OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Google Streetview (new tab)

Building History

The extraordinary Berkeley architect Bernard Ralph Maybeck (1862-1957), known for his sophisticated and whimsical approach to design, created this house for his friend, Guy Hyde Chick (1868–1930), a civil engineer who worked during his life in construction, real estate and insurance. Chick, his wife, Cora Clark Mott (1875–1950), and their five offspring lived in the house from 1915-1921, when they decided to try their hands at prune farming in Napa County, CA.

The New York art dealer Foster Goldstrom owned the residence in 1991.

Building Notes

The building permit for this Chick House was dated 09/22/1914.

The Chick House escaped damage in the 1991 Oakland Hills Firestorm that burned over 2,800 residences and killed 25 people. It was one of the few buildings in its vicinity to survive, thanks to efforts of local fire crews and neighbors. Writer Diana Ketcham said of its narrow escape in the New York Times: "One great house that survived is Maybeck's Chick House, owned by Foster Goldstrom, a New York art dealer. Built in 1913, it is a redwood chalet with Japanese trelliswork, quatrefoil balconies and Gothic arches, all worked in a single harmonious design. Set amid oak trees and desert plants, the Chick House used to be the dramatic culmination of a drive down Roble Road. Now it is even more dramatic, standing alone among the ashes of its neighbors. One of the paradoxes of the fire is that it spared this extravagant redwood house but destroyed the tile and stucco Pillsbury House, which Maybeck built to be fire-resistant in 1928, after the great Berkeley fire of 1923. The morning of the Oct. 20 fire, Mr. Goldstrom and his gardener spent an hour wetting the house with garden hoses." (See Diana Ketcham, New York Times,com,. "Architecture With Luck on Its Side," published 11/07/1991, accessed 11/03/2021.)

PCAD id: 16838