Bert E. Remmel, an architect best known for his work in other parts of the Tristle Glen neighborhood and Alameda, designed the house for Charles I. and Marie Rubino who emigrated to Oakland about 1900.
This beautiful house is rumored to be a replica of a villa in Sicily. This superb example of the Mediterranean Style is notable for several characteristic features: low pitched red tile roof, smooth stucco walls, and design details derived from Mediterranean sources.
The two-story house, almost symmetrical, has an angled main entry flanked by the wings containing the living room to the right and the dining room to the left. Large multilight round-arched windows mark both rooms. Above these windows is the definitive decorative treatment, a stenciled frieze that the current owner added after he discovered the metal template in the basement. The colors used for the stenciling and the various building elements enhance the Mediterranean style.
The angled main entry portion, which anchors the two wings of the house, is differentiated by its extension from the wings and the current color scheme. The entry, reached by marble steps, is set off by a marble surround set in a curvilinear, splayed archway. It is emphasized above by a jettied, bracketed section with two round arched windows with colonettes and decorative spandrel panels.
Application for the permit to build the house at the corner of Longridge and Verrada.