HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 4b. 211 Chorro St. (HIST-0608-2021)
CULTURAL HERITAGE COMMITTEE AGENDA REPORT
SUBJECT: DESIGNATE 211 CHORRO STREET AS A MASTER LIST RESOURCE
PROJECT ADDRESS: 211 Chorro St BY: Walter Oetzell, Assistant Planner
Phone Number: 781-7593
Email: woetzell@slocity.org
FILE NUMBER: HIST-0608-2021 FROM: Brian Leveille, Senior Planner
RECOMMENDATION
Make a recommendation to the City Council on the property’s qualification to be included
in the City’s Inventory of Historic Resources as a Master List Resource.
1.0 BACKGROUND
James & Mai Haselman, represented by James Papp, have requested that the property
at 211 Chorro be designated as a Master List Resource in the City’s Inventory of Historic
Resources, as The Muller-Noggle House and Garage, and have provided an evaluation
of the property and its eligibility for historic listing (Historical Evaluation, Attachment A),
prepared by James Papp, PhD, Historian and Architectural Historian. As set out in
§ 14.01.060 of the City’s Historic Preservation Ordinance, the Committee will determine
if property meets eligibility criteria for listing and forward a recommendation to City
Council, for final action on the application
2.0 DISCUSSION
2.1 Site and Setting
The property is at the southwest corner of Mission and Chorro Streets, in the Mount
Pleasanton Square / Anholm Neighborhood, a low-density residential area northwest of
Downtown between the base of Cerro San Luis Obispo and Stenner Creek, developed in
the 1920s and 1930s. Craftsman, California Bungalow, and various Revival styles
predominate in the area, reflecting popular architectural styles of that time. The area' s
popularity was due, in part, to its proximity to Downtown and sheltered location on the lee
side of Cerro San Luis. Early residents include many prominent educators, business
owners and professionals. It continues to be an attractive, recognizable neighborhood,
with most homes in good condition and many in original or near -original architectural
character. Because of the apparent concentration of architecturally and historically
important homes, the City has in the past considered whether the neighborhood may
merit historic district status, but ultimately did not designate the area as such.
Meeting Date: 11/8/2021
Item Number: 4b
Time Estimate: 30 Minutes
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Item 3b
HIST-0608-2021 (211 Chorro)
Cultural Heritage Committee Report – November 8, 2021
2.2 The Muller-Noggle House and Garage
City records (see Attachment B)
indicate that the property was
developed with a single-story dwelling
in 1936, “built for attorney A.V. Muller
and his wife Elizabeth by the Los
Angeles-based woman architect Edla
Muir and local builder F.C. Stolte,”
noting it as “handsome, unusual for
the area, and well-maintained.” It is
described as having an L-shaped plan
and a French Provincial stylistic
influence, with several characteristic
features highlighted:
Wood shingle hipped roof (long leg), truncated hip roof (short leg)
Projecting eaves, plain boxed cornice
Shiplap siding and stucco exterior material
Rectangular windows, various types, including three window bays, plain surrounds
Chimney, shutters, turret with bay window
Detached two-car garage
The property was added, as one of a group of 17 properties in the area, to the City’s
Inventory of Historic Resources as a Contributing List Resource in 1999 (Council
Resolution 8890). Minutes of the Council meeting show that 211 Chorro Street was noted
as “possibly eligible for the Master List.”
The applicant’s Historical Evaluation describes the property’s history and the building
itself in further detail,1 attributing its style as “an extremely rare Minimal Traditional design
characterized by a pyramidal roof with a central chimney…”.
Whatever the source, the Muller-Noggle House embodies the drama and
streamlining of the Minimal Traditional. Even more unusually, it has a
detached but matching pyramid-roof garage, one of the most architecturally
significant garages surviving in San Luis Obispo.
(Papp, pg. 1)
The City’s Historic Context Statement describes the Minimal Traditional style as having
its origins in the principles of the Modern movement and reflecting a desire for greater
efficiency and reduced costs to keep homes affordable to the middle class (see
Attachment C).
1 A description of the home’s architecture is provided from pg. 14 of the Historical Evaluation (Attachment 1).
Figure 1: Muller-Noggle House
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Item 3b
HIST-0608-2021 (211 Chorro)
Cultural Heritage Committee Report – November 8, 2021
3.0 EVALUATION
To be eligible for listing as an historic resource, a building must exhibit a high level of
historic integrity, be at least 50 years old, and meet one or more of the eligibility cr iteria
described in § 14.01.070 of the Historic Preservation Ordinance (see Attachment D).
Those resources that maintain their original or attained historic and architectural character
and contribute either by themselves or in conjunction with other struct ures to the unique
or historic character of a neighborhood, district, or to the City as a whole may be
designated as a “Contributing List Resource” (HPO § 14.01.050). The most unique and
important resources and properties in terms of age, architectural or historical significance,
rarity, or association with important persons or events in the City’s past may be
designated as “Master List Resources.” The applicant’s Historical Evaluation
(Attachment A) provides a description of the architectural significance of the house and
garage (Papp, from pg. 11) in support of designation as a Master List Resource.
