11 Glen Alpine Rd., Piedmont, CA 94611

Set well back from the street on a gently rolling hillside, 11 Glen Alpine Road is one of the great estates of the East Bay. Built in 1929 for inventor Ernest J. Sweetland and designed by architect Frederick H. Reimers, this English Tudor and French Gothic residence features exterior walls of Bath stone imported from England and a distinctive purple Pennsylvania slate roof. Carved oak entry doors open to a marble vestibule with a domed gold-leaf ceiling and an extraordinary oak-paneled great hall stretching approximately 60 feet, where a sweeping staircase rises beneath a two-story leaded-glass window. The main floor features a magnificent 42-by-23-foot living room with a 15-foot beamed ceiling and dramatic seven-foot fireplace, a Gothic-windowed conservatory, an oak-paneled library, a striking octagonal dining room, and a tiled kitchen with serving and pastry pantries, a home office, and a sun-filled hexagonal breakfast room. The bedroom level offers eight bedrooms, including a...