CC SA-BY Our Oakland
The Majestic is a Colonial Revival hotel building designed by architect Frederick Soderberg and built Henry Drath in 1903. Located 415-17 Fifteenth Street, Oakland, California, the building is a small four story wood frame now called the Ferns Hotel, with a ground floor store space on an interior lot. The upper floors are surfaced with narrow flush wood siding, with a pair of two story polygonal bays on the second and third floor shaft. Each third floor bay has an arched front window with molded hood and keystone, small circular windows above the side rectangular windows, and a flat roof with molded and dentiled cornice.
The three part windows on the top floor, above the bays, have small square paned upper sash. There is a molded cornice and paneled parapet. The storefront has been modernized. The hotel entry vestibule has a polychrome tile floor and open stairway with turned balustrade and fluted newel post.
The building is rare and well preserved example of a small wood frame residential hotel in Downtown Oakland and is the oldest building on this block, predating the spread of the financial center east of Broadway and illustrating the evolution of the district. It has been known variously as The Majestic (1905-30), the Rose (1933), and the Ferns (1934-present). In the 1920s the storefront was occupied by Fred T. Wood Real Estate.
This historic building is #50 on the list of District Contributors for the Downtown Oakland Historic District Registration Form.
photo CC BY-NC 2.0 by Thomas Hawk
Links & References
- National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Downtown Oakland Historic District
