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Building History

The Sullivans, who had a main house in San Francisco, CA, built this weekend house on a hillside in the Santa Clara County town of Saratoga, CA, in 1939. This house, with its dominant, central living porch, followed earlier plan types developed by Wurster as at the Lucy H. Butler House, Pasatiempo, Santa Cruz, CA, 1936. The Sullivan living porch, a 40-foot-long, open room glazed on the north side, screened on the south, linked equally-proportioned living and sleeping wings. Its scale was striking as was its transparency and visual connection to the local landscape. A large deck, opening off of the living porch and oriented south, enabled sunbathing and nearly year-around outdoor living. This house, like many by Wurster's firm in the late 1930s, captured the imagination of magazine editors in the East, who admired its emphasis on connecting indoors with out. During the Depression, recovering space from decks, terraces and patios, stretched the homeowner's dollar and facilitated a new level of leisure welcome during a tense, automated era. Jeremiah (Jerd) F. Sullivan (1891-1969) was a banker, who, according to the 1920 US Census, was quite well-to-do; his house in that year had a value of $35,000, and the family retained two servants at the time. The Sullivans married about 1924, and built this Saratoga house about 15 years later.

Building Notes

The Sullivan House had 2,605 square feet originally, much of it contained in a permeable central "living porch." Architect William W. Wurster (1895-1973) sheathed the Sullivan House in redwood, bevel siding, with an natural oil stain. This relatively dark color contrasted with the crisp white window casings, a common aesthetic choice for Wurster at this time. The Sullivan House had quintessential "Wurster windows," expansive double-hung models distinguished by their very thin muntins and mullions.

Alteration

Wurster designed an addition to the Sullivan House in 1940-1941.

PCAD id: 16150