To capitalize upon the forthcoming Pacific Coast Railway station in Los Olivos, California, enterprising Swiss immigrant Felix Mattei opened a convivial hotel and restaurant in this stretch of the Santa Ynez Valley in 1886. Today, it’s evolved into the luxe 67-room Inn at Mattei’s Tavern, part of the Auberge Resorts Collection.

“Mattei’s was a stagecoach stopover in the middle of the Central Coast that charmed everyone along the way,” says Nicole Campion, director of design at Auberge. “Given its history and the way people are attached to it, we wanted to honor that—the building, the family, and the tight-knit community. Everyone there owns a little piece of Mattei’s.”

The revamp, courtesy of Santa Barbara-based DMHA Architecture and the San Francisco office of AvroKO (the firm recently designed the restaurant Bear at fellow Auberge Resorts destination Stanly Ranch in Napa Valley) melds carefully preserved original structures with artful layers of storytelling, beginning with the Tavern, the heart of the inn.

“It’s remembered fondly over generations. Bringing it back to life was paramount,” says AvroKO cofounder and principal Greg Bradshaw, whose team uncovered the old backbar from storage, used distressed plaster on the walls, and restored the wood finish on the wainscoting.

Guests get an artful glimpse into the site’s ranching history behind the reception desk in the rehabbed farmhouse

In the former ticket office, now the Tavern’s receiving area, a dressing room screen upholstered with found rugs nods to the “carpetbagger” luggage of yore. Modern portraits of Felix and his wife Lucy—who deliberately faces away from the bar to capture her zeal for the temperance movement—are also on display at the restaurant, rounded out by works from their artist son Clarence in Felix Feed & Coffee, a transformation of the one-time Red Room embellished with a chandelier of the same hue and period wallpaper. Gin’s Tap Bar, meanwhile, is fittingly located in what served as the sleeping quarters for Gin Lung Gin, a chef at Mattei’s first incarnation.

Strolling between buildings is part of the Los Olivos allure, and AvroKO wanted to extend that small-town vibe to the inn, with the site’s own petite volumes creating opportunities for “outside seating areas, firepits, herb gardens, and lawns. The historic water tower in the middle of the property is a great center point,” says Bradshaw.

Distressed plaster and restored wood give the Tavern, the heart of the inn, a new life

Humble materials—white clapboard, oak, and painted brick among them—are also in keeping with the simplicity of the past. “Even the plumbing fixtures are an all-natural brass meant to tarnish over time so that nothing feels too modern,” he adds.

Many details like waxed canvas, burlap, and iron recall the area’s entrenched ranching culture, including Los Rancheros Visitadores, the social club that boasted the likes of Walt Disney and Ronald Reagan within its ranks. At the bar, for example, there is an installation of vintage horseshoes pinned up by horse nails and bolstered with plaques bearing the names of members’ horses. Behind the reception desk are vitrines showcasing a sculptural collection of stirrups and spurs, while handpainted tiles in the Tavern restroom depict bygone rancheros from a stumbled-upon book of Western-themed illustrations.

All the fresh, homey guestrooms, complete with alfresco retreats, also pay homage to the inn’s homesteading roots by pairing “a white, crisp farmhouse shell,” as Campion puts it, with a “beautiful, sun-drenched palette of goldenrod, sage green, and silver lavender that connects to the land.”

This article originally appeared in HD’s October 2023 issue.

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CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Cheyenne’s recently restored Airport Fountain is ready to represent the city’s aviation history.

On Saturday, Sept. 9, dozens of community members flocked to the fountain, which is located at the corner of East 8th Street and Warren Avenue, to celebrate its completion. The event also acknowledged the grand opening of the city’s designated Arts and Aviation Center, which is located at the original passenger terminal on nearby 8th Street and House Avenue.

The terra-cotta fountain was commissioned by the city in 1935 to memorialize the heritage of aviation in Cheyenne. Located in front of the terminal, the fountain created a formal entrance to the airport. In 1985, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The Cheyenne Historic Preservation Board, or CHPB, had a landscape study done in 2009 as the fountain was being threatened with demolition. Since the initial study, the board has restored the landmark over two phases of work for a total cost of $132,684. Restoration efforts, which were completed in 2022, included replacing old tiles, updating the masonry and upgrading the plumbing and lighting systems. Funding for the project came from the city’s Planning and Development Office, CHPB’s private fundraising events and several grants including the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund and Women’s Civic League. In October 2022, CHPB members launched a successful petition to officially name the median strip Airport Fountain Park.

In May 2023, local arts organization Arts Cheyenne received a $50,000 Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The funds will be used to conduct a visioning and design initiative for renovating the circa-1961 terminal into an arts, culture and aviation history facility.

During Saturday’s ceremony, CHPB Chair Milward Simpson and members Gary Sims and Don Herrold recapped the board’s multiple-year efforts to preserve and restore the fountain. They also recalled the city’s colorful aviation history, which included being one of the first U.S Post Office air mail service stops in 1920 and hosting the nation’s first stewardesses training program in 1930.

Cheyenne architect Jerry Berggren and contractors from the Colorado-based Mountain Masonry also spoke about the the specialized restoration process. The ceremony concluded with a 10-second countdown to welcome back the fountain’s iconic spouts. Attendees then took photos and enjoyed the cool mist from the water.

Milward Simpson, chairman of the Cheyenne Historical Preservation Board, cuts pieces of cake at the fountain dedication. (Photo by Stephanie Lam / Cap City News)

Simpson said he is “gratified and proud” that the fountain is finally finished.

“I think it’s really important that the citizens of Cheyenne understand just how important our aviation history is and what a special and unique part [it is] of who we are in this city,” he said.

The board plans to also incorporate interpretative signage near the fountain highlighting historical aviation figures and events, Simpson said. One person the board has in mind is Ellen Church, who became the world’s first female flight attendant after flying from San Francisco to Cheyenne.

An ornament of the Cheyenne Historic Airport Fountain made by Gary Sims. (Photo by Stephanie Lam / Cap City News)

Although the fountain was closed off for years, CHPB continued to promote the landmark. Sims, for instance, created a nostalgic limited-edition ornament of the fountain in 2021. All of the proceeds went toward the restoration project.

“I put bubbles coming off of it because in high school everybody use to go [put detergent] in there and let it bubble over,” he said. “There’s also a hypodermic needle because it was during COVID … and a piece of a tile from the original fountain on the back.”

Seeing the fountain up and running also means a lot for local airplane enthusiast Jonathan Lemley and his family. Lemley own multiple Cessna planes that were on display at the old terminal during the center’s opening. The pilot is fascinated with aviation history and likes to seek out fountains, museums or historical markers when he travels.

“We’re obsessed with the airport, airplanes and everything,” he said. “It’s pretty neat watching them go through [the restoration process]. [The fountain’s] calming to me, it’s something unique to Cheyenne that people can stop to look at.”

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SAN FRANCISCO — When the series began Friday, the Orioles had lost back-to-back series for the first time this year. Their pitching team had 12 runs against Cleveland Wednesday while the bullpen gave up 11 runs.

But on a weekend when they faced a San Francisco Giants team that had won four of their last five series and was 11-5 in their previous 16 games, the Orioles won two out of three games against the Giants.

Their pitching team restored order despite playing three more games without Cedric Mullins and the final 15 innings of the series without Gunnar Henderson, who left Saturday’s game with lower back problems. The good news is that manager Brandon Hyde said Sunday he was doing better and seemed confident Henderson could play in the Milwaukee series, which begins tomorrow night.

O’s pitching gave up runs two, four, and three in the series at Oracle Park, allowing for nine runs with 21 hits in the 10-walk, 34-strikeout games.

Right-hander Tyler Wells peaked in his career with nine strikeouts on Sunday, but all the Ks also helped his pitch count increase and he left the game after 5 1/3 innings with 102 pitches. Mike Baumann, Yennier Cano, and Austin Voth covered the last 3 2/3, allowing for a hit and a run.

The O’s’ Pen gave up two runs in 10 2/3 against San Francisco after ending the Cleveland series badly at home.

“I think it’s great for them,” Wells said. “It’s a season of ups and downs for many of us. We will experience ups and downs. But overall they have recovered well and hopefully that keeps us on track.”

Of his nine days of strikeouts, Wells said, “I think it was a combination of different things. I think me and (catcher James) McCann agreed most of the time. Every time he pitched and got to the spot where he wanted the pitch, I would try to find him there every time. I didn’t try to knock out a lot of people today. I was just trying to achieve my goals and luckily it worked out that way.”

The Orioles are now 37-22 overall and 20-10 away. They are 8-2 away in the away series and after that latest win, Hyde said he wasn’t sure why his club were playing so well away from home this season.

“I do not know the answer. I think we have a lot of professionals who are ready to play. Come prepared to the park and like I said I’ve come here many times and this is not an easy place to play. So to get two out of three here, that’s a good series for us,” Hyde said.

Lester’s big hit, Lester’s big day: Henderson’s failure yesterday opened the door for the Orioles to start Josh Lester at third base. And Lester, who went 5-0 in his first two major league games for Detroit last September, scored his first MLB goal in the O’s jersey.

During Baltimore’s third inning with six runs, he hit a 3-2 pitch, loading the bases into midfield for a two-run single. A third run was counted due to a game error and a 3-0 lead became 6-0.

