Blume Ranch Bunk House

The bunk house, built in 1894, was also part of the Blume Ranch complex. The building was relocated in 1974 to its current location after Standard Oil purchased the Blume Ranch property to expand operations.

The Blume Bunk House is an interesting extant example of a late-19th-century agricultural utility building.  The eave turnbacks on the second story, symmetry of second story window placing, and high, boxy, rectangular massing are evocative of earlier nineteenth-century architectural styles not typically seen in California.  While the building is referred to as the “Bunk House,” the lower story, with only two small windows and a large sliding door on the north-facing side, likely served as a machine shed, garage, or barn during its period of use on the Blume’s farm while laborers may have resided on the second story.  Although it does not possess high artistic values or represent the work of a master, the Blume Bunk House does embody the practical and stylistic elements of late nineteenth-century agricultural utility buildings in western Contra Costa County.

The Bunk House is a two-story rectangular building approximately 40 feet east-west and 14 feet north-south with a steeply sloped single-gable roof covered with composition shingles.  The east- and west-facing gables have eave turnbacks that are level with the mid-line of the rectangular second-story windows on the east side.  The north-facing side of the building has a sliding utility door slightly off-center to the east, one rectangular first-story window that is either original or a compatible replacement, and one entrance on the building’s northwest corner with a modern door.  An electrical light fixture not original to the building has been installed over the utility door.

A wood accessibility ramp, staircase, and small deck provide access to the utility door and corner entrance on the building’s north side.  The building’s south-facing side has one wood frame rectangular window near the eastern end.  Seams visible in the tongue-in-groove siding on the south wall suggest multiple repairs and/or reconfiguration of windows or entrances.  Similarly, the single second story window near the north end of the west-facing side is likely original or a compatible replacement, but evidence of patched siding suggests that a matching window (that would be symmetrical with the building’s east wall) may have been removed.

May 2017 Photos from the City of San Pablo Historic Resource Assessment Report