About Cohen-Bray House/Victorian Preservation Center of Oakland/

Location:

1440 29th Avenue, Oakland, CA 94601, US

Mission Statement

The Victorian Preservation Center of Oakland was founded to preserve the historic Cohen-Bray House. Built in 1884, and still decorated with the original furnishings and and contents it is a unique study center for Victorian life in California. We are a non profit educational institution providing tours, and opportunities for study. We are a community resource for establishing and maintaining connections between the past and the present. By sharing its historical collections and grounds with our neighbors, local schools, higher learning institutions, and historic preservationists, we allow people to find similarities and bridge differences to create vibrant healthy communities. We depend on membership, grants, donors and volunteers to survive.

Description

We are preserving a Victorian House built in 1884. It has all the original furniture, wall paper, rugs and artifacts from the Cohen Bray Family. We are open once a month for public tours. Help with private teas and holiday fundraising teas and harvest festival. Experience our periodic paranormal explorations. Taking local school children on tours and stations in the garden. We have work parties inside twice a week and outside twice a month. We have a large garden with original plantings that need maintenance. We provide groups with community service projects. These include garden work days, maintenance projects and more.
Inside, we have many archiving projects with our extensive collections.We are working on cataloging all of the items in the house. Our 2021 goals, small to large are; working on the front yard, safety lighting and repairing and replacing the irrigation system. Upgrading and painting the kitchen and preparing the caretakers spaces. Long term goals are board development, fundraising, identifying donors so we can accomplish the large tasks of painting the outside of the house and replacing the foundation. We are also developing DIY workshops to build funds for house improvements and are looking for instructions to help.