Ephraim Field - Oakland

Ephraim Field (February 16, 1892 – December 7, 1959) was an architect, noted for designing various apartment buildings around Oakland in the 1920s.

Ephraim was born in McHenry County, Illinois in 1892 to John P.S. Field and Anne Severine Field. They also had two daughters, Anne Field and Judith Field. By 1896, the family had moved to Oakland where Judith was born, and John worked as a carpenter. Ephraim graduated from Oakland High School in 1910. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 1914, then got a Master of Arts in1915. Possibly for his master's thesis, he wrote a book, The Spanish Renaissance: The Climax of Architecture in Spain published in 1915. He studied architecture under John Galen Howard.

Field married Pearl Hazel Gilmour (Field) (July 2, 1893 – August 30, 1992) about 1918, and they had two daughters, Betty Ann Field (Houchens) and Shirley P. Field (Kay) (Markiewith).

In 1919, they moved to Honolulu, where Ephraim had "a position as architect with a well-known firm." The firm was Dickey and Wood, Charles W. Dickey and Hart Wood. The 1920 directory lists Pearl as a teacher at the Lili‘uokalani School.

In 1921, Field filed his certificate for architecture for Alameda County. c.1923 he partnered with architect Francis Harvey Slocombe. In 1927, Field had an office in the American Bank Building and the family was living in Piedmont.

In 1937, he worked for LeTourneau, a company that specialized in making heavy construction equipment. He designed some welded steel houses for the company to use as employee housing. This was an early example of pre-fab housing, as the houses could be lifted by a crane onto a truck or floated across small bodies of water.

The 1940 census lists Ephraim and Pearl living in Eden Township, in what would later become San Leandro.

At some point he became an architect for the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. Ephraim and Pearl lived in Hawai'i until the end of their lives. They are buried in Honolulu. Ephraim's parents and sisters continued to live in Oakland and Berkeley. They are buried in plot 58 of Mountain View Cemetery.