For as long as Janet Conway can remember, 920 Kingston Ave. in Piedmont has been the heart of her family. Since it was built in 1912, its four bedrooms have housed members of her close-knit clan for stays that could last days or decades. Conway, who’s in her late 60s, lived there for most of the 1960s while her father finished college in Hayward.
Several weddings have taken place in the home, and huge turkeys somehow emerged from the tiny 1930s-era oven each Thanksgiving, served in a dining room that still has a button built into the floor to alert staff to clear the plates. When Conway and her immediate family departed for Reno, Nevada, in 1967, her aunt and uncle moved in. The extended family was scandalized when they painted the entry and living room a deep magenta and dared to remove a set of French doors.
“We don’t change much in this family,” Conway said. “We tend to stick with what we’ve got.”
That aunt, Janet Gervolstad, ended up living in the home until a few years ago. She hosted family gatherings there into her 90s; her stepdaughter and, later, a niece moved in so she could stay, though her mobility issues eventually required a move to an assisted living facility…