Lester, 28, a 13th-round draft pick for the Tigers in 2015, waited 795 minor league games and 2,988 at-bats for his first base hit in the big league. And it was big for the Orioles.

“Someone who’s never been on the top prospect list,” said Hyde, clearly touched by Lester’s background and history. “Someone who gets drafted in the 13th round. Look around the big leagues, there are a lot of guys like that. His story is great, he grew up in a baseball family. I’m grinding at Triple-A right now. Gunnar cannot go today. He gets a start. Huge success, great success for us. One that we honestly didn’t understand. I got a big hit that gave us some breathing room, and it did.”

Lester said of his particular achievement and moment: “Obviously, I’ve looked forward to this my entire life, ever since I was five years old and playing baseball. Even better, it came at an important point in the game with a couple of guys.

“I think I might have passed out a bit. Obviously just a surreal moment. I spent a lot of time in the minor leagues and a little bit in the big leagues last year. But getting that first hit is just a huge moment. I’m confident in my ability and in my chance to come back and take a hit, but it’s a huge load off your shoulders and a big smile on your face when it does.”

He definitely made his contribution.

“Absolutely. No matter how much you travel in the minor leagues, fast or slow, scoring the first goal and moving up to the big leagues is everyone’s dream. But to spend so much time in the minor leagues and kind of Fighting through it definitely means a lot to me,” said Lester, who is now 1-8 in MLB.

He said he would give the ball to his parents or maybe send it to his fiancee.

He also discussed how we’ve seen in an O’s organization full of prospects that this year also saw some older players like Ryan O’Hearn and Lester get their chances. Both have since celebrated great successes for the club.

“I think it’s a testament to the organization. Obviously player development is intense. The Triple A team is full and the Double A team also has some people and the player development is really good. But when we bring in people who they think can contribute to the win – and I think when you talk to O’Hearn – we’re both just here to help the big league team do as much as we can to win,” added Lester.

Kjerstad moves up: The Orioles promote Heston Kjerstad from Double-A Bowie to Triple-A Norfolk. He earned a 3-4 win with an RBI in Bowie’s 14-10 loss to Harrisburg on Sunday.

In 46 games this season with the Baysox, 2022 Arizona Fall League MVP Kjerstad hit .310/.383/.576/.959 with 10 doubles, three triples, 11 homers and 23 RBIs.

Norfolk have today off and will open their next series Tuesday night at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

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Margie Talavera was a Navy corpsman at the tail end of the Vietnam War. Like many veterans of many wars, she doesn’t enjoy talking about what she experienced, the wounded sailors she patched up — or the alcohol addiction that pursued her into civilian life.

In the decades since her six-year hitch ended in 1979, Talavera became a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey clown, a postal carrier and more. But the booze and the trauma it no longer masked pitched her into occasional periods of couch surfing until finally, a few years ago, she became someone she fervently did not want to be: a person without a home in San Francisco.

That’s when that time in the Navy as a healing corpsman paid off, and in a way, reached through the years to heal her.

In late 2020, Talavera became one of the first people to move into the Edwin M. Lee Apartments, a state-of-the-art supportive housing complex for 62 formerly homeless veterans, built near Oracle Park, the San Francisco Giants stadium in Mission Bay.

Top of story: Margie Talavera holds her dog tags and service medal from her time in the U.S. Navy. She lives in the Edwin M. Lee Apartments, a state-of-the-art supportive housing complex for 62 homeless veterans.

Above: Talavera feeds her dog, Little Bear, after a walk in the neighborhood near her home.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

“I have to pinch myself sometimes to believe I actually live here,” said Talavera, 67, who shares her roomy one-bedroom apartment with her 10-year-old Scottish terrier, Little Bear. “The first thing I saw when I walked in here was the brand-new bathroom, and nobody had ever used it. After living in my car and on couches of friends and family…”

She stopped, eyes wide, unable to speak for a moment.

“It’s beautiful.”

The Edwin M. Lee Apartments, fully opened in 2021, are a showpiece of how to reduce homelessness through permanent supportive housing, in this case by blending conscious architectural design with a citywide-best ratio of one case manager for every 12 residents.

They’re everything the city is shooting for in supportive housing, in contrast to the troubled century-old residential hotels
exposed by The Chronicle
this year as substandard.

But the complex also represents an effort to jump-start a very specific promise to the nation’s military veterans, one that stalled during the four-year term of former President Donald Trump.

‘A commitment to end veterans homelessness’

Talavera picks up a meal at a lunch for veterans hosted in September by a volunteer community group, Twitter for Good, in the community room of the Edwin M. Lee Apartments.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Veteran homelessness had declined by 47% from 2010 to 2016 as the federal government made the extra health and housing resources available through the Department of Veterans Affairs to quickly move veterans into supportive housing geared for them. That momentum halted after Trump’s election as his national homelessness and welfare officials reduced emphasis on the issue in funding and policy decisions, leaving the numbers flat as he left office.

However, during the first two years of the Biden administration, the nation saw an 11% reduction in the number of homeless veterans, according to figures released this month by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. That brings the one-night national total of unhoused veterans to 33,136 — 55% fewer than the 2010 total of 74,087.

Until the latest national figures came out, San Francisco had been roughly keeping pace with the nation,
cutting its number of homeless veterans
by 45% from 2010 to 2019. But while the rest of the nation improved, the city’s numbers stayed flat from 2019 to 2022 — from 608 homeless vets to 605 — even as the overall homeless
one-night count fell 3.5%
to 7,754.

But program managers with the city’s coordinated entry system for homeless residents say the needle may be moving in the right direction again. Ten months after the last official survey was conducted in January, program managers say the city’s coordinated entry system that routes homeless people into services is indicating that the current nightly number of unhoused veterans appears to have dropped to around 400.

Experts acknowledge that one-night Point-In-Time counts, normally taken every two years but delayed by the pandemic, are imprecise at best. And the daily calculations conducted by the coordinated entry system could change. But together they seem to reflect progress.

Federal homelessness officials and national experts credited the national drop to the renewed focus, outlined in a multiagency agenda released in 2021, and new funding including $481 million for VA homelessness programs in the American Rescue Plan.

“I’m seeing movement nationally, and I’m seeing movement in San Francisco,” said Ann Oliva, one of the architects of former President Barack Obama’s national veterans homelessness program. “Our progress on ending veterans homelessness is the proof point for ending all homelessness.”

Oliva is now executive director of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. While working with the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Obama, she and
Dr. Josh Bamberger, UCSF
clinical and family medicine professor, helped develop the 2010 national strategy that led to the reduction in the unhoused veterans’ population.

The Biden administration is asking Congress for 200,000 new housing vouchers to be used nationally, an unspecified number of which could be used for veterans. Along with an increase in grants coming to the city, local vet program managers see progress ahead.

“The Trump administration really put the kibosh on housing vouchers for veterans — and focus on vets in general — but we’ve been encouraged,” said
Michael Blecker, executive director
of Swords to Plowshares — which with the Chinatown Community Development Center developed and operates the Lee apartments. “I think we can make progress.”

Another veterans housing complex of 105 units is expected to open on Treasure Island in February, and Swords to Plowshares — the city’s main homeless veterans aid nonprofit — anticipates getting a $4.5 million grant from the state Department of Veterans Affairs in January to help house vets.

Swords has already gotten several million more dollars for homeless vets programs and housing this year, including $1.2 million in federal and city funds to expand its drop-in center, along with nearly $1 million in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs funding for suicide prevention among the same population.

The city Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing intends to focus on unhoused vets with the most acute difficulties.

“San Francisco made a commitment to end veterans homelessness, and of course there are more challenges than just supplying a roof,” Mayor London Breed said. “The services are very important, too, so I’m looking forward to any new resources we get. I see movement in the right direction.”

The most important beneficiaries of any progress, of course, are the ones who get roofs.

Army veteran Randall Larson, a longtime artist, looks over his paints in his home at the Edwin M. Lee Apartments.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Randall Larson is seen in an archival photo from approximately 1979 when he served in the U.S. Army. He now lives at the Edwin M. Lee Apartments, a state-of-the-art supportive housing complex in San Francisco for 62 formely homeless vets.

Handout/Courtesy Randall Larson / Handout/Courtesy Randall Larson

Army veteran Randall Larson holds a prescription he received in September to help him deal with lingering pain in his arm and shoulders from an injury sustained years ago. He lives in the Edwin M. Lee Apartments, a state-of-the-art supportive housing complex in Mission Bay for 62 formely homeless vets, which has comprehensive medical and counseling services.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Left: Larson in 1979, when he served in the U.S. Army. Right: Larson holds a prescription he received in September to help him deal with lingering pain in his arm and shoulders from an injury sustained years ago. Photos courtesy Randall Larson and by Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle
Top: Larson in 1979, when he served in the U.S. Army. Above: Larson holds a prescription he received in September to help him deal with lingering pain in his arm and shoulders from an injury sustained years ago. Photos courtesy Randall Larson and by Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

“I don’t know where I’d be if not for this place,” said 72-year-old Randall Larson, who turned his living room into a studio where he makes paintings of people and landscapes that are popular in the complex. A former Army sergeant partially paralyzed in a traffic accident years ago, he struggled with evictions when landlords converted their buildings, time in the street and interim housing before moving to the Ed Lee complex.

“I finally feel like I’m really home,” he said.