3.1 Architectural Criteria
Character-defining features of the Minimal Traditional Style are described in the City’s
Historic Context Statement (Attachment C) to include:
One-story
Simple rectangular plan
Medium or low-pitched hip or side-gable roof with shallow eaves
Smooth stucco wall cladding, often with wood lap or stone veneer accents
Shallow entry porch with slender wood supports
Fixed wooden shutters
Minimal decorative exterior detailing
As described and depicted in pages 18-25 of the applicant’s Historical Evaluation, the
dwelling exhibits many of these characteristic features, :
The resource exemplifies the afore-mentioned Minimal Traditional’s close-
clipped rakes, minimized windows, decluttered walls, broad expanse of
steeply pitched roof, prominent chimney, curvilinear features, and smooth
transitions. (Papp, pg. 16)
This section of the Historical Evaluation also details notable interior features of the home:
Interior features include paneling, coves on the bedroom wing’s exterior
walls, reception room crown molding, and octagon dining room (formed by
built-in cabinets in two corners topped with arches, faux keystones, and
interior coves and a recessed ironing board in a third corner). (Papp, pg. 16)
In addition, The Muller-Noggle House and Garage are noted as “one of only two
residential projects in the City documented to have been built by the F. C. Stolte
Company, contractor for Hearst Castle […] supervised by Carl Daniels, who oversaw
work in the rest of the county while his colleague and sometime collaborator George Loorz
managed construction for W. R. Hearst and Julia Morgan.” (Papp, pg. 2).
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Item 3b
HIST-0608-2021 (211 Chorro)
Cultural Heritage Committee Report – November 8, 2021
3.2 Historic Criteria
A timeline of the property, including a brief listing of its historical occupants is provided
from page 3 of the Historical Evaluation. The house was built for A. V. Mueller, “a
remarkable example of a self-made man in an era of self-made men” (Papp, pg. 6) who,
in addition to conducting a successful private law practice, served as Assistant District
Attorney for the County. It was later owned and occupied by John and Neva Noggle, John
a top salesman at Standard Motors on Monterey Street, and the family operating the Little
Chef restaurant (Papp, pg. 5). The evaluation, however, does not indicate a relevant
association with singular and important historical events and patterns or significance to
the community rising to a level of significance that would satisfy Historic Criteria described
in § 14.01.070 (B) of the Historic Preservation Ordinance.
3.3 Integrity
The dwelling remains in its original location, and in the discussion of the integrity of its
design2 the various character-defining elements of the home are discussed, concluding
that, notwithstanding minor subsequent modif ications, including a 1963 bedroom wing
extension and some non-original brickwork, the buildings and property satisfy the criteria
for Integrity set out in § 14.01.070 (C) of the Historic Preservation Ordinance:
It retains the integrity of the six applicable aspects (location, design, setting,
materials, workmanship, and feeling) to communicate its significance.
(Papp, pg. 2)
3.3 Conclusion
The information in the Historical Evaluation prepared for this application, documenting the
architectural character and integrity of the house, provides a basis for the Committee to
potentially find that the dwelling satisfies Evaluation Criteria for Architectural Style and
Design described in §§ 14.01.070 (A) of the City’s Historic Preservation Ordinance
(SLOMC Ch. 14.01). The Committee should whether, as described in the Historical
Evaluation provided with the application, the property qualifies as one of the most unique
and important resources in the City, in terms of age, architectural or historical significance,
or rarity, to a degree that qualifies the property for designation as a Master List Historic
Resource.
4.0 ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This project is categorically exempt from the provisions of the California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA). Inclusion of the subject properties on the City’s Inventory of Historic
Resources does not have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment,
and so is covered by the general rule described in § 15061 (b) (3) of the CEQA Guidelines.
5.0 ACTION ALTERNATIVES
1. Staff Recommendation: Make a recommendation to the City Council on the property’s
qualification to be included in the City’s Inventory of Historic Resources as a Master
2 Historical Evaluation (Attachment 1), from pg. 19
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Item 3b
HIST-0608-2021 (211 Chorro)
Cultural Heritage Committee Report – November 8, 2021
List Resource, noting the elements of the property which satisfy Evaluation Criteria to
a degree warranting such designation, as being among the most unique and important
resources and properties in terms of age, architectural or historical significance, rarity,
or association with important persons or events in the City’s past.
2. Continue consideration of the request with direction to the applicant and staff on
pertinent issues.
3. Recommend to the City Council that the property should not be designated as a
Master List Resource in the City’s Inventory of Historic Resources, based on finding
that the property does not satisfy Evaluation Criteria for historic listing to a degree
warranting such designation.
6.0 ATTACHMENTS
A – Historic Resource Evaluation (Historical Evaluation, James Papp, PhD)
B – Historic Resource Inventory, 211 Chorro (City “Yellow File”)
C – Minimal Traditional Style (excerpt from Historic Context Statement)
D – Evaluation Criteria (Historic Preservation Ordinance)
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The Muller–Noggle House and Garage
A. V. and Elizabeth Biehl Muller and Johnny and Neva Noggle
211 Chorro Street
Historic Resource Evaluation and Master List Application
1. Summary Conclusion of Eligibility
2. Timeline
3. Historic Context
4. Architectural Significance
5. Period of Significance
6. Integrity and Character-Defining Features
7. Conclusion
1. Summary Conclusion of Eligibility
The 1936 Muller-Noggle House is an extremely rare Minimal Traditional design
characterized by a single-story main block topped by a pyramid roof with a central
chimney—a costly and aesthetically daring approach apparently originated with the British
architect Sir Edwin Lutyens or American perceptions of his work. The Lee family’s
Stratford Hall, built in the 1730s in Westmoreland County, Virginia is another possible
model: in 1929, the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association formed to preserve the house and
open it to the public. Sources in the 1920s and ’30s attribute it as a Neo-Georgian style.
