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T. B. Downing House

Houses completed in 1894Houses in Palo Alto, CaliforniaHouses on the National Register of Historic Places in CaliforniaNational Register of Historic Places in Santa Clara County, CaliforniaQueen Anne architecture in California
San Francisco Bay Area Registered Historic Place stubsSanta Clara County, California geography stubs
T. B. Downing House, 706 Cowper St., Palo Alto, CA 5 27 2012 1 52 56 PM
T. B. Downing House, 706 Cowper St., Palo Alto, CA 5 27 2012 1 52 56 PM

The T. B. Downing House is a historic house located at 706 Cowper St. in Palo Alto, California. The Queen Anne style house was built in 1894 for T. B. Downing, who served on Palo Alto's first city council. A conical tower tops the house's northern corner; the tower features a finial, a dentillated and bracketed cornice, and decorative shinglework. The porch features a decorated gable and gingerbread-style ornamentation along the roof, columns, and balustrade. Two other gables, one at the second floor and one at the attic, adorn the front of the house; both gables feature decorative bargeboards.The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 30, 1973.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article T. B. Downing House (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

T. B. Downing House
Cowper Street, Palo Alto

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 37.446388888889 ° E -122.15555555556 °
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Address

Cowper Street 759
94301 Palo Alto
California, United States
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T. B. Downing House, 706 Cowper St., Palo Alto, CA 5 27 2012 1 52 56 PM
T. B. Downing House, 706 Cowper St., Palo Alto, CA 5 27 2012 1 52 56 PM
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Nearby Places

Ramona Street Architectural District
Ramona Street Architectural District

The Ramona Street Architectural District, in downtown Palo Alto, California, is a Registered Historic District. This portion of the street, between University Avenue and Hamilton Avenue, is a highly distinctive business block. It showcases the Spanish Colonial and Early California styles with gentle archways, wrought iron work, tile roofs of varying heights and courtyards. The development of Ramona Street, named after the 1884 novel Ramona, was an early successful attempt to expand laterally the central commercial district. Pedro de Lemos, a craftsman, graphic artist and curator of the Stanford Museum had been concerned with the larger scale and somewhat linear development along University Avenue. He believed that an informal architecture full of whimsy and integrated with nature was indeed compatible with commercial businesses. The first building to go up, in 1925, was the Gotham Shop at 520 Ramona, built by de Lemos, who had bought the property to preserve a very old oak tree (finally removed in the 1980s). He designed the building around the venerable oak and created shops with rustic benches, ceramic tiles and stucco walls. In 1938, de Lemos built another Spanish Colonial Revival commercial office building across the street at 533 - 539 Ramona, with a recessed arched entrance, an interior patio, wrought iron and more tiles. Noted local architects Birge Clark, W. H. Weeks and others added to the Spanish flavor of what de Lemos started. In 1928, Clark designed the multistory Medico-Dental Building at Hamilton and Ramona, which now houses the University Art Center on the ground floor. Across Ramona, Weeks designed the Cardinal Hotel, Palo Alto's first non-frame hotel. Excitement attended the Cardinal's debut, for it became the scene of tea dances and balls. The hotel had another purpose; it was intended to help make Hamilton a commercial street. The unified aspect of the 500 Ramona Street block was recognized by its designation in 1985 as a Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places. Since then, Plaza Ramona and other remodelings at the University Avenue end of the block have enhanced the theme.