Palo Alto: E-I-E-I-0
I’ve jogged by 1491 Pitman many times, thinking to myself, where is this architect coming from? What is his motivation for placing an ‘Homage to the American Barn,’ in the middle of urban Palo Alto? Is it a symbolic tip-of-the-hat to Stanford’s nickname, ‘The Farm’?
My theory on the builder’s design motivation: chicken farm nostalgia. (Note the chicken weather vane.)
The builder of 1491 Pitman was J. Cyril “Sid” Johnson, a hardworking developer who was the oldest son in a Utah Mormon family of six boys and four girls. Some of his earlier entrepreneurial endeavors included working on a chicken ranch, an alfalfa-threshing venture, and turkey farming.
Over the years, he developed many large real estate projects, ranging from residential subdivision development and apartments to shopping centers, industrial buildings, and convalescent centers. He also served as president of the San Francisco Home Builders Association.
By all accounts, Sid loved to try things that had never been done before, such as the lift-slab construction of the 1956 wing of a USGS building in Menlo Park, where he used eight jacks capable of lifting up to 50 tons to raise the pre-stressed concrete floors.
Here’s a comp for this “sale pending” property:
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1491 PITMAN AVE
Price: $1,750,000
Beds: 4 On Redfin: 10 days
Baths: 2 Year Built: 1958
sqft: 1,821 Lot Size: 6,970
$/Sqft: $961 MLS#: 729533
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