Glide came from a prominent Sacramento family, while Williams was originally from Lebanon, Tennessee; the society news article announcing their wedding stated "he will make a home for his bride after the conclusion of their honeymoon.

[6]: 166  In the upstairs master suite where Williams lived, she used the fireplace for heat and sometimes forgot to open the flue; as Norma Willer later recalled, "I don't know what she burned but [...] it was a dark cave [when we inspected it for the University in 1971].

[8]: 51–52 According to Mary Grace Barron, a Claremont neighborhood resident and the real estate agent who would later handle its sale, "it was the 'dream house' of many [passersby] who speculated about its mysterious owner.

[6]: 166  Barron first enquired if Williams would donate it to the city of Berkeley's Civic Art Foundation along with an endowment to pay for its upkeep, suggesting that as she was a real estate agent, she would be happy to sell the house instead.

[4]: 3–4  After approximately six weeks of cleaning and repainting the upstairs bedroom where Williams had been living, the house was listed for US$125,000 (equivalent to $980,000 in 2023); Barron later recounted "it was a Julia Morgan and truly a beauty.

[9]: 14  According to Rowlands, who also was a Claremont resident that had long admired the home, the rector of St. Clement's Episcopal Church pulled him aside after a Sunday service in September 1970 to inform him that Barron had an exclusive listing on the property and suggested that UC may be interested.

[3][10] The cost of purchasing and remodeling the Williams home was criticized by Pete Stark in February 1971, who decried the "hypocrisy of a university system which pleads that it can't afford to help minority youth get a higher education while at the same time it buys plush mansions for its rank-and-file administrators.

"[11] In 1991, Turner and Elizabeth Kibby purchased the house from UC, having lost their previous home, designed by William Wurster, in the 1991 Oakland Hills fire.

[12] The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association gave a preservation award to the Kibbys in 2011 for their restoration, declaring "the house has come to life, opening its doors to a constant stream of guests, realizing the gracious potential for which it was originally designed by Julia Morgan.

[7]: 27  As Sara Boutelle, Morgan's biographer, writes, "when the heavy front door opens, it seems to invite a procession: the spacious living hall ... leads the eye up to a landing, where a great window with Gothic tracery ... looks out on a garden courtyard.