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Project Name: 475-493 St. John St. HRE Pleasanton Historic Resources Evaluation - DRAFT Project No: HP0932.2101.00 February 25, 2021 treanorhl.com 8 Figures 13 and 14. The accessory structures on the parcel. 5. ARCHITECTURAL STYLE Lacking a clear architectural style the main building at 475 St. John Street is vernacular in nature. Constructed in the 1880s as a single-family house, the building currently does not illustrate a definite architectural style. The main house at 493 St. John Street was identified as a late 19th century vernacular form residential development by the City of Pleasanton.2 Late nineteenth-century residential development in Pleasanton included several wood-frame, vernacular housing forms common in the period. Some of the examples display architectural ornament and detailing consistent with popular recognized styles, though most are architecturally modest. Vernacular housing forms in Pleasanton from this period include three distinct types: small, single-story, ell- shaped dwellings, one or one-and-a-half-story side gable dwellings, and one or one-and-a-half-story end dwellings. The most numerous are the one-and-a-half-story, wood-frame, side gable dwellings, typically measuring a single room deep. These properties may have had modest classical or Greek Revival detailing such as cornice returns on gable ends, though most surviving examples retain little ornament. The dwellings typically had a symmetrical façade with a slightly off-center main entrance, and full-length, attached front porch.3 The cottage at 493 St. John Street is a modest vernacular dwelling without a definite architectural style. The accessory structures on both parcels are utilitarian. 6. SITE HISTORY In the 1860s, with the impending arrival of the railroad, large property owners in the vicinity of the Pleasanton town began subdividing property into lots and laying out streets. Owned by John Kottinger, the land bounded by Division Street on the south, the Arroyo del Valle on the north, and Main Street on the east was divided into a series of blocks and lots in 1868. This division includes the present-day St. John and St. Mary streets between Main and Division streets.4 2 Email communication with City of Pleasanton, Community Development Department, December 11, 2020. 3 Architectural Resources Group, Inc., Pleasanton Downtown Historic Context Statement (March 2015), 85-86. 4 Pleasanton Downtown Historic Context Statement, 81.