Tours & Events
Tours of the Cohen Bray House, led by family members, showcase the home's original interiors and collections. Enjoy our period Victorian garden and meet our caretaker Mark in the window workshop.​ To tour, please purchase tickets.
To volunteer, please contact us in advance and fill out the form.
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Sunday, February 23, 2–3:45 p.m.
Sunday, March 23, 2–3:45 p.m.
Sunday April 27, 2–3:45 p.m.
Event
Mother's Day Tea & Tour
Saturday, May 10, 2025
11:30 a.m and 1:30 p.m. seatings
GET TICKETS
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Special Private Tours—including "behind the scenes" are offered on non-public tour days for 3+ people, scheduled for your convenience.
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Private Teas are also available. Fill out the form today!
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New Book Available!​​​
Growing Up in a Historic
Mansion in Oakland California:
Memoirs of Emelita Cohen
Purchase the book from our gift shop
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Why is this house important?
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 as the Alfred H. Cohen House and designated an Oakland Historic Landmark in 1978, the Cohen Bray House represents what is left of the fortune of two prominent Bay Area families from the Gold Rush era. Death and embezzlement changed those fortunes. The house and property are all that remain on the original 200 acres of the Bray Estate in the Fruitvale District. The homestead was established by W.A. Bray in 1862 and was called Oak Tree Farm.​ The house remains complete, filled with the original contents and interiors. The original carpets are too fragile for the traffic of people required to be a museum. We are now a study center for everyone who loves the complete picture. If you are interested in studying the early Fruitvale culture, the architecture and interiors, this is the place for you!
Why are my membership/ donations needed?
The funding that built and furnished the house ran out in 1925. This historic house unlike other houses is not supported monetarily by funds from a dedicated trust or government funding. The whole family understood and agreed that this amazing house and contents are an irreplaceable time capsule. Challenged to cover the high costs of maintenance, in 1994, they willingly created the Victorian Preservation Center of Oakland as a 501(c)3 (V. P.C.O.). By donating the house, contents and property, the house and the remaining 1/2 acre are tax-exempt, more eligible for grants, bequeathments, and donations. This status enables the V.P.C.O. and its members to restore and preserve the house and grounds for the future.
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We are a volunteer organization and 100% of the donations go directly into maintaining the house and property. Becoming a member of the Victorian Preservation Center of Oakland provides us with a budget each year and is the best way to insure the preservation of this unique home and property for future generations.
The House and Property
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The three-story house is a hybrid of the times, 1883 Stick-style Victorian architecture in the front rooms and, after the damage from the 1906 earthquake, rooms in the rear of the house remodeled in Craftsman style. The house has 17 rooms, five fireplaces, Eastlake-style ornately carved curly redwood paneling and pocket doors, Pottier & Stymus and Herter Brothers furnishings, stained art glass and original wallpapers and carpeting.​
The property also includes a half-acre garden. It is complete with native trees, fruit trees, seasonal vegetables, hops, wildflowers, two beehives, rose bushes and other ornamentals planted in 1884.
In 1865, this property was originally the asparagus patch of Oak Tree Farm Estate before it was gifted to W.A. Bray's oldest daughter, Emma. He built her the Cohen Bray House on the property as a wedding present. A.A. Cohen, her father-in-law who lived in Alameda at the Fernside Estate, provided the house with the most modern high-end furnishings that money could buy in 1883.
Here is a rare and unique opportunity to study and learn about the Cohen Bray family's life from 1884 to the 1980s. The house is full of all the original contents since the time of its construction, including items from the estates of their parents' houses, long ago dismantled.
Join us to protect this gem of a house and property. It takes a community to save a house. The next big project is fixing the first section the foundation of the south driveway side of the house. Thanks to people who care, like you, we have raised enough funds to begin phase 1 of the Foundation Project. There are four phases.
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The large buildings across the back of the property now offer us an opportunity to become more sustainable into the future. We are using part of the building space as a workshop to repair the 85+ wooden windows and doors. 30 are completely rebuilt so far by volunteers and Mark, our caretaker who lives and works on the property with his wife, Liz.
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We are contacting skilled retired craftspeople to teach/help with projects. Refine your DIY techniques, and learn what parts the pros should do. We can use the back buildings to teach and practice the crafts of preservation and restoration while we share our work on the house.
We are looking for fundraisers and funding to upgrade these back buildings. We want to be a resource to the community by providing training and scholarships for individuals from our neighborhood.
Join us with your funds, time and talent and help us keep this rare piece of California history together and moving safely toward the future.
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Friends, please support us through your membership! Join or renew today! You are helping us survive.
We need YOU! We need help with rebuilding wooden windows, cataloging our collections, cleaning artifacts, decorating and serving for events, gardening and painting.
Our board is a small group of working volunteers. Are you interested in saving a historic building so it lasts another 140 years? Contact us, share your energy and skills. Bring your depth of experience to our board.
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School Programs
Connect students and teachers to the house and land through hands-on experiences in the house and garden, and family stories. See reservation form.
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2023–24 projects:
Foundation work
Window project
Pictures of cleaned encaustic fireplace tiles
Kitchen and butlers pantry restoration
Capital projects that need your help!
Our goal is to preserve and protect this amazing house. Help us toward that goal for future generations. Fall in love and become a volunteer.
Come once or many times, there is always something you haven't seen yet. Once you've been here, you will never forget it.
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In The News
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Read articles (4/20/24) in the Alameda Post about Emelie Gibbons Cohen's recollections of
How it affected Alameda (Part 2)
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Enjoy this Oaklandside article (3/17/23) about our challenges restoring the house.
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See this wonderful blog post by photographer Anna Wu.

Help make sure the future
doesn't lose the past.
