Historic Houses
Historic House and Garden Tour, April 27, 2008
From left to right:
- This shingle-style house exterior from 1905 was transformed to stucco after a 1939 fire. Octagonal study is on left corner.
- Almost transplanted from Italy, the 1925 Charles Sumner house has varied roof slopes, Roman-arched front doorway, and an Italian stone pine in the background.
- Craftsman and Tudor period styles blend in this 1914 house designed by A. B. Clark. Recently restored, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
- Distinctive gables on all four sides dominate the exterior of this 1908 house, which started out as a brown-shingle structure, later being transformed to a New England farmhouse.
Historic House Research and Documentation Project
The Society supports an ongoing volunteer program to document the history of houses in the faculty-staff residential area. Work to date has been published in four monographs:
- Historic Houses of San Juan Hill, Revised Edition, 2006.
- Historic Houses of Lower San
Juan District, April 1998.
(Note: The report on the double house at 612-614 Alvarado Row contained errors and the building recently has been remodeled. A revised and updated report will appear in Historic Houses IV.) - Historic Houses III: San Juan Neighborhood, Stanford University. Published Spring 2005.
- Historic Houses IV: Early Residential Communities of the Lower San Juan District. Published Spring 2007.
Book IV is on sale now at the Stanford Bookstore and at the Society..
To order books from us,
please send your request and check to Stanford Historical Society, PO Box 20028, Stanford, CA 94309.
For more information, please call (650) 725-3332, or send
e-mail to stanfordhist@stanford.edu.

Job Description for Stanford Historic Houses Project:
An invitation to local history buffs
If you like treasure hunts and historical jig saw puzzles, come join The Stanford Historical Society, which is preparing histories on all campus homes built before 1930. Each history will include the architectural history of the house, background on the people who have lived there and the changes they have made over time. Volunteers, through researching, interviewing current owners (many of whom have considerable information about the houses) and writing, will have a look behind the walls of early Stanford homes and learn about Stanford history through the fascinating people who've lived and worked on campus.
Training workshops on using the Stanford archives and writing house histories are provided, as well as a research kit to get you started.You need not be a member of the Stanford community or the Stanford Historical Society but should have some experience in historical research. Computer skills in word processing and internet research are also useful.
House histories are published by the Stanford Historical Society in a series of booklets that are companion pieces to periodic house tours. Please call Marian Adams (650) 326-9212 or email: adams@cdr.stanford.edu soon — the houses aren’t getting any younger!
