Visitors who walk into the home's entry hall see a dark brown paneled staircase with a large banister and art glass windows reminiscent of another time.
The spacious backyard is dominated by a huge coastal oak tree, its branches hanging over a manicured garden with a stone fountain as the centerpiece. One can almost imagine well-dressed guests chatting, enjoying Champagne and listening to music on a Victorian afternoon there.
Welcome to the Bruton House, a landmark turn-of-the-20th-century home that has become Alameda's latest monument.
In April, the Alameda City Council approved the special designation for the home based on its architectural significance and historical background.
Built in 1897, the home is named for the affluent family whose three daughters were raised there and who became well-known California artists.
The house is located in Alameda's Gold Coast neighborhood and used to front San Francisco Bay before the surrounding area was filled in during the 1950s.
The other homes on the block were constructed between 1897-1960 and are a mix of styles, including Colonial Revival. Craftsman, (part of the Arts and Crafts movement) and ranch.
The Bruton House was built in the Colonial Revival style, and is the oldest on the block.
The backyard tree is also one of the largest in the city and is estimated to be almost 150 years old, according to Woody Minor, the architectural historian who submitted the report needed for monument designation.
Oakland and Alameda had one of the largest concentrations of oaks in the state at one time, and the city's original name, Encinal, is Spanish for oak grove. The name was later changed to Alameda because residents wanted the town to be the county seat of Alameda County, Minor said.
Alameda's neighborhoods include many homes built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the city was a commuter community serving residents who traveled to San Francisco by ferry.
The home's first owners, Daniel and Helen Bruton, were Irish immigrants who moved to Alameda from New York in 1879 when Daniel Bruton became the West Coast agent for the American Tobacco Company.
The couple's three daughters, Margaret, Esther and Helen, grew up in the home and became artists during the 1920 and '30s.
They often worked together using the attic of the home as a studio.
Margaret Bruton's best-known work is visible today: a set of circus-themed murals she painted in the Cirque Room bar at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel.
Esther Bruton was a commercial artist who worked for the former I. Magnin department store for seven years.
Helen Bruton made woodblock prints and mosaics. Her 22 glazed tile mosaic murals graced the Mudd Memorial Library at the University of Southern California.
Like many artists of the 1930s, she worked for the federal Works Progress Administration creating a mural for the San Francisco Zoo and the UC Berkeley Student Art Gallery.
The Brutons sold the house in 1944 and the home went through several owners before the current occupant, Jeanne Graham, bought the property in 1999.
Graham and her husband, Bruce Gilliat, had restored a Queen Anne-style home on San Jose Avenue, so they knew the drill on restoring an old structure.
When she acquired the home, Graham learned of its unique history.
"They (previous owners) had this folder and they said this house was supposed to be on the national historic list," she said. "But before it becomes a national monument, it has to be a local monument."
Graham is a member of the Alameda Museum and the Alameda Architectural Preservation Society.
She uses the home for fundraising events and believes in the need to protect the city's heritage.
"People come here and they say this is really so neat and it is special," she said. "So I think I want to encourage people to find out more about their own homes."
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