1912, Chinatown, Gum Moon Residence
940 Washington St., San Francisco
Julia Morgan
The Protestant missions in Chinatown were largely devoted to rescuing Chinese girls from prostitution. Dedicated women of enormous energy ran the missions. Their favorite architect, Julia Morgan, was of the same stripe. This understated Florentine villa was the residence for the original Methodist Church next door [Grant Ave. at Washington St.], also designed by Morgan, which burned in 1906, and was replaced by the present building, designed in 1911 by Clarence Ward (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 43).
1912, Presidio Heights, William H. and Maria Mills house: alterations and repairs
115 Presidio Terrace, San Francisco
Julia Morgan
No comment (Boutelle 1988: 254).
1912, East Bay, Professor Clifton Price Apts. and garage
9-17 Panoramic Way, Berkeley
Julia Morgan
In 1908 a commission came to the Morgan office from a newly organized Presbyterian group in Berkeley. One of its leaders was Professor Clifton Price, a classicist for whom Morgan built a Crafts-style apartment building and for whom she would design another larger and more urbane apartment building four years later (Boutelle 1988: 69).
Second building by Morgan on lot-see 1908-10 (Boutelle 1988: 252, 255).
1912-13, Peninsula, Elsie Drexler house
Mountain Home Road, Woodside
Julia Morgan
No comment (Boutelle 1988: 255).
1913, Santa Clara Valley, G. Loring Cunningham house
13625 Hillway St., Los Altos
Julia Morgan
No comment (Boutelle 1988: 255).
1913, East Bay, Richard Clark house
2833 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
Julia Morgan
The Richard Clark house of 1913 is another example [of the half-timber style], the main floor being of brick, with a modified Tudor arch in front of the doorway and repeated in the door frame and on the carved wood of the door. Additional carving in the triangles formed by the top of the arch and the cross-beam prepare one for the richness of carved details within. The second floor, made of plaster, has banks of windows, an iron balcony in the front, and sleeping porches at the side (subsequently enlarged and enclosed). The entrance hall-of such impressive proportions that it is really a "living hall"-is richly paneled in oak, dominated by a square staircase with deeply turned balusters that continue along the wide landing and the galleries of the upstairs hall. Morgan gave free play to her love of complexity in the wood-paneled living room, dining room, and library, all of which have fireplaces with elaborate mantels. The living-room mantel is carved of oak, showing acorns, leaves, birds, and squirrels; another has classical details; brackets in the hall and on yet another fireplace, in the library, repeat the Tudor rose. The dining room, paneled to the ceiling in square oak modules, has an ornate fireplace and tw2o inset cabinets. This fine house became a sorority then a student cooperative-housing facility without entirely losing its elegance (Boutelle 1988: 148, 255).
1913, Peninsula, Isabel K. Rixon house
333 Chapin Lane, Burlingame
Julia Morgan
No comment (Boutelle 1988: 255).
1913, Peninsula, Welch house: chapel and alterations
91 Baywood Ave., San Mateo
Julia Morgan
No comment (Boutelle 1988: 255).
1913, Northern California, Asilomar: Phoebe Apperson Hearst Admin. Bldg.
Pacific Grove
Julia Morgan
By the next summer, 1913, the conference center at Pacific Grove opened, with large stone gateposts marking the entrance, one general assembly building (underwritten by Phoebe Hearst), and the ten elegant tent houses and beds that had been used at the Hacienda. A splendid plan was to be realized there during the next sixteen years. Using local wood and stone, Morgan designed buildings clustered around a campus circle in the redwoods and Monterey pines. A competition was held among YWCA members to name the conference center, with Asilomar (meaning "refuge by the sea") the winning entry. Morgan kept the buildings unobtrusive and sensitively coordinated with nature, in part by her use of local materials, in part by a determined horizontality. The first structure built, now the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Administration Building, is basically one large rectangular room, glazed on the two long sides, with offices, clubrooms, and rest rooms at either end, its stone base and redwood walls linking it to the landscape. The interior has exposed timbers and a massive fieldstone fireplace, with unpainted wood walls revealing every element of structure. With its high, open ceilings and sweeping views down to the sea, this generously proportioned room is as effective an introduction to the conference center today as it was seventy-five years ago (Boutelle 1988: 89, 255).
1913-15, East Bay, Oakland YWCA
1515 Webster St., Oakland
Julia Morgan
Morgan was the official architect for the YWCA and designed a number of its buildings in the west and in Honolulu. This one has an attractive interior court (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 202).
Plans for the Oakland building were begun in 1910, when Grace Fisher, a sorority sister of Morgan's was president of the local board. The need was felt for one multipurpose building in rapidly growing Oakland and another in San Jose. Architect and Engineer announced in January 1913 that Julia Morgan had "recently returned from a tour of Eastern cities where she made a study of YWCA clubhouses for the purpose of getting ideas that might be utilized to advantage in the erection of the Oakland YWCA home. A home for young women will be a distinct and separate feature of the building."
In April of that year plans were approved and a budget of $125,000 was established. It is difficult to know whether any particular East Coast YWCA had influenced the architect, as Morgan left no notes about the trip, except a brief fragment regarding her response to the Minneapolis YWCA, and the archives of the national association have not revealed any records of what buildings she visited. Architect and Engineer noted in March 1913, however, that the plans showed "all the newest features to be found in the finest buildings of this type in the East." Morgan followed the tradition of the Italian Renaissance palazzo, finding its symmetry and stability appropriate for a building that needed to make its presence felt in a large city.
Morgan's changes from the elevation of 1913 to the final building yielded a bolder handling of the entrance and a more rhythmic placement of the two-story arched windows. Rather than classical columns or pilasters to frame the windows, she used rich designs of California fruits and flowers in polychrome terra-cotta, manufactured and glazed in nearby Alameda from Morgan's drawings. Such use of regional motifs in orname3ntation has a long history, notably exemplified by Benjamin Latrobe's choice of tobacco leaves and corn to grace the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Morgan's use of brilliant natural colors here provides a purely Californian element. The top floor of the building, set back to provide a balcony on all sides, has oversize square windows framed with more mat-glazed polychrome terra-cotta. The iron-railed balcony serves as the required fire escape, as an amenity for the classrooms on that floor, and as a decorative band on the exterior.
The interior follows an axis and cross axis plan with a central court modeled on the outdoor courtyard of Donato Bramante's church of Santa Maria della Pace in Rome. The columns have a combination of orders similar to the one used there, and in both structures a frieze of biblical verses is used for design as well as for content. Morgan's wood-frame brackets are in the East Bay vernacular, and the skylight suits Oakland's climate, giving the courtyard a feeling of the outdoors' having been brought indoors. A fountain originally played in the courtyard, and wicker furniture chosen by Morgan further enhanced the patio atmosphere. The building as a whole functioned exactly as programmed, offering shelter and recreation to the minimum-wage woman in a period of transition. It still serves as a YWCA, although the hotel has been replaced by offices and classrooms (Boutelle 1988: 95, 97, 255).