‘A real example of how to do it right’

Larson calls taxi companies to transport apartment residents who signed up to work on his crew setting up the Haight Street Fair in October.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

The apartments he lives in are named after the late Mayor Ed Lee, who pushed hard to reduce veterans’ homelessness before he died of a heart attack in 2017.

One month before he died, Lee
oversaw the opening of a 70-unit
supportive housing complex for veterans on Minna Street, and said he hoped someday to bring the number of chronically homeless vets living outside down to a functional zero, meaning none would stay on the streets for more than 90 days before being sheltered or housed.

That hasn’t happened, though state-of-the-art facilities like the Lee apartments
can make a big difference,
said Keith Boylan, deputy secretary for veterans services at the California Department of Veterans Affairs, which helped fund the complex’s construction.

The 62 units are layered into a five-story, U-shaped building with a garden in the middle. The neighborhood is serene, and the large meeting rooms include a computer lab, counseling offices, a library and a kitchen for big gatherings. The vets get free meals six days a week, frequent movie gatherings, art workshops, music appreciation meetings and the like.

Three of the offices on the ground floor are for case managers — which at one for every 12 residents is double the
city’s goal for supportive housing
complexes. One of those offices is staffed through the VA, illustrating how extra federal resources can make a complex like the Lee apartments better than usual.

“The Ed Lee Apartments is a great program, a real example of how to do it right,” Boylan said.

Another aspect that sets the complex apart is the 57 apartments across the inner courtyard occupied by low-income families. The concept of situating veterans alongside families is unique in the region.

“There’s this myth that housing is some kind of magic, that you put someone in a unit and all their problems are solved,” said Malcolm Yeung, executive director of the Chinatown CDC. “It’s not true.

“It’s creating the right environment and support and so many other things that make the difference,” he said. “And that’s what’s happening with these apartments.”

Several vets said that, after years of struggle, they appreciate the laughter of children and the proximity of families.

Navy vet Mark Shaffer, 62, said that’s a big factor in helping him overcome much of the trauma from several years of homelessness — and leftover stress from his 1979-83 duty time on ammunition ships that too often felt like floating bombs.

U.S. Navy veteran Mark Shaffer, a resident of the Edwin M. Lee Apartments, wipes tears from his eyes as he discusses his experience with homelessness. “Not all wounds are apparent,” he says.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

“Look, I never got married or had children, but I got to witness a newborn daughter coming into the world here a little while ago,” he said, eyes misting. “I love that, love being around all these beautiful families.”

And for their part, the families seem to like having ex-military around — and formerly homeless ex-military at that. It assuages bad feelings for some, especially children, who used to live in difficult neighborhoods layered with encampments.

“I got scared at the last place we lived at, in the Tenderloin,” Emily Ekcab, 10, said as she grabbed a handful of candy from a bowl at a Halloween party for the families and vets. “There were a lot of homeless people outside our door and the workers in the building were kind of mean to us. But here, I feel protected because so many of these people used to be soldiers.”

Right then, Army vet Lawrence Zenk, 70, walked past and gave her a thumbs up. Emily laughed and gave a thumbs up in return.

“At first I was against the idea of moving into a place where I was living around a bunch of kids, but I’ll tell you — these kids are really well behaved,” Zenk said. “This is the best place in the country, the way I see it. The kids and the family folks are just nice to be around.”

Yeung said he was also skeptical about the concept of combining the two populations.

“This one was a bit of an experiment,” he said. “It sounded crazy to me at first, but it’s been anything but that.”

Letting the families and vets have their own spaces, but able to meet in the middle — “that builds a new community in a setting that transmits calm,” he said. “That’s not a small thing.”

It certainly hasn’t been a small thing for Talavera, who has adorned her apartment with pictures of landscapes and family. Empowered by her new stability, she wrote a one-act pantomime play about overcoming challenges, and after recently workshopping it with theater friends in the Lee complex’s main hall, she’s booked to perform it at the Marsh theater in December.

Talavera prepares for her one-woman pantomime show at the Edwin M. Lee Apartments. Her show is scheduled to be performed at the Marsh theater in San Francisco in December.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

“I come into a warm, secure home now,” she said quietly. “I feel we all have the right to be safe, but maybe there is a little more to that when you’re a veteran. When you sign that piece of paper to enlist, it means, ‘I will die right now if I have to.’ So now I feel like maybe I’m safe here because I made it safe for everyone else in that time I served.”

Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron

The post San Francisco and the U.S. had been fixing veteran homelessness till Trump. Can the promise be restored? appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Margie Talavera was a Navy corpsman at the tail end of the Vietnam War. Like many veterans of many wars, she doesn’t enjoy talking about what she experienced, the wounded sailors she patched up — or the alcohol addiction that pursued her into civilian life.

In the decades since her six-year hitch ended in 1979, Talavera became a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey clown, a postal carrier, and more. But the booze and the trauma it no longer masked pitched her into occasional periods of couch surfing until finally, a few years ago, she became someone she fervently did not want to be: a person without a home in San Francisco.

That’s when that time in the Navy as a healing corpsman paid off, and in a way, reached through the years to heal her.

In late 2020, Talavera became one of the first people to move into the Edwin M. Lee Apartments, a state-of-the-art supportive housing complex for 62 formerly homeless veterans, built near Oracle Park, the San Francisco Giants stadium in Mission Bay.

Top of story: Margie Talavera holds her dog tags and service medal from her time in the U.S. Navy. She lives in the Edwin M. Lee Apartments, a state-of-the-art supportive housing complex for 62 homeless veterans.

Above: Talavera feeds her dog, Little Bear, after a walk in the neighborhood near her home.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

“I have to pinch myself sometimes to believe I actually live here,” said Talavera, 67, who shares her roomy one-bedroom apartment with her 10-year-old Scottish Terrier, Little Bear. “The first thing I saw when I walked in here was the brand-new bathroom, and nobody had ever used it. After living in my car and on couches of friends and family…”

She stopped, eyes wide, unable to speak for a moment.

“It’s beautiful.”

The Edwin M. Lee Apartments, fully opened in 2021, are a showpiece of how to reduce homelessness through permanent supportive housing, in this case by blending conscious architectural design with a citywide-best ratio of one case manager for every 12 residents.

They’re everything the city is shooting for in supportive housing, in contrast to the troubled century-old residential hotels
exposed by The Chronicle
this year as substandard.

But the complex also represents an effort to jump-start a very specific promise to the nation’s military veterans, one that stalled during the four-year term of former President Donald Trump.

‘A commitment to end veterans homelessness’

Talavera picks up a meal at a lunch for veterans hosted in September by a volunteer community group, Twitter for Good, in the community room of the Edwin M. Lee Apartments.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Veteran homelessness had declined by 47% between 2010 and 2016 as the federal government made the extra health and housing resources available through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA, to quickly move veterans into supportive housing geared for them. That momentum halted following Trump’s election as his national homelessness and welfare officials reduced emphasis on the issue in funding and policy decisions, leaving the numbers flat as he left office.

However, during the first two years of the Biden administration, the nation saw an 11% reduction in the number of homeless veterans, according to figures released this month by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. That brings the one-night national total of unhoused veterans to 33,136 — 55% fewer than the 2010 total of 74,087.

Until the latest national figures came out, San Francisco had been roughly keeping pace with the nation,
cutting its number of homeless veterans
by 45% between 2010 and 2019. But while the rest of the nation improved, the city’s numbers stayed flat between 2019 and 2022 — from 608 homeless vets to 605 — even as the overall homeless
one-night count fell 3.5%
to 7,754.

But program managers with the city’s coordinated entry system for homeless residents say the needle may be moving in the right direction again. Ten months after the last official survey was conducted in January, program managers say the city’s coordinated entry system that routes homeless people into services is indicating that the current nightly number of unhoused veterans appears to have dropped to around 400.

Experts acknowledge that one-night Point-In-Time counts, normally taken every two years but delayed by the pandemic, are imprecise at best. And the daily calculations conducted by the coordinated entry system could change. But together they seem to reflect progress.

Federal homelessness officials and national experts credited the national drop to the renewed focus, outlined in a multi-agency agenda released in 2021, and new funding including $481 million for VA homelessness programs in the American Rescue Plan.

“I’m seeing movement nationally, and I’m seeing movement in San Francisco,” said Ann Oliva, one of the architects of former President Barack Obama’s national veterans homelessness program. “Our progress on ending veterans homelessness is the proof point for ending all homelessness.”

Oliva is now executive director of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. While working with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under Obama, she and
Dr. Josh Bamberger, UCSF
clinical and family medicine professor, helped develop the 2010 national strategy that led to the reduction in the unhoused veterans’ population.

The Biden administration is asking Congress for 200,000 new housing vouchers to be used nationally, an unspecified number of which could be used for veterans. Along with an uptick in grants coming to the city, local vet program managers see progress ahead.

“The Trump administration really put the kibosh on housing vouchers for veterans — and focus on vets in general — but we’ve been encouraged,” said
Michael Blecker, executive director
of Swords to Plowshares — which with the Chinatown Community Development Center developed and operates the Lee apartments. “I think we can make progress.”

Another veterans housing complex of 105 units is expected to open on Treasure Island in February, and Swords to Plowshares — the city’s main homeless veterans aid nonprofit — anticipates getting a $4.5 million grant from the state Department of Veterans Affairs in January to help house vets.

