More on the mansions that once graced the streets of Oakland
Koa Hall – Bailey Mansion
W. H. Bailey, who owned plantations in Hawaii, hired W.J. Mathews to design his home, costing $70,000 to build circa 1889.
The main hall’s woodwork was made of beautiful koa from the Hawaiian Islands. Koa carvings were also found by the main staircase. The reception room’s woodwork on one side of the hall was bird’ s-eye maple. Antique oak was used in the library and the dining room.
It was converted into a rooming or boarding house.’
The old mansion was razed in the late 1920s, and the Hotel Lakehurst was built.
It is now called Lakehurst Hall.
Location: 1369 Jackson St, now 1569 Jackson Street, at the corner of 17th Street.
More Info:
- Hotel Lakehurst – Oakland Local Wiki
- A Hawaiian Night – Oakland Tribune December 30, 1890
- On Jackson Street- Oakland Tribune May 23, 1891
- Fine Rooms in Big Houses – SF Examiner April 17, 1892
- Old Home Afire – Oakland Tribune July 13, 1917
The Old Brown Home.
“The house that watched Oakland grow.”
Oakland Tribune Jan 25, 1956
The three-story, five-bedroom home was built in 1872 by Dr. Samuel Merritt.
In 1874, Roland Geir Brown, a capitalist, purchased the home. Brown was one of the early members of the San Francisco Stock Exchange.
Mr. Brown sold sewing machines for Grover and Baker. The Oakland Tribune reports that Brown was one of the wealthiest men in 19th-century Oakland.
The Brown home was less than a block from Lake Merritt, before the lake shore was filled in.
When President William McKinley was in the Bay Area for a week in May 1901, he visited the Brown home.
Lilian Brown, Roland’s daughter, lived in the mansion until her death in 1955.
The old Brown home at 1889 Jackson Street was demolished in 1956 to accommodate a parking lot.
Location: 1889 Jackson – between 17th and 19th Streets
More Info:
- Brown Residence – OMCA Collections
- Landmark Doomed – Old Brown Home – Oakland Tribune July 25, 1956
The Other Brown Mansion
Albert Brown came to Oakland in 1887 from New Jersey. He was an undertaker and a prominent lodgeman.
Boarding Home
The mansion was converted into a boarding house shortly after Brown’s death. The Alice-Lake Apartments are now located there.
Location: 1387 Alice Street
More Info:
- Albert Brown Passes Away – Berkeley Gazette January 19, 1909
Alexander Mansion
“Aloha, nui,” or “Love be unto you.” It is carved above one of the entrances
Samuel T. Alexander came to Oakland from Hawaii in the early 1880s. He was one of the founders of Alexander & Baldwin, an American company that cultivated sugar cane.
In 1882, Alexander purchased a lot on the northwest corner of Sixteenth and Filbert for $6,000.
The three-story Queen Anne-style home was designed by Clinton Day and was completed in 1883 at the cost of $20.000
Move to Piedmont
The family lived there until 1912 when Mrs. Alexander moved to Piedmont to be closer to her son, Wallace Alexander.
Rooming House
Sometime after 1912, the mansion was converted to a rooming house, and rooms were rented out until the mid-1960s.
New Life for Old Mansion
In 1967, the once venerable mansion stood deserted, and in despair, its boarded or broken windows were scheduled to be demolished.
The Oak Center Neighborhood Association members decided that the old mansion could be given a facelift and become a community “Neighborhood House.” Thus, demolition was halted.
They visualized a rehabilitated building with office space for the Oak Center Association, a children’s library and study hall, an adult library and reading room, a large all-purpose room for meetings and socials, and a room for individual and group counseling.
Vandals Strike
The group succeeded in saving the old mansion from the wreckers, only to have it nearly demolished anyway –by vandals. The house was broken into, ruined beyond repair, and finally demolished in 1968.
- William H. Quinn House – Oakland Local Wiki
More Info:
- Purchase Lot – SF Examiner December 13, 1882
- Alexander to Build Home – SF Examiner April 27, 1883
- Alexander’s Move To Piedmont – SF Call March 12, 1912
- This Old House has a Future – Oakland Tribune October 24, 1967
- Neighborhood in Search of A House – Oakland Tribune December 3, 1968
- Vandals Ravage and Loot Homes – Oakland Tribune April 6, 1969
- 150 Oak Center Homes Ruined – Oakland Tribune April 6, 1969
Quinn Home
The William H. Quinn Home at 1425 Castro Street was moved to 1004-06 16th Street to make room for Highway 980.
Location: 1006 – 16th Street
William H. Quinn House – Oakland Local Wiki
Hush Mansion – Etnemere
It was built in 1865, the 14-room house of rococo architecture. The barn had room for ten horses and room for 20 tons of hay.
The house had 14 rooms made of redwood. The barn had room for 10 horses
The mansion had a wood and coal furnace, and the radiators are believed to have been the earliest models of that kind in the country. The rooms were paneled with massive doors 9 feet high. Beautiful mirrors adorned the wall.
It was reported that Susan B. Anthony once slept there.
The house and barn property were purchased by Marston Campbell, Jr, as an investment. It was torn down in 1948.
Location: 1401 28th Avenue on East 14th.
More Info:
- Landmark Being Razed – Oakland Tribune August 12, 1949
Once owned by Merritt
In 1877, Dr. Samuel Merritt built a three-story home on Jackson Street. The house had bay windows, a front porch, and cone-shaped peaked.
The lot is part of the 45-acre parcel, which Merritt paid $4,000 in 1852.
John A Stanley purchased the house from Dr. Merritt in 1880 for $12,050. as a wedding gift for his daughter and her husband, Thomas Coghill.
The Coghill family lived there until 1920 when they sold it to John C. Money. After Mr. Money died in 1944, it served as a rooming house.
By 1963, it was the last old mansion on the block and was demolished to make way for a 32-unit apartment building.
Location: 1514 Jackson Street
More Info:
- End of Another Landmark: Once-Plus Merrit Home – Oakland Tribune February 07, 1963
Orange Street Mansion
Edward P. Flint, a land developer and San Francisco businessman, moved to Oakland in 1860. He lived at 13th and Clay before moving to this house.
The site where he built the house at 447 Orange Street was part of a larger parcel he subdivided in Adams Point.
After Flint died, Admiral Thomas S. Phelps, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, purchased the property. In 1939, M.A. Marquard purchased the property and lived in the house until 1964.
The house was demolished in 1964 and replaced with a “modern 28-unit apartment building.
The new structure has 15 two-bedroom and 12 one-bedroom apartments, plus a penthouse. Al Colossi designed the building. It is located at 447 Orange Street.
Mr. and Mrs. Marquard lived in the penthouse of the new apartment.
More Info:
- Progress Is New History for Old – Oakland Tribune July 19, 1964
