Birge M. Clark (1893–1989) was a Palo Alto architect who started his own practice in 1922. His buildings on the National Register of Historic Places include the Dunker House, the Norris House and the Palo Alto post office on Hamilton Avenue. They date from 1926 to 1933, in a style he called "Early California," with tile roofs, thick-looking walls and rooms turned toward a patio.
The records read for this guide are mostly from the 1920s and 1930s, and that work is Spanish Revival, not mid-century modern. His practice kept going after World War II, and this guide says plainly what the records show for those years and what they don't. It draws on the National Register records on the National Park Service's NPGallery site and on Stanford University's catalog of his drawings.
His practice in the records
Clark described his early career himself. In 1980 he prepared the National Register nomination for the Dunker House for the Palo Alto Historical Association. It says he first worked with his father, Arthur B. Clark, and "presently began his own practice in 1922."
The same form lists his early work:
houses, which the form says were "none as pretentious as the Dunker house";
Early California style stores and commercial buildings on Ramona Street in 1924;
the Palo Alto Post Office, which the Dunker form dates to 1931–32.
The post office's own nomination says "Birge M. Clark has been in practice for over 50 years in Palo Alto."
Stanford holds the drawings. Its digital repository describes the collection, "Birge M. Clark architectural drawings: 1909–1954," as drawings by Clark, his brother David B. Clark, and partners Walter Stromquist, David F. Potter and Joseph Ehrlich, with a few by his father. It says the projects were "mostly located in Palo Alto, Stanford, and other communities on the Peninsula" and included residences, businesses and city offices. Most of the drawings are pencil on tissue.
What "Early California" meant
Clark's Dunker nomination describes the style as it was developing after World War I. It calls it by several names, "Mission Revival, or Spanish Colonial or Early California Style," and lists its parts:
thick walls that look like masonry;
iron grilles and balconies;
deeply recessed, paneled front doors;
"always tile roofs";
main rooms that open onto a patio or partial patio, with houses that "seemed to turn their back on the street";
small, informal second-floor windows.
The form says Clark "felt that this early 'California Colonial' was an indigenous style developed in California and eminently suited to the increasingly informal indoor-outdoor life of the 20's and 30's." It also says many people first found it "too severe," because it lacked the filigree and small tile copings of the pseudo-Spanish and Mission Revival houses of the time.
NPGallery's records file all three of these National Register listings under "Mission/Spanish Revival," with a period of significance of 1925–1949.
Three National Register buildings
The Dunker House, Crescent Park (1926)
The nomination dates the house to 1926 and credits "Birge M. Clark, Architect; Wells Goodenough, Builder; Leslie Kiler, Landscape Architect." It sits on Maple Street in the Crescent Park Addition. The form says that subdivision, promoted in the early 1920s, ran from Chaucer Street to San Francisquito Creek on both sides of University Avenue, and that it set minimum building costs in an effort to attain architectural merit.
The house is more than 100 feet long on Maple Street and wraps a patio on three sides. It has a cloister on one side, a two-story wing with a balcony on the other, and heavily "adzed" timbers. Inside, rooms "flow together" through arches, with wide-plank oak floors, textured plaster and a beamed cathedral ceiling in the living room. The form says the tile roof "is graded from light tile at the eaves to darker tile at the ridge." It says a George Washington Smith house on Cowper Street, in the same style, was built at the same time, and that neither architect was believed to know of the other's house.
The Norris House, Cowper Street (1927)
NPGallery's record for the house lists the architects as Birge Clark and Wells Goodenough, gives 1927 as its significant year, and names architecture and literature as its areas of significance. Clark's Dunker form calls the Dunker House "a definite ancestor" of this larger Cowper Street house.
The U.S. Post Office, 380 Hamilton Avenue (1931–33)
The post office nomination says the first sketches were made in 1931, formal drawings were finished in 1932, and the building was completed in 1933. During the Depression, it says, Washington had decided to hire local architects for post offices to put people back to work faster.
When Clark took his first sketches to the Treasury Department, he was told the design was "not formal or stiff enough for a federal building." He answered that Mrs. Hoover, then the First Lady, had hoped he would keep to "the Monterey or Early California Style" and relate it to Stanford's arcades and tile roofs. After lunch, the form says, the reply came back: "Proceed with your drawings as presented."
The building is one story of reinforced concrete under a tiled hip roof. The form says the tiles grade from dark reddish brown at the ridge to a lighter salmon at the eaves, the same grading as on the Dunker House. An arcade of eight round-arched bays runs along Hamilton Avenue, and the stucco walls have an uneven surface that "mimics adobe." The nomination calls the style Spanish Mediterranean Revival and lists architecture, landscape architecture and politics/government as its areas of significance.
After World War II: what the records show
The postwar record is thinner. Stanford's drawing records show the practice working with partner Walter Stromquist on projects such as:
an American Red Cross building in El Camino Park, Palo Alto, with a contract date of April 17, 1946;
a house in Saratoga, with a contract date of August 1949.
The collection's catalog title ends in 1954, so it doesn't cover the firm's later years. None of the records read for this guide describe the style of his postwar houses. Don't assume a Clark house from the 1950s is modern, or that it is Spanish. Look at the drawings or the permit.
For Palo Alto's postwar Eichler tracts, see our guide to Palo Alto's Eichler neighborhoods. For the city's mid-century houses in general, start with our Palo Alto page.
Is my house a Birge Clark?
If a listing credits a house to Birge Clark, check the claim against the records:
Search Stanford's drawing records. The item records give a project name, often a street or cross streets, and a contract date. A 1937 record for a house on Tennyson Avenue, for example, lists Birge M. Clark and David B. Clark as architects.
Check the original permit and the city's records. Clark's Dunker form cites the City of Palo Alto's 1979 survey, "Historical & Architectural Resources of the City of Palo Alto," held by the city's Planning Department. Ask Planning whether your house is on the city's inventory and what it says about the architect.
Sort out which Clark. Drawings may be by Birge, his brother David, his father Arthur, or a later partner. A credit to "Clark" alone isn't enough.
Read the whole record. A drawing set may cover only an addition or alterations, so check what it shows before you credit him with the original design.
Owning a Clark house today
Two of the three National Register listings in this guide are houses. Whether exterior work on a Clark house needs historic review depends on how the property is listed and on the city's current rules. Our guide Is My House Historic in California? covers the lists and how their review works. Confirm a property's status with the City of Palo Alto Planning Department before you plan work. This is general information, not legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Birge Clark house mid-century modern?
Not the ones on the National Register. They date from 1926 to 1933 and are Spanish Revival in style. His practice continued after the war, but the records read for this guide don't describe the style of his postwar houses.
When did Birge Clark practice?
He began his own practice in 1922, per his Dunker nomination, and the post office nomination says he had been in practice for over 50 years in Palo Alto. Stanford's drawing collection runs from 1909 to 1954.
Where are his drawings?
At Stanford University Libraries' Department of Special Collections and University Archives, in the Birge M. Clark architectural drawings collection.
Related reading
Is My House Historic in California? Lists, Criteria and Review
Palo Alto Eichler Neighborhoods: A Guide to Every Tract We Cover
More guides on this topic: Mid-Century Modern Architects & Builders
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Researching a Birge Clark house? Call or text the Boyenga Team at Compass at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or contact the Boyenga Team to talk through the house and its history.
