Amazing Details in Berkeley, CA - $2,198,000
1049 Keith Ave, Berkeley, CA 94708
4 bed/4 bath - 3,425 sqft
n the early 1920s, artist-architect Paul Beygrau and his wife, Marie Rosalie Schaff, a gifted woodcarver from Alsace, arrived in Berkeley after distinguished work abroad. Trained in both fine arts and architecture, Beygrau had designed interiors for royal commissions in England and public buildings in Winnipeg. Together, they turned to a deeply personal project in the Berkeley hills, creating neighboring homes that would express their shared artistic vision. At 1049 and 1051 Keith Avenue, they produced what many regard as their collaborative masterwork - a rare expression of European artistry translated into California architecture. Featured on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle in 1928, the home was described as “the most remarkable expression of domestic art and architecture in the Bay Region.” Massive hand-carved doors, reportedly shaped by Marie herself, open to interiors rich in material and craft. Inlaid hardwood floors run throughout, while the living and dining rooms unfold with grand scale, clad in solid redwood wainscoting. Overhead, decorative ceilings reflect European fresco traditions, reimagined in sculptural plaster and painted finishes.
