Historic Daniel & Meta Best Home

This home was built in the late 1870’s by Joseph Demont, a San Leandro pioneer active in industry and politics. Daniel Best bought the property in 1886 and established Daniel Best Agricultural Works, which later became Caterpillar Tractor. An active inventor and entrepreneur, he obtained 41 patents in his lifetime, including a combined steam traction harvester and thresher. He also built the Best Building and a movie theater on East 14th Street. Daniel and Meta Best raised six children in this home, and their daughter Viola and her husband, Frank Webster, later bought the home and raised their five children here as well. The house is a two-story Italianate Victorian with 15 rooms and a cellar, and the property also included a large old-fashioned garden, a Victorian carriage house, and a workshop. The wrought-iron fence surrounding the garden was installed in 1894.

San Leandro, California · United States