Many midcentury homes were built by skilled craftsmen, using quality materials — yup, “built like a rock.” But this 1950 time capsule house — known locally as the Hellbaum House, after its original owners actually is built on and around rock — massive boulders — inside and out! The home also boasts an original elevator that has operated without issue since the day it was installed… steel kitchen cabinets painted in an auto body shop… and other beautiful midcentury modern interior features. Oh yeah: It’s for sale!
The house — which is in the Thousand Oaks neighborhood of Berkley, California — is listed for sale by realtor Ira Serkes. Note, the listing says there is already an offer pending with four backup offers. Here are the detail from the listing:
- Price: $1,100,000
- Year built: 1950
- Square footage: 2,610
- Bedrooms: 3
- Bathrooms: 2 plus 2 partial
The Hellbaum House in Berkeley’s wonderful Thousand Oaks neighborhood!
At a massive street side boulder, rising tiers of Arizona flagstone walls, steps and handmade bronze railings lead you up to the front entry (note the stone inset of the builder/owners’ initial!); the same flagstone is repeated inside at the fireplace, its raised hearth and floor to ceiling detail, and outside at walls and chimney. Three bedrooms, two and a half baths at main living level; half bath in garage; elevator from garage to kitchen.
At the garage level (more of the street side rock … and another behemoth rock!) there’s a half bath, utility closets housing elevator machinery and radiant/water heating equipment, and many storage spaces; think installation of a translucent garage door to brighten this area for multiple uses; art; kid playspace; workshop….or park two cars and maybe a third!
619 Vincente was designed, built and lived in by its original owner for many years, and one of its current owners grew up across the street and played among the area rocks as a child.
It is noted in BAHA* and “Berkeley Rocks: Building With Nature by Jonathan Chester (Ten Speed Press)” for its innovative systems: an elevator fairly uncommon in Berkeley homes at the time, and a radiant heat system through ceiling pipes; each room has its own thermostat, and there is radiant heat under the garage floor as well
Per BAHA; “For the structure, Hellbaum purchased a Southern Pacific bridge and anchored the structure on several of the I-beams from the bridge” Look up when you’re in the garage … the beams are overhead.”
Link love:
- Realtor Ira Serkes from Berkeley Homes
- Photographer Kurt Manley
- Rich Anderson from Lucidpic Photography architectural photography
Tips to view slide show: Click on first image… it will enlarge and you can also read my captions… move forward or back via arrows below the photo… you can start or stop at any image:
Laurie Louise says
What a treasure! And it seems like this is one we don’t have to worry about being appreciated.
In the I-survived-my-childhood department, we’d buy a ton of fireworks before the Fourth of July, the play with them for days. Unsupervised. My fave was blowing up stuff in the sandbox with firecrackers. It’s amazing that we all have faces, but boy was it fun!
Laurel says
What I wouldn’t give for that front door, sidelights and knob. Ours has been replaced with a standard cheap replacement door that looks late 90’s cheap.
Kelly M says
That boulder even looks like the one in the Dick Van Dyke show . . . I wonder if they filmed at that house?
Mark E says
My. Thoughts. Exactly. Art DOES imitate life!
Carol Belding says
First thing I thought of, as an East Coaster, was “Test that house for radon!”
It’s not as big of a problem on the West Coast, but I’d surely want this house tested.
http://www.epa.gov/radon/zonemap.html
Love the house, love the space, love the kitchen, and love Berkeley. Thanks for this post.
Tracey C says
Reminds me a little of House on The Rock in Wisconsin built by Alex Jordan, Jr. opened in 1959. Some coolness stayed in the Midwest!
Neil says
I’ve lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 40 years, and seen many, many wonderful buildings in the same marvelous genre as this one because: In the many decades since the wild-west days of the gold rush countless people have migrated here because they didn’t fit in (and weren’t properly appreciated) where they’d been raised because….they were eccentrics or geniuses or artists or all three! So they came here and built some incredible one-of-a-kind, beautiful houses and all manner of other remarkable, busting-with-character things.
On a similar but different note, when I lived in a 100-year-old clapboard house, among the second-growth redwoods, up on the Russian River, below my bedroom floor was still the stump of a 3,000-year-old redwood tree; the stump had decades ago lost it’s bark and much of it’s outer layers but was still eight feet across and ten feet tall. Living in a house that contains a grandfather-tree or a grandfather-boulder is a feeling like no other.
Joe Felice says
Woah and damn! That is one nice house! When I saw all those rocks, I could just envision the kitties happily climbing all over them, and thinking how-many more I could adopt to join in the fun!
Carolyn says
Going up to Berkeley in two weeks. Does anyone know the address of this house? Also, there is a wonderful exhibit of mid century modern architects at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. Looking forward to seeing that, too.