San Jose, CA Prairie Style Tour Of Homes

Wrightgeek · Post by **Wrightgeek** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 8:29 am

Is anyone familiar with the Prairie style works of Wolfe & Wolfe in the San Jose, CA area?

http://preservation.org/

KevinW · Post by **KevinW** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 8:46 am

Yes, very. I used to live in one of Wolfes prairie houses, it was a wonderful house with a fascinating story.
Frank Delos Wolfe's work was feature fairly regularly in Western Architect magazine....He started off designing transitional victorian/bungalow style houses, moorish style houses and apartments, and designed a few schools too. He obviously became interested in Wrights prairie style and started designing prairie style buildings around 1911 or 12. The house I lived in was from 1913. The people who commissioned Wolfe to design the house, Paul Fenimore Clark and May Roberts Clark were fascinating people moving to San Jose in 1912 after Paul lost an election for congress in Nebraska in 1912. The Clarks named their house Casa Manana for its modern design, flat roof, low prairie style, especially being right next door to a large victorian mansion. Long story short, (you got me started, so you may have to endure many stories and photos....just warning you..) we did lots and lots of research on the house, and found out Mrs. Clark was the real character....writing a book of poetry about her life, with one whole chapter of poetry about her house!!! She also wrote an article about the house in Sunset magazine, with a few photographs. In the next few days I will scan the poems, sunset article, and info on how my wife and I saved the house from demolition. It is now a historic landmark in San Jose. While none of Wolfes work can compare with the best prairie school Architects, their work is impressive, extremely livable and beautiful..being perfect for California. Check back from time to time, for the next few days I'll work on getting some cool info posted. The real expert on Frank Delos Wolfe, George Esinoza passed away a year or two ago, he was in the processes of putting together a book, but dont know if that was ever realized.

KevinW · Post by **KevinW** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 11:23 am

http://mytown.mercurynews.com/archives/ ... House.html

Here is a little taste to get us started....When I found out the day care center planned on demolishing the house, the best way I knew of to protect the house, was to somehow find a way to move into it during the year that they were getting funding. I might have stretched the truth a bit with the owners of the house regarding my intentions.....and offered to move in as a caretaker, since it was empty and some homeless people were occupying it, doing drugs, and even attempting to light fires in the capped off fireplace. They accepted....and for a year researched and applied for landmark status, and basically made myself a thorn in their side until they realized the importance of the house. They kicked us out, but 90 percent of the house was saved and restored, even though they added on 5000 sf on the back for their adult day care program..nearly the entire interior and exterior were saved! And of course they have most of the documents we discovered.

I sure was a rebel in my youth..

Wrightgeek · Post by **Wrightgeek** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 11:43 am

Wow, Kevin, that is great stuff. I'm glad I came across the info about this house tour and posted it here, as it seems to have started a conversation that might otherwise not have happened. One of the many great things about this forum is the depth of knowledge and experiences amongst the participants, and their willingness to share.

Please feel free to bore us to death with more of your Wolfe & Wolfe stories, Kevin. And thanks for what you have shared with us so far.

To be continued....

KevinW · Post by **KevinW** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 1:01 pm

I have not forgotten about this....over the weekend I found the box containing my Wolfe items, I was pleased to find some articles I copied from early Western Architect Magazines, and some other interesting items. I also found all the poems that Mrs. Clark had written about her prairie style home that I occupied, and the Sunset magazine article she had written with pics....I'll start scanning tonight!

KevinW · Post by **KevinW** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 1:55 am

http://www.flickr.com/photos/75562383@N ... 615714604/

This Flickr set contains the 1919 Sunset Magazine article of the house I used to live in, Casa Manana, and the poems Mrs. Clark had written about her prairie style home in her 1938 book of poetry "Eternal Quest"

Tomorrow night I will add scans of some of Wolfes other prairie style buildings from 1914 Western Architect. Since all of Wolfes prairie style houses and apartments are still standing and in great condition, I will take a spin around town and take pics of how they look today.

http://www.frankdeloswolfe.com/tour.html
A closer look at a few of the prairie homes

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 1:34 pm

These are wonderful houses, and they look eminently livable. I'm not sure "Prairie" is an adequate description, considering that they were designed after the demise of the Prairie era and differ significantly in both massing and detailing. Perhaps there should be a more specific term, a Prairie-subset. (The Mansard-style roof on Jones is unfortunate.)

I've seen a lot of houses of this type, with a central entry/living room with high ceiling and clerestories, porch and terrace front and back, flanked by subordinate wings. In fact, there is a house in Los Angeles that looks so much like a small version of Caputo, that I would not be surprised to learn it was designed by Wolfe.

KevinW · Post by **KevinW** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 1:55 pm

It is very possible that some of his designs have shown up down south...There is a version near my house in Los Banos, and one in Minneapolis. I understand that from being featured in many of the trade magazines, plans were made available to purchase.

Wrightgeek · Post by **Wrightgeek** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 4:03 pm

Click on the link for a story about the work of Wolfe & Wolfe and the upcoming tour of a number of their homes in San Jose. Be sure to scroll through the excellent sildeshow as well. The featured home in the story is quite impressive, and the detailing is nicely done as well.

Thought you might like to know, KevinW, that according to this story, a book about the firm of Wolfe & Wolfe is in the works. BTW, are you planning to attend the home tour?

http://www.mercurynews.com/home-garden/ ... ing-appeal

KevinW · Post by **KevinW** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 4:23 pm

No plans as of yet for attending, but just might go....I was hoping that perhaps his best two house would be on the tour, but they are not...I got to get photos of them, they are really sweet!....maybe I can sneek out of work early, I really want you all to see them.

DavidC · Post by **DavidC** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:53 am

Prairie style homes in San Jose by Wolfe & Wolfe are on tour

David