For diehard fans of C. E. Kelsey and Cornelia Taber, here’s a little tour of their California addresses. Much of the information comes from city directories at the San Jose Public Library’s California Room. It appears from the links to Google Map’s street view that few of the structures have survived.
C. E. Kelsey
69-70 Auzerais Building, 47 West Santa Clara Street, San Jose – Office (attorney at law), 1901. Kelsey rented an office in the Auzerais Building, which was “rapidly filling,” according to the San Jose Evening News of July 12, 1901. Among his neighbors in the building were fellow University of Wisconsin alumni Everis A. and Jay O. Hayes. The Hayes brothers published the Daily Mercury Herald in San Jose and Everis served in the US House of Representatives starting in 1905. Kelsey said that “he was materially aided in his efforts to secure the appropriation [for California Indians] by Congressman E. A. Hayes, who took a great deal of interest in the movement,” per the Mercury News of June 24, 1906. Kelsey gave up his office when he entered government service in 1905. The Auzerais Building was heavily damaged in the 1906 earthquake.
22 Clay Street, Santa Clara (?) – Rooms or residence, 1902.
1127 South 1st Street, San Jose – Rooms or residence, 1905.
81 North 2nd Street, San Jose – Kelsey joined a number of groups in San Jose and the Bay Area, including Trinity Church, a Protestant Episcopal church where he was a vestryman, the Trinity Men’s Club, and the Trinity chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, where he served as director. At the time, the local newspaper described Trinity Church as “the wealthiest and most fashionable church” in San Jose.
145 South 12th Street (Formerly 145 South Whitney Street), San Jose – Residence, 1912. Kelsey notified the commissioner of Indian affairs of his change of address effective January 1, 1913: “I have not changed my residence, but the City Council, in its wisdom, has changed the name of South Whitney Street to South Twelfth Street, to take effect January first.”
302 First National Bank Building, 1st and Santa Clara streets, San Jose – Office (lawyer), 1915. This was a nine-story concrete building on the southwest corner. Built in 1910, it was the tallest building in the city, “finely appointed,” with a lobby worthy of a postcard. The 1920 city directory calls Santa Clara and First street “the principal business sts.”
Saratoga, Santa Clara County – Home, 1918. The Kelseys rented out their home in San Jose and moved into a larger house in Saratoga, which they shared with Abigail’s older sister Martha and her husband Dr. Charles E. Wintermute. The widowed Mrs. Burleson, Abigail’s mother, also lived with them. While living in Saratoga, Kelsey retained his law office in San Jose.
Vista, San Diego County – Home, 1919. Kelsey had bought property in Vista years earlier with the intention of retiring there. In 1919 he moved his family there, to a home next to a small lemon and avocado orchard that Kelsey figured would provide some income in his retirement. He continued working until 1932 for the Land Department of the Southern Pacific Company, where he was in charge of leases.
270 South 13th Street, San Jose – Home, 1922. The Kelseys rented their Vista home in 1920 and returned to San Jose so that their daughter Mary could attend a good high school. After Mary graduated from San Jose High in 1924, C. E. and Abigail returned to Vista. C. E. was unexpectedly felled by a heart attack at his home on July 3, 1936, at age 74. His body was cremated and shipped to the Kelsey family plot in Temple Hill Cemetery in Geneseo, New York, where Abigail and Mary were later interred.
Cornelia Taber
14534 Oak Street, Saratoga – Home. According to a draft historic walking tour, the “two, single-style Craftsman cottages were the home for the Parson and Taber families. Mr. Edward Parsons was a widower with two teenaged children. The house next door was built for his socially active mother-in-law, Mrs. Augusta Taber and her activist daughter, Miss Cornelia Taber.” The cottages were designed by Wolfe & McKenzie, an architectural firm in San Jose. NCIA founder Anna Taber died in 1911, and Cornelia eventually moved to the East Bay. A February 1917 news item reported that the Taber home had been rented to the Knapp family. The home was sold in 1918 to the Lundblads, who turned it into the “very popular guest house and resort” known as Lundblad’s Lodge.