Patty Devlin and her five siblings grew up in this 1895-built house in Alameda, California.

“Her family purchased the Lafayette house in the early 1960s and tells of elaborate scavenger hunts in their house for Easter and one summer block party where rocker Eddie Money played—he was friends with a local jazz pianist playing at the party,” according to a story on the Alameda Architectural Preservation Society. “When she was a child there was public access to the lagoons and she remembers going out on them in the summers.”

Originally built as a spec home by famed local architect Joseph A. Leonard, this Victorian still boasts many original details including medallions on the ceilings, Lincrusta wall covering in the entry and quirky little porches on the second floor.

The Devlin siblings are still mostly local, so they decided to refurbish the house. “They were able to save, refurbish, and reuse most of the original baseboards and moldings. Where they needed to add or replace, they had custom moldings created to match.”

And while the original laundry chute no longer drops laundry, the door to the chute is still visible in the upstairs hallway. 

The house received a preservation award from the city.