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These hidden heroes of HVAC and plumbing quietly sanitize air and surfaces in crowded areas These hidden heroes of HVAC and plumbing quietly sanitize in crowded areas

LOS GATOS NEWS AND EVENTS — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 13:19:11 +0000

Perhaps more than ever, the pandemic has made us more aware of the quality of the air we breathe. This finding has been a boon for HVAC and plumbing equipment manufacturers, whose products can help curb the spread of COVID-19 in crowded indoor spaces such as classrooms and gatherings. From robust heat pump and air source systems to keep the school cool again, to top-notch faucets, hand dryers, and plumbing, they've got the whole “reopening” thing down pat.

(Courtesy of Dornbracht)

WHAT

Dornbracht

(Courtesy of Excel Dryer)

XLERATOR XL-W hand dryer

Excel dryer

(Courtesy of Duravit)

DuraStyle Basic

It lasted

(Courtesy of Mitsubishi Electric)

MXZ M-Series Hyper-Heating INVERTER® H2i® Multi-Zone

Mitsubishi Electric

(Courtesy of LG HVAC)

MultiV5

LG HVAC

The post These hidden heroes of HVAC and plumbing quietly sanitize air and surfaces in crowded areas These hidden heroes of HVAC and plumbing quietly sanitize in crowded areas appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Hidden prices of homeownership can add as much as practically $15,000 yearly

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 22:29:15 +0000

The new analysis from Zillow and Thumbtack identifies the additional costs home buyers can expect, including utilities, insurance, maintenance and property taxes

Homeowners can expect a payment $14,155 a year, or $1,180 per month in hidden costs associated with owning a home.
These annual costs can be too high $22,791 in the San Francisco metro area and as low as $9,886 In Las Vegas.
Affordability is the biggest challenge for first-time home buyers. Zillow's affordability calculator and new monthly cost finder tool, as well as Thumbtack's personalized maintenance guides, can help buyers factor these costs into their budget.

SEATTLE And SAN FRANCISCO, June 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — The daily cost of owning a home is higher than ever, according to a new analysis from Zillow® and Thumbtack. Utility bills, property taxes, insurance and essential maintenance can add up $14,155 per year for the average US homeowner. This is an addition $1,180 per month in addition to a typical mortgage payment. First-time home buyers facing affordability challenges in today's market need to understand and factor in these less obvious costs when calculating how much home they can afford.

Zillow and Thumbtack: Top 10 Metro Areas with the Highest Hidden Annual Costs of Homeownership

These costs can be surprisingly high and even higher in already expensive metropolitan areas $22,000 annually in San Francisco, new York And The angel. Of the 39 metropolitan areas analyzed, the hidden costs of homeownership are the lowest Las Vegas ($9,886); Asheville, North Carolina ($11,318); And St Louis ($11,824).

Research from Zillow and Thumbtack examined three unavoidable expenses for single-family homeowners—property taxes, home insurance, and utilities (energy, water, natural gas, and internet)—and found that they were average $7,742 overall nationwide. New Yorkers pay the highest property taxes, even more $9,000 per year while utility costs are at their highest Hartford, Connecticutaveraging $4,443 a year. The cost of homeowners insurance varies depending on home value, so homeowners in the cheapest metropolitan areas, such as Pittsburgh And Clevelandhave the added benefit of lower insurance costs.

The analysis also considered Thumbtack's 17 essential home maintenance projects, based on data from millions of home projects completed across the country. These projects have an overall average $6,413 yearly. The average maintenance costs are highest in The angel And Chicagoin total $8,639 And $7,722 respectively. Homeowners are now in Las Vegas can expect to pay fairly $3,467 per year to maintain their homes.

“Just like you would visit a mechanic regularly to keep your car in good condition and avoid high bills, your home also needs the same routine maintenance to ensure everything is running smoothly,” he said David Steckel, Thumbtack's home expert. “Staying on top of your home's annual maintenance will not only increase your home's value, but also avoid emergency repairs that can break the homeowner's budget.”

Nearly half of all home buyers (45%) are first-time buyers, and they may be surprised by these costs and not take them into account when budgeting for a home. When buyers start in the Home Loans tab on the Zillow homepage, they can use an affordability calculator to figure out how much they can afford, then connect with a loan officer to not only find out what mortgage they qualify for , but also what they would like to pay. Given these additional costs. With that budget, buyers can then use a new app filter on Zillow to purchase homes based on monthly cost instead of purchase price.

“Understanding all the costs that come with homeownership can impact not only a buyer's budget, but also the type of home they purchase,” said Zillow home trends expert Amanda Pendleton. “While a large backyard or larger home can be attractive, it is important to consider how much it might cost to maintain these spaces. Buyers may want to consider affordable alternatives to single-family homes or spend more up front on a new construction home that might require less maintenance in the short term.”

Once buyers close the deal, Thumbtack is the point of contact to help you care for your new home. By entering their home's location and features on Thumbtack, homeowners can receive personalized guidance on what projects to complete, when, and who to hire to do the work. This will help homeowners create prioritized maintenance plans that are within their budget and cover everything from move-in home cleaning to tree trimming and roof maintenance.

methodology

In this analysis, property taxes were calculated using the average effective tax rate in each metropolitan area multiplied by the area's average home value, as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index.

In estimating insurance costs, this analysis assumed that homeowners pay 0.5% of their home's value each year, which was calculated as 0.005 multiplied by the area's average home value as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index.

Utility costs were calculated using the unweighted average of all states, excluding streaming and phone bill costs, as reported by Forbes.

Annual home maintenance costs are made up of tack categories that are considered essential annual home maintenance tasks: appliance maintenance, carpet cleaning, central air conditioning maintenance, patio staining and sealing, duct and vent cleaning, fireplace and chimney cleaning, lawn with comprehensive Service Gutter care, cleaning and maintenance, heating system maintenance, house cleaning, pressure washing, roof maintenance, sprinkler and irrigation system maintenance, tile and grout cleaning, tree trimming and removal, water heater maintenance and window cleaning.

Pricing data is based on projects requested on Thumbtack reported directly by the independent service professional or individual customer. Cost is an unweighted index of all annual home maintenance projects and is calculated quarterly using a moving average.

About Zillow Group

Zillow Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: Z) (NASDAQ: ZG) is reimagining real estate to make it easier to enter the next chapter of life. As the most visited real estate website in The United StatesZillow® and its partners provide customers with an on-demand experience to sell, buy, rent or finance with transparency and ease.

Zillow Group's affiliates, brands and subsidiaries include Zillow®; Zillow Premier Agent®; Zillow Home Loans; Zillow Closing Services; Trulia®; Out East®; StreetEasy®; HotPads®; and ShowingTime+℠, which houses ShowingTime®, Bridge Interactive® and dotloop®, as well as interactive floor plans. Zillow Home Loans, LLC is an Equal Housing Lender, NMLS #10287 (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org).

About thumbtack

Thumbtack is a technology leader developing the modern home management platform. With the Thumbtack app, homeowners can manage their homes effortlessly – knowing with confidence what to do, when to do it, and who to hire. Bring them 600 billion dollars Thumbtack is an online platform for the home services industry, empowering millions of homeowners to repair, maintain and improve their most valuable assets. Hundreds of thousands of local service professionals, from painters and plumbers to photographers and electricians, use the Thumbtack platform every year to grow their businesses.

SOURCE Zillow Group, Inc.

