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Building History

Maybeck designed this residence in the hills north of Berkeley just after a fire ravaged the area on 09/17/1923. In the wake of the blaze that consumed 584 residences in the city, the Jeralemon House was faced in stucco and topped with fire-resistant clay tiles.

The architect designed the house for the geologist and mining engineer Ira Beaman Joralemon (1884-1975), his wife Dorothy Rieber (1893-1987) and their two children, Margaret Joralemon (1920-2012) and Peter Joralemon (1921-1995). In 1930, the family employed a housekeeper, S.L. Henderson (born c. 1885 in Italy). The Joralemon House had an estimated value of $20,000, worth about double of immediately neighboring dwellings at the time, and well above the national average of $7,145. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1930; Census Place: Berkeley, Alameda, California; Page: 20B; Enumeration District: 0329; FHL microfilm: 2339847, accessed 07/15/2025.) The Joralemons and their housekeeper continued to live here in 1940. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: Berkeley, Alameda, California; Roll: m-t0627-00190; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 1-154, accessed 07/15/2025.)

Before the fire, Joralemon and his family lived at 15 Canyon Road in Berkeley. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications: Chicago, New York City, New Orleans, San Francisco and Seattle, 1914-1925; Volume #: Volume 11: Special Series - San Francisco, accessed 07/15/2025.) Ira was raised in Brooklyn, NY, where his father was a college instructor. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1905; Election District: A.D. 11 E.D. 04; City: Brooklyn; County: Kings; Page: 14, accessed 07/15/2025.)

Ira Joralemon was born in Antwerp, NY, while Dorothy was born in CA. They both completed four years of college and married on 02/11/1919 in Manhattan, NY.

Dorothy Joralemon was a significant modern artist, and Maybeck designed a large studio for her, linking it to the main body of the house. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1915 and studied painting, drawing and sculpture at various schools after Berkeley, including New York's Art Students League, the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design in San Francisco.

Building Notes

The Jeralemon House was numbered 105 Southampton Avenue in 1924. (See Oakland, California, City Directory, 1924, p. 1067.)

PCAD id: 25774