Whatever the source, the Muller-Noggle House embodies the drama and streamlining of the
Minimal Traditional. Even more unusually, it has a detached but matching pyramid-roof
garage, one of the most architecturally significant garages surviving in San Luis Obispo.
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2
The Muller-Noggle House and Garage are also one of only two residential projects in San
Luis documented to have been built by the F. C. Stolte Company, contractor for Hearst
Castle, the other being 391 Chorro Street. Both date from the same year and were
supervised by Carl Daniels, who oversaw work in the rest of the county while his colleague
and sometime collaborator George Loorz managed construction for W. R. Hearst and Julia
Morgan (Taylor Coffman, Building for Hearst and Morgan: Voices from the George Loorz
Papers [Berkeley: Berkeley Hills Books, 2003], pp. 201–202 and passim).
As such, the Muller-Noggle House qualifies for the Master List as one of “the most unique
and important historic properties and resources in terms of architectural or historical
significance [or] rarity” as defined by the city’s Historic Preservation Ordinance.
It also qualifies for the less demanding National Register of Historic Places as possessing
architectural significance for embodying the distinctive characteristics of a type of
construction and high artistic values. It retains the integrity of the six applicable aspects
(location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, and feeling) to communicate its
significance.
Presented on behalf of Jim and Mai Haselman by James Papp, PhD, Historian & Architectural
Historian, Historicities LLC, 6 September 2021
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2. Timeline
1899 Apr 29 Albert Venlow Mueller is born in Texas to Leo Mueller and Josephine Zimmer
Mueller from Alsace (1910 United States Census, 1918 draft registration, and
1993 death records). By 1910 the family is living in Lincoln, Placer County,
California, where Leo is working as a laborer in a pottery.
1917 Mueller graduates from Lincoln Union High School, Placer County (“Lincoln
Union High School Exercises, Lincoln News-Messenger, 21 June 1917, p. 1).
1918 Sep 12 Mueller is a cannery worker in Lincoln when he registers for the draft. He
serves as a private in St. Louis, Missouri.
1920 John “Johnny” Noggle is born in Ohio (United States Public Records, 1970–
2009).
1921 Neva Negranti is born in Cayucos, where her parents own the Fairview Ranch
(“Neva Noggle,” San Luis Obispo Tribune, 10 Jan 2021, 4A).
1923 A. V. Mueller receives his juris doctor degree from Stanford and moves to
Paso Robles, where he forms the partnership of Muller and Mandl with Judge
J. P. Mandl (“To Receive Degrees,” Sacramento Bee, 2 May 1923, p. 8; “Around
the Town,” San Luis Obispo Tribune (weekly), 5 Oct. 1923, p. 4; “A. V. Muller Is
Named Assistant District Attorney,” Arroyo Grande Herald-Recorder, 10 Jan.
1930, p. 6).
1924 Albert Mueller marries Elizabeth Anna Biehl, daughter of a retail salesman
and “prominent in Paso Robles as a leader of the younger set” (“One
Ceremony, Two Weddings, Four Happy,” San Francisco Examiner, 15 June
1924, p. 83). He joins the Masons and becomes associated with the Bank of
Italy.
1929 Muller is elected a city judge in Paso Robles (“A. V. Muller Is Named Assistant
District Attorney”). (From the mid 1920s through the early 1930s, both
spellings of his name are being used in the press.)
1930 Jan 6 Muller, still living in Paso Robles, is named assistant district attorney for San
Luis Obispo County to replace H. J. Dubin, who has been promoted to district
attorney (“A. V. Muller Is Named Assistant District Attorney”).
Apr 3 The US Census shows A. V. and Elizabeth Muller renting at 650 Upham Street.
1935 Jan 11 A. V. Muller announces the opening of his law office in the Wickenden
Building, San Luis Obispo (advertisement, Arroyo Grande Herald-Recorder).
Muller leads San Luis efforts to attract State Emergency Relief Administration
aid under the New Deal National Housing Act (“House Survey Is Proposed,”
Herald-Recorder, 25 Jan. 1935, p. 1).
1936 Nov 7 George and Kirstine Anholm transfer title of lots 4, 3, and part of 2 on block
13 of the Anholm Addition to the Mullers. On the same day, Carl Daniels
petitions for a building permit on behalf of A. V. Muller for a one-story frame
and stucco 6-room house and garage, at $5,500 the second most expensive
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4
residence permitted that year, after a $6,000 house on Cerro San Luis which
is twice the size.
1937 Feb 26 Stolte has completed work on 211 Chorro, and the Mullers have moved in
(“Notice of Completion of Work,” 27 Feb 1937).
Photos: Mai Haselman
1937 Apr 12 The Mullers convey their property to the Veterans’ Welfare Board of the
State of California (County Land Records).