The post Hidden prices of homeownership can add as much as practically $15,000 yearly appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Hidden prices of homeownership can add as much as almost $15,000 yearly

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 19:53:46 +0000

The new analysis from Zillow and Thumbtack identifies the additional costs home buyers can expect, including utilities, insurance, maintenance and property taxes

Homeowners can expect a payment $14,155 a year, or $1,180 per month in hidden costs associated with owning a home.
These annual costs can be too high $22,791 in the San Francisco metro area and as low as $9,886 In Las Vegas.
Affordability is the biggest challenge for first-time home buyers. Zillow's affordability calculator and new monthly cost finder tool, as well as Thumbtack's personalized maintenance guides, can help buyers factor these costs into their budget.

SEATTLE And SAN FRANCISCO, June 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — The daily cost of owning a home is higher than ever, according to a new analysis from Zillow® and Thumbtack. Utility bills, property taxes, insurance and essential maintenance can add up $14,155 per year for the average US homeowner. This is an addition $1,180 per month in addition to a typical mortgage payment. First-time home buyers facing affordability challenges in today's market need to understand and factor in these less obvious expenses when calculating how much home they can afford.

Once buyers close the deal, Thumbtack is the point of contact to help you care for your new home. By entering their home's location and features on Thumbtack, homeowners can receive personalized guidance on which projects to complete, when, and who to hire to complete the work. This will help homeowners create prioritized maintenance plans that are within their budget and cover everything from move-in home cleaning to tree trimming and roof maintenance.

methodology

Utility costs were calculated using the unweighted average of all states, excluding streaming and phone bill costs, as reported by Forbes.

About Zillow Group

Zillow Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: Z) (NASDAQ: ZG) is reimagining real estate to make it easier to enter the next chapter of life. As the most visited real estate website in The United StatesZillow® and its affiliates provide customers with a transparent and easy, on-demand experience for selling, buying, renting or financing.

About thumbtack

SOURCE Zillow Group, Inc.

For more information: Amanda Pendleton, Zillow, press@zillow.com; or Gina Balistreri, Thumbtack, press@thumbtack.com

The post Hidden prices of homeownership can add as much as almost $15,000 yearly appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The Hidden Historical past of San Francisco’s Graveyards

Fri, 21 Oct 2022 08:59:49 +0000

In the summer of 2019, construction crews working near the northeastern corner of San Francisco’s Lincoln Park dug up something they weren’t expecting: a coffin.

The workers were creating new bioswales along El Camino Del Mar, designed to divert stormwater during heavy rains and keep the tony Sea Cliff neighborhood from flooding. In the process, and under the watchful eye of an archaeologist hired by the city, they would end up uncovering the graves of at least 20 people, dating back to the end of the 19th century.

A secret lies beneath the manicured lawns of Lincoln Park Golf Course. These gentle slopes were once the home of one of San Francisco’s largest graveyards. Between 1870 and about 1900, 29,000 people were buried in Golden Gate Cemetery, named for its proximity to the entrance to San Francisco Bay, though most people called it City Cemetery. The majority were new burials, although a few hundred had been relocated from the city’s earlier cemeteries. And many of City Cemetery’s graves stayed where they were when other cemeteries in San Francisco eventually were moved out of town. Somewhere between 10,000 and 22,000 are still there, including the ones the bioswale workers found. Those thousands of graves hold the stories of San Francisco’s builders, of immigrants and low-income laborers, many of whom died destitute and alone. They tell a tale of how San Francisco has, again and again, favored its wealthy and privileged residents over its poor and marginalized ones.

At first, there was no way of knowing whom the graves on El Camino Del Mar belonged to. City Cemetery’s grave markers were removed more than a century ago, when the burial ground closed. The city didn’t have a detailed map of the 200-acre cemetery, which contained over two dozen plots that belonged to different community organizations—often nonprofits that helped take financial care of members and their families. Many of them were Chinese and were overseen by the Chinese Six Companies, a group of benevolent associations formed in the 19th century. As archaeologists studied the remains, they reached out to historians Alex Ryder and John Martini, who were working on reconstructing a City Cemetery map—partly for situations just like this.

As it turned out, the area where workers found the bones had once belonged to the French Mutual Benevolent Society of San Francisco. A number of the skeletons showed signs of autopsies and other postmortem medical studies, which were illegal in the 19th century. And one of the skulls had apparently been pierced by a gunshot. A .44-caliber bullet from a Winchester pistol was rattling around inside it.

Ryder says the research team is close to identifying whose skull it was. But local newspaper archives may hold important clues: On January 15, 1896, the San Francisco Call told the story of a French doctor, E.L. Molass, who had sailed to New York on a steamer called S.S. La Bretagne, then traveled overland to San Francisco, where he arrived in late December. Molass was suffering from tuberculosis and hoped the California climate would cure him; apparently he didn’t know about the city’s brutal fog and wind. He wound up in the French Hospital, but “sickness and despondency” overtook him, the newspaper reported. On January 14, 1896, he “sent a bullet into his right ear.”

The ground beneath Lincoln Park Golf Course contains thousands of such stories, often involving San Franciscans who died penniless, buried at the city’s expense.

Just two massive cemetery markers still stand among the golf course tees. One, erected by the Ladies’ Seamen’s Friend Society of the Port of San Francisco, is a large obelisk visible from the parking lot of the Legion of Honor museum. The other, the gateway-like Kong Chow funerary monument, was once a central part of a Chinese plot in City Cemetery.

This article appears in the Fall 2022 issue of Alta Journal.
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Woody LaBounty, a longtime San Francisco historian, knew that City Cemetery had a singular story to tell about San Francisco’s complex past. When Connie Chan was elected supervisor of District 1, which includes Lincoln Park, in 2020, LaBounty told her about the presence of the historic cemetery and encouraged her to start the process of making it a city landmark. Before that conversation, “I have to be honest: I never knew that’s what it was,” Chan says. She agreed it was worth commemorating and got to work.

LaBounty says that City Cemetery’s silent residents are the people “who built San Francisco, who represent the diversity—socially and ethnically—of San Francisco in the 19th century. They’re the forebears of the place we all call home, and they’ve mostly been forgotten.”

How and why they were forgotten says a lot about San Francisco’s history too.

Richard Barnes

THE FORSAKEN DEAD

Thomas W. Wood, born in Fairfax, Virginia, was 22 when he enlisted in the U.S. military on June 3, 1847, to fight in the Mexican-American War. He reenlisted numerous times, until he couldn’t anymore. He received his final honorable discharge on November 27, 1881, when a medical board deemed him too worn-out to continue serving. Wood decided to head to San Francisco, even though he didn’t have a home, a job, or any friends lined up. When his $25 ran out, he poisoned himself, the San Francisco Call reported on February 18, 1882. He was 57.

When Wood’s body was found, his pockets contained a “bundle of honorable discharges, nicely tied with red tape, and a number of affectionate letters from a married daughter living near the old home, back in old Virginia.”

Wood’s body remained at the city morgue as folks with the San Francisco coroner’s office attempted to arrange an honorable burial, but many cemeteries would not take him, likely because he had died by suicide. Ultimately, he was interred in City Cemetery “with no one by to say even the poor words ‘dust to dust, ashes to ashes!’ ” Wood’s grave, just off the shores of the Golden Gate, was marked with a white plank bearing only a number—1,116—partially covered in drifting sand.