Swords has already gotten several million more dollars for homeless vets programs and housing this year, including $1.2 million in federal and city funds to expand its drop-in center, along with nearly $1 million in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs funding for suicide prevention among the same population.

The city Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing intends to focus on unhoused vets with the most acute difficulties.

“San Francisco made a commitment to end veterans homelessness, and of course there are more challenges than just supplying a roof,” Mayor London Breed said. “The services are very important, too, so I’m looking forward to any new resources we get. I see movement in the right direction.”

The most important beneficiaries of any progress, of course, are the ones who get roofs.

Army veteran Randall Larson, a longtime artist, looks over his paints in his home at the Edwin M. Lee Apartments.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Randall Larson is seen in an archival photo from approximately 1979 when he served in the U.S. Army. He now lives at the Edwin M. Lee Apartments, a state-of-the-art supportive housing complex in San Francisco for 62 formely homeless vets.

Handout/Courtesy Randall Larson / Handout/Courtesy Randall Larson

Army veteran Randall Larson holds a prescription he received in September to help him deal with lingering pain in his arm and shoulders from an injury sustained years ago. He lives in the Edwin M. Lee Apartments, a state-of-the-art supportive housing complex in Mission Bay for 62 formely homeless vets, which has comprehensive medical and counseling services.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

Left: Larson in 1979, when he served in the U.S. Army. Right: Larson holds a prescription he received in September to help him deal with lingering pain in his arm and shoulders from an injury sustained years ago. Photos courtesy Randall Larson and by Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle
Top: Larson in 1979, when he served in the U.S. Army. Above: Larson holds a prescription he received in September to help him deal with lingering pain in his arm and shoulders from an injury sustained years ago. Photos courtesy Randall Larson and by Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

“I don’t know where I’d be if not for this place,” said 72-year-old Randall Larson, who turned his living room into a studio where he makes paintings of people and landscapes that are popular in the complex. A former Army sergeant partially paralyzed in a traffic accident years ago, he struggled with evictions when landlords converted their buildings, time in the street and interim housing before moving to the Ed Lee complex.

“I finally feel like I’m really home,” he said.

‘A real example of how to do it right’

Larson calls taxi companies to transport apartment residents who signed up to work on his crew setting up the Haight Street Fair in October.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

The apartments he lives in are named after the late Mayor Ed Lee, who pushed hard to reduce veterans homelessness before he died of a heart attack in 2017.

One month before he died, Lee
oversaw the opening of a 70-unit
supportive housing complex for veterans on Minna Street, and said he hoped someday to bring the number of chronically homeless vets living outside down to a functional zero, meaning none would stay on the streets for more than 90 days before being sheltered or housed.

That hasn’t happened, though state-of-the-art facilities like the Lee apartments
can make a big difference, said Keith Boylan, deputy secretary for veterans services at the California Department of Veterans Affairs, which helped fund the complex’s construction.

The 62 units are layered into a five-story, U-shaped building with a garden in the middle. The neighborhood is serene, and the large meeting rooms include a computer lab, counseling offices, a library and a kitchen for big gatherings. The vets get free meals six days a week, frequent movie gatherings, art workshops, music appreciation meetings and the like.

Three of the offices on the ground floor are for case managers — which at one for every 12 residents is double the
city’s goal for supportive housing
complexes. One of those offices is staffed through the VA, illustrating how extra federal resources can make a complex like the Lee apartments better than usual.

“The Ed Lee Apartments is a great program, a real example of how to do it right,” Boylan said.

Another aspect that sets the complex apart is the 57 apartments across the inner courtyard occupied by low-income families. The concept of situating veterans alongside families is unique in the region.

“There’s this myth that housing is some kind of magic, that you put someone in a unit and all their problems are solved,” said Malcolm Yeung, executive director of the Chinatown CDC. “It’s not true.

“It’s creating the right environment and support and so many other things that make the difference,” he said. “And that’s what’s happening with these apartments.”

Several vets said that, after years of struggle, they appreciate the laughter of children and the proximity of families.

Navy vet Mark Shaffer, 62, said that’s a big factor in helping him overcome much of the trauma from several years of homelessness — and leftover stress from his 1979-83 duty time on ammunition ships that too often felt like floating bombs.

U.S. Navy veteran Mark Shaffer, a resident of the Edwin M. Lee Apartments, wipes tears from his eyes as he discusses his experience with homelessness. “Not all wounds are apparent,” he says.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

“Look, I never got married or had children, but I got to witness a newborn daughter coming into the world here a little while ago,” he said, eyes misting. “I love that, love being around all these beautiful families.”

And for their part, the families seem to like having ex-military around — and formerly homeless ex-military at that. It assuages bad feelings for some, especially children, who used to live in difficult neighborhoods layered with encampments.

“I got scared at the last place we lived at, in the Tenderloin,” Emily Ekcab, 10, said as she grabbed a handful of candy from a bowl at a Halloween party for the families and vets. “There were a lot of homeless people outside our door and the workers in the building were kind of mean to us. But here, I feel protected because so many of these people used to be soldiers.”

Right then, Army vet Lawrence Zenk, 70, walked past and gave her a thumbs up. Emily laughed and gave a thumbs up in return.

“At first I was against the idea of moving into a place where I was living around a bunch of kids, but I’ll tell you — these kids are really well behaved,” Zenk said. “This is the best place in the country, the way I see it. The kids and the family folks are just nice to be around.”

Yeung said he was also skeptical about the concept of combining the two populations.

“This one was a bit of an experiment,” he said. “It sounded crazy to me at first, but it’s been anything but that.”

Letting the families and vets have their own spaces, but able to meet in the middle — “that builds a new community in a setting that transmits calm,” he said. “That’s not a small thing.”

It certainly hasn’t been a small thing for Talavera, who has adorned her apartment with pictures of landscapes and family. Empowered by her new stability, she wrote a one-act pantomime play about overcoming challenges, and after recently workshopping it with theater friends in the Lee complex’s main hall, she’s booked to perform it at the Marsh theater in December.

Talavera prepares for a full run-through of her one-woman pantomime show for select guests in the spacious community room at the Edwin M. Lee Apartments. Her show is scheduled to be performed at the Marsh theater in San Francisco in December.

Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

“I come into a warm, secure home now,” she said quietly. “I feel we all have the right to be safe, but maybe there is a little more to that when you’re a veteran. When you sign that piece of paper to enlist, it means, ‘I will die right now if I have to.’ So now I feel like maybe I’m safe here because I made it safe for everyone else in that time I served.”

Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron

The post San Francisco and the U.S. had been fixing veteran homelessness till Trump. Can the promise be restored? appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

San Francisco’s storied Victorians are making a comeback.

For over a decade, young homeowners—fueled by tech money and the dominance of modern architecture—were heavily reworking the city’s cache of historic properties. Many century-old homes had their interiors gutted to create open-plan living spaces, their architectural details removed to make way for precise corners, their woodwork painted bright white and their exteriors washed in various shades of gray.

Amid the pandemic, the tide is finally starting to turn. A growing number of younger residents of San Francisco are choosing to purchase and restore historic properties—in particular the Victorians that are so synonymous with the city.

According to Realtor.com, views of Victorian and Edwardian properties in San Francisco have increased by 80% year-to-year, and the median price-per-square-foot for these homes reached $1,050 in January, up 8.7% from last year. Views per property of modern single-family homes, meanwhile, were down 5.7% over the same period, with a 1.8% increase in price-per-square-foot to $831. News Corp., owner of The Wall Street Journal, also operates Realtor.com under license from the National Association of Realtors.

The front parlor of Tracy Labernik and Evan Sirc’s home features many original Victorian details, such as decorative moldings, cornices and a picture rail on the wall. Pocket doors separate rooms.

Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

“For the last 10-12 years during the massive economic boom here, houses were in such demand that you had people buying Victorians, painting them a solid dark gray and stripping out the interiors in an effort to modernize the appearance of a house that they obviously didn’t like that much,” says Lynne Rutter, a decorative painter who serves as the president of Artistic License, a coalition of local artisans dedicated to period revival work. “Recently, I have seen far more thoughtful restoration happening, and younger homeowners who are doing more considerate work. They are eager to know more about their homes and will ask a lot of questions,” she says.

More:These Luxury Markets Are Set to Get a Post-Vaccine Boost

The Covid-19 outbreak has accelerated this trend, according to Bonnie Spindler, a real-estate agent who specializes in Victorians. Although San Francisco, like many urban centers, experienced a slowdown in general market activity during the pandemic, single-family homes saw a significant spike in interest, as many residents who chose to stay within the city looked to move out of apartments in exchange for something with more personal space. Amid this shift, the appeal of Victorian homes with original floor plans has increased, as people have found that open-concept housing isn’t as conducive to stay-at-home-life.

“If you are on Zoom calls, you can’t have two office meetings going at the same time,” Ms. Spindler says. “Everyone was gutting the walls between the kitchen and dining room, but if you burned shallots and had to start over, the entire house would smell like burned shallots.”

San Francisco’s Four Seasons houses—a row of four Queen Anne-style residences in the Upper Haight district built in the 1890s. Aimée Leifer and Tjarko Leifer bought the Winter house (third from left) in October 2016.

Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

The Leifers wanted to preserve the history of their home while also updating it for modern life. They restored the original newel-post light in the entry, for example, but kept the main staircase painted a nontraditional white.

Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

Traditional Victorian homes (built during the reign of Queen Victoria, from 1837 to 1901) were designed with a specific area for every function of domestic life—dining room, drawing room, kitchen, parlor—often separated by pocket doors. “Living at home with no chance of entertaining has led some people to appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of San Francisco homes,” says Fiona Woods, a contractor with a focus on historic properties.

Victorian homes were devised with private chambers meant to allow for at-home doctor visits and births, and to protect against the deadly diseases that were so prevalent during the period, something that has become all the more timely in light of Covid-19. Toilets were kept separate from the rest of the bathroom, surfaces were finished in easy-to-clean porcelain and marble, and transom windows assured that sunlight and fresh air could circulate even when the doors were closed.

“Victorian architecture built in the era of disease and health paranoia has often been criticized for its overly sequestered and fragmented interior layouts that seemed outdated and fussy in previous decades,” Ms. Woods says. “Now it’s become surprisingly practical.”

More:A Mansion, Once San Francisco’s Most Expensive Listing, Sells for a $10 Million-Plus Discount

The interiors of Jennifer Tobits and Sarah Piepmeier’s Victorian feature an eclectic mix of new and antique furnishings. Shown here is the dining room, which is located in what would have originally been a parlor.

Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

In San Francisco, the result of this Victorian renaissance is a fusion of historic and modern design, modified for contemporary living—a notable departure from traditional movements of the past. “In the 1970s, when a lot of Victorians were being restored in earnest, many of the owners created time capsules inside of them, with all of the layers of window treatments and elaborate wallpaper and theme rooms full of 19th-century antiques,” Ms. Rutter says. “What is so different now are things like the use of space, or the eclectic mix of design from multiple eras.”

Simon Wistow and his partner, Stephanie Vacher, had been casually searching for a home to buy in San Francisco for about a year when the pandemic hit. The couple was living in a modest duplex, where sliding pocket doors enclosing the dining room created the only private area outside of the single bedroom. “With both of us working, we had to essentially negotiate who was going to get the dining room to go and take calls. That accelerates the process,” says Mr. Wistow, 43, co-founder and vice president of strategic initiatives for Fastly, a cloud-computing services provider.

As they looked, they realized they wanted something with a bit more history and charm. “We started developing a shorthand for what we call the ‘developer’s special,’ which was a house that had just been gutted and had all of the character sucked out of it,” says Mr. Wistow, who was born in England and raised in Germany.

More:A 1933 Babe Ruth Baseball Card Could Fetch a Record US$5.2 Million at Auction

The exterior of Simon Wistow and Stephanie Vacher’s Victorian (center), which they bought in July 2020 for $3.8 million.

Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

With the aid of their agent, Tania Toubba of Sotheby’s International Realty, the couple found a 1900 Victorian in Haight Ashbury that had been renovated but still retained many original features and most recently served as an artist residency and gallery space. They bought the six-bedroom, 4,049-square-foot home in July 2020 for $3.8 million, and immediately moved in and began planning restorations and updates, starting with preserving an elaborate but disintegrating stained-glass window at the front of the house. The four-month process, overseen by local specialist Nzilani Glass Conservation, cost approximately $25,000 and involved removing the panels and taking them apart, salvaging all of the original broken pieces and rebuilding the missing glass.

“We love this city in all of its iterations and all of its eras, and being able to take care of wherever we live so that it can survive for another couple hundred years means a lot to us,” says Ms. Vacher, 36, who works as an artist and a website designer. Although the previous renovation added many contemporary elements, the couple plans to rehabilitate, highlight and add when suitable as many Victorian details as possible, including repurposing wood from elsewhere in the house into traditional-style cabinetry, installing period-specific wallpaper and restoring the main staircase, which is original to the house and “covered with more layers than an Everlasting Gobstopper,” Ms. Vacher says.

Aimée Leifer, a 41-year-old venture capitalist and interior designer, and her husband, Tjarko Leifer, 43, the co-founder of Wellio, a food-tech startup that was acquired by Kraft Heinz in 2018, have found a greater appreciation of their Victorian home over the past year.

More:A Bit of Paris in San Francisco Lists for $16.95 Million

“Friends with open-concept layouts have lamented their inability to separate out the different areas and activities,” says Ms. Leifer, who has two young boys, ages 3 and 5. “In a Victorian house, we can all be living, working, schooling, doing everything at the same time and not really know what anyone is up to.”

The couple purchased one of the well-known Four Seasons houses—a row of four lavish Queen Anne-style residences in the Upper Haight district built in the 1890s by shipwright John Whelan—for $2.625 million in October 2016. Known as the Winter house, the structure features an intricately painted blue facade that was still in relatively good condition, with a carved snowflake centerpiece on its second floor. The interiors, however, had not been updated in almost 50 years and were in need of a major renovation. “We wanted to strike a balance between preserving the beauty and history of the home while also making it comfortable and updating it for a modern family lifestyle,” Ms. Leifer says.

The Leifers with their sons, ages 3 and 5. During the pandemic, the dining room was often used as an art studio for the boys.

Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

With a budget of over $1 million, the 13-month project kept most of the original footprint intact while adding a new foundation, plumbing, heating and electrical, as well as an extensive remodel of the kitchen. Surgical renovations were needed to restore original details such as the fireplace surround in the living room and to rehabilitate pocket doors that had been sealed into the walls. They also built out the attic to contain a playroom, office and bathroom, automated the old carriage doors on the garage to house their Tesla and added contemporary touches throughout such as bold wallpaper and furnishings, as well as a backyard honey bear mural by their friend, the local street artist Fnnch.

Fnnch’s then-girlfriend and now wife, Leah Culver, a 38-year-old tech entrepreneur who currently works as a software engineer for Twitter, became one of the most prominent young Victorian homeowners when she purchased an iconic Painted Lady—one of the city’s most photographed Victorians built in the 1890s that sit in what is known as Postcard Row—in January of 2020.

In January 2020, 38-year-old tech entrepreneur Leah Culver purchased one of SanFrancisco’s iconic Painted Lady Victorians (middle) for $3.55 million. She is documenting the restoration process on an Instagram account.

Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

“I wanted something move-in ready, but the things I was seeing just weren’t the right fit. A lot of them were modern or redone to be modern, and some of them weren’t done particularly well,” Ms. Culver says of her year-and-a-half search. The yellow-and-pink-hued three-level Painted Lady was on the market for less than a month before Culver purchased it for $3.55 million, or $800,000 over asking price.

More:From Santa Cruz to California Wine Country, Luxury Home Sales Doubled During the Pandemic

The 2,588-square-foot property had been remodeled haphazardly in the 1960s or ‘70s and had fallen into disrepair. Ms. Culver is in the midst of planning an extensive restoration that will cost nearly as much as the purchase price. Although the layout of the bedrooms and some of the public areas will be reconfigured, she plans to restore as many historical details as possible based on old photographs and on touring her neighbors’ homes. As she awaits approvals from the city planning department, Ms. Culver has launched an Instagram account, @pinkpaintedlady, detailing the process, which currently has 16,600 followers.

In February 2021, the landmark Englander House was moved from its original location to a new spot seven blocks away. It was the first time in 40 years that a Victorian home had been relocated in San Francisco.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images

An aerial view of the Englander House relocation. The carefully orchestratedproduction cost around $500,000 and took over three years to plan.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images

Ms. Culver’s house isn’t the only Victorian that has gained attention on social media. In February, a crowd of mask-clad, iPhone-wielding onlookers filled the streets by Civic Center to watch the Englander House, a landmark Victorian residence built in 1880, move from its original location at 807 Franklin Street to a new spot seven blocks away, to make way for the construction of a 48-unit luxury rental facility. Videos of the house uploaded to Twitter and Instagram soon went viral.

It was the first time in 40 years that a Victorian home had been relocated in San Francisco, and the carefully orchestrated production, which involved lifting the 80-ton two-story Italianate-style structure and transporting it slowly by truck on large eight-wheel dollies, cost around $500,000 and took over three years to plan and get approved, according to Toby Morris, co-founder of Kerman Morris Architects, the firm in charge of the project.

In the new location, the house will be adjoined to a Victorian-era former mortuary and rehabilitated into 17 new apartments.

More:Bing Crosby’s Onetime Bay Area Home Hits the Market for $13.75 Million

For Jennifer Tobits, a 46-year-old art conservator, preservation was top of mind when she purchased a 1900 Victorian in the Lower Haight district with her wife, attorney Sarah Piepmeier, 47, for $2.995 million in May 2016. The home was previously owned by Mark Stoermer, the bassist for the rock band The Killers, who listed it for the exact price he paid after only a few months, according to the couple. “This house was a total fixer-upper. It was a mess,” Ms. Tobits says. “But it was charming and the bones were great.”

Over the past few years, the couple has embarked on a slow and deliberate restoration that has involved replacing the roof and reconfiguring the second floor while retaining and reusing original doors and hardware and restoring Lincrusta wall coverings via a company from the U.K. that has been in business since 1877. They even reclaimed their neighbor’s 1890s Minton tiles and used them for the floor of their front porch.

The interior décor is an eclectic mix of new and antique furnishings, while nearly all of the architectural elements are either original, repurposed or reproduced to be authentically Victorian.

More:5 Rooms, 5 Redesigns

During the pandemic, Ms. Tobits and Ms. Piepmeier turned their attention to the facade. Referencing a black-and-white photograph found at the California Historical Society, they replaced windows, cleaned stained glass and re-created and salvaged parts of the damaged redwood exterior. The house was also given a new paint job: deep navy trimmed with shades of ivory and gray and highlighted with copper and 23.75-karat gold leaf detailing that illuminates its ornamental elements.

