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Overview

Berkeley architect John Galen Howard masterfully sited this unorthodox and complex residence that follows the steep corner of Rose Street and Le Roy Avenue. Nicknamed "Rose Le Roy," Howard completed it in 1912. for his own use, although the dwellng was paid for (and owned by) a benevolent Berkeley lawyer Warren C. Gregory and his formidable wife Sarah "Sadie" Hardy Gregory.

Building History

Howard designed this originally for the lawyer Warren Cranston Gregory (1864-1927) who owned a large parcel of land in the vicinity of this house in Berkeley's La Loma Park neighborhood. Gregory, an 1887 graduate and stout backer of the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and its faculty, co-founded the important San Francisco law firm Chickering and Gregory. He leased this notable dwelling at 1401 Le Roy Avenue back to Howard and his family from 1912 until about 1923.

Architect John Beach wrote in the book Bay Area Houses of the Gregory-Howard House's remarkable siting: "Actually commissioned and built by the Gregorys, who then rented it to Howard for a nominal sum, it is a grand gesture of architectural patronage. The house is sited in a particularly fortunate place: a hillside corner lot with unobstruced views downhill to the Bay. A small area was cut out of the slope for a paved terrace, around two sides of which the house is tightly wrapped. Beyond that the hill rises steeply to the top of the property. Originally left in its unaltered state, the hill has since been developed as a sequence of lawn and garden areas. The relationship between the building and the later gardens gives the house much of its special character. A pair of french doors from the living room and a pair from the dining room open to the terrace one step above the paving. This unites living room, terrace, dining room, and entrance/stair hall in a single challenging space which leads back upon itself. The stair rises through an angled bay in the inner corner of the building so that anyone using the stairs in either direction is in constant visual contact with the garden. Each level of the house corresponds to a specific area of the grounds; thus, there is not a single, static-object-seen-from-different views relationship with the garden, but a constantly changing spatial/visual relationship." (See John Beach, "The Bay Region Tradition 1890-1918," in Bay Area Houses, [Salt Lake City: Gibbs-Smith Publisher, 1988, pp 76-77.)

During the 1920s, the chair of the UCB English Department, Walter Morris Hart (1872-1964) lived in the house, right at the time he was taking on more administrative responsibility within the university. In 1923, his rank was elevated to a university dean and by 1925 he became a UCB vice-president.

Building Notes

Architect's own house. In 2024, the house at 1401 Le Roy Avenue contained 5,600 gross square feet, 4,063 net. The house at 1401 Le Roy Avenue contained 5,600 gross square feet, 4,063 net. The house occupied a 20,769-square-foot lot, on the corner of Rose Street and Le Roy Avenue.

John Galen Howard designed another, earlier house for Gregory (1904) in which the lawyer and environmentalist lived for many years. The architect and Dean of the College of Environmental Design, William Wurster, later lived in the 1904 house from the early 1950s until 1973.

Until 12/04/2024, this house had an incorrect address of 1486 Greenwood Terrace, not 1401 Le Roy Avenue.

Alteration

In 1927, architect Julia Morgan (1872-1957) designed a library added to accommodate Walter Morris Hart's large library.

PCAD id: 4762