1940 Apr 2 The US Census lists A. V. and Elizabeth Muller living at 211 Chorro with their
daughters Helen (14) and Jacqueline (7), as owners, with the house valued at
$6,500.
July 24 John Noggle, working in automobile manufacturing, enlists in the US Army at
Fort Hayes, Columbus, Ohio (United States World War II Army Enlistment
Records, 1938-1946).
1941 Apr 8 A. V. Muller is re-elected trustee of the San Luis Obispo School Board (“Parks
Plan Voted in San Luis Obispo,” San Francisco Examiner, 9 April 1941, p. 12).
1946 Neva Negranti marries John Noggle (“Neva Noggle”).
1948 June 8 Chris and Johanna Anholm convey 211 Chorro to the Title Insurance and
Trust Company (County Land Records).
1948 June 28 The Title Insurance and Trust Company conveys 211 Chorro to David and
Marjorie Fair (ibid.).
1950 Mar 9 The Fairs convey 211 Chorro to L. H. and Bertha Ellsworth (ibid.).
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5
1953 Aug 12 The Ellsworths convey 211 Chorro to John and Neva Noggle (ibid.). From
1957 John spends several decades as a top salesman at Standard Motors on
Monterey Street (“Salesman Hits Top of Cadillac Crest,” Five Cities Times-
Press-Recorder, 10 Aug. 1990, p. 4D), and the family will own and manage San
Luis Obispo’s Little Chef restaurant (“Neva Noggle”). They are active in
Catholic organizations and John as a bell ringer and historian at the Mission.
1968 The law firm of A. H. Brazil and James Duenow merges with A. V. Muller,
Wickson Woolpert and William P. McWhinney (“Two Law Firms Plan
Merger,” Pismo Times, 11 Jan. 1968, p. 3). Muller had served as assistant
district attorney while Brazil served as district attorney in the early 1930s.
1987 A. V. Muller continues to practice as an attorney (“Public Notices,” Five Cities
Times-Press-Recorder, 8 April 1987, p. 8D).
1993 Mar 19 Muller dies in San Luis Obispo at age 92.
2000 John Noggle dies in San Luis Obispo (Social Security Death Index).
2020 Dec 31 Neva Noggle dies at 211 Chorro at age 99 (“Neva Noggle”).
Photo: Mai Haselman
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3. Historic Context
A. V. Mueller is a remarkable example of a self-made man in an era of self-made men,
though in an era when that possibility was largely reserved for Whites. The son of an
immigrant pottery laborer in a small town nestled at the edge of the Sierra foothills, a
cannery worker when he registered for the draft at nineteen, and subsequently serving in
the US Army as a private, by twenty-four he had his JD from Stanford and had formed a
legal partnership with a judge. By age thirty he had been elected a city judge himself and
appointed assistant district attorney for San Luis Obispo County. By thirty-four he had
entered private practice in the City of San Luis Obispo and by thirty-six built the second
most expensive and certainly most luxurious house permitted in the city that year. He built
it in the Anholm Tract, restricted to Whites only on land that had been previously occupied
by Chinese truck farmers.
Tract housing in San Luis Obispo The earliest tract in San Luis was built between 1801
and 1810 by enslaved yak tityu tityu yak tilhini/Northern Chumash: 80 adobe and tile
houses with windows, 17’ wide by 20’ deep in two rows on either side of Chorro Street,
(Paul H. Kocher, Mission San Luis Obispo: A Historical Sketch [San Luis Obispo: Blake, 1972],
p. 34; Edith Webb, “Pages from the History of Mission San Luis Obispo,” California History
Nugget, Jan. 1938, p. 117). Some or all would appear to have been detached, with front
windows and side entries. Of this linear and permanent housing development, meant to
displace indigenous wickiups, only three structures survive: the two ground floor interior
rooms of the Sauer-Adams Adobe and the Sauer Adobe next door.
Sauer-Adams Adobe and Sauer Adobe, 964 and 970 Chorro, after 1907
The mission was also behind the next tract housing in San Luis Obispo: the Mission
Vineyard Tract. The mission’s building, vineyard, and orchard were returned by the
American government to the Catholic Church, which sold off the 160 or so acres of the
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vineyard for business and housing, comprising most of today’s downtown from San Luis
Creek south to approximately Buchon Street and between Broad and Santa Rosa.
In the 1870 R. R. Harris and H. D. Ward map of San Luis commissioned by the Board of
Trustees (detail above), the vineyard was yet to be mapped for city blocks, along with most
other areas south of San Luis Creek, including Walter Murray and Pierre Dallidet’s lands.
In the 1894 map by city engineer C. W. Henderson (detail above), these areas had become
the Vineyard, Murray and Church, and Dallidet Tracts. They were joined by Reed’s,
South Side, Buena Vista, La Belle, the Phillips Addition, Phillips and Beebe, Phillips
Syndicate, Central Addition, Schwartz, Loomis and Osgood, Imperial, Isabel, Maymont,
Fairview, Harford, South Side, Brizzolara, Hathway, Arlington, Deleissiguez, Buckley, and
Fixlini. The town was ready for expansion from local farmers and speculators.