City Cemetery was the last public burial ground established in San Francisco, which famously shut down and evicted many of its graveyards in the early 20th century. Not counting Indigenous burial grounds, San Francisco saw roughly 30 cemeteries, large and small, official and unofficial, come and go between Spanish colonizers’ arrival in the 1760s and the cemeteries’ ouster to Colma, a dozen miles away, throughout the first half of the 20th century. At first, the city’s burial grounds were compact, spanning a single block at most, but then the gold rush happened. In 1846, two years before San Francisco officially came under U.S. control, about 200 people lived in the small town. But by 1852, its population had exploded to 36,000. More residents meant more death, including from waves of disease like smallpox and typhoid fever, and the city’s existing cemeteries quickly filled up.

But with each new cemetery, poor planning prevailed. Over and over again, city officials found new places to bury the dead, thinking they’d identified a spot so far out in the sticks that nobody would ever want to live next door. Over and over again, they were wrong. It happened with Yerba Buena Cemetery, a 13-acre public burial ground located where San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza, Asian Art Museum, and Main Library stand today. It happened with the massive Masonic, Odd Fellows, and Calvary cemeteries on and around Lone Mountain, which were surrounded by Richmond district NIMBYs within decades. And it happened with City Cemetery.

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City Cemetery was meant to be San Francisco’s solution to the problem of Yerba Buena. That old municipal burial ground, which opened in 1850, was full by the mid-1850s, with 7,000 to 9,000 graves, mostly of working-class and Chinese residents. By 1870, the graveyard was falling apart—and located right in the heart of the city, where leaders wanted to build a new city hall. In theory, most of Yerba Buena’s burials would be disinterred and moved to City Cemetery. But in practice, only 267 unidentified graves were documented as being relocated to City Cemetery. Untold thousands likely rest in the old Yerba Buena Cemetery soil, and workers continued to find them anytime they excavated, whether they were building City Hall at Larkin and McAllister Streets in the 1880s or renovating the old Main Library to become the new Asian Art Museum in 2003.

For the new City Cemetery, San Francisco leaders looked for a far-flung spot to bury the dead. When they began considering a plot in the desolate northwestern corner of the city, near Lands End, the property was barren, treeless, and buffeted by strong winds off the Pacific Ocean. Still, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Outside Lands Committee acknowledged that “a public burial place is a necessity, and…the tract designated was the best for the purpose, and least objectionable of any at our disposal. It is sheltered from the wind to some extent; has a beautiful view; is susceptible of cultivation, and has a firm clayey soil, which is much better in a sanitary point of view than a light or sandy soil.”

As a public burial ground, City Cemetery included significant space to bury San Francisco’s indigent dead. The large Potter’s Field, now beneath and surrounding the Legion of Honor building, took in an estimated 11,000 burials, which the city paid for. These graves were distinguished with no more than a plank painted white, like Thomas W. Wood’s, each marked with a number that indicated the deceased’s place in the burial register.

But those records weren’t perfect. When a San Francisco Call reporter visited the cemetery in February 1882, he asked a gravedigger how many graves there were. The gravedigger replied, “I numbered up to three thousand, and then began with ‘one’ again.” By that time, 4,118 burials had been recorded, but it could have been more; cemetery workers said they sometimes buried two people in one hole.

Not long after City Cemetery opened, local benevolent associations began claiming plots. Among them were the Knights of Pythias, the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Ladies’ Seamen’s Friend Society, a female-run charitable organization that looked after destitute sailors. By 1887, there were 45 sub-cemeteries linked to local societies and associations, including 26 connected to Chinese community groups. More than 10,000 Chinese residents were buried in City Cemetery over its years of operation, making it the largest and most significant burial ground for San Francisco’s Chinese communities, say historians LaBounty and Ryder.

More than 10,000 Chinese residents were buried in City Cemetery over its years of operation.

During the mid- to late 1800s, many Chinese residents in San Francisco didn’t regard local cemeteries as permanent resting places. Most who came to the city planned to stay only long enough to make some money before returning home. Chinese community associations took on the responsibility of burying their brethren in San Francisco if they died there and also handled the task of returning their bones to China. If a body was “buried in a strange land, untended by his family, [the] soul would never stop wandering in the darkness of the other world,” Shih-shan Henry Tsai wrote in The Chinese Experience in America.

Shantang (benevolent society) representatives kept track of graves and arranged for permits to disinter the bodies four years or more after burial. They paid the city $10 per disinterment, $2.50 of which went to the cemetery. Bones were cleaned, if necessary, and sealed in a tin box marked with the name of the deceased. They were stored in Chinatown before sailing to the deceased’s hometown in China. About 6,300 Chinese burials were disinterred and sent home; the rest remain in the earth near the Kong Chow monument, Ryder says.

San Francisco’s Chinese immigrants began arriving in much higher numbers during the gold rush and immediately faced horrific racism. They were wrongly blamed for many disease epidemics, and their cemeteries became targets too. White San Franciscans complained to the city about Chinese burial and exhumation practices and often used the euphemism “abatement of nuisance” as an argument for closing San Francisco’s cemeteries or limiting the activities of Chinese residents. Other times, they didn’t bother with euphemisms; their bigotry was stated openly. The Richmond District Improvement Club was thrilled when the city agreed to close City Cemetery in the late 1890s. In a resolution, the club celebrated “getting rid of this pest-breeding spot and forever remov[ing] from the sight of visitors to the district the pagan rites of scraping the flesh from the bones of deceased Chinese who had been buried there, which to our people was a sickening and dreaded sight, once seen not soon to be forgotten.”

Racism wasn’t the only reason many San Franciscans wanted the cemeteries gone. At the time, it was commonly believed that graveyards spread disease through the air and groundwater, and many of the city’s older burial grounds, which lacked the money for upkeep, had become derelict. More than anything, though, prospectors wanted to cash in on surging property values.

Graves were found nestled amid the plumbing at the Legion of Honor in 1994. The museum turned over about 900 remains to the San Francisco medical examiner.

Richard Barnes

A DUTY TO THE LIVING

The fight to end San Francisco’s cemeteries was as long as it was messy—and it started before the first graves in City Cemetery were dug. Richmond district residents had begun agitating for the removal of their sepulchral neighbors on Lone Mountain by the end of the 1860s, and by 1901 they’d persuaded municipal leaders to ban further burials anywhere in the city.

“No feeling is more honorable or creditable than respect for the dead,” James “Sunny Jim” Rolph Jr., San Francisco’s mayor from 1911 to 1932, proclaimed in 1914. However, “the duty of government is more to the living than to the dead. We must provide for the expansion of our city.” Eventually, a majority of voters agreed with him. In 1937, they overwhelmingly approved a measure forcing the Lone Mountain cemeteries to relocate their dead elsewhere. An estimated 150,000 graves were moved south, transforming the tiny town of Colma into San Francisco’s personal necropolis.

City Cemetery was different. While Richmond residents were eager to remove the graves and turn the property into a public park, few burials were ultimately moved. Long before voters went to the polls, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors sent notices to every organization with members buried in City Cemetery and set a removal deadline of July 1, 1909. But almost none of these associations had the necessary funds. Likewise, San Francisco didn’t want to pay to dig up the massive Potter’s Field. Aside from the earlier Chinese disinterments, only about 2,300 graves went elsewhere, Ryder estimates. On top of that, brush fires in 1891 and 1903 destroyed a number of the wooden grave markers, making it easier to forget who was buried there. As soon as the deadline passed, the city ordered that the remaining graves be “leveled over and the tombs destroyed.”

