Edgar Mathews

Edgar Asahel Mathews (September 8, 1866 – December 31, 1946) was an architect who worked in the Bay Area of California, particularly in San Francisco. He primarily designed houses but was also responsible for some Christian Science churches and commercial and government buildings.

Edgar Mathews was born in Oakland, the third son of Julius Case Mathews and his wife Pauline, née McCracken. His father was an architect and all three sons trained with him; the eldest, Walter, went into partnership with him, while the second, Arthur, became an artist. Edgar received further training at the Van Der Naillen School of Engineering, from which he graduated in 1888, and after working for his father and others, opened his own architectural office in 1895. He moved to San Francisco soon after, and most of his work was built there.

Mathews designed a large number of houses, particularly in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, where in 1908 he built 2980 Vallejo Street for himself and his wife, Katherine née Dart. He drew on English arts and crafts conventions: his houses are often in a half-timbered style with high-pitched roofs suggesting English Tudor, and even more often squarish and clad in unpainted redwood shingles. He also designed apartment houses, usually in the shingled style. Both his houses and his apartments usually have porches and a low wall around the lot; his apartment buildings characteristically have separate entrances for each unit. His work is the primary reason for Pacific Heights' reputation for shingle-style buildings.

In San Francisco, houses by Mathews include 2361 Washington Street (1898, for William Gerstle) and 2421 Pierce Street (1897 or c. 1903, for James Irvine), both in the Tudor style, and 2505 Divisadero Street (1899), former home of rock musician Kirk Hammett, in Georgian style. Two houses designed by Mathews in Berkeley are city landmarks: the Cornelious Beach Bradley House (1897) and the Benjamin Ide Wheeler House (1900; remodeled by Lewis Hobart). Of his apartment houses, those at 1390–1392 Page Street and 200 Central Avenue are in a characteristic Shingle-Craftsman style; the row of flats at 2100 Lyon Street is typical of his shingled apartment houses in Pacific Heights, and the row at 100–114 Walnut Street (the Stein apartments) also has an unusually varied roofline.

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