Allenoke Manor
Berkeley, Alameda County, California
Marker Inscription
CITY OF BERKELEY LANDMARK designated in 1986 ALLENOKE MANOR Coxhead and Coxhead, Architects, 1903 Allenoke is the only large estate remaining near the northern edge of the University of California campus. It was designed by Ernest Coxhead for Allen Freeman, President of the Bank of Oakland.* Coxhead, a major figure in the development of Bay Area architecture, produced a residence that was immediately recognized and widely publicized for its pioneering design. The large clinker brick house features five massive gambrel dormers and is surrounded by formal gardens enclosed by clinker brick walls. In 1938 the property passed to the ownership of Robert Sibley, Executive Manager of the California Alumni Association and one of the founders of the East Bay Regional Park system. Sibley and his wife Carol made their home a meeting place for “town and gown” for many years.
Erected by Berkeley Historical Plaque Project
The Story
Designed in 1903 by the noted architect Ernest Coxhead for banker Allen Freeman, Allenoke Manor is the last great estate near the north edge of the University of California campus. Its clinker-brick house, crowned by five massive gambrel dormers and ringed by formal gardens, won immediate acclaim as a pioneering work of Bay Area architecture. In 1938 it passed to Robert Sibley, a founder of the East Bay Regional Park system, whose home became a gathering place for "town and gown."
Why it matters
The manor documents the flowering of a distinctive Bay Area architecture and the close ties between the University of California and the community that grew around it.
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Related people
- · Ernest Coxhead
- · Allen Freeman
- · Robert Sibley
- · Carol Sibley
Themes & tags
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