The exterior color palette of Victorian houses is perhaps one of the most divisive subjects when it comes to their historic preservation. Although San Francisco Victorians were originally painted neutral tones, they are better known for a rainbow of exuberant hues, a trend that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.

Earlier this year, attorney Tracy Labernik and her husband, Evan Sirc, a radiologist, both 40 years old, spent over $35,000 transforming their recently purchased Italianate-style Victorian’s exterior from blue to bubble gum pink.

“I remember we were both standing on the sidewalk looking up at the house and grinning ear-to-ear,” says Ms. Labernik. “Whether it’s a way to find a small spark of joy in this pandemic, or something else, we aren’t sure. But it’s what we picture when we think of San Francisco Victorians.”

The post San Francisco’s Victorian Homes Are Being Restored to Their Unique Glory appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

San Francisco’s storied Victorians are making a comeback.

For over a decade, young homeowners—fueled by tech money and the dominance of modern architecture—were heavily reworking the city’s cache of historic properties. Many century-old homes had their interiors gutted to create open-plan living spaces, their architectural details removed to make way for precise corners, their woodwork painted bright white and their exteriors washed in various shades of gray.

Amid the pandemic, the tide is finally starting to turn. A growing number of younger residents of San Francisco are choosing to purchase and restore historic properties—in particular the Victorians that are so synonymous with the city.

According to Realtor.com, views of Victorian and Edwardian properties in San Francisco have increased by 80% year-to-year, and the median price-per-square-foot for these homes reached $1,050 in January, up 8.7% from last year. Views per property of modern single-family homes, meanwhile, were down 5.7% over the same period, with a 1.8% increase in price-per-square-foot to $831. News Corp., owner of The Wall Street Journal, also operates Realtor.com under license from the National Association of Realtors.

The front parlor of Tracy Labernik and Evan Sirc’s home features many original Victorian details, such as decorative moldings, cornices and a picture rail on the wall. Pocket doors separate rooms.

Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

“For the last 10-12 years during the massive economic boom here, houses were in such demand that you had people buying Victorians, painting them a solid dark gray and stripping out the interiors in an effort to modernize the appearance of a house that they obviously didn’t like that much,” says Lynne Rutter, a decorative painter who serves as the president of Artistic License, a coalition of local artisans dedicated to period revival work. “Recently, I have seen far more thoughtful restoration happening, and younger homeowners who are doing more considerate work. They are eager to know more about their homes and will ask a lot of questions,” she says.

More:These Luxury Markets Are Set to Get a Post-Vaccine Boost

The Covid-19 outbreak has accelerated this trend, according to Bonnie Spindler, a real-estate agent who specializes in Victorians. Although San Francisco, like many urban centers, experienced a slowdown in general market activity during the pandemic, single-family homes saw a significant spike in interest, as many residents who chose to stay within the city looked to move out of apartments in exchange for something with more personal space. Amid this shift, the appeal of Victorian homes with original floor plans has increased, as people have found that open-concept housing isn’t as conducive to stay-at-home-life.

“If you are on Zoom calls, you can’t have two office meetings going at the same time,” Ms. Spindler says. “Everyone was gutting the walls between the kitchen and dining room, but if you burned shallots and had to start over, the entire house would smell like burned shallots.”

San Francisco’s Four Seasons houses—a row of four Queen Anne-style residences in the Upper Haight district built in the 1890s. Aimée Leifer and Tjarko Leifer bought the Winter house (third from left) in October 2016.

Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

The Leifers wanted to preserve the history of their home while also updating it for modern life. They restored the original newel-post light in the entry, for example, but kept the main staircase painted a nontraditional white.

Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

Traditional Victorian homes (built during the reign of Queen Victoria, from 1837 to 1901) were designed with a specific area for every function of domestic life—dining room, drawing room, kitchen, parlor—often separated by pocket doors. “Living at home with no chance of entertaining has led some people to appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of San Francisco homes,” says Fiona Woods, a contractor with a focus on historic properties.

Victorian homes were devised with private chambers meant to allow for at-home doctor visits and births, and to protect against the deadly diseases that were so prevalent during the period, something that has become all the more timely in light of Covid-19. Toilets were kept separate from the rest of the bathroom, surfaces were finished in easy-to-clean porcelain and marble, and transom windows assured that sunlight and fresh air could circulate even when the doors were closed.

“Victorian architecture built in the era of disease and health paranoia has often been criticized for its overly sequestered and fragmented interior layouts that seemed outdated and fussy in previous decades,” Ms. Woods says. “Now it’s become surprisingly practical.”

More:A Mansion, Once San Francisco’s Most Expensive Listing, Sells for a $10 Million-Plus Discount

The interiors of Jennifer Tobits and Sarah Piepmeier’s Victorian feature an eclectic mix of new and antique furnishings. Shown here is the dining room, which is located in what would have originally been a parlor.

Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

In San Francisco, the result of this Victorian renaissance is a fusion of historic and modern design, modified for contemporary living—a notable departure from traditional movements of the past. “In the 1970s, when a lot of Victorians were being restored in earnest, many of the owners created time capsules inside of them, with all of the layers of window treatments and elaborate wallpaper and theme rooms full of 19th-century antiques,” Ms. Rutter says. “What is so different now are things like the use of space, or the eclectic mix of design from multiple eras.”

Simon Wistow and his partner, Stephanie Vacher, had been casually searching for a home to buy in San Francisco for about a year when the pandemic hit. The couple was living in a modest duplex, where sliding pocket doors enclosing the dining room created the only private area outside of the single bedroom. “With both of us working, we had to essentially negotiate who was going to get the dining room to go and take calls. That accelerates the process,” says Mr. Wistow, 43, co-founder and vice president of strategic initiatives for Fastly, a cloud-computing services provider.

As they looked, they realized they wanted something with a bit more history and charm. “We started developing a shorthand for what we call the ‘developer’s special,’ which was a house that had just been gutted and had all of the character sucked out of it,” says Mr. Wistow, who was born in England and raised in Germany.

More:A 1933 Babe Ruth Baseball Card Could Fetch a Record US$5.2 Million at Auction

The exterior of Simon Wistow and Stephanie Vacher’s Victorian (center), which they bought in July 2020 for $3.8 million.

Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

With the aid of their agent, Tania Toubba of Sotheby’s International Realty, the couple found a 1900 Victorian in Haight Ashbury that had been renovated but still retained many original features and most recently served as an artist residency and gallery space. They bought the six-bedroom, 4,049-square-foot home in July 2020 for $3.8 million, and immediately moved in and began planning restorations and updates, starting with preserving an elaborate but disintegrating stained-glass window at the front of the house. The four-month process, overseen by local specialist Nzilani Glass Conservation, cost approximately $25,000 and involved removing the panels and taking them apart, salvaging all of the original broken pieces and rebuilding the missing glass.

“We love this city in all of its iterations and all of its eras, and being able to take care of wherever we live so that it can survive for another couple hundred years means a lot to us,” says Ms. Vacher, 36, who works as an artist and a website designer. Although the previous renovation added many contemporary elements, the couple plans to rehabilitate, highlight and add when suitable as many Victorian details as possible, including repurposing wood from elsewhere in the house into traditional-style cabinetry, installing period-specific wallpaper and restoring the main staircase, which is original to the house and “covered with more layers than an Everlasting Gobstopper,” Ms. Vacher says.

Aimée Leifer, a 41-year-old venture capitalist and interior designer, and her husband, Tjarko Leifer, 43, the co-founder of Wellio, a food-tech startup that was acquired by Kraft Heinz in 2018, have found a greater appreciation of their Victorian home over the past year.

More:A Bit of Paris in San Francisco Lists for $16.95 Million

“Friends with open-concept layouts have lamented their inability to separate out the different areas and activities,” says Ms. Leifer, who has two young boys, ages 3 and 5. “In a Victorian house, we can all be living, working, schooling, doing everything at the same time and not really know what anyone is up to.”

The couple purchased one of the well-known Four Seasons houses—a row of four lavish Queen Anne-style residences in the Upper Haight district built in the 1890s by shipwright John Whelan—for $2.625 million in October 2016. Known as the Winter house, the structure features an intricately painted blue facade that was still in relatively good condition, with a carved snowflake centerpiece on its second floor. The interiors, however, had not been updated in almost 50 years and were in need of a major renovation. “We wanted to strike a balance between preserving the beauty and history of the home while also making it comfortable and updating it for a modern family lifestyle,” Ms. Leifer says.

The Leifers with their sons, ages 3 and 5. During the pandemic, the dining room was often used as an art studio for the boys.

Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

With a budget of over $1 million, the 13-month project kept most of the original footprint intact while adding a new foundation, plumbing, heating and electrical, as well as an extensive remodel of the kitchen. Surgical renovations were needed to restore original details such as the fireplace surround in the living room and to rehabilitate pocket doors that had been sealed into the walls. They also built out the attic to contain a playroom, office and bathroom, automated the old carriage doors on the garage to house their Tesla and added contemporary touches throughout such as bold wallpaper and furnishings, as well as a backyard honey bear mural by their friend, the local street artist Fnnch.

