HCountless San Franciscans lined the streets on Sunday – phones drawn and ready – to watch a unique procession slowly moving through the city. “Ladies and gentlemen, please stand on the sidewalk,” yelled a police spokesman. “There’s a house coming down the street.”

Known as the Englander House, the two-story, 5,170-square-foot green Victorian building had lived in the heart of San Francisco for more than a century. But for years it stood empty and fell into disrepair, wedged behind a gas station and towered over by new residential buildings. The city, suffering from housing shortages, was ready to erect a 48-unit building in its place.

But instead of tearing down the beautiful building, the teams lifted it from the foundation, put it on wheels, and heaved it into a new home six blocks away. Arborists, town workers, and excited onlookers joined the parade through sharp turns and tight gaps with balconies and light poles as the six-bedroom house advanced at a speed of no more than 1.5 km / h.

Englander House was relocated to a new location about six blocks away. Photo: Noah Berger / APCarla Schlemminger and Corrina Chow pose for a photo in front of the house. Photo: Brittany Hosea-Small / Reuters

The move, which cost owner Tim Brown around $ 400,000 (£ 280,000), was no easy task. According to the San Francisco Historical Society, it was the first time a Victorian had been relocated in around 50 years – but it is certainly not the first time at all. San Francisco has a long history of building relocation, often in similarly dramatic ways.

In the 1970s, 12 houses were relocated from the western addition of the city. Dave Glass documented the process. Photo: Dave Glass

As early as 1886, Samuel Clemens – better known by his pseudonym Mark Twain – mockingly reported about an unfortunate move for the local newspaper Daily Morning Call, as Andrew Chamings of SFGate noted in an article about the history of the house moving late last year. “An old house broke out of its berth last night and drifted down Sutter Street toward Montgomery,” the author wrote, adding that “the tramp’s two-story half-timbered house has been wandering listlessly on Commercial Street for several days.”

Back then, horses had to do the hauling. The crews used boards, ties, and oiled boards to slowly drag the houses over the hills of San Francisco. It seems like a difficult way to go, but Diane C. Donovan, who detailed the centuries of relocation in her book San Francisco Relocated, found it to be a fairly common practice. Some houses were even brought into town by ship before being transported across town.

The city’s most famous move – and probably the largest – took place in the 1970s when 12 Victorian homes were saved from demolition during the San Francisco Western Addition redevelopment plan. Two decades earlier, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency had set out to evacuate an entire community and build new homes that would attract wealthy residents. Western Addition’s neighborhoods, home to mostly black and immigrant families, were about to be demolished in what is now considered one of the most egregious acts of gentrification. In the end, more than 800 stores were closed and 4,729 households had to leave their homes. Around 2,500 Victorian houses were demolished.

Around 2,500 Victorian homes were demolished, but 12 were saved. Photo: Dave GlassA worker signals a truck driver pulling Englander House through San Francisco on Sunday. Photo: Noah Berger / AP

But 12 were spared. As public anger grew over the wiping out of the Victorians from the city, the redevelopment agency agreed to auction some of the homes and move them out of the area.

“It was like moving a herd of giant elephants – and about the same speed,” said Carlo Middione, a former redevelopment officer, in a video of the experience published by FoundSF, a local history organization. The project lasted almost a month.

“People who lived nearby opened their windows and saw a large Victorian house go by,” said Glass. Photo: Dave Glass

“It was a big spectacle,” says Dave Glass, a photographer whose parents emigrated from Poland and raised him in Western Addition. They moved to the Sunset District on the beach when his childhood home was demolished. Years later he documented the resettlement of the rescued houses. “People who lived nearby opened their windows and saw a large Victorian house go by. It was really something to see. “

The Englander House makes its way through San Francisco. Photo: Noah Berger / APThe process hasn’t changed much, Glass said. Photo: Dave Glass

Glass was out and about last weekend watching the Englander House move through town. The process, he said, hasn’t changed much. But he thinks has the feeling. He complained that the structures had not been valued in the past few decades. “People didn’t care about Victorian houses,” he said, noting that while dozens have been preserved, thousands have been destroyed. “Now they are valued.”

Glass hopes it stays that way, so that the San Franciscans take enough pride in the city’s history and aesthetics to protect the Victorians – even if that takes big strides. “We have these tall, ornate redwood buildings,” he said. “Nobody else has that.”

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SAN FRANCISCO, March 23, 2021 / PRNewswire / – The Delta Dental Community Care Foundation and Meals on Wheels San Francisco today announced a partnership to improve the oral health of the Bay Area’s most vulnerable seniors. Meals on Wheels received a grant from $ 500,000 in support of his operations and to start planning for future work.

March, 20th World Oral Health Day is a global campaign encouraging people to “band together to reduce the burden of oral disease”. Seniors face unique oral health challenges, but are a group that is sadly overlooked. Getting older shouldn’t mean living with oral health problems or tooth loss.

“Improving the oral health of older adults is a priority for the Delta Dental Community Care Foundation,” he said Kenzie Ferguson, Vice President for Foundation and Corporate Social Responsibility at Delta Dental von California. “Meals on Wheels by San Francisco is an incredible organization that can help us understand the challenges facing this group and work directly with vulnerable seniors to provide education, resources and services. “

Meals on Wheels already offers special diets for customers who have problems chewing or swallowing. This makes them a natural partner in solving problems related to vulnerable older adults and oral health. The Delta Dental Community Care Foundation aims to find ways to understand oral care challenges in older adults and is working with partners on solutions to remove these barriers.

“We are grateful to have received this scholarship and we applaud Delta Dental for strengthening it during a time of crisis for our vulnerable population of senior citizens living in the city,” he said Ashley McCumber, CEO and Executive Director of Meals on Wheels in San Francisco. “Our partnership will allow us to provide education and other resources to our customers so they can be more proactive about their oral health.”

Proper nutrition is essential to oral and general health, and there are specific links between oral health and food insecurity that make this partnership particularly relevant. Food insecurity is associated with an increased risk of dental caries, which causes tooth decay. On the other end of the spectrum, missing teeth or other conditions that cause mouth and jaw pain make eating difficult and affect the ability to eat properly.

March is March for Meals Month – a time when local Meals on Wheels programs across the country are recognizing the re-approval of the Older Americans Act of 1972, which paved the way for funding for nutrition programs for seniors. The programs, including San Francisco, invite local, state and federal officials to deliver meals to seniors’ homes while raising awareness of food insecurity issues that older adults face on a daily basis.

More activities have been added due to concerns about COVID-19, including sending maps, making phone calls, and holding Zoom meetings with local and state officials. Delta Dental has provided Meals on Wheels customers with 4000 dental kits and sent around 1000 cards with them in mind.

Via the Delta Dental Community Care Foundation

The Delta Dental Community Care Foundation works with local communities to improve access to care, support dental education, and fund research that advances the field of oral health. Since 2011, the foundation has more than awarded $ 60 million in 15 states and DC The foundation is the philanthropic arm of Delta Dental of California and its affiliates, including Delta Dental Insurance Company, Delta Dental of Pennsylvania and Delta Dental from new York, Inc.

Media contact:

Tami Holzman
[email protected]
415-216-4367

SOURCE Delta Dental Community Care Foundation

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