a look! This is a Julia Morgan house. But we'll have to hustle if we want to make it up the hill that far. Otherwise there will have to be a Part 2 ahead. Also 838 Contra Costa is a Julia Morgan designed house.

For those joining for lunch afterwards, we'll stop on the way to Solano Ave. to look at one of the Baptist Churches, Julia Morgan designed at Colusa Ave. and Catalina Sts, Thousand Oaks Baptist Church.
(But we won't make over to the nearby church, John Hudson Thomas designed, Northbrae Community Church, at 941 Alameda.)

Meet at San Pedro Rd. & the Alameda, Berkeley, Ca. Bottom of Yosemite Steps.

*On another topic of interest:
Two of the most renown Landscape Architect/Engineers back in the period, lived around the corner from one another, first Supt. of US Nat'l Parks Service, Mark R.Daniels employed by 1000 Oaks developer, John Hopkins Spring to layout the curvy streets of Thousand Oaks, into an almost perfect fit with the lay of the land. He was not only the first Supt. of the National Park Service, a Cal and Harvard graduate, but also, Sea Cliff, Pebble Beach, 17-Mile Drive and Bel Air, were his designs. Mark Daniels lived at 1864 Yosemite Ave.

Also Professor John W.Gregg, founder of the Landscape Arch. program at Penn State and UCB, 705 Alameda. In addition he was in charge of grounds and design at UCB, UCLA, Davis, he designed nearby John Hinkel Park and was first President of, and for nine years on the Berkeley Park Commission. (We'll check out their gardens/yards, along the way!)