Our Huangle House
We figured out the architect for our house, Paul Hamilton.
As published in the California Book of Homes, 1954:
https://picasaweb.google.com/nathanrogle/HomeAmongTheTrees#.
1. A search of the Orinda property records got us an old copy of a permit with a name, “Paul Hamilton.”
2. I then did some Internet sleuthing and found a letter a Paul Hamilton wrote in response to the Oakland Aesthetics article here. (http://www.dwell.com/articles/oakland-aesthetics.html)
3. I found two Paul Hamiltons in Santa Rosa. The first one was not an architect, the second one was. His wife said he used to live in Orinda so it was likely he did design our home. Paul Hamilton, the architect, who designed our home and lived there for two years in the 1950s called us back on Sunday. He is now 91.
He talked about having met Frank Lloyd Wright (a few times). He designed the house and lived in it for two years, circa 1951, and then sold it to Dr. Seagal. He mentioned he also designed the house down the street. He told us that he bought the land in Orinda for $1000 an acre at that time.
According to the information from the letter, he designed the Matanzas Creek Winery.
http://www.matanzascreek.com/index.html
Letter text here (from Dwell, Letters to the Editor, Feb 2009, http://www.zinio.com/reader.jsp?issue=334027029&o=int&prev=sub&p=22):
With great suprise I read your article “Oakland Aesthetics” (September 2008). I was the designer-builder of the Evans House, completed in 1956. At the time, I was 37 years old and without an architectural license—that came at the age of 56, by which time I had already designed a multitude of dwellings in Berkeley, Oakland, Orinda, and San Francisco. Since my licensing in 1975, my practice has ranged from work in Orcas Island and the San Juan Islands of Washington to the tip of Baja California, including my own house south of Todos Santos.
In 1960, I moved to Sonoma County to design countless country properties and the Matanzas Creek Winery. My passion remains and I have enjoyed your magazine, but I do little today since I am overwhelmed by the bureaucratic burdens of proof. At 90 years, maybe it’s enough.
The Evans House cost $18,500. Don’t blame the white trim on me.
Paul Hamilton
Santa Rosa, California
http://smartliketractor.blogspot.com/2009/11/our-huangle-house.html