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The slump of the 1890s put off much of this anticipated development. In 1888, for instance,
Captain Charles Goodall and former California governor George Perkins, owners of the
Pacific Coast Steamship Company and Pacific Coast Railway, built a horse-drawn street
railway from the PCR depot on the west end of town to their grand new Hotel Ramona—“as
beautiful as the heroine after whom it is named”—on the east end of town and subdivided,
sewered, and macadamized the area around it, which they called the Central Addition.
Their Buena Vista Addition was anticipated to rise to the top of Terrace (then Terraced)
Hill. Buena Vista also had a trolley extension, was near the PCR’s route south, and was next
to the surveyed Southern Pacific Line, which would finally be completed in 1894. Goodall
and Perkins simultaneously marketed the Phillips Addition around Mill Street between
Johnson and Grand, for which they had the street railway franchise but as yet no track.
The street railway was never built on Grand. The Hotel Ramona closed in December 1894,
seven months after the Southern Pacific arrived, for lack of business. The next year it
reopened under the management of one of Goodall and Perkins’ minority partners, R. E.
Jack. He bought the street railway system, still only two and a half miles long, five years
later and shut it down the following year. The Ramona burned down in 1905, seventeen
years after it was built, causing Jack and the Goldtrees’ County Bank of San Luis Obispo to
fail. There is no photographic, cartographic, or built evidence, that any of these areas had
been successfully developed during those years, apart from a few scattered cottages at the
base of Terrace Hill, despite San Luis Obispo’s population rising by 71 percent between
1900—when the SP’s line to Los Angeles was completed—and 1910.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tracts in the western United States
tended to offer individuals lots to build on rather than ready-built housing in rows. It’s not
clear whether this was because of a lack of necessity to house large numbers, a lack of
capital to build for them, an Old West tendency toward individualism, or all three. The
absence of building developments, however, has given late nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century San Luis Obispo its characteristic architectural variety.
In the San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles areas there was more tendency to build housing
developments than in California’s smaller towns, but even there, substantial developer
built tracts only arrived after World War I, with, for instance, Henry Doelger and Carl and
Fred Gellert (the latter Joan Gellert-Sargen’s father) in San Francisco’s Sunset District,
where a cheerful Eclecticism relieved mass production. After World War II, Doelger and the
Gellerts moved their efforts to Daly City. Mid-Century Modernism did less to allay the sense
of sameness the hillside tracts gave, and Malvina Reynolds got the inspiration for her hit
song “Little Boxes” driving by Daly City in 1962.
In late 1923, San Luis Obispans were able to buy lots in Mount Pleasanton Square (Broad,
Benton, and Mount Pleasanton (now Chorro) between Murray and Meinecke, and by 1927
in the Anholm Addition (directly south, Lincoln to Broad and Murray). George and Chris
Anholm were ethnic Danes from the village Fole (German Fohl) near Haderslev (German
Hadersleben) in Schleswig-Holstein, whose disputed ownership between Denmark and
Germany inspired the observation apocryphally attributed to Lord Palmerston: “Only three
people have ever really understood the Schleswig-Holstein business—the Prince Consort,
who is dead—a German professor, who has gone mad—and I, who have forgotten all about
it” (Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria [New York: Harcourt, 1921], p. 364).
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The Anholms were born within the decade after the Second Schleswig War, which assigned
Holstein to Austria and Schleswig to Prussia, which two years later seized Holstein from
Austria in the Austro-Prussian War. Hence George had good reason to go to America at
fifteen and Chris to join him three years later, AWOL from the German Army. Fole and
Haderslev returned to Denmark in the Scheswig plebiscite of 1920, but by then George and
Chris were in their late forties, American citizens, successful farmers, and had already
embarked on a property development that would occupy them for three decades. In
1918—Chris having just returned from Denmark with his new wife and child—the two
brothers bought from Judge McDowell Reid Venable’s widow Alice equal shares of
ranchland between Cerro San Luis and Stenner Creek, for $10,500 each. The Telegram
much later referred to the Anholm Tract being built in the area known as Chinese Gardens.
According to a map at the History Center, it had held Ah Louis’s first brickyard circa 1872–
87 and his vegetable and seed gardens, so presumably Ah Louis rented from Venable.
George Anholm lived and farmed nearby.
First advertisement for the Anholm Addition, noting in the
phrase “Building restrictions protect your investment” that
it was racially covenanted (San Luis Obispo Daily Telegram,
8 June 1928)
In 1921 James A. Stebbins, a
prominent Fresno real estate
man who had relocated to
Sacramento and opened his
own tire and automobile
accessories store, subdivided
a thirty-acre tract across the
southeast limits of the state
capital at what is now 58th
Street below 14th Avenue.
For $75 down and $10 a
month, people tired of
renting—“Mr. Rent Payer …
use judgment like your
landlord did—build a
home”—could become
owners of an acre lot
with all city services and no
city taxes (Stebbins Tract
advertisement, Sacramento
Union, Apr. 1921; Stebbins
Tract advertisement,
Sacramento Bee, 23 Apr.
1921).
This promise was somewhat
illusory, as Sacramento
insisted on annexation if the
tract wanted water from its
mains (Bee, 20 Jan. 1922). By
June Stebbins and his family
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moved into a bungalow on the tract, and he turned his attention to selling built homes for
$300 down and $45 a month. In 1927 he began to advertise houses on half acres. (There
are few acre lots; they may have been a teaser.)