Fnnch’s then-girlfriend and now wife, Leah Culver, a 38-year-old tech entrepreneur who currently works as a software engineer for Twitter, became one of the most prominent young Victorian homeowners when she purchased an iconic Painted Lady—one of the city’s most photographed Victorians built in the 1890s that sit in what is known as Postcard Row—in January of 2020.

In January 2020, 38-year-old tech entrepreneur Leah Culver purchased one of SanFrancisco’s iconic Painted Lady Victorians (middle) for $3.55 million. She is documenting the restoration process on an Instagram account.

Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

“I wanted something move-in ready, but the things I was seeing just weren’t the right fit. A lot of them were modern or redone to be modern, and some of them weren’t done particularly well,” Ms. Culver says of her year-and-a-half search. The yellow-and-pink-hued three-level Painted Lady was on the market for less than a month before Culver purchased it for $3.55 million, or $800,000 over asking price.

More:From Santa Cruz to California Wine Country, Luxury Home Sales Doubled During the Pandemic

The 2,588-square-foot property had been remodeled haphazardly in the 1960s or ‘70s and had fallen into disrepair. Ms. Culver is in the midst of planning an extensive restoration that will cost nearly as much as the purchase price. Although the layout of the bedrooms and some of the public areas will be reconfigured, she plans to restore as many historical details as possible based on old photographs and on touring her neighbors’ homes. As she awaits approvals from the city planning department, Ms. Culver has launched an Instagram account, @pinkpaintedlady, detailing the process, which currently has 16,600 followers.

In February 2021, the landmark Englander House was moved from its original location to a new spot seven blocks away. It was the first time in 40 years that a Victorian home had been relocated in San Francisco.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images

An aerial view of the Englander House relocation. The carefully orchestratedproduction cost around $500,000 and took over three years to plan.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images

Ms. Culver’s house isn’t the only Victorian that has gained attention on social media. In February, a crowd of mask-clad, iPhone-wielding onlookers filled the streets by Civic Center to watch the Englander House, a landmark Victorian residence built in 1880, move from its original location at 807 Franklin Street to a new spot seven blocks away, to make way for the construction of a 48-unit luxury rental facility. Videos of the house uploaded to Twitter and Instagram soon went viral.

It was the first time in 40 years that a Victorian home had been relocated in San Francisco, and the carefully orchestrated production, which involved lifting the 80-ton two-story Italianate-style structure and transporting it slowly by truck on large eight-wheel dollies, cost around $500,000 and took over three years to plan and get approved, according to Toby Morris, co-founder of Kerman Morris Architects, the firm in charge of the project.

In the new location, the house will be adjoined to a Victorian-era former mortuary and rehabilitated into 17 new apartments.

More:Bing Crosby’s Onetime Bay Area Home Hits the Market for $13.75 Million

For Jennifer Tobits, a 46-year-old art conservator, preservation was top of mind when she purchased a 1900 Victorian in the Lower Haight district with her wife, attorney Sarah Piepmeier, 47, for $2.995 million in May 2016. The home was previously owned by Mark Stoermer, the bassist for the rock band The Killers, who listed it for the exact price he paid after only a few months, according to the couple. “This house was a total fixer-upper. It was a mess,” Ms. Tobits says. “But it was charming and the bones were great.”

Over the past few years, the couple has embarked on a slow and deliberate restoration that has involved replacing the roof and reconfiguring the second floor while retaining and reusing original doors and hardware and restoring Lincrusta wall coverings via a company from the U.K. that has been in business since 1877. They even reclaimed their neighbor’s 1890s Minton tiles and used them for the floor of their front porch.

The interior décor is an eclectic mix of new and antique furnishings, while nearly all of the architectural elements are either original, repurposed or reproduced to be authentically Victorian.

More:5 Rooms, 5 Redesigns

During the pandemic, Ms. Tobits and Ms. Piepmeier turned their attention to the facade. Referencing a black-and-white photograph found at the California Historical Society, they replaced windows, cleaned stained glass and re-created and salvaged parts of the damaged redwood exterior. The house was also given a new paint job: deep navy trimmed with shades of ivory and gray and highlighted with copper and 23.75-karat gold leaf detailing that illuminates its ornamental elements.

The exterior color palette of Victorian houses is perhaps one of the most divisive subjects when it comes to their historic preservation. Although San Francisco Victorians were originally painted neutral tones, they are better known for a rainbow of exuberant hues, a trend that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.

Earlier this year, attorney Tracy Labernik and her husband, Evan Sirc, a radiologist, both 40 years old, spent over $35,000 transforming their recently purchased Italianate-style Victorian’s exterior from blue to bubble gum pink.

“I remember we were both standing on the sidewalk looking up at the house and grinning ear-to-ear,” says Ms. Labernik. “Whether it’s a way to find a small spark of joy in this pandemic, or something else, we aren’t sure. But it’s what we picture when we think of San Francisco Victorians.”

The post San Francisco’s Victorian Homes Are Being Restored to Their Authentic Glory appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

San Francisco’s famous Victorians are making a comeback.

For over a decade, young homeowners – driven by tech money and the dominance of modern architecture – heavily revamped the city’s cache of historic real estate. Many centuries-old houses have had their interiors gutted to create open living spaces. The architectural details have been removed to make room for precise corners. The woodwork was painted bright white and the outside was kept in different shades of gray.

In the midst of the pandemic, the tide is finally starting to turn. A growing number of younger San Francisco residents are choosing to buy and restore historic properties – especially the Victorians who are so synonymous with the city.

According to Realtor.com, the number of Victorian and Edwardian homes in San Francisco has increased 80% year over year, and the average price per square foot for these homes reached $ 1,050 in January, up 8.7% year over year. Views per property of modern single family homes decreased 5.7% over the same period, with the price per square foot increasing 1.8% to $ 831. News Corp. , Owner of the Wall Street Journal, also operates Realtor.com under license from the National Association of Realtors.

“Over the past 10 to 12 years during the massive economic boom, homes were so in demand that people bought Victorians, painted them dark gray, and removed the interiors to update the look of a house that they obviously didn’t have that good fallen, ”says Lynne Rutter, a decorative painter who serves as president of Artistic License, a coalition of local artisans dedicated to revitalization. “Lately I’ve seen much more thoughtful restoration work and younger homeowners doing more considerate work. They really want to know more about their homes and will ask lots of questions, ”she says.

The post San Francisco’s Victorian Homes Are Being Restored to Their Unique Glory appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Es gibt vielleicht nichts Sinnvolleres für San Francisco als das viktorianische Zuhause. Würde sich die Stadt ohne diese historischen Strukturen, die alle, von Touristen bis zu langjährigen Bewohnern, begeistern, immer noch genauso fühlen?

Für Skeeter Jones, einen Handwerker, der sich auf die Restaurierung der Fassaden dieser berühmten Bauwerke konzentriert, ist es seine ganze Aufgabe, dafür zu sorgen, dass viktorianische Häuser die architektonische und historische Einrichtung der Stadt bleiben. Von der Wiederherstellung originaler, verlorener Details bis zur Rekonstruktion dessen, was bei einer Stucktransformation verschwunden ist, ist Jones möglicherweise die einzige Person in der Stadt, die genau das tut, was sie tut. Sie nähert sich der Fassadenrestaurierung wie ein Künstler einer Leinwand.

Er hat den Überblick verloren, wie viele Fassaden er restauriert hat, aber Jones weiß, dass es mittlerweile mehr als 100 sind, eine Leistung, wenn man bedenkt, dass er möglicherweise nur wenige pro Jahr fertigstellt. “San Francisco hat seinen eigenen unverwechselbaren Stil, der sich von allen anderen unterscheidet”, sagte Jones. “Das Redwood macht es einzigartig.”

Der heute 69-jährige Jones kam in den 1970er Jahren in die Bay Area und begann im Baugewerbe zu arbeiten. Er liebte die „Grunzarbeit“ nicht und machte schließlich ein spezielles Projekt für einen Mann in Walnut Creek, um eine Haustür von Hand zu schnitzen. Er sagte, dies habe zu seinem Interesse an Tischlerei geführt, aber da San Francisco damals eine echte „Gewerkschaftsstadt“ war, ging er nach Neuengland, um dort zu lernen und zu lernen, wie man Häuser baut. Nach ein paar kalten Wintern kehrte er gerade rechtzeitig nach Westen zurück, um die Renaissance der Stadt im viktorianischen Haus zu erleben.

In den 1950er und 1960er Jahren bestand der Trend darin, die historischen Viktorianer ihrer dekorativen Natur zu berauben und die kunstvollen Außenschnitzereien mit Stuck- oder Aluminiumverkleidungen zu bedecken. Als die Bewohner 1982 begannen, die ursprünglichen Entwürfe anzunehmen, begann Jones mit Clearheart Fine Design and Building, und er sagte, es habe sich gerade herumgesprochen, dass er der Typ sei, der viktorianische Fassaden restauriert. “Es war damals eine Art kleine Stadt”, sagte er. „Es hat sich herumgesprochen, dass ich das getan habe. Ich habe nie wirklich Werbung gemacht. “

Das Vorher (links) und Nachher (rechts) eines Äußeren eines viktorianischen Hauses im Noe Valley, das am 5. Februar 2021 von Skeeter Jones in San Francisco restauriert wurde. Seit mehr als 40 Jahren hat sich Jones auf die Restaurierung der Fassaden des alten viktorianischen Hauses spezialisiert Häuser.

Mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Skeeter Jones / Douglas Zimmerman / SFGATE

Er arbeitet hauptsächlich alleine – er bringt nur jemanden zum Malen – und macht alles von der Konzeption über die historische Forschung bis hin zu Handschnitzereien. Er arbeitet dann „von innen nach außen“ – er hat eine spezielle Reihenfolge für die Fertigstellung der Restaurierung, da sich viele der komplizierten Elemente an der Fassade überlappen und er sagte, es sei wichtig, auf eine bestimmte Art und Weise zu arbeiten.

Als der in der Mission lebende Doug McDowell Jones 2014 anrief, um an seinem Haus zu arbeiten, dauerte es drei Jahre, bis Jones ihn in den Zeitplan aufnehmen konnte. „Er verliebt sich in seine Projekte. Er hat Leute, die mit ihren Projekten zu ihm kommen, und wenn er ihre Vision nicht mag, wird er ihnen nein sagen “, sagte McDowell. „… Zum größten Teil habe ich ihm eine künstlerische Lizenz gegeben. Ich respektiere ihn nicht nur als Baumeister oder Designer, sondern auch als Künstler. “

McDowell sagte, er habe sein „hässliches“ Haus gekauft, als es in einem schlechten Zustand war, aber er hatte das Gefühl, es wieder in sein viktorianisches Äußeres zu versetzen, als würde er der Stadt auf irgendeine Weise etwas zurückgeben. “Er ist ein Künstler”, sagte McDowell. „Er hat einige Pläne ausgearbeitet, die wunderschön waren. Er hat meine Garage übernommen und alles geschnitzt und das Detail nachgebildet, das verloren gegangen oder abgerissen worden war. “

Aber für jedes verschönerte Detail muss Jones verschiedenen städtischen Abteilungen historische fotografische Beweise vorlegen, um die Genehmigung zu erhalten. Die Stadt möchte historische Genauigkeit sicherstellen und Vermutungen vermeiden, wenn sie ein neues Design für ein Außenhaus überprüft. Da damals nicht so viele Fotos aufgenommen wurden, verbringt Jones viel Zeit damit, historische Aufzeichnungen zu überfluten, und sucht manchmal im Hintergrund von Polizeifotos nach winzigen Details zu Hause.

Als die Pandemie letztes Jahr begann, wurde der Prozess noch langsamer. Jones sagte, er habe im Oktober 2020 eine Genehmigung zur Wiederherstellung eines Portikus in einem Haus beantragt, einschließlich des erforderlichen Fotobeweises, und diese sei im Februar 2021 noch nicht genehmigt worden. „Manchmal ist die harte Arbeit der einfachste Teil“, sagte er. “Es ist schwieriger, die Erlaubnis dazu zu bekommen.”

Fotos während des Baus (links) und nach (rechts) von neu installierten benutzerdefinierten Details, die einem viktorianischen Haus im Noe Valley hinzugefügt wurden, das am 5. Februar 2021 von Skeeter Jones in San Francisco restauriert wurde. Seit mehr als 40 Jahren hat sich Jones auf die Restaurierung des Gebäudes spezialisiert Fassaden alter viktorianischer Häuser.

Mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Skeeter Jones / Douglas Zimmerman / SFGATE

Das Timing kann verzögert sein, aber manchmal können Designs direkt abgelehnt werden. Er befürchtet, dass die Restaurierung von Fassaden so schwierig geworden ist, dass sie letztendlich den Charakter der Stadt ruinieren könnte. “Früher konnte ich die Asbestschindeln und den Stuck abnehmen und die Narben am Gebäude sehen und eine Fassade anbringen, und alles war in Ordnung”, sagte er. „Vielleicht wurden sie in den 90ern strenger und es ist jetzt fast unmöglich. … Für den Hausbesitzer gibt es einfach keinen Anreiz mehr, den Charakter von San Francisco beizubehalten. “

Mit rund 100.000 US-Dollar für die Restaurierung einer Fassade ist es auch nicht billig.

Während Jones nicht die einzige Person ist, die sich auf die Restaurierung von Fassaden in der Stadt spezialisiert hat, würden einige sagen, dass sie eine aussterbende Rasse von Handwerkern sind. Chris Yerke, 56, führt neben dem gesamten historischen Umbau auch Fassadenrestaurierungen durch und hat ein Ausbildungsprogramm gestartet, um die nächste Generation dieser Art von Handwerkern auszubilden. “Niemand schult die Leute mehr dazu”, sagte Yerke. „Es kann eine Art Kreisverkehr sein. Sie können als Handwerker ihren Lebensunterhalt verdienen und es sind nicht mehr viele von uns übrig. Ich sehe nicht viele junge Leute. “

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Die ursprünglichen Entwurfspläne und Zeichnungen eines viktorianischen Hauses im Noe Valley wurden am 5. Februar 2021 von Skeeter Jones in San Francisco restauriert. Seit mehr als 40 Jahren hat sich Jones auf die Restaurierung der Fassaden alter viktorianischer Häuser spezialisiert.

Douglas Zimmerman / SFGATEZeig mehrZeige weniger

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Fotos während des Baus kundenspezifischer Details, die einem viktorianischen Haus im Noe Valley hinzugefügt wurden, das am 5. Februar 2021 von Skeeter Jones in San Francisco restauriert wurde. Seit mehr als 40 Jahren hat sich Jones auf die Restaurierung der Fassaden alter viktorianischer Häuser spezialisiert.

Mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Skeeter JonesZeig mehrZeige weniger3von12

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Einige der neu installierten benutzerdefinierten Details wurden einem viktorianischen Haus im Noe Valley hinzugefügt, das am 5. Februar 2021 von Skeeter Jones in San Francisco restauriert wurde. Seit mehr als 40 Jahren hat sich Jones auf die Restaurierung der Fassaden alter viktorianischer Häuser spezialisiert.

Douglas Zimmerman / SFGATEZeig mehrZeige weniger

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Einige der neu installierten benutzerdefinierten Details wurden einem viktorianischen Haus im Noe Valley hinzugefügt, das am 5. Februar 2021 von Skeeter Jones in San Francisco restauriert wurde. Seit mehr als 40 Jahren hat sich Jones auf die Restaurierung der Fassaden alter viktorianischer Häuser spezialisiert.

Douglas Zimmerman / SFGATEZeig mehrZeige weniger6von12

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Ein neu installierter Giebel auf einem viktorianischen Haus im Noe Valley, der am 5. Februar 2021 von Skeeter Jones in San Francisco restauriert wurde. Seit mehr als 40 Jahren hat sich Jones auf die Restaurierung der Fassaden alter viktorianischer Häuser spezialisiert.

Douglas Zimmerman / SFGATEZeig mehrZeige weniger

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Einige der neu installierten benutzerdefinierten Details wurden einem viktorianischen Haus im Noe Valley hinzugefügt, das am 5. Februar 2021 von Skeeter Jones in San Francisco restauriert wurde. Seit mehr als 40 Jahren hat sich Jones auf die Restaurierung der Fassaden alter viktorianischer Häuser spezialisiert.

Douglas Zimmerman / SFGATEZeig mehrZeige weniger9von12

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Einige der neu installierten benutzerdefinierten Details wurden einem viktorianischen Haus im Noe Valley hinzugefügt, das am 5. Februar 2021 von Skeeter Jones in San Francisco restauriert wurde. Seit mehr als 40 Jahren hat sich Jones auf die Restaurierung der Fassaden alter viktorianischer Häuser spezialisiert.

Douglas Zimmerman / SFGATEZeig mehrZeige weniger

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Einige der neu installierten benutzerdefinierten Details wurden einem viktorianischen Haus im Noe Valley hinzugefügt, das am 5. Februar 2021 von Skeeter Jones in San Francisco restauriert wurde. Seit mehr als 40 Jahren hat sich Jones auf die Restaurierung der Fassaden alter viktorianischer Häuser spezialisiert.

Douglas Zimmerman / SFGATEZeig mehrZeige weniger12von12

Yerke sagte, er denke, dass die Erhaltung dieser Häuser ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der Erhaltung eines Teils des kulturellen Erbes von San Francisco ist. “Es ist bedauerlich, dass in den letzten 10 Jahren viele historische Häuser von einer anderen Generation aufgekauft wurden, die sie in IKEA-Licht verwandelt”, sagte er. „Sobald sie ruiniert wurden, ist es selten, dass jemand sie zurücklegt. Ich bin demütig und dankbar, dass einige Leute das Geld ausgeben, um Dinge zurückzubringen, nur aus purer Liebe dazu. “

Jones stimmt zu und sagte, dass das Wissen über diese Kunst im Sterben liegt und die Nachfrage nach Lehrlingsausbildungsprogrammen nicht ausreicht. Er sagte, sogar seine eigenen zwei Söhne, von denen einer kurz mit ihm zusammengearbeitet habe, sagen, es sei zu teuer, in San Francisco zu leben und diese Art von Arbeit zu erledigen.

“Etwas [homeowners] aber wirklich egal. Vielleicht sind sie hierher gezogen und haben ein Gefühl für den Ort bekommen und wollen einen Teil der Geschichte bewahren, und jetzt ist ihr Haus viel wert “, sagte Jones. „Städte sind dynamisch. Sie ändern sich ständig. “

The post Meet the person who has restored greater than 100 Victorian dwelling facades in San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.