Building History

Susan Dinkelspiel Cerny wrote in her architectural guidebook, An Architectural Guidebook to San Francisco and the Bay Area: "The original owners of this imposing two-story Italiante Villa were Sherman Otis Houghton, a prominent early California attorney and his wife, Eliza Donner, one of the survivors of the Donner Party. It is an example of the large homes that once stood on the perimeter of central San Jose in the 1860s-1880s. The architect, John Burkett, was active in San Jose during the 1880s, and this is the only known remaining example of his work. The house was moved three times before becoming an apartment house at this location in 1909." (See Susan Dinkelspiel Cerny, An Architectural Guidebook to San Francisco and the Bay Area, [Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 2007], p. 207.)

PCAD id: 24431