The home at 5868 Ocean View Drive in Oakland is a quintessential example of the great Craftsman homes you find in and around that city. It's a lofty old shingle-style, it has dark interior wainscoting and trim, and it's owned by a professor. Robert Middlekauff, is a professor emeritus of colonial and early American History at University of California Berkeley. He's written many books here in the home's library, including his best-known work: The Glorious Cause, a study of the Revolutionary War.
Once you know the personal history, it's easy to see this home as playing a role in the professor's work. The clinker brick fireplace, beamed ceilings, and many bookshelves here seem to take on a scholarly feeling. Not everyone could write more intelligently at a desk that looks out at the leafy environs on this stately street, but it couldn't hurt.
While parts of the house have been updated (the kitchen is newer, there's artificial grass out back, and the windows are double paned), other areas remain remarkably intact. The vintage black-and-yellow bathroom is practically a historic study in and of itself.
· 5868 Ocean View Drive [The Grubb Company]
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