Quirky Berkeley

The Quirky Material Culture of Berkeley

Quirky Berkeley
  • Walkers
  • Help us!
  • Links
  • Blogs/Albums
  • Contact us
  • Latest Posts
  • Quirky Berkeley in the Media
October 7, 2018 by tomdalzell

Our Painted Ladies

 

1940 Channing

1940 Channing

1830 Berkeley Way

1830 Berkeley Way

1901 Bonita

1901 Bonita

1536 Oxford

1536 Oxford

1510 Oxford

1510 Oxford

1415 Arch

1415 Arch

Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018

1943 Haste

Last week, I posted black and white photos of the last gasps of industrial Berkeley.

This week, we’ll reverse course and admire colorfully painted houses, especially Victorians.

This is not a scholarly examination of architecture.  The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association sponsored a tour of Berkeley Victorians in 2004.  Several years later, Daniella Thompson gave us a brilliant essay about an enclave of Victorians in Berkeley.  I am not competing with this expertise – I am presenting photos of pretty things that I have seen in my walks around Berkeley.

I am not a stickler about styles – when I say “Victorian,” somebody who knows more than I do might say Second Empire, Stick-Eastlake, Folk Victorian, Queen Anne,Richardsonian Romanesque, Shingle, Gothic Revival, or Italianate.

I like the colors, and I am amused by the originals of the term “Painted Ladies” to describe brightly painted Victorians.

51XRTDYXZZL._SX358_BO1,204,203,200_The term was first used for San Francisco Victorian houses by writers Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen in their 1978 book Painted Ladies: San Francisco’s Resplendent Victorians.[

Roger W. Moss wrote in Nineteenth Century Paints that Painted Ladies “say more about the tastes of 1970s and 1980s than they do about the 1870s and 1880s. So there!

What I show here – polychrome decoration that embellishes or enhances architectural details.

In several previous posts I have teased with elaborate paint jobs.

House-940x705

2150 Vine

In my post on the UFO of Vine Street, I alluded to but did not dwell on the lovely paint job that George McNeil and Joanna Salska McNeil gave their Vine Street home.

1634 Virginia Street

1634 Virginia Street

1634 Virginia

1634 Virginia

Ditto with my post on 1634 Virginia – I acknowledged the great paint job but didn’t go bonkers on it.  Let’s look at a some others, okay?

Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018

Just west of Trader Joe’s at 1830 Berkeley Way is on of the most stunning paint jobs in Berkeley.

Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018

Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018 Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018 Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018

Embellish or enhance architectural details indeed.

Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018

A few houses west is this – 1811 Berkeley Way.  Far fewer colors, far less embellishment or enhancement, but striking all the same.

Nearby Bonita runs into Hearst.

1901Bonita

1901Bonita

On the southwest corner is 1901 Bonita, one of at least two Casa Bonita’s in Berkeley.

Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018 Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018

Another grand example of polychromism is at 1536 Oxford.

Quirky Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif. on Sept. 28th, 2018.

Quirky Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif. on Sept. 28th, 2018.

It is the Boudrow House, named after Charles C. Boudrow (c. 1830–1918), a Massachusetts-born master mariner.  Daniella Thompson – of course – wrote BAHA’s historical post on the Boudrow House.

Screen Shot 2018-10-05 at 9.10.11 PM

This is before the paint.  Whether the new colors are representative of historical style or not, they rock.

Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018 Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018

Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018 Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018

Wouldn’t a chair a lamp and pot of tea and cat on your lap be just perfect in this room?

A few houses north on the same block are two modest painted ladies:

Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018

1506-1508 Oxford

1506-1508 Oxford

And

1510 Oxford

1510 Oxford

Two blocks east is Arch Street with many great old houses.

1415 Arch

1415 Arch

I knew this house in a previous incarnation, before the embellishing and enhancing colors  – a few different dark browns.

1940 Channing

1940 Channing

After dropping daughters off at the Milvia doors of Berkeley High for the last eight years, I have many times then turned right on Channing and – WHAM – this treasure surprises me Every Time.

Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018 Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018

Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018

The detail is out of this world.  A few more quickly:

2001 Lincoln

2001 Lincoln

2010Cedar

2010Cedar

2014 Cedar

2014 Cedar

John and I were heading west from the Victorians on our way down to the dark satanic mills.  We spotted this – stopped, backed up, and shot. The stop-and-back-up is a classic Quirky Berkeley driving technique.

Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018

2131 Prince

2131 Prince

Wowzer!

images

We were gifted with a bonus on our transition down to the industrial flats.

Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018

1811 Parker

It took a trained quirk-finding eye to spot this driving west on Parker.

What have we here?

Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018 Quirky Berkeley 9-28-2018

A cat and a dog – a pink poodle at that.

Very Good Quirk!   Serendipity!

Thee are many more painted ladies to find and photograph and show.  I don’t want to spin out on this, but they are joy-giving and happy.  I will find more.

I showed the photos to my friend.

He showed a photo to me.

.

.

I said, “This appears to be an unembellished, unenhanced, busted-up Victorian house.”

My friend nodded.  “Yes.  As Jules says to Yolanda in the coffee shop in Pulp Fiction – – correctomundo as to all adjectives.”

I asked where this house is.

He shook his head.  “Not gonna say.  Don’t want to create a land rush for it. There’s a blue plastic milk crate in the oleander bush near the house.  I just sit and study it.  Look at those details!  They cared when they made this house!  They wanted beauty.  It mattered to them.  Beauty for the sake of beauty.  Even busted-up and unpainted it is beauty.”

I asked, “Are we not perhaps guilty of the golden age syndrome?  Do you remember the movie – ‘Nostalgia is denial. Denial of the painful present. The name for this denial is Golden Age thinking – the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one ones living in – its a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.'”

He snorted.  “Nope.  I admire beauty. That’s all.  Like you with your painted ladies.”

Enough of this.  Let’s get to the essential question – what does he think of the post?

Quirky Berkeley 05-12-16

 

Posted in Uncategorized. RSS 2.0 feed.
« Berkeley’s Dark Satanic Mills
Ian Wood’s Garage Door Quest – #2 »

3 Responses to Our Painted Ladies

  1. Mark Bulwinkle says:
    October 7, 2018 at 4:06 am

    Having been a professional house painter in another life, those paint jobs are so so fabulous. It is so nice to see houses so loved. So happynicious. Thanks!

    Reply
  2. Bill Newton says:
    October 7, 2018 at 4:19 am

    Did you notice the horseshoe in the curb at 1811 Berkeley Way?

    Reply
  3. mary counihan says:
    October 7, 2018 at 3:11 pm

    These houses are so fabulous. A must see on my next Berkeley visit!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Here you will find photos of the oddball, whimsical, eccentric, and the near-rhyme quirky material culture of Berkeley.
Read More

Subscribe

Categories

  • Animals
  • Architecture
  • Cars, Trains and Planes
  • Food
  • Gone
  • Graffiti
  • Ma
  • Mailboxes
  • Major Quirky
  • Miscellaneous
  • Murals
  • Painted
  • Peace
  • Signs
  • Walks

All content © 2025 by Quirky Berkeley. Base WordPress Theme by Graph Paper Press