On Dec. 8, Patty Donald, the President of the Victorian Preservation Center of Oakland (V.P.C.O.) at the Cohen Bray House will be giving us a zoom presentation "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow"; the story of the Cohen Bray House. She will take us on a journey from the Gold Rush times in Bay area to the future of one of the unique historical houses in the Bay Area. Patty is the great, grand daughter of the original owners of the house. She retired in 2017 from the City of Berkeley where she developed and built the Shorebird Nature center and strawbale classroom. For 38 years she ran the environmental education programs, the teacher and docent training program, shoreline cleanups, kite festival, bay festival and Adventure Playground at the Berkeley Marina. She is now a grandmother, on the board of the Rotary Nature Center Friends and Things that Creep.
Patty will show us the beautiful interiors of the public rooms and how the house has changed and not changed over time. The house is unique, it is not a museum it is too fragile and the original rugs cannot take the traffic of a public museum. So their non- profit 501c 3- Victorian Preservation Center of Oakland offers once a month tours to show the collections to the public, school group presentations, community events, and network with historic house museums. As to be expected with most historical houses, the Cohen Bray house needs a lot of TLC. Through memberships, grants, donations and volunteer effort the House is being preserved for future generations to look at the past and imagine their future.
Patty Donald, who will be showing us the house!
About the house:
Founded in 1990, the V.P.C.O. works to preserve the Cohen Bray House and to provide a unique opportunity to see and feel how about home life might have been beginning in the Victorian Era in Oakland. A wedding present to Alfred Cohen and Emma Bray in 1884, the house typifies the Stick-Eastlake style popular in the 1870s and 80s. It is remarkable for its intact interiors which remain appointed with original furniture in the Aesthetic style. One of the few surviving examples of Victorian Aesthetic interiors in the United States and England, it offers visitors a rare opportunity to see wallpaper, woodwork, carpeting and wedding gifts as they were in 1884. In addition to its status as an intact house, it is still maintained by descendants of Emma and Alfred.
Located at 1440 29th Ave., the Cohen Bray House was designated an Oakland Landmark in 1975 and is in the National Register of Historic Places. OHA owns the easement for this house to help in its preservation. They are making headway and need your help even more now. Their goal is to preserve the house as a study center, replace the brink foundation, paint the exterior, maintain the gardens and use the back building for workshops to promote historic crafts (ie. wooden window restoration versus replacement) for the neighborhood and community.
If you would like to know more about the Cohen Bray house, here is the link.
The house will offer public tours for the holidays is Dec. 17 and 18 at 2:00p.m. or come to the Tour and a tea on January 7th. More details, history and photos are on the website http://cohenbrayhouse.org See you there!
Recording: