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State of California—The Resources Agency Primary# DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI# CONTINUATION SHEET - Trinomial Page 2 of 12 'Resource Name or#(Assigned by recorder) Hall House and Rental Recorded by Franklin Maggi 'Date 6/8/2011 ®Continuation ❑Update (Continued from page 1, DPR523a, Pia Description) The older house at 215 Neal St. was previously recorded by the firm Architectural Resources Group of San Francisco as a part of the City's preparation of a specific plan for downtown Pleasanton. The 2003 recording is included with this present DPR523 series recording as an attachment. The 2003 recording was prepared as a part of a reconnaissance survey and did not include the second house at 205 Neal St. This current or updated intensive-level recording includes both buildings, even though the focus is on 205 Neal St. , which is planned for a remodeling. Through its form and detailing, the one and one-half story house at 215 Neal St. embodies a distinctive National-style circa-1870s design. Although the prior recording referenced a 1890s build-date, the house type is representative of houses built during the early years after the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad into Northern California in 1869. That year coincides with the first platting of the Neal Subdivision in what is now Pleasanton. The Neal subdivision created two lots of equal size on the southwest side of Neal Street between Second and Third Street. The house presently at 215 Neal St. straddles the property line that separates these two subdivision lots. The setting for this house remained this larger two-parcel property until the late-1890s when a house (still extant) was constructed on a separate parcel at the south corner of Second and Neal Streets. The house at 215 Neal St. is a unique composition of form, materials, and detailing that distinguishes the house from other later houses nearby. National-style houses can be recognized for their vernacular building type and design, balloon-frame construction, raised rectangular footprint, and moderately steep roof line with boxed eaves. Houses of this type were built as late as the 1880s, and variants such as four-square houses and many rural farm dwellings of this style were built locally into the first few decades of the twentieth century. Character-defining details common to local National-style houses include channel- rustic drop siding, double-hung windows, simple cross-gable rooflines, and boxed eaves. These basic elements are found in the house at 215 Neal St., as well as a central dormer, wide shed-roofed porch supported by slender square wood columns, and thin, short, and boxed eaves that follow the plane of the roof. The house has been expanded, however, from what was probably its original simple Colonial- type room layout of two downstairs rooms and a half-story that contained bedrooms. The first evidence of what was probably this house on this site is found on the 1893 Sanborn Fire Insurance map. At that time, the house appears to have had a large addition to the southeast, and a porch was located on the northwest side of the house. By 1907, the side porch had been wrapped around the front of the building. It appears that the owners after 1907 removed the addition on the southeast side, and later a tank house to the rear, and expanded the house its full width to the rear. The side porch was also expanded on the northwest side the length of the rear addition as well as wrapping it around a short ways along the southeast side. By 1953 the rear part of the northwest side porch had been enclosed, and sometime later the remainder of this porch was enclosed and terminated at the front east corner as it exists today. The angled bay window on the southeast side wall was also added at a later time (late 1950s or 1960s) . The remaining open porch has a flat-board arched frieze hung between the columns, and a low balustrade comprised of turned balusters that span the length of the porch today. The enclosed portions of the porch have flat roofs. The enclosed porch has channel-rustic drop siding matching the cladding of the original house. Channel-rustic siding was also used on the rear addition. The building's fenestration is a mix of double-hung, casement, and fixed windows with small- pane multi-lite sash. Some of these window units may be original to the building, such as the dog-eared double-hung windows on the rear addition. Most of the other windows, however, as well as the doors, seem to be replacements. (Continued on next page) DPR523L 'Required information