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	Photo: Lisa Sze

    While most people have longstanding family holiday traditions, one local family—the descendants of the Cohen-Brays—is among an elite few whose customs date back to the late 1800s in one location. So that the public may join in on these time-honored festivities while helping to preserve one of the city’s oldest standing residences, the Cohen-Bray house opens its doors for two spectacular events this season.
    Like many in the Bay Area, Berkeley resident Patty Reidenbach feels lucky to have her family living nearby for the holidays. But unlike many local natives, she can solidly trace her family’s Oakland roots as far back as the 1800s: The evidence is well preserved in the Cohen-Bray mansion that stands today beautifully maintained at 1440 29th Ave. in Oakland’s Fruitvale District.
    Completed in 1884 as a wedding gift to Reidenbach’s great-grandparents, Alfred Henry Cohen and Emma Bray, the mansion was one of the first residences built in the area and remains one of the very few still in existence. The five-bedroom Eastlake Stick Victorian–style home was constructed by the bride’s wealthy merchant family, who also gave the couple a lot across the street, parceled out from a much larger mansion estate.
    To complete the generous wedding gift, the groom’s family—an equally wealthy entrepreneurial family from Alameda’s Fernside Estate (now known as the Fernside District)—furnished the spacious house.
    While the house has changed very little over its 123 years, the world around it has been greatly transformed. But the Cohen-Bray house’s contemporary surroundings—paved streets, cars and much-younger closely neighboring homes—do little to quash this vital link back to an era that benefited greatly from the state’s post-Gold Rush–era days, when transportation was by horse and carriage and the land was chockfull of fruit vales.
    The importance of this legacy has never been lost on Reidenbach and the rest of her family. They have refused to relinquish control of the house and allow it to meet the same unceremonious fate as the city’s other historic homes, including the elder Brays’ neighboring estate, which was torn down decades ago. The family has worked tirelessly over the years to preserve the manse’s constantly deteriorating structure. “The family didn’t like a lot of change,” explains Reidenbach, “so most of what you see is truly what was here on Alfred and Emma’s wedding day.” Some things have been impossible to maintain against the test of time and weather. The roof and some of the windows, for instance, have fallen victim to Mother Nature, making replacement necessary—with materials as close to the original as possible.
    The staggering annual cost of keeping up such a preservation endeavor made it ultimately impossible for the family to bear the responsibility alone. When Reidenbach’s great-aunt Emelita Cohen (the youngest of the four Cohen-Bray children and a lifelong resident and advocate of the mansion) passed away at age 90 in 1988, the family and other devotees of the mansion formed a nonprofit organization called the Victorian Preservation Center of Oakland. “Emelita always said that she grew up in the country and ended up in the city without moving anywhere. The city came to her,” recalls Reidenbach. “We all understand that life changes, but we want to do all that we can to preserve this house and all that it means to the city as well as my family.”
    Thanks to the support of the VPCO board, grants and donations from community members, life has certainly remained unchanged when it comes to the Cohen-Bray Christmas family traditions, which were carefully documented by Emelita Cohen. In her memoirs, she recounts the anticipation that would stir in her and her three siblings on the days leading up to Christmas. On Christmas Eve, the children would hang their cherished stockings upon the still-present hooks fixed steadfastly on the library’s mantle. After Christmas Day lunch at their paternal grandmother’s house in Alameda, the family would return home for a lavish dinner, which the children could hardly get through without the nervous excitement of what was in store for them behind the closed doors of the smoking room. At long last, the adults would open the doors and allow the children to finally see their brilliantly wrapped gifts under the breathtaking candlelit tree.
    So that the public may join in on the grand holiday tradition, the Cohen-Bray house opens its doors for two spectacular events every holiday season. Summoning up their ancestors’ past, the family, board members and volunteers dress in Victorian-era costumes and serve high tea with the family’s china to guests in the formal dining room. Included in this elegant affair is a tour through the house. Additionally, the house offers similar teas at different times throughout the year.
    The Twelfth Night dinner, a five-course feast truly unique to Christmas, offers guests a once-a-year opportunity to hear a reading of Aunt Emelita’s memoirs just before the unveiling of the Christmas tree in the smoking room. “Because there is so much family participating in these events, guests feel like they’ve been invited into someone’s home. It’s not a re-creation, but a continuation of our family’s traditions,”
says Reidenbach.

Join the Tradition 

    To be a part of the Cohen-Bray family tradition this season, make reservations by calling (510) 843-2906 or visiting www.cohen-brayhouse.info. The high tea is Dec. 29, with seatings at 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. The cost is $25; $20 for youth under 18. The Twelfth Night dinner is on Jan. 5, 2008. The cost is $125. Seating is limited, so book early.