Plath & Company reconstructs a 1929 dream
castle destroyed by the Oakland Hills firestorm

Architect Albert Farr’s French-Norman Mansion Rebuilt By Plath To Reflect The Craftsmanship of A Bygone Era, and One Family’s American Dream


SAN FRANCISCO, CA (October 20, 1999) Stephen Plath, president of Plath & Company, Inc. General Contractors, announced today the completion of reconstruction of the historic Allen House, a graceful turreted residence originally built in the Oakland Hills in 1929. Plath & Company is known for the restoration of landmark homes in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Known locally as “The Castle,” The Allen House was designed in 1928 and built in 1929 by well-known California Architect Albert Farr. The Allen House perches on the crest of a hill with a commanding view, and has a path winding down to a street-side detached garage which is roofed with a formal garden and fountain. It soon became an Oakland Hills icon because of its romantic styling and scenic setting overlooking San Francisco Bay, and has been owned by several prominent Oakland families. The home burned to the ground during the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm. The Allen House is believed to be the only residence out of hundreds demolished by the fire that has been reconstructed according to the original plan.

Architects Rosa Lane and Austine Warren of Berkeley, California drew up a new set of construction plans based on the original Albert Farr designs. Some of the more elegant features of the 4200 square-foot home include hand-painted ceilings, decorative rosettes and plaster moldings, French doors, grand arched windows, a graceful staircase of wrought iron grillwork, and a signature turret. Because of Farr’s flair for theatrical design, the house has an ambiance of grandeur that belies its actual size.

The Allen House was entirely recreated by Plath & Company in every original 1928 detail while using modern materials and codes. Wood and plaster details were redesigned from the original drawings and from family photos and the memories of those who lived in the house. Lighting fixtures were purchased around the country to match as closely as possible with the lights in family photos. Statues and carvings were recast and carved to exacting detail, and the sculpture gardens, fountains, and landscaping were recreated.

Entry to the home is through the distinctive, two-story tall turret, via curved stairs and an arched opening. There are frescoed ceiling paintings of clouds in the entryway and living room. The original red tile roof, which was handmade, was also reconstructed.

“This house was extraordinarily complex,” said Steve Plath. “Luckily, in addition to the original blueprints, we had some of the original photos and family photos and memories to help guide us. Plath has restored and reconstructed a number of well-known homes over the last 25 years, including many designed by Albert Farr’s contemporaries Bernard Maybeck, Ernest Coxhead, Edgar Matthews, Charles Whittelsey and others. This home would certainly rank as one of the most complicated because of the level of craftsmanship, as well as artistry, that was demanded.”

“The Allen House was a remarkable project,” said architect Rosa Lane, “in that building an exact replica is a challenge in itself. It meant walking in the footsteps of Albert Farr and seeing from ‘behind his eyes’ at every second. The level of detail was staggering.”

The Allen House is further distinguished because of the role it played in modern African-American history in Oakland. Some have called the home the West Coast equivalent of Villa Lewaro, the Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, mansion completed in 1918 by Madame C.J. Walker, America’s first black millionairess. In 1959, the Allen House was purchased by Lucille and Boley Allen, Oakland residents who were prominent African-American business owners. The Allens had to buy the home through a white intermediary. When the Allens moved into the home, the previous owners, who were white, began foreclosure proceedings, and some of the neighbors threatened legal action.
Gradually the neighborhood began to accept the Allens. The Allen House soon became a symbol of sorts to the local African-American community, and more than one formal party, wedding and ceremonial event was held there. Mr. and Mrs. Allen escaped the 1991 fire, but lost their home. Mrs. Allen waged a seven-year endeavor to make sure that her home was rebuilt exactly like the original. Mr. Boley Allen passed away in 1994. Mrs. Allen approved final reconstruction plans in 1998, only two weeks before she passed away. (For more on Mr. and Mrs. Allen’s remarkable story, see “The Allen House Reconstruction: A Legacy to One of Oakland’s Leading African-American Citizens.”)

Before Mrs. Allen passed away, architect Rosa Lane worked closely with her to gain a thorough understanding of her point of view. “Mrs. Allen had a very keen memory about how the house had been built,” Lane said. “She instinctively knew when a room was too small in the construction phase she could even feel when a room was an inch and a half too short. All of us were concerned that she would feel that it was an exact replication.” After Mrs. Allen passed away, her niece, Tonna Boyette, a contractor, served as the owner’s representative to oversee completion according to her Aunt’s wishes. “The team’s ultimate goal was to recreate this house so that it would be as vital as it had been before,” Lane said. “In order to do that, we had to experience the house at a level deeper than ‘this fits here, this gets glued on there.’”

Lane, Warren, and the Plath team worked closely together on every detail of the house. “This meant that no matter what, there was a full team of eyes on every detail,” said Plath project manager Tom Hall. “For instance, when the winding staircase that connects the first and second levels was installed, it meant that Rosa or Austine and one of us were down on our knees in the sawdust with tape measure and plumb line to match everything to the historical winding staircase design.”

In working with Albert Farr’s original drawings from the 1920s, Lane and Warren had to learn how to read the architectural renderings of that era, which were drafted much more beautifully and efficiently, as a rule, than they are today. “For instance, today we would find plans for a home such as this spread out over many drawings,” said Lane. “Farr and most of his contemporaries placed all of the information for major items on one elegant sheet the elevation, the details, the construction notes.”

Albert Farr created fanciful, exotic and baroque designs during the Twenties in fashionable California neighborhoods in the Oakland, San Mateo, Upper Rockridge, Piedmont, and Beverly Hills areas of California. Farr is best known as the designer of Jack London’s Wolf House in rural Sonoma County, now a state historic park. The creation of theatrical spaces is one of Farr’s best known characteristics. He specialized in compression and expansion of space to create artificial depth, such as designing short, narrow hallways that open into grand common rooms.

“We learned to appreciate the beauty that Farr brought,” said Lane. “The flow of spaces and how they met meant reliving the 1920s, but giving up one’s own vision of the time. Farr had an understanding of proportion and depth, an architect’s understanding, that we uncovered in pieces as we worked on the house.”

Some of the highlights of the reconstruction by Plath & Company include:


The Grounds

• Plath recreated the outdoor statuary. Many hours were spent trying to find a classical statue to replace one originally standing in the front fountain, of a girl with a duck. A version of he statue was found in England cast in lead. Plath imported the lead statue and then made a mold of it, recasting it in concrete to match the original.

• The graceful “Woman with a Ball” statue in the rear garden was cracked from the heat of the firestorm. Plath made a mold of the damaged sculpture and recast it in concrete.

• Eight benches were recast from the one original intact bench and one leg that were found on-site. Two ornamental square bench arms were recreated from memory.

• The gardens were recreated with the same plants Mrs. Allen originally had cultivated. Mrs. Allen grew some of the plants in temporary flowerbeds she constructed while waiting for the house to be rebuilt. These were then transplanted to the original site.

• The gazing ball in the side garden was custom-made.


Entry and Exterior

• The exterior stucco was applied over complex curves. Finishing challenges for Plath included texturing and ornamentation details, such as determining the most effective way to apply stucco to the bracket under the front porch balcony.

• The shield by the front door was created in cast plaster in Old World style. Artist Renate Lohman crafted it on-site from the memory of Tonna Boyette and one photo. The shield says Manu Forte, Latin for “strong-willed.”

• Faux flagstone on the front steps, the verandah landing, and the porch and garden on top of the garage had to be recreated from concrete. Plath recreated the faux flagstones, a lost art, from one sample that survived the fire. The “flags” are one-inch thick hand-troweled stucco-like concrete. “Grout” lines were cut into the flags with a smaller trowel, then roughened with a sponge. Heavy pigment-dyed mortar was spread on top for the stone effect without covering the “grout” lines.

• Artist John Lennox made all of the leaded glass in the doors and windows. Liberty Valley Doors customized the front doors, as well as all the interior doors, using Albert Farr drawings, and Allen family photos.

• Napa Valley Cast Stone made the basement level window covers to match a carpenter’s wood mockup.

• The quoin elements around the windows and doors were crafted in stucco. Well-known restoration artist Manuel Palos restored the baroque pediments over the windows, now made of fiberglass.

• An exterior iron stairway is a new element added to the rear of the home to meet present-day fire codes. It was designed and custom-cast for the house. Seven generations of drawings were necessary to match the design of existing ironware in the interior.


Interior Elements

• Curved stairways are uniquely difficult to build. The interior curved stairway was reconstructed by artisan Steve Burdick at Spring Point Design, a curved stairway specialty company. The handrail is mahogany, and the pickets are wrought iron. The treads are quarter-sawn white oak.

• The floors were drafted full-scale, showing how each three-inch board would be laid, including borders and details. The floor was installed in three weeks, with all the trim and details cut on-site.

• The signature cloud murals in the entry and living room were hand-painted by muralist Donald Harvey. They were recreated from family photos, and from the memories of various Allen family members as to where each cloud originally floated against the blue sky. The shields on the ceilings were sculpted by Michael Casey and painted by Renate Lohman.

• The living room fireplace mantle was built from Farr’s plans. It had to be cast in concrete to meet current codes, even though it is supposed to look like carved wood. Moldings and components were found that looked like the original fireplace. The mantle was built entirely of wood as a full-scale mock up. Plath then made a mold of the mantle using latex rubber. Concrete was cast into the rubber mold, and finished to look like wood. The marble surrounding the fireplace is a variety called Norwegian Rose.

• The plastering in the upstairs turret bedroom was applied by hand over wire lath. In this room, the ceiling curves up and away from the wall. Wire lath is laid to form the curve, then a scratch coat is textured like stucco to hold the plaster and is laid in the lath. The finished layer of plaster is smoothed onto that.

• The kitchen was recreated with the same cabinetry and kinds of appliances (except for the refrigerator) as the original. Mrs. Allen refused to have a new kitchen installed.