The same year Stebbins visited San Luis Obispo and in January 1928 sold his tire store in
Sacramento, in March went on an extended holiday with his wife in Hawaii, and in June was
promoting lots and houses in the forty-acre Anholm Addition with full-page ads (L. F. Gould
advertisement, Bee, 1 Feb. 1928; “Mrs. Stebbins Is Honored on Eve of Departure,” Bee, 10
Mar. 1928; Anholm Tract advertisements, San Luis Obispo Daily Telegram, 8 and 9 June
1928). The Telegram touted Stebbins as having been “for the past twenty years connected
with California subdivisions in various parts of the state” (9 June 1928), though there is
evidence only of his having rather slowly sold somewhat undistinguished houses on a small
tract in Sacramento.
Stebbins did not stick with the Anholm Tract as long as he stuck with the Stebbins Tract.
His last advertisement was nine months later in March 1929, promising a four-room
furnished house at $350 down and $30 a month. From San Luis Obispo he and Mrs.
Stebbins went to Caspar, Wyoming, and thence to Alhambra in Southern California. In 1932
he was back trying to sell houses in the Stebbins tract, moving into it again in 1933. His last
advertisement there was in 1935.
George and Chris Anholm, who listed themselves as dairy farmers in the 1930 census,
continued to sell lots and houses in their tract, Chris recording sales as late as 1948 and
George taking out building permits as late as 1952. They also lived in their tract, selling off
houses and moving to new ones. Their children lived there, too. George and Chris and their
wives hosted Danish gatherings at their houses, served as precinct officer in elections, and
otherwise participated in the new, White, suburban community they had created from the
old Chinese Gardens.
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4. Architectural Significance
Minimal Tradition: History Sir Edwin Lutyens’ Munstead Wood is the ur-house for
Minimal Traditional, begun 1889 and completed 1897 for garden designer Gertrude Jekyll,
Lutyens’ lifelong collaborator. Munstead has not only the close-clipped rakes of Minimal
Traditional but minimized windows, decluttered walls, broad expanses of steeply pitched
roofs, prominent chimneys, curvilinear features, and smooth transitions.
Actual Tudor architecture in Surrey (Losely Hall above left and farmhouse near Charlwood at
right): busier, more angular, less sweeping than Lutyens’ work. At Munstead (below) he
regularized bays, integrated them into walls and roof, reduced windows, flared eaves, and
used the chimney as a vertical plane to interact with horizontal ones. It was a smoother
modernization than Wright’s. Minimal rakes (in grand houses like Losely, parapets) were a
Tudor feature fitting well in Lutyens’ streamlined vision, while Wright used wide rakes and
jettied upper floors of other Tudor houses in both Tudor Revival and some Prairie structures
like the Meyer May (1908–09) and Emil Bach (1915) Houses. (Photograph of Munstead Wood
from Sir Lawrence Weaver’s Lutyens Houses and Gardens [London: Country Life, 1921].)
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Unlike many Minimal Traditional houses, the Muller-Noggle House was built on a
commodious lot (or series of lots), so it retained the horizontality of Lutyens’ county house
work. But it also adopted or adapted another aspect, the pyramid roof with central
chimney. This form appears to have been borrowed by American Minimal Traditional
architects soon after Lawrence Weaver’s elephant folio Houses and Gardens by E. L. Lutyens
was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in the United States in 1914. Lutyens’ hipped
roofs with central chimneys were not true pyramids, but the photography created a close
enough effect to inspire what was to become the Muller-Noggle House’s form.
The Dormy House, Walton
Heath, entrance front; figure
279, Houses and Gardens by E.
L. Lutyens
There is no one obvious model
for Lutyens’ innovation: a
hipped roof with a central
chimney (seen here in an 1820
Gotho-Palladian farmhouse in
Wiltshire) is extremely rare but
not unknown in English
architecture. It’s possible
Lutyens had seen an image of
the Lees’ Stratford Hall in
Virginia. It is more likely that
American architects were ready
to adopt the form because of
their familiarity with Stratford.
Littlecroft, Guildford, entrance front; figure 279, Houses
and Gardens by E. L. Lutyens
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At any event, it was a form that captured architects’ imaginations for the multiplying and
expanding suburbs after World War I, when the shady and airy California Bungalow, never
really suited for much of the United States, had become passé. The new suburb would
reverse the Asian influence of the bungalow, adapted from the traditional Bengali village
house of simple design surrounded by wide eaves of a thatched hip roof. The inspirations
of the Minimal Traditional were European and colonial styles, emphasizing White history,
gentility, and overlordship. The great Black Los Angeles architect Paul Williams designing a
Plantation-style Minimal Traditional house for a White client in a restricted neighborhood
in the 1920s is a distillation of the moment.
Stratford Hall, circa 1730s, Westmoreland County, Virginia, architect unknown. Nineteenth-
century photograph.
Pyramidal English Cottage styles, from Henry Atterbury Smith, ed., Books of a Thousand
Homes (New York: Home Owners Service Institute, 1923)
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Late Georgian Revival from
Books of a Thousand Homes
From Home Builder’s Plan Book (New York: Building
Plan Holding Corporation, 1921). Note garage with
matching pyramidal roof, as in the Muller property.
