LOG CABIN IN HILLS MADE ART STUDIO Thomas Hal Boyd Wed, Jan 6, 1926 – Page 32 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) · Newspapers.com

LOG CABIN IN HILLS MADE ART STUDIO

Berkeleyan, Whose Love for Outdoors Led Him to Paint Builds Home Above City Near Joaquin Miller's

Hal Boyd loves the outdoors.

He has loved it since, as a youngster, he worked with his elder brother on a homestead in the mountains of Siskiyou.

He found that he loved it so greatly he must find some means of expressing his feeling for it.

So he determined to learn to paint.

That, in brief, is the story of Thomas Hal Boyd, former University of California man, and youthful artist. High above the city, on the Joaquin Miller road, Boyd lives in a log house of his own making. Employed by the city as a forest ranger to watch over the wooded hills of Sequoia Park, he tramps the trails by day, in correct uniform and with pistol at his side. Always, however, his eyes are drinking in the beauty of nature's settings. Meadows, woods and canyons register themselves on his mind, to be interpreted in oils on canvas when Boyd is off duty.

SON OF BERKELEYANS

Hal Boyd is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Parker Boyd of Berkeley. The father is nationally known as author and lecturer on psychology. Hal's career as an out-of-door man began in 1915 when he joined his brother Leonard on a northern California homestead. A year later he served with the military forces on the Mexican border, and in 1917 he entered the University of California to become a lieutenant in the United States air forces. Again in 1919 he resumed homesteading in Siskiyou. Returning to his home in Berkeley he entered art school in San Francisco, and later studied at the Arts and Crafts school in Berkeley, working under Martinez and Piazzoni.

"Of course my first attempts were crude, but gradually I began to feel the encouragement that is food to the spirit of the aspiring artist. When I heard that some timber was being cleared in the Joaquin Miller vicinity, I visited the place and acquired a qunatity of logs and stumps. Then I found this spot, an ideal place for a studio, and built myself a cabin."

MAKES OWN PLANS.

Boyd was totally inexperienced as a builder, and did not even work from plans. He had in his mind a clear idea of what he wanted and determined the details as he went along. When his funds were exhausted, he went to work as a carpenter, picking up meanwhile useful tricks of the trade. Then he would return and do further work on his studio.

When the Berkeley fire destroyed the Boyd home in Berkeley. Hal added to his log cabin, making it a residence to accommodate his mother, father and sister.

Boyd's canvases, all landscapes, have attracted favorable attention already, and are expected to meet favorable reception when he holds his first exhibition this fall.

He is a brother of Captain Leonard R. Boyd, U. S. Infantry, cited for bravery in the World war, who was for several years attached to the staff of the department of military science and tactics at the University of California.

Love of Out-of-Doors His Inspiration
Interior of cabin on heights back of Oakland where Thomas Hal Boyd, former University of California man and forest ranger, satisfies his ambition to be an artist. Inset is of Boyd. The artist built his log cabin home, which attracts the attention of tourists motoring over Mountain Boulevard, near Joaquin Miller's old home.

Dorothy Longadin has done a much better blog post about the cabin: The Boyd Log Cabin.

Do read about the Boyd Log Cabin on Oakland Localwiki

3551 Joaquin Miller Road has a "YearBuild" value of 1922, in the Alameda County parcel map

Thomas Harold "Hal" Boyd was born 06 Dec 1896 and died 10 Feb 1990. I'm not sure if this record will work, publicly, but here he is at ancestry.com. He lived at 3551 Joaquin Miller Road, but he's also mentioned living at 1675 Joaquin Miller Road in 1925, perhaps they renumbered the road. The 4/24/1946 article below lists Mrs. Marguerite Tebow, (née Boyd) Thomas's sister, at 3600 Joaquin Miller Road, Mrs. Mattie R. Boyd at 3543 Joaquin Miller Road. The 4/17/1955 article describes the fire that burns 3543 Joaquin Miller Road as belonging to Mrs. Mattie R. Boyd. One article calls her Nattie, her real name was Martha. There is no 3600 Joaquin Miller Road anymore. The parcel that would have that address is 3100 Robinson Drive, YearBuilt 1968.

Thomas H. Boyd (gardener) and Thomas P. Boyd on Joaquin Miller Road in the Oakland, California, City Directory, 1927

There is a house right next to the Boyd cabin, one door down Robinson, with the address 3111 Robinson Drive. You can clearly see that it began as a log cabin, and has been built up. Look at who built it!

DWELLING, one-story 3-room, $500; 3111 Robinson Drive, Oakland; owner, T. H. Boyd, 3551 Joaquin Miller Road.

Source: Pacific Constructor, Vol. XVII SAN FRANCISCO. CALIF., MAY 5, 1934 No. 18. It's YearBuilt is 1930, but its EffectiveY is 1960. I think that means it was a log cabin in 1930, and was built up in 1960. Here are some clippings about it.

3111 Robinson Drive four-room log cabin for rent, $40 Sun, Jan 14, 1940 – Page 35 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) · Newspapers.com

3111 Robinson Dr. log cabin Sun, Apr 15, 1951 – Page 34 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) · Newspapers.com

Here's a cabin that would have been across Joaquin Miller Road from Thomas Harold Boyd's cabin:

3540 Joaquin Miller Road 6-room log cabin Sun, Jun 2, 1940 – Page 37 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) · Newspapers.com

Thomas and his family would have bought lots, or houses in his relatives' cases, from the Realty Syndicate, which started marketing Joaquin Miller Acres after Sequoia Park was established, with land bought by the city from them as well. The blurb below, about Emil Vogts using lumber from his Joaquin Miller Acres homesite to build a cabin gives you the idea that Thomas H. Boyd probably had.

Joaquin Miller Acres Sun, Aug 5, 1923 – Page 16 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) · Newspapers.com

Emile Vogts log cabin Joaquin Miller Acres Sun, Jul 27, 1924 – Page 63 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) · Newspapers.com

More Newspaper Clippings

Here are more clippings about Ranger Harold "Hal" Boyd and his family, who all appeared to live near his cabin on Joaquin Miller Road at some point, in chronological order. Some of these are really interesting, and give all kinds of clues to who lived where, who was related to whom, the influence of Joaquin Miller himself, etc. It's worth noting that Grace Fountain was Thomas Harold Boyd's aunt, his mother's sister. The clippings are in chronological order: