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Male, US, born 1872-08-28, died 1963-02-19
Associated with the firms network
Bakewell and Brown, Architects; Bakewell and Weihe, Architects
Résumé
Partner, Bakewell and Brown, Architects, San Francisco, CA, 1905-1928. The firm of Bakewell and Brown benefited from the glut of architectural work that occurred in San Francisco following the devastating Earthquake and Fire of 04/18-19/1906. In 1923, Bakewell and Brown had its offce at 251 Kearny Street in San Francisco.
Volunteer, International Red Cross, France and other European countries, 1918.
Associate, Bakewell and Brown, Associated Architects, San Francisco, CA, 1928.
Partner, Bakewell and Weihe, Architects, San Francisco, CA, 1928-1942. His obituary in the Oakland Tribune said of his last years: "Retired since 1942, he had been blind and a semi-invalid for 10 years." (See "John Bakewell Dies in S.F. at 90," Oakland Tribune, 02/20/1963, p. 15.)
Professional Activities
Bakewell was a member of the California State Board of Architecture, Northern District, in 01/1919. He served with President Edgar A. Mathews, Secretary-Treasurer Sylvain Schnaittacher and member Joseph Cather Newsom.
Member, Architectural League of the Pacific Coast, 1913. Bakewell was one of the attendees at the league's annual conference in Portland, OR, on 06/09/1913. (See "League to Lead in City Planning," Oregon Daily Journal, 06/10/1913, p. 11.)
Member, American Institute of Architects (AIA), San Francisco Chapter, 1923. (See “List of Members of the San Francisco Chapter, A.I.A.,” Building Review, vol. XXIV, no. 5, 11/1923. p. 56.)
Professional Awards
Fellow, American Institute of Architects (FAIA), 1937.
College
A.B., University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Berkeley, CA, 05/16/1893. Bakewell attended the UCB before John Galen Howard initiated a formal Department of Architecture. He studied with Berkeley architect Bernard R. Maybeck (1862-1957), among others during the early 1890s. He was listed as being a sophomore in the UC Berkeley Yearbook, Blue and Gold, 1892 (p. 30) and a junior in the yearbook of 1893 (p. 36). He did graduate in 1893, however, from the College of Letters.
Dipl., École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, France, 1895-1901. Bakewell studied in the Ateliers of Julien Guadet (1834–1908) and Edmond Jean-Baptiste Paulin (1848-1915) associated with the École.
Relocation
John Bakewell, Jr., was the eldest son in a family of seven children, having had two elder sisters. His parents were Maria Vail Bakewell, who died when John, Jr., was 11, and Reverend John Bakewell, Sr. Bakewell worked in Episcopal ministries in Topeka, KS, where John, Jr., was born, and Trenton, NJ, before relocating to Oakland, CA. Judging from the birthplaces of the Bakewell children and other information, the family stayed in Topeka between c. 1869 and 1876, before moving c. 1877 to Trenton, where they remained until 1880s. The Kansas State Census of 03/01/1875 indicated that the Bakewells still resided in Topeka at that time. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, Kansas; 1875 Kansas Territory Census; Roll: ks1875_18; Line: 5, accessed 04/23/2021.)
Between 1878 and 1881, at least, the Bakewells lived at 509 South Warren Street in Trenton, NJ. They had a household servant living with them, Ellen Smith (born c. 1840 in NJ). (See Trenton, New Jersey, City Directory, 1878, p. 120, Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1880; Census Place: Trenton, Mercer, New Jersey; Roll: 788; Page: 306B; Enumeration District: 104, accessed 04/23/2021 and Trenton, New Jersey, City Directory, 1881, p. 105.)
By 1892, Bakewell's father and step-mother, Harriet, lived in Berkeley, CA, on the northeast corner of Durant Avenue and Tremont Street. John, Jr., registered to vote for the first time on 09/04/1894 in Berkeley, where he lived on Durant Avenue, west of Shattuck Avenue.
Bakewell took his first trip abroad in 1895, when he traveled to Paris to attend classes at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He returned to France during World War I, working for the International Red Cross in 1918. His 08/30/1918 US passport application indicated that he had spent time between 1895 and 1901 travelling in Europe, but he took pains to mention "never in Germany." Arthur Brown, Jr., his business partner, served as a witness for Bakewell to obtain the 1918 passport.
When he returned from Europe c. 1901, Bakewell went home to live with his father, step-mother and siblings at 1219 Telegraph Road in Oakland, CA, (See Oakland, California, City Directory, 1902 p. 79.) Eight years later, the US Census recorded that he remained at 1219 Telegraph Avenue with his father, sister Harriet and brothers Thomas and Walter. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1910; Census Place: Oakland Ward 2, Alameda, California; Roll: T624_70; Page: 20B; Enumeration District: 0096; FHL microfilm: 1374083, accessed 04/23/2021.)
At age 48, the architect continued to live at home at 2831 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland with his father, two sisters Hariet and Ann and brother Walter in 1920. His father was 81 at the time. The family had a domestic servant whose name was probably incorrect spelled as "Mary Ruwselr" (born c. 1884 in Finland). She came to the US in about 1910 and was still an alien, according to the census form. Bakewell was unusual for men of this era to remain living at home well past age 30. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1920; Census Place: Oakland, Alameda, California; Roll: T625_88; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 40, accessed 04/25/2021.)
In 1928 and 1929, Bakewell and his wife Hazel resided at 855 Chestnut Street in San Francisco. (See San Francisco City Directory, 1928, p. 273 and San Francisco City Directory, 1929, p. 272)
Between at least 1940 and his death in 1963, Bakewell lived in a house at 855 Chestnut Street in San Francisco. In 1940, he and his wife Hazel lived alone save for two servants, Huldah Pearson (born c. 1885 in Sweden) and Jim Fong (born c. 1885 in China). (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Roll: m-t0627-00303; Page: 61A; Enumeration District: 38-135, accessed 04/25/2021 and San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1945, p. 119.)