Morgan Bulkeley House, Hartford, Connecticut, from
Ethel B. Power, The Smaller American House: Fifty-Five
Houses of the Less Expensive Type Selected from the
Recent Work of Architects in All Parts of the Country
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1927). Note the bell-cast eaves of
the window and door extensions, as seen at left on a
Muller-Noggle bay window: a characteristic of Georgian
Revival though not particularly of Georgian architecture.
The Muller-Noggle House The permit for the house and garage lists contractor but not
architect; it is likely the Stolte Company had in-house architects with knowledge of the
many pattern books of the new suburban architecture, who could assemble the desires of
clients and anticipate them with inventions. The Muller-Noggle House is notable for its
numerous unusual features: not only the reception pavilion’s pyramidal roof with central
chimney and bay windows with bell-cast eaves, but a projecting south wing for bedrooms,
necessitated by the house’s being a single story; a curved quarter-bay connecting reception
room pavilion and bedroom wing in the interior angle, fronting a nook inside; pilastered
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Guide to Minimal Traditional revival types from the 1939 San Luis Obispo County City and
Telephone Directory, identifying the Georgian style not with English squires but Southern
planters.
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front door with sidelights; and matching garage with pyramidal finialed roof, like a
pigeonnier. The resource exemplifies the afore-mentioned Minimal Traditional’s close-
clipped rakes, minimized windows, decluttered walls, broad expanse of steeply pitched
roof, prominent chimney, curvilinear features, and smooth transitions. Interior features
include paneling, coves on the bedroom wing’s exterior walls, reception room crown
molding, and octagon dining room (formed by built-in cabinets in two corners topped with
arches, faux keystones, and interior coves and a recessed ironing board in a third corner).
The Haselmans have been painstaking in retaining and restoring interior details.
The overall style—including such decorative details as the built-in cabinets, crown
moldings, sconces, and front door pilasters and sidelights—is Late Georgian Revival.
Photos above and right: Mai
Haselman
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Pigeonnier, Whitney
Plantation, Louisiana. The
right to build towers was
reserved in France for the
nobility. For practical
purposes, these usually took
the form of stair towers on
houses or pigeonniers.
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5. Period of Significance
The Muller-Noggle House and Garage are significant for their Minimal Traditional Late
Georgian Revival architecture as constructed by the F. C. Stolte Company from late 1936 to
early 1937. Their period of significance is therefore the year of their construction.
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6. Integrity and Character-Defining Features
Location The Muller-Noggle House and Garage retain their original locations.
Design The bedroom wing of the house was extended after its original construction
and period of significance. The addition is undetectable on the front façade, however, and
though the proportion between the reception room pavilion and bedroom wing are slightly
altered by it, their relationship to each other and the resultant stylized proportions that
define the character of the Minimal Traditional survive.
The house’s pyramidal roof and central chimney, north-facing bell-cast bay windows and
south-east-facing rounded quarter bay, pilastered and side-lighted front door, and
muntined fenestration, as well as the pyramidal roof and finial of the garage, are all
character-defining features of the Minimal Traditional Late Georgian Revival design. The
garage doors are not character-defining features of the design.
The brick posts and white fence, with their
wrought iron gates, including a steel
silhouette front gate that references the
Mission Era, adds greatly to the charm of
the resource, but there is no documentation
as to whether it is original or not. The brick
differs from that of the base of the bedroom
front façade, whether earlier or later.
Johnny Noggle was a Mission historian and
bell ringer, and it is plausible the Mission-
themed front gate was added by him, given
that it doesn’t match the Neo-Georgian
theme of the house.
Setting The Muller-Noggle House and Garage retain their original suburban setting
dominated by Minimal Traditional houses and its relationship to Cerro San Luis and the
Brizzolara Creek tributary.
Materials The variegated brick border that runs along the base of the bedroom wing’s
front façade is likely a later addition, possibly added at the time of the wing’s extension, and
not a character-defining feature. A separate brick structure on the Mission Street frontage,
by the driveway, is of varying materials and ages; it and the connected structure of
corrugated translucent fiberglass panels are not from the period of significance and need
not be protected for the resource’s integrity. The master extension of the bedroom wing is
also not of original materials.
Otherwise, the exterior materials of the Muller-Noggle House appear to be original,
including fenestration. Asphalt shingles on the house are recent. Wood shingles on the
garage appear to be original but are unlikely to survive.
The matching stucco skin of both structures is a character-defining feature.
Workmanship The workmanship of the framers, stuccadores, and finish carpenters of
the period of significance retains its integrity.
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Feeling There is no doubt that Albert and Elizabeth Muller would recognize their house
through the minor changes as the young lawyer’s showpiece built as America emerged
from the Great Depression. Johnny and Neva Noggle served as long and dedicated
conservators.
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7. Conclusion
A. V. and Elizabeth Biehl Muller and Johnny and Neva Noggle House and Garage are of
Minimal Traditional Late Georgian Revival design rare in the United States and unique in
San Luis Obispo, with the reception pavilion’s extraordinary pyramidal roof echoed by the
garage, plus a plethora of elegant Georgian Revival features—including ones never used in
the Georgian era but defining the exaggerated but streamlined aesthetic of the Minimal
Traditional. The resource is one of only two documented houses in San Luis by the F. C.
