December 02, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Past on parade

by Carol Blitzer

Ralph Britton is lucky enough to be living in the family home where he grew up in Old Palo Alto, complete with all the charm of 1927, but without the drawbacks.

He and his wife Betty are happy to show just what can be done to upgrade an older home, far short of razing it, on this year's Palo Alto Stanford (PAST) Heritage Holiday Home Tour on Sunday, Dec. 11.

"We essentially rebuilt it" in 1993, said Ralph, who did much of the cabinetry himself. The front of the house, and the front rooms -- living room, dining room, den/bedroom and entry hall -- are virtually intact, with the original flattened archways, hardwood floors and coved ceilings.

The focal point of the living room is the brown tiled fireplace, with tile corbels holding up the mantel and a tile tableau in the center.

"It was filthy dirty," Betty said, adding that after they cleaned it up they realized there was blue lurking in the ceramic. Suddenly they understood why Ralph's mother had painted the back of a display cabinet in just that blue.

In their major renovation, they pushed the kitchen out 8 feet into the back yard, and added a master bedroom and bathroom upstairs. Throughout the project, they were sensitive to the idea of re-using windows and doors, and spent many hours in salvage yards looking for exact matches.

Originally, a narrow staircase led up to one small bedroom. They sacrificed a downstairs bedroom and "built a decent stairway upstairs," Ralph said. On the landing, Ralph added built-in bookcases, embedded in the otherwise-wasted space where the roof angles in.

Ralph got very good at utilizing hidden spaces. In the master bedroom, what appears to be a shallow dresser hides lower drawers that pull out 36 inches. The higher drawers aren't as deep, but they too recede into the attic space.

Windows from the old kitchen were re-used in the bedroom upstairs, and a steel railing from a salvage yard enhances the new balcony overlooking the back yard. Even the doors on the staircase bookshelves were recycled from another house.

"We saved all the trim and reused it," Betty said. They even preserved much of the roof framing, which previously defined the attic.

"The whole trick was to make the new part fit seamlessly," Ralph said.

"And give us the rooms we wanted," Betty added.

As part of the remodel, the whole house was subject to code upgrades, from insulation and seismic retrofitting to electricity and plumbing.

A rare modern touch is seen in the halogen spots in the ceiling, which focus on art.

The kitchen/office addition includes a large central island, white painted cabinets and white tile countertops. Now the Brittons step down to a sunny semi-octagonal breakfast room, with windows tall enough to view the garden from the kitchen above.

The Brittons exchanged a one-car garage -- big enough for a Model T -- for a more useful two-car version, complete with workshop, without sacrificing too much of their back yard. They were able to save several trees, including a Washington naval orange, and Pippin and Red Delicious apple trees that are more than 50 years old.

The focus of this year's tour is on historical gardens -- including homes of people who loved to garden. In the case of the Brittons' home, it was Ralph's parents, Ralph and Leone Britton, who originally lavished care on their garden. He recalls his parents spending their summers refining the garden. During World War II, they created a "Victory Garden" with fruits and vegetables, as well as a chicken coop.

In addition to the Brittons' home, the PAST historical house tour includes:

** a two-story Colonial Revival in the Seale Addition, where Gerda Isenberg, founder of Yerba Buena Nursery in Woodside, lived. The house was built in 1930 at a cost of $15,000 (plus $700 for the garage). The numerous period touches include a gabled portico with a curved underside, a front entry with decorative crown and tapering Doric columns, and painted wood shutters with cut-out crescent moons;

** a bungalow with a period garden built in 1927 by A.J. Garden, the grounds foreman for Hewlett-Packard Company. Original details include light fixtures -- such as the dining-room chandelier -- a bathroom, and much of the kitchen, which has swinging doors under the sink, an antique range and original linoleum. The front yard was recently redone, with sensitivity to the house's period;

** the Gamble Garden house and gardens, which were built in 1902 on 2.3 acres for less than $7,000, including the carriage house. The house style, described as either Colonial Georgian Revival or New England Colonial Revival, features fireplaces in every room, a cornice ornamented with dentils, and a living room window with a Palladian motif. The dining room, library and entryway have been redecorated with turn-of-the-last-century wallpapers, wainscoting and molded ceilings.

Willed to the city of Palo Alto in 1971, the house and gardens have been preserved as the Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden Center. The garden includes landscaped garden rooms, an intergenerational garden planted by seniors and schoolchildren, a rose garden, a wisteria garden and a Victorian grotto. The house is used for formal teas, weddings, private parties and other events.

Palo Alto High School's Madrigal Singers will be serenading visitors to the Gamble Garden on tour day.

Assistant Editor Carol Blitzer can be reached at cblitzer@paweekly.com.

What: Palo Alto Stanford (PAST) Heritage Holiday Home Tour
When: Sunday, Dec. 11, 1 to 4 p.m.
Where: Four houses (and gardens) in Palo Alto
Tickets: Send a check for $25 to PAST Holiday House Tour, P.O. Box 308, Palo Alto, CA 94302, or purchase on tour day at Gamble Garden, 1431 Waverley St., Palo Alto.
Info: Call (650) 299-8878 or visit www.pastheritage.org.

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