Almost immediately, local golfers began agitating for the city to open a public course, so players didn’t have to belong to a stuffy country club, says Richard Harris, cofounder and president of the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance. In August 1909, just a month after the deadline to remove the graves from City Cemetery, the S.F. Board of Park Commissioners voted to install a golf course atop the graveyard. Golfers had already built a 3-hole course on the site in 1902, which had expanded to 9 holes by 1909 and 18 holes by 1918. The site was renamed Lincoln Park, to denote the fact that it was at the western end of the cross-country Lincoln Highway. The golf course was the first public one in San Francisco and one of the first in the western United States, Harris says.

Harris began playing golf at Lincoln Park decades ago, at the age of 12. Even then, he was well aware that he was golfing in a graveyard. “When you’re playing golf there, you can’t not know that. At the first hole, you walk past the Chinese burial site. You know a cemetery marker when you see it.”

Lincoln Park visitors may have always recognized these graveyard monuments, but it’s not clear they knew how many thousands of graves remained in the ground. The dead started to make themselves known again in February 1921, as crews broke ground on the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, as it was originally called. The museum, funded by Alma de Bretteville Spreckels and her husband, Adolph, who made his money through sugar plantations and breeding racehorses, was built as a memorial to California soldiers killed in World War I. As workers dug into the earth, they tore open 1,500 graves.

“The site of the $250,000 memorial to the dead was once a cemetery. It still is, but the bones are now scattered. In the excavation work for the memorial workmen have uncovered about 1500 skeleton-filled coffins,” reporter Vid Larsen wrote for the Daily News in 1921. Larsen and a colleague visited the site during construction and reported “piles of bones not completely covered by the dirt,” many coffins cut in half by the teeth of excavating machines, and more coffins poking out from the soil. Local college students bought some of the skulls. The foreman told the reporters that his crews refused to touch the bones. “The only thing we can do,” he said, “is to scrape them over and cover them up again.”

The Legion of Honor opened on Armistice Day, November 11, 1924, atop thousands of graves. The burials remained relatively undisturbed until 1993, when a new round of excavations at the museum uncovered what archaeologist Miley Holman described as a “charnel heap,” a mass grave likely left over from the 1921 construction. The remains, archaeologists found, belonged mostly to elderly white people buried in redwood coffins. Their bones showed signs of age and heavy labor: fractures, skeletal trauma, arthritis.

Museum officials and builders didn’t want to deal with the work of processing the remains; Harry Parker, the director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, complained to the San Francisco Chronicle that the delays associated with the discovery would cost $50,000 a month. Ultimately, the Legion of Honor turned the remains of about 900 early San Franciscans over to the medical examiner’s office, and they were reinterred in Skylawn Memorial Park in Colma. The rest, however, are still there. Of the plans to make the property a landmark, a spokesperson for the Legion of Honor says: “We are monitoring the city process and will determine how the designation of Lincoln Park will impact the museum operations as we learn more.”

City Cemetery’s history speaks to San Francisco’s profound disrespect for the dead, LaBounty says, adding, “It points toward how we treat different socioeconomic levels. That’s the reason it was so easily transformed into a park, and there wasn’t more outcry about not disinterring the dead. It mostly consisted of groups outside the power structure.”

Now that S.F. leaders may make City Cemetery a local landmark, some of those groups are beginning to reclaim it.

The Kong Chow funerary monument, once a central part of a Chinese plot where perhaps 3,700 graves remain in the earth, is one of two former Golden Gate Cemetery markers on the Lincoln Park Golf Course.

Jason Henry

UNDERGROUND TALES

In October 2021, dozens of Chinese American San Franciscans gathered at City Cemetery’s Kong Chow monument for Chung Yeung, an autumn festival that often includes paying homage to the dead. Golfers’ games were paused as locals brought in alcohol and food, including a whole roast pig, as well as paper money and incense to burn as offerings, says Supervisor Chan. “Many of our Chinese elders were there, and some got teary-eyed. It was a moment to think about their parents, and grandparents, and great-grandparents.” It was the first such ceremony in decades, possibly since the 1907 memorial for Hew Kong, president of the Yung Wo Association, who died suddenly on November 27, 1901, after a fight with the Chinese consul, Sun Sze Yee.

As soon as Chan proposed making City Cemetery a landmark, in April 2021, golfers began to worry. The course’s lawns and tees had grown shabby, and the clubhouse was in poor shape, Harris says. Many were concerned that landmarking the cemetery would make it more difficult, or perhaps impossible, for the city to keep the golf course in playable condition. Chan says there’s no reason that making the cemetery a landmark should interfere with maintaining the golf course: “We’re all trying to find ways to share the space and be inclusive and respectful to each other.”

In a letter on behalf of the public golf association, Harris urged the city to consider landmarking the whole, multilayered history of the site, including the golf course, the Legion of Honor, and the Holocaust Memorial near the museum, designed by artist George Segal and installed in 1984.

But only City Cemetery is being considered for landmark status under Article 10 of San Francisco’s planning code, says Allison Vanderslice, principal environmental planner for the city. The site “is significant for its ability to add to our understanding of history and also its cultural associations and its funerary structures.” It captures the cultural diversity of early San Francisco, too, she says.

If the S.F. Board of Supervisors approves landmark status for City Cemetery, the designation will not entail new signage for the site. (Update: the City Cemetery emetery is now an official historic landmark.) But, separately, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission plans to install an informational panel that briefly discusses the history of City Cemetery and the remains found along El Camino Del Mar, says Kari Hervey-Lentz, an archaeologist in the city’s planning department. Hervey-Lentz and Ryder are reluctant to reveal specific places where remains could be found; they don’t want to make it easy for relic hunters to dig up bones or other grave goods. It’s rare, but it happens: in the 1960s, local kids digging for fun in the park near Clement Street and 39th Avenue unearthed a Jewish headstone that dates back to 1858. It may have been moved from an earlier Jewish cemetery at Gough and Green Streets, Ryder says.

The poet Kenneth Rexroth once argued that there is “nothing underground about” San Francisco. On the contrary, it is a city with history as layered and rich as the Franciscan Complex stone that underlies it. The original home of the Ohlone people is famed for the Spanish colonizers, the gold rush, the Beats and the Summer of Love, queer and trans rights movements, and the tech boom. It’s also famed for having no cemeteries within city limits, even though it still has a few: the historic graveyard at Mission Dolores de Asís, the National Cemetery in the Presidio, the Columbarium with its thousands of niches for cremated remains. And City Cemetery; most of its dead are still there too.

And yet, because San Francisco outsourced its burials in the 20th century, it’s a city where local victims of the 1906 earthquake and fire (3,000), the AIDS crisis (20,000), the Jonestown massacre (909), and the COVID-19 pandemic (946 and counting) couldn’t be buried in the place they called home. In San Francisco, do the dead matter? Time and time again, through a combination of poor planning, lack of foresight, and human greed, city officials have demonstrated that the dead don’t matter.

Landmarking City Cemetery may begin to change that. Since the Chung Yeung ceremony last October, there are already signs of it happening, particularly at the Kong Chow monument. Someone has been keeping fresh flowers, incense, and a broom at the site to pay respect to the dead buried there, says Hervey-Lentz. “It’s rewarding to see this work contributing to the heritage of these groups” and the importance of this site recognized.

Chan hopes that local Chinese American elders and community organizations will return to the monument each year to celebrate Chung Yeung and similar ceremonies. And she hopes that landmarking the cemetery will create more respect for San Francisco’s historic dead overall. “Not just for [residents] who are here now but for generations to come and for immigrants.… It will remind people that San Francisco has always been a city of immigrants, a refuge for people who want to come here and thrive here.”•

Beth Winegarner
Beth Winegarner is a longtime Bay Area journalist and the author of several books.

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The Hidden Historical past of San Francisco’s Graveyards

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 10:14:57 +0000

In the summer of 2019, construction crews working near the northeastern corner of San Francisco’s Lincoln Park dug up something they weren’t expecting: a coffin.

This article appears in the Fall 2022 issue of Alta Journal.
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The ground beneath Lincoln Park Golf Course contains thousands of such stories, often involving San Franciscans who died penniless, buried at the city’s expense.

How and why they were forgotten says a lot about San Francisco’s history too.

Richard Barnes

THE FORSAKEN DEAD

More than 10,000 Chinese residents were buried in City Cemetery over its years of operation.

Graves were found nestled amid the plumbing at the Legion of Honor in 1994. The museum turned over about 900 remains to the San Francisco medical examiner.

Richard Barnes

A DUTY TO THE LIVING

Museum officials and builders didn’t want to deal with the work of processing the remains; Harry Parker, the director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, complained to the San Francisco Chronicle that the delays associated with the discovery would cost $50,000 a month. Ultimately, the Legion of Honor turned the remains of about 900 early San Franciscans over to the medical examiner’s office, and they were reinterred in Skylawn Memorial Park in Colma. The rest, however, are still there. Of the remaining graves, a spokesperson for the Legion of Honor says, “We are monitoring the city process and will determine how the designation of Lincoln Park will impact the museum operations as we learn more.”

Now that S.F. leaders may make City Cemetery a local landmark, some of those groups are beginning to reclaim it.

Jason Henry

UNDERGROUND TALES

If the S.F. Board of Supervisors approves landmark status for City Cemetery, the designation will not entail new signage for the site. But, separately, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission plans to install an informational panel that briefly discusses the history of City Cemetery and the remains found along El Camino Del Mar, says Kari Hervey-Lentz, an archaeologist in the city’s planning department. Hervey-Lentz and Ryder are reluctant to reveal specific places where remains could be found; they don’t want to make it easy for relic hunters to dig up bones or other grave goods. It’s rare, but it happens: in the 1960s, local kids digging for fun in the park near Clement Street and 39th Avenue unearthed a Jewish headstone that dates back to 1858. It may have been moved from an earlier Jewish cemetery at Gough and Green Streets, Ryder says.

Beth Winegarner
Beth Winegarner is a longtime Bay Area journalist and the author of several books.

The post The Hidden Historical past of San Francisco’s Graveyards appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Peaceable, Hidden Gem Locations in San Francisco

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 02:38:32 +0000

From our lively restaurant and bar scene to scores of popular tourist attractions and scenic vistas, there’s no shortage of cool spots to discover in San Francisco. But sometimes you need a break from madness and when that happens, the city has plenty of options for carving out some peace and solitude. Whether you prefer your alone time in a park, a museum, a bookstore, or a bar (“alone wine” as it’s called), there’s a place on this list for you that’s perfect for reading a book, meditating, and noticing all of the small amazing moments that everyone staring at their phones are totally missing.

Unsplash/Nathan Guzman

Golden Gate Park
This five-acre garden that is surrounded by tall greenery on all sides is home to winding paths, tranquil koi ponds, enchanting blooms, a five-story pagoda, a Zen garden, wooden bridges, stepping stones, bonsai trees, and a tea house , and though it is a popular tourist attraction, if you go during “off” hours, especially weekday mornings, you may have the space almost to yourself (and, even if you’re not alone, the landscape was designed to be calming and slow people down, so it will still feel that way). If you’re an SF resident, you no longer have to pay admission as of spring 2022, so if you get there and it’s a little too crowded for your liking, you can always take a quick stroll around and then wander back outside to Golden Gate Park which is a treasure trove of places one can find peace and quiet—a few obvious ones that didn’t make this list include Stow Lake, the Botanical Garden, the Rhododendron Dell, and, well… you get it.

Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

Nob Hill
You don’t have to be religious to appreciate this stunning French Gothic cathedral known for its mosaics and murals, reproduction of the “Gates of Paradise” doors, stained glass windows, two labyrinths, and awe-inspiring acoustics. Of course, if you do enjoy a religious or spiritual experience, the Episcopal Church does hold regular services, but it welcomes all people, regardless of faith, for yoga classes, sound baths, concerts, art exhibits, and more. You can also walk the indoor labyrinth during cathedral hours and the outdoor labyrinth anytime, day or night.

Thrillist TV

History of

The History of Tailgating

Photo courtesy of National AIDS Memorial

Golden Gate Park
It’s impossible to step foot inside this 10-acre grove in eastern Golden Gate Park without thinking about all of the lives touched by AIDS, and that’s the point. It’s a place to “heal, hope, and remember.” But it’s also one of the best spots in the park for a moment of tranquility and reflection. The bowl-like valley was created so that people can find spots to be alone or gather in groups with tons of plants and trees, stone benches, and memorials throughout. There are plenty of places to lay down a blanket or sit on a bench and enjoy a picnic or a book. But when true solitude and quiet are in order, the Redwood Circle, a space surrounded by redwood trees, always does the trick.

Flickr/Anna Majkowska

twin peaks
Tank Hill is one of those SF spots that everyone pretends is some big secret, but a quick Google search will quickly dispel that myth. Still, for whatever reason, it just isn’t as possible with the masses as one might think it would be, considering the amazing views of downtown SF, Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, and beyond. Tank Hill is right below Twin Peaks and sits at about 650 feet (Twin Peaks is at 922 feet), so the views aren’t quite as stellar (and they aren’t 360 degrees), but you also get to avoid buses full of tourists, a relatively steep walk, or, even worse, potentially getting your car broken into because you decided to drive. The park is small, and there’s nothing much to it, but what more does one need to enjoy quality SF views than a log to sit on?

Chris LaBasco/Shutterstock

sea cliff
The Lands End Trail is one of SF’s best hikes, which means it’s rarely very empty, but if you don’t mind a one-mile-ish hike followed by a short, but steep descent down to the ocean, you’ll be treated to one of SF’s most secluded beaches: Mile Rock, a small, rocky cove covered with driftwood, perfect for watching a magical California sunset.

City Lights Booksellers & Publishers

North Beach
It might be hard to imagine that there’s anything tranquil about what may very well be the country’s most well-known bookstore, but the good news about this shop which first gained notoriety for publishing Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, is that they have a poetry room upstairs, where shelves full of poetry line the wall, muted sunlight comes in through the windows, and chairs beckon you to sit and read. In the mood for a drink to go with your quiet contemplation? Head next door to the iconic Vesuvio and grab a seat in an upstairs nook next to a window.

Hotel Biron

Hayes Valley
This intimate wine bar and art gallery (that’s not actually a hotel) is tucked away on a little alley off of Gough Street and is an ideal spot for first dates and solo dates. Unlike so many bars in SF, you’re not going there to “see or be seen”; Rather, you’re going there to enjoy an excellent glass of wine and maybe some cheese or charcuterie while cozied up on a comfy sofa in a dimly lit room with exposed brick walls and the dancing shadows of candlelight.