He died in San Francisco on 02/19/1963 at age 90, and was buried in the Bakewell family plot at Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, CA. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Place: San Francisco; Date: 19 Feb 1963; Social Security: 567663660, acccessed 04/23/2021.) He died of a coronary occlusion and general arteriosclerosis. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information California, U.S., San Francisco Area Funeral Home Records, 1895-1985 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, accessed 04/23/2021.)
Parents
His parents were Reverend John Bakewell, Sr., (born 02/26/1838 in Pittsburgh, PA-d. 03/20/1923 in Oakland, CA) and Maria Elizabeth Vail (born 07/16/1839 in Westerly, RI-d. 12/30/1883 in Santa Barbara, CA). They married on 01/09/1868 in Lawrence, KS. Maria was the daughter of Thomas Hubbard Vail (1812-1889), the first Episcopalian Bishop of KS who officiated their wedding. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Kansas, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1811-1911 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016, accessed 04/23/2021.) Maria's mother was Frances Sophia Burling (1807-1861).
Maria Vail Bakewelldied at age 44, when John Bakewell, Jr., was 11. John Bakewell, Sr., remarried four years after her death.
He wed Harriet Winslow (born 01/25/1841-d. 05/19/1915) in 1887. The 1910 US Census indicated that Harriet had had one child during her lifetime, who was no longer alive. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1910; Census Place: Oakland Ward 2, Alameda, California; Roll: T624_70; Page: 20B; Enumeration District: 0096; FHL microfilm: 1374083, accessed 04/23/2021.)
Maria and John, Sr., had seven children: Harriet Burling Bakewell (born 07/12/1869 in KS-d. 04/12/1946 in Berkeley, CA), Ann Steevenson Bakewell (born 02/27/1871 in KS-d. 02/19/1967 in Alameda County, CA), Thomas Vail Bakewell (born 06/06/1874 in Topeka, KS-d. 02/03/1958 in San Francisco, CA), Benjamin Bakewell (born 10/28/1877 in Trenton, NJ-d. 09/03/1953 in Santa Barbara, CA), William Everett Bakewell (born 10/20/1880 in Trenton, NJ-d. 07/05/1881 in Trenton, NJ) and Walter Burling Bakewell (born 10/20/1880 in Trenton, NJ-d. 01/10/1946 in Alameda County, CA). John Bakewell, Jr., outlived all of his siblings, except for his sister Ann.
The Reverend John Bakewell, Sr., worked as an Episcopal minister in Topeka, KS, Trenton, NJ and Oakland, CA. In Trenton, he served as Rector of the Rector of Saint Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church in 1881. (See Trenton, New Jersey, City Directory, 1881, p. 105.) He presided over the Trinity Episcopal Church in Oakland, built in 1893. He had retired as the Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church sometime between 1903 and 1906. (See Oakland, California, City Directory, 1902, p. 79 and Oakland, California, City Directory, 1906, p. 76.)
Benjamin Bakewell became a physician and surgeon, working in 1906 at 1111 Washington Street in Oakland in the Physicians' Building. His brother Thomas became an attorney in San Francisco. (See Oakland, California, City Directory, 1906, p. 76.)
Spouse
He wed Hazel King (born 11/01/1881 in San Francisco, CA-d. 08/23/1949 in San Francisco, CA) on 12/281922 in Alameda County, CA. Bakewell was 50 years old at the time, and had lived with his family up to this time, save for the six years that he lived in Paris.
Hazel's parents were banker Homer Snodgrass King (born 07/16/1841 in Waynesburg, OH-d. 12/19/1919 in San Francisco, CA) and Summit "Mittie" Brown (born 09/05/1852 in UT-d. 09/14/1936 in Palo Alto, CA). They married on 04/15/1874 in Napa, CA. Homer King spent about 40 years working for the Wells, Fargo and Company Bank, serving as President between 1902 and 1905. He later led the Bank of California between 1905 and 1909. King also acted as a member of the Board of Directors of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, Southern Pacific Railway, and the Spring Valley Water Company, some of the most influential companies operating in the state at the time. Bakewell may have met King through planning work done for the San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exposition, as the banker led the effort as both President and a Director. (See "King, Homer S.," in Who's Who on the Pacific Coast, 1913, Franklin Harper, ed., [Los Angeles: Harper Publishing Company, 1913], p. 323.)
Children
John and Hazel had no children.
Biographical Notes
An Alameda County voter register of 1894 indicated that Bakewell, at age 21, stood 5-feet, 10-and-1/2-inches tall, and had a light Caucasian complexion, with blue eyes and light brown hair. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Registers, 1866-1898; Collection Number: 4-2A; CSL Roll Number: 4; FHL Roll Number: 976449, accessed 04/23/2021.)
Bakewell applied for admission to the California Society of the Sons of the American Revolution in 02/03/1930. He claimed a relation through his mother to Christopher Vail (1756-1846), a Private in the 1st Regiment of Minute Men in the town of Suffolk, NY, and an English prisoner of war in 1779. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Volume: 247, Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011, accessed 04/23/2021.)
In 1931, the architect and his wife returned from Naples, Italy, to New York, NY, aboard the Lloyd Sabaudo Liner S.S. Conte Grande. They sailed between 12/12/1931 and 12/21/1931. Many architects took the opportunity to travel abroad during the bleakest years of the Depression, c. 1930-1935, when private construction work was very slow.
SSN: 567-66-3660.
PCAD id: 467
