657 Haddon Rd, Oakland, CA 94610

Italian Renaissance Revival home with many updated features Neighborhood Description With its romantic Mediterranean revival homes, lush gardens and expansive hilltop vistas, there's a dreamy, almost timeless charm to Haddon Hill evocative of European buildings and villages from centuries ago. Bordered by Athol, Cleveland, Wesley and MacArthur Boulevard, Haddon Hill may be defined by blocks where the utility lines are buried, reportedly the first such installation in the Bay Area. The famous landscape designer, Mark Daniels laid out the tract. He emphasized broad, gracious streetscapes, punctuated by fountains, urns, and planted areas. Haddon Road in particular is wide, with lots that have wide frontages. Most homes, were constructed between the wars in a period when American architects incorporated elements of vernacular European buildings into their designs for twentieth century houses. A number of noted East Bay architects designed houses here, including C. W. Dickey, W. E. Schirmer, Sidney and Noble Newsom, and A. W. Smith. Heavy-textured stucco, lending the illusion of thick stone or adobe walls, is basic to most designs in the Mediterranean mode. To that add tile roofs and such elements as arches, pilasters, and decorative grilles of iron or wood. Often decorative effects will focus on an entry or a featured window, with sculpted plaster stone or terra cotta relief. In general, the Italian -influenced designs are more formal and symmetrical, with more refined ornamentation. The Spanish designs are freer in their composition, with bolder elements such as rough -hewn beams and heavy moldings. One of the most historically and architecturally significant homes is an elegant Italian renaissance revival residence designed in 1924 by prominent local architect, William Edward Schirmer, for industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and his family. The house, with its arched Palladian windows and expansive raised terrace with balustrades, is currently undergoing extensive renovation; the new owners are planning to restore the home to its former glory.