California Academy of Sciences

Golden Gate Park
Considering that the California Academy of Sciences is a museum beloved by children and adults alike, it’s hard to imagine the possibility of finding peace and quiet anywhere inside the bustling museum. But, in fact, there are several places to find solitude. 1. Inside of the 75-foot domed Morrison Planetarium where the hyper-realistic virtual environments are so mesmerizing, one remains agog in silence. 2.) In the downstairs aquarium where the lights are dimmed so that the 40,000 colorful animals who live in the underwater and terrestrial habitats can take center stage. Wander among the exhibits—from the coral reef tank, which is one of the deepest and largest displays of living coral in the world, to the bioluminescent “twilight zone,” a recreation of mesophotic reefs located 100 to 500 feet beneath the ocean’s surface, to the California Coast where a giant window reveals eels, anemones, and a giant Pacific octopus—or just find a seat in a dark corner in front of the jellyfish and let their slow, mesmerizing movements lull you into a state of complete tranquility.

Flickr/Lori D’Ambrosio

Sherwood Forest
Just south of the center of San Francisco sits the city’s highest natural point, Mount Davidson (elevation 928 feet) where you’ll find a 30+ acre urban forest perfect for solitary hikes (dogs are allowed on-leash), wildlife-spotting, bird-watching (look for hawks, owls, hummingbirds, and more), views of downtown SF and across the Bay, and a 103-foot concrete cross that’s hidden from view by a thick grove of trees. If you’re really craving tranquility, the best time to hike Mount Davidson is on a foggy morning. You might have to sacrifice the sweeping views at the top, but the sense of overwhelmingly quiet and solitude is unparalleled.

Photo by Henrik Kam, courtesy of de Young Museum

Golden Gate Park
A ticket to go inside of the de Young is $15 but anyone can visit the 144-foot Hamon Observation Tower and the sculpture garden for free. The latter is where you’ll find the most peace and quiet as it’s full of alcoves, open spaces, trees, plants, and, of course, art. The most magnificent part of the garden is James Turrell’s “Three Gems” skyspace, a tunnel that leads to a concrete dome hidden under a grassy mound with a window to the sky, LED lighting effects, and a curved bench. For whatever reason, you can have this space to yourself for at least a little while, 9 times out of 10.

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Daisy Barringer is a freelance writer who grew up in SF and is always on the hunt for new places to explore. Tell her your favorite spot for a reply from real life on Twitter.

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One among San Francisco’s most traditionally ignored neighborhoods is dwelling to a protracted checklist of hidden gem landmarks

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 12:28:53 +0000

Tucked away in the southeastern quadrant of San Francisco is a historic neighborhood that many residents believe has been overlooked for far too long.

Just steps from Daly City may be one of the reasons the Visitacion Valley – also known as the Vis Valley – often features in everything from historical recognition to the city’s investment in services stayed the track. And over the years it has built a reputation for being one of the neighborhoods least known to SF residents.

“In a way … I like this well-kept secret,” said Edie Epps, a lifelong resident and co-founder of the Visitacion Valley History Project, which reminds newcomers that the neighborhood is spelled with a “c” rather than a second. T. “Together with colleagues from the history project and other city representatives, Epps has worked to ensure that the Vis Valley finally receives the attention it deserves in his opinion.

A woman is crossing Schweriner Strasse in San Francisco, California on Saturday, October 22, 2021.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

But despite the isolation from the crowded streets and the gentrification of many neighborhoods of San Francisco, locals also say the reluctance of the area had real downsides for the historically lower-income community – most notably, that the city neglected it for decades, making promises and interest to give up on things like more residential and retail development, including one more grocery store.

And while neighborhood advocates say it’s a treasure trove of historic structures and eclectic architecture, Visitacion Valley doesn’t have any designated historic landmarks or long-established shops. Notable structures to be demolished include a trio of early 20th-century commercial buildings.

“It’s one of the most overlooked neighborhoods in the city,” said Kerri Young, program manager for the San Francisco Heritage nonprofit, which spent October promoting the neighborhood for its program on underrepresented parts of San Francisco. “There are great buildings and great sights. It’s just that they are no longer officially recognized. “

The neighborhood has defied itself over the years – especially in the context of historical recognition – in part because there weren’t always advocates who advocate it, said Diane Matsuda, president of the city’s heritage protection commission, through the more than 230 sights and attractions eleven historic districts were taken over.

“To be completely, completely honest, historical preservation has really focused on pretty buildings, and pretty buildings belong to a lot of wealthy whites,” said Matsuda, adding that the commission passed a resolution in 2019 to promote social and racial justice to create priority in the choice of structures.

“Only … only recently have we started to look at monument preservation from a much broader perspective.”

In contrast to the stately or grandiose buildings that are often considered landmarks in neighborhoods like Pacific Heights or the Financial District, the structures worth mentioning in the Visitacion Valley are more humble and more closely linked to working class communities, proponents say.

An expansive view of the Visitation Valley will be offered by Opal Bolsega on Saturday, October 22, 2021 in San Francisco, California.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

The area has long been a place where low-income populations have found homes due to their remote location and major employers in the factory and railroad industries. According to 2010 census data, the median household income was $ 47,760, compared with the San Francisco median total of $ 78,710.

Fifty percent of the Vis Valley’s population is made up of Asian and Pacific islanders, with Hispanic / Latino, Black and White making up 25, 9 and 14 percent, respectively. In comparison, 49% of the population of San Francisco is white, 34% Asian, 6% black, and 15% Hispanic / Latin, according to the census data.

Throughout October, the history project carried out hiking tours to show hidden historical gems in the Vis Valley, from forgotten street houses to the former Schlage lock factory – an important employer for the residents of the Vis Valley – and Little Hollywood, a micro-district that Known for its Spanish Casas -style detached houses.

Here are some of the landmarks that proponents say showcase the neighborhood’s unique – and somewhat buried – history.

St. James Presbyterian Church

One of the most famous structures in the area, the Arts and Crafts-meets-Mission Revival-style church, was founded in 1906. It was redesigned in 1923 by the famous Bay Area architect Julia Morgan. The stained glass windows – depicting the parable of the sower – are from an abandoned church in a ghost town in Nevada that was stolen by the St. James communities, who happened to know it was abandoned. The structure is among the many buildings the neighborhood community – and proponents of SF Heritage – are looking to consider for landmark status.

St. James, with its mostly Filipino community, is one of the many churches in the Vis Valley that reflect the diversity of the region. A Catholic church, the Church of the Visitacion, sits on the estate of first California governor Peter Burnett and the city’s first motel, Auto Camp.

St. James Presbyterian Church can be seen during a walking tour hosted by the Visitacion Valley History Project on Saturday, October 22, 2021 in San Francisco, California.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

Homes on Schweriner St. can be viewed on a walking tour hosted by the Visitacion Valley History Project on Saturday, October 22, 2021 in San Francisco, California.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

Schwerin Street

Schweriner Straße is just around the corner from the Jakobsweg, where different living styles testify to the architectural diversity of the region. The Art Deco-inspired Visitacion Valley Elementary School, completed in 1937, stands directly across from an Eclectic-meets-Storybook-style house, right next to a Streamline Moderne house. And the eastern portion of the Vis Valley is a collection of homes that hailed from Southern California: palm-fringed Mediterranean and mission-style bungalows and artisans that make up the Little Hollywood neighborhood.

Geneva terraces

For a town with few Eichlers, it may surprise some that there are a few and relatively affordable ones in the Vis Valley. These so-called Geneva Terrace Townhouses are part of the neighborhood’s long history of turmoil – and inequalities – related to home security.

In the 1960s, Eichler planned to develop luxury apartments in two high-rise buildings in the row house complex, but changed plans to secure federal funding and make the towers more accessible to the bourgeois population. After the Eichler Corporation went bankrupt in 1967, the San Francisco Housing Authority stepped in to subsidize rents, and eventually the project was converted to Federal Area 8 Housing.

Over the years, residents have complained of mismanagement, poor maintenance and inhumane living conditions in the towers. The complex became notorious for crime and the US Housing and Urban Development Department called the entire neighborhood “a neglected urban backwater of 18,000 with rampant crime, horrific schools, and a deplorable housing project called Geneva Towers,” according to SF Heritage.

In 1998, many people watched (some wept, others cheered) as the towers were destroyed in a controlled demolition led by redevelopment plans by the HUD and an elected residents’ council. They have been replaced by low-income townhouses called heritage homes, and they remain one of the few affordable housing developments in the city.

A house made of mud bricks, hidden in a cul-de-sac on the hillside

Like so many San Francisco residents, Opal Bolsega had never heard of Visitacion Valley in her 15 years living in the city. But 30 years ago, when her agent was looking for a down payment with only $ 20,000, she found a house on Delta Street – a cul-de-sac overlooking the Cow Palace and San Bruno Mountain. She fell in love.

The multi-story house, painted by a group of graffiti wall painters about 20 years ago, is an unusual example of an adobe house in the Vis Valley, and in other ways the neighborhood may look more like a warmer part of California.

Local historians have told Bolsega that the house was built before 1895, and their own research suggests it is one of the oldest properties in the neighborhood, but the official timeline is still unclear.

Opal Bolsega of Visitation Valley speaks to The Chronicle at their home in San Francisco, California on Saturday, October 22, 2021.

Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

A (welcomed) demographic change

To the locals, the Vis Valley sometimes feels more like a small town than a metropolitan area. And so many have chosen to stay for their entire life sometimes. Epps, 70, raised four generations in her parents’ home, a small craft that her Italian parents bought after her father started working for the Southern Pacific Railroad, a major employer in the region at the time.

Another member of the history project, Betty Parshall, 86, lived her entire life on Wilde Ave; she owns both the house she grew up in and the one next door. And although vintage cars are widespread, more and more younger people and families in particular are moving in, a trend that has undoubtedly played with its home values. They have increased by 8% in the last year.

But Vis Valley is still more affordable than many other parts of San Francisco, and it has a kind of anachronistic calm that can be felt by a world far removed from the urban vibe of the city. There’s a charm, say the locals, that just can’t be painted over – and maybe can’t be painted over either.

“There’s Noe Valley, all these other valleys,” said Epps. “And that’s great, but we are the Valley. … And its story … it just stays in you. “

Annie Vainshtein is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: avainshtein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annievain

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Previous horse stables and carriage homes are hidden throughout San Francisco

Sat, 23 Oct 2021 14:16:57 +0000

If you walk past the nondescript, light brown building on 1336 Grove St., there isn’t much reason to stop. San Francisco is full of architectural gems and this facade is pretty simple. There are no bright colors, no Victorian flourishes, no splashy sign – just a small logo that was stuck on the glass doors for a construction company. But if you tilt your head back and take a look at the top of the center of the building, you will see a decorative horse head sticking out.

This emblem is a nod to what this ordinary commercial building once was – a horse stable, one of many former horse stables hidden in town. These buildings were an integral part of any neighborhood in San Francisco in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the pre-auto era, local residents who wanted to get around in private but had no space to house their horses kept horses in community stables that were centralized in the neighborhoods.

For those who could not afford their own horses, horses, coachmen and wagons were rented in these historical paint schemes. These early versions of a taxi company flourished in San Francisco during the gold rush and, according to Bonnie Spindler, had the best business in the country, ahead of New York City. Spindler, a real estate agent and Victorian expert, said it might be because the city still owned farms and grasslands to build such a thriving business, but business in general was booming at the time.

1336 Hainstrasse

Screenshot / Google Maps

An 1876 article from the San Francisco Chronicle said the first livery stall in the city opened in 1851. The second was founded just a few years later and was located on the south side of California in Montgomery in what is now the financial district. Before long, “the supply matched demand across the city, and the stables shot up like mushrooms in the morning until we have at least three quarters of a hundred today,” the article says.

This reporter describes other stables such as the Dexter Stables on Bush Street near Sansome, which housed 90 horses and 15 carriages. 332 Bush St., Healy and Fagen’s livery, founded in 1862, owned 68 horses. At 408 Bush St., Mr. Martin’s stable contained 88 horses. Another was on Sutter Street, across Kearny Street. Another was at 126 Ellis St., which was reportedly charging $ 30 a month, or about $ 739 in today’s dollars.

The Chronicle reporter describes a particularly well-known paint job called The Fashion Stables on Sutter Street near Sansome that the owner declined to disclose because “we might have to pay too much tax if we got the height our full income, was the answer, accompanied by a knowing smile. “

Stable Cafe, 2126 Folsom St.

Screenshot / Google Maps

For the wealthiest in society, they might have had a private carriage house built outside of their property. This was reportedly the case at 2126 Folsom St., currently the location of the Stable Cafe and Malcolm Davis Architecture’s office in the Mission. The clue is a wooden beam protruding from the roof of the building – workers would have used a pulley system to lift hay into the attic while the horses were stored below.

Davis, who has owned the building since 2006, bought it from owners who had looked after it since the 1970s. They shared stories of how the building used to be the private coach house of James Phelan, the Mayor of San Francisco from 1897 to 1902. While city records prior to the fire and earthquake of 1906 are nearly impossible to track down and verify, Davis was told that The building was constructed in the 1870s and only narrowly escaped the fire.

Seeing the unique building for sale, Davis couldn’t help but fulfill his dream of turning the hayloft into an office that he believed would be the perfect location for his architectural practice. “I loved the exposed half-timbering, the plank floors, the high ceilings. It just has a lot of character, ”he said.

He later expanded the lower area to include a large kitchen, which is now the café, and the adjacent parking lot is used as an event area. He said that cafe-goers and event guests are constantly asking about the history of the space.

The high ceilings and wide open spaces of a horse stable lend themselves well to a building conversion, and a feature story by Curbed in April 2018 shows the transformation of an old horse stable into a modern office building. The Jackson Square building at 915 Battery St. was reportedly “constructed of wood salvaged from the ships that clogged the bay when the enterprising 49ers stormed into town,” and although no one is sure when it was built its original use was as a horse stable. Since then, it has served as an antique shop and architecture firm and is now home to the Scenic Advisement investment bank.

220 Dolores Street

Screenshot / Google Maps

“The team worked really well together, and we all agreed that we wanted to keep the original purity of the building intact,” said interior designer Tineke Triggs, Principal at Artistic Designs for Living, Curbed 2018 of the renovation. “We kept most of the original details – including what appeared to be horse bites in some of the beams.”

There are also former horse stables alongside older houses on larger lots, often referred to as carriage houses, like the one we featured in Guess the Rent in June 2021. Some smart homeowners have chosen to convert this space into a loft apartment rather than a garage into a loft apartment, but kept the barn doors. According to historical research by the San Francisco Planning Department: “Many of these buildings have now been destroyed, but some still exist and are used as garages, ancillary apartments or small apartments. In some cases the original house may have been demolished and replaced, and a coach house or other outbuilding remains in the back yard of the residence built later on the parcel. “

The document also mentions that former residential stables were particularly vulnerable to redevelopment, with many being replaced by residential or commercial buildings, particularly along Franklin and Gough streets.

220 Dolores St. has this telltale sign – a wooden beam that likely once helped lift bales of hay to a second level – on his carriage house, which can be seen from Alert Alley. As one of the “Tanforan Cottages”, the house was built around 1853 and is one of the mission’s oldest residential buildings and is listed on the California Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

But most of the former horse stables and carriage houses are not protected and not that obvious. San Francisco is a city with a lot of old buildings. So the next time you look at an old building, look for clues.

915 battery St.

Screenshot / Google Maps

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A person says he uncovered an enormous beehive hidden contained in the ceiling of his new house lower than a month after shifting in

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 16:39:39 +0000

Andrew Noyes says he and his husband discovered a huge beehive in the ceiling of their home. Andrew Noyes

Andrew Noyes told insiders that he found a beehive in the ceiling of his home in San Francisco.
Noyes said he heard noises from the ceiling and saw dead bees around the house.
Noyes said a beekeeper told him the beehive was dead and predatory bees had entered because of the honey.
Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Little did Andrew Noyes buy a house in San Francisco with his husband that they would share it with predatory bees.

Noyes, 41, told Insider that he and his husband – who both work for startups – started spotting bees in their home shortly after they moved in September. Noyes said they also saw some live bees floating around their office, bedroom, and bathroom.

“We also saw significant bee activity on the outside of the house at a single point near a water pipe on the roof line,” Noyes said.

Then there were noises from the ceiling – “like raindrops,” Noyes said.

So he got a beekeeper and quickly discovered that there was a beehive on the ceiling.

Noyes had the beehive removed over the weekend and documented the process in a series of tweets on Saturday.

A beekeeper found the beehive on the office ceiling after using a thermal imager and stethoscope to heat – according to Noyes, the professional told him the beehive was giving off heat – and detected bee activity.

When he cut the blanket open, the beekeeper found a huge beehive that he said was likely active before the couple moved in and became extinct, Noyes said.

As for the live bees buzzing around, the beekeeper told Noyes that “predatory bees from other hives stole leftover honey from the hive and returned it to their own hives,” and that the hive was probably producing 100 pounds of honey at its peak.

The beekeeper used a vacuum to suck up bees without harming them, as one of Noyes’ tweets shows.

To extract the beehive, Noyes tweeted that the beekeeper had brought another worker. “They were dressed and the room was sealed for most of the extraction, but we were able to take a look at different places to see their progress,” Noyes told Insider.

The story goes on

Noyes said the extraction cost $ 500 and since moving he has only seen a few confused predatory bees outside the house near the entry point where the beehive used to be.

“We’re in an area with lots of nature that we love,” said Noyes. “But we would certainly prefer nature to stay outside of the house.”

Read the original article on Insider

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10 Hidden Issues in a Dwelling Room You May Not Spot on Video

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 04:19:22 +0000

The living room is one of the most important rooms that you should take a close look at when looking for a place to live. After all, you can relax there after a long day, laugh with friends when throwing a game night, or find solace in a good book curled up by the fireplace.

But puzzle us this: How can you fully inspect the living room when you’re not even there?

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual and video home tours have become crucial for home buyers. Thanks to the technology, we actually feel there. However, there are some drawbacks: you won’t notice a bad smell or noisy neighbors on a video screen, for example. No, to get a full picture of the area you want to deposit down on, you need to rely on your agent to be your eyes, nose and ears.

To get as much information as possible about your future new home, ask your agent these living room questions during your video tour.

1. Does the front door open into the living room?

Are you in the living room as soon as you enter the house or is there a foyer that shows the way?

That’s an important question, says Leneiva head, Principal Agent / Owner of Welcome Home Realty in Antioch, TN.

For most potential buyers, foyers are a nice bonus – a place to take off shoes and hang coats. If there is one, check the closet too.

Also, if you’re looking at a two-story house, where are the stairs?

“This is important because sometimes the stairs greet you at the door or lead you to the side of the living room,” says Head. “Depending on the position of the stairs, the wall space available for placing the furniture can be impaired.”

2. Where exactly is the living room?

Make sure your agent shows you exactly where they are in relation to the rest of the house.

“It is very important that your agent record videos that go in and around the living room as if they live there every day,” he says Jennifer Carr, Associate Broker at Timber and Love Realty in Boise, ID.

“When there are obstacles like small doors or stairs, it can be difficult for some shoppers with special needs,” she adds. “I can tell you from experience that walking just a step down or up into a living area can be a major disadvantage for many buyers of all ages.”

3. What does it look like outside the window – and how does it sound?

Make sure your agent is showing the camera from every window. Look and hear.

“You might want to ask your agent if they’re viewing any intrusive or annoying noises that might not get through on their end – like traffic noise, dog barking, or a train horn,” recommends Carr.

4. Is this a formal living room?

You could tour a house with a family room and living room. In a home with both, the family room is more of a casual space away from the main entrance where everyone can hang out to watch TV. On the other hand, the living room is traditionally located near the front door and serves as a formal space to welcome guests or chat.

Wendy Gladson, Real Estate Advisor at Compass, Los Angeles, ponders how the formal living room should be used.

“Will it be a waste of space being separated from the rest of the house,” she says, “or can it be reinterpreted to suit your needs?”

5. What kind of flooring is that?

“Getting your agent to video the living room floor is more important than you think,” says Carr.

Whether hardwood, laminate, tiles or carpeting, ask what condition it is in.

“Floors can be changed, but more importantly, if they’re not in good shape, you can use them in negotiations,” says Carr.

6. How high is the ceiling?

Low ceilings create a cozy feeling while higher ceilings create an illusion of more space and size, says Gladson.

If you want to keep your utility bills lower, ask your agent how high the ceiling is, as it costs more to heat and cool rooms with high ceilings. While taking a look at the ceiling, check the condition of any wooden beams or planks.

7. Can I take a closer look at the lighting?

The lighting is often overlooked, says Gladson, but it should be more than a peek.

“In many older homes, the lighting may be out of date and need updating,” she says.

It can get expensive replacing or adding new lighting to a ceiling fan, sconces, and other connected lighting. Some older homes don’t have lights or ceiling fans with lights in the living room. You should keep this in mind if you want ceiling lighting.

8. Is that a wood fireplace?

“The fireplace is the heart of the living room, an emotional anchor that represents warmth and charm,” says Gladson.

It’s not that warm and inviting when it’s crumbling or not working. Whether the fireplace is gas, gel, pellet, or wood, look carefully when your agent enlarges the structure and mantelpiece.

Ask your agent if it works, and if there is wood burning, when was the last time the chimney was serviced by a chimney sweep.

9. How many windows and doors are there in the living room?

Natural light is a sought-after feature, but it can be compromised by having too many windows Furniture placement– unless you prefer your furniture outside the walls. Also note the window shapes and sizes.

“Note any unique features like a bay window or window seat that creates more floor space due to the unevenness, or French doors. As beautiful as they are, if the doors swing inward, they can take up valuable space, ”warns Head.

10. Can I see a close-up of the surfaces?

It’s easy to get distracted by a beautifully staged living room and overlook the surfaces. And even if the living room is empty, you can note the size and floor and move on.

Before your agent leaves the living room, however, request a closer look.

“Check the quality of surfaces from paint to baseboards and moldings, floors, curtains or window coverings to customer-specific fixtures,” advises Gladson.

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