Stolte Company, the historically significant builders of Hearst Castle. The Muller-Noggle
House and Garage qualify for the Master List as one of “the most unique and important
historic properties and resources in terms of architectural or historical significance [or]
rarity” and retain the high degree of integrity to communicate their significance.
Photo: Mai Haselman
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City of San Luis Obispo Architectural Character
Citywide Historic Context Statement
HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP
150
MINIMAL TRADITIONAL
The Minimal Traditional style is defined by simple exterior forms and a restrained use of traditional
architectural detailing. The Minimal Traditional house was immensely popular in large suburban
residential developments throughout the United States during the World War II and postwar periods.
The style had its origins in the principles of the Modern movement and the requirements of the FHA
and other Federal programs of the 1930s. Its open plan reflected the developer’s desire for greater
efficiency. Modern construction methods addressed the builder’s need to reduce costs and keep
homes affordable to the middle class. Conventional detailing appealed to conservative home buyers
and mortgage companies.
Character-defining features include:
One-story
Simple rectangular plan
Medium or low-pitched hip or side-gable roof with shallow eaves
Smooth stucco wall cladding, often with wood lap or stone veneer accents
Wood multi-light windows (picture, double-hung sash, casement)
Projecting three-sided oriel
Shallow entry porch with slender wood supports
Fixed wooden shutters
Minimal decorative exterior detailing
Example of a Minimal Traditional House. Source: Historic
Resources Group.
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Zoning, or remove the property from historic listing if the structure on the property no longer
meets eligibility criteria for listing, following the process for listing set forth herein.
14.01.070. Evaluation Criteria for Historic Resource Listing
When determining if a property should be designated as a listed Historic or Cultural Resource,
the CHC and City Council shall consider this ordinance and State Historic Preservation Office
(“SHPO”) standards. In order to be eligible for designation, the resource shall exhibit a high
level of historic integrity, be at least fifty (50) years old (less than 50 if it can be demonstrated
that enough time has passed to understand its historical importance) and satisfy at least one of the
following criteria:
A. Architectural Criteria: Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, region, or
method of construction, or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values.
(1) Style: Describes the form of a building, such as size, structural shape and details
within that form (e.g. arrangement of windows and doors, ornamentation, etc.). Building
style will be evaluated as a measure of:
a. The relative purity of a traditional style;
b. Rarity of existence at any time in the locale; and/or current rarity although the
structure reflects a once popular style;
c. Traditional, vernacular and/or eclectic influences that represent a particular social
milieu and period of the community; and/or the uniqueness of hybrid styles and how
these styles are put together.
(2) Design: Describes the architectural concept of a structure and the quality of artistic
merit and craftsmanship of the individual parts. Reflects how well a particular style or
combination of styles are expressed through compatibility and detailing of elements.
Also, suggests degree to which the designer (e.g., carpenter-builder) accurately
interpreted and conveyed the style(s). Building design will be evaluated as a measure of:
a. Notable attractiveness with aesthetic appeal because of its artistic merit, details and
craftsmanship (even if not necessarily unique);
b. An expression of interesting details and eclecticism among carpenter-builders,
although the craftsmanship and artistic quality may not be superior.
(3) Architect: Describes the professional (an individual or firm) directly responsible for
the building design and plans of the structure. The architect will be evaluated as a
reference to:
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a. A notable architect (e.g., Wright, Morgan), including architects who made
significant contributions to the state or region, or an architect whose work influenced
development of the city, state or nation.
b. An architect who, in terms of craftsmanship, made significant contributions to San
Luis Obispo (e.g., Abrahams who, according to local sources, designed the house at
810 Osos - Frank Avila's father's home - built between 1927 – 30).
B. Historic Criteria
(1) History – Person: Associated with the lives of persons important to local, California,
or national history. Historic person will be evaluated as a measure of the degree to which
a person or group was:
a. Significant to the community as a public leader (e.g., mayor, congress member,
etc.) or for his or her fame and outstanding recognition - locally, regionally, or
nationally.
b. Significant to the community as a public servant or person who made early, unique,
or outstanding contributions to the community, important local affairs or institutions
(e.g., council members, educators, medical professionals, clergymen, railroad
officials).
(2) History – Event: Associated with events that have made a significant contribution to
the broad patterns of local or regional history or the cultural heritage of California or the
United States. Historic event will be evaluated as a measure of:
(i) A landmark, famous, or first-of-its-kind event for the city - regardless of whether
the impact of the event spread beyond the city.
(ii) A relatively unique, important or interesting contribution to the city (e.g., the Ah
Louis Store as the center for Chinese-American cultural activities in early San Luis
Obispo history).
(3) History-Context: Associated with and also a prime illustration of predominant
patterns of political, social, economic, cultural, medical, educational, governmental,
military, industrial, or religious history. Historic context will be evaluated as a measure
of the degree to which it reflects:
a. Early, first, or major patterns of local history, regardless of whether the historic
effects go beyond the city level, that are intimately connected with the building (e.g.,
County Museum).
b. Secondary patterns of local history, but closely associated with the building (e.g.,
Park Hotel).
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