Street (Front) Elevation
Joseph Leonard House in Alameda, California

C. H. Russell was the architect of this home, built in 1896.  The house originally commanded a stunning view of San Francisco Bay, but that view was lost after a major landfill project.  The design is a good example of the 19C American Shingle Style, whose main feature is a wood shingled exterior, preferably unpainted.  The style traces its roots to the the Queen Anne Style of Richard Norman Shaw, the English Arts and Crafts Movement, and the American Colonial Revival.  Vincent Scully, the architectural historian, coined the term to describe the style in the 1950s.  Prior to that, historians typically labeled such buildings as Queen Anne or Colonial Revival.  Early Shingle Style homes, like this one, usually display a powerful Queen Anne influence in their picturesque composition of asymmetrical forms and massing, round turrets and polygonal towers, and extensive porches.  The Colonial Revival influence, while not strongly evident in this example, appears in the form of gambrel or steeply gabled roofs, Palladian windows and light touches of Neoclassicism, and rambling, lean-to additions.  The Arts and Crafts influence appears mainly in the treatment of the exterior skin, always showing a strong preference for handcrafted natural materials and finishes.  The details are usually both beautiful and spare.  Photograph taken in 1999 by Howard J. Partridge.

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