Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Exploring San Francisco's Architecture
Few structures survive from the Mission or Gold Rush eras,
and the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed many major
Victorian buildings. As the city was rebuilt, architecture
became a focus of civic pride, and grand Neo-Classical
edifices in the Beaux Arts style embodied the city's
resurgence. By the 1930s, the Financial District's office
towers proclaimed its importance as the commercial center
of the west. Engineering advances and soaring property
values in the late 1960s gave rise to San Francisco's
towering skyscrapers.
Octagon House
. Also worth a
visit are the houses along the
east side of
Alamo Square
, the
group of well-preserved
working-class cottages in
Cottage Row
, and
Clarke's
Folly
, an elaborate 1892 Queen
Anne-style “country house” now
stranded in the cityscape.
Arts and Crafts
A more rustic, down-to-earth
style was adopted after the turn
of the century, inspired by the
English Arts and Crafts
movement. Architects used
redwood and uncut stone,
borrowing decorative Japanese
motifs, to achieve a natural
look. An entire block of Arts
and Crafts houses surrounds
Bernard Maybeck's
Goslinsky
House
in Pacific Heights, and
across the bay in Berkeley, his
Church of Christ, Scientist
is a
particularly fine example.
buildings on the 700 block of
Montgomery Street.
Mission
Between 1776 and 1823,
Spanish missionaries employed
American Indian laborers to
construct seven missions and
three fortresses, or “presidios,” in
the Bay Area. Known as the
mission style, this architecture is
characterized by thick walls of
rough adobe bricks, red tile
roofs and arcaded galleries
surrounding courtyards. Fine
examples of the style are
Mission Dolores
, San
Francisco's oldest building, and
the mission at
Carmel
.
Victorian
The most distinctive aspect of
the city's architecture is its array
of Victorian houses with their
elaborate ornamentation
(see
pp76-7)
. Examples of these
timber-frame houses can be
found throughout the city, but
only two are open to the public:
Haas-Lilienthal
House
and
Gold Rush
At the height of the Gold Rush,
most buildings were only
temporary, but as the
population stabilized, fireproof
brick was used. The best
survivors from the time are
preserved as part of
Jackson
Square Historical District
.
Particularly noteworthy
examples include Hotaling's
Warehouse and Distillery, which
dates from the 1860s, with cast-
iron pilasters and fireproof
shutters, and three 1850s
Victorian mansion built for Mark Hopkins on Nob Hill, destroyed in the fire
that followed the 1906 earthquake
Religious Architecture
The architectural diversity of the city is
most apparent in its churches. Since the
first simple, white-walled and red-tile-
roofed missions, the city's churches have
been built in an array of styles from Gothic
to Baroque with numerous hybrids in
between. Many prominent churches
were built during the eclectic Victorian
era of the late 19th century, and their
architectural styles reflect the traditions
of the countries from which their
congregations came.
St. Stephen's Lutheran
German Renaissance
First Unitarian Church
Gothic Revival
