It’s been more than two years since an intriguing San Francisco house built in the Stick style was posted on Old House Dreams. Though in deteriorated condition, the house retained many beautiful and historic features (typical of quality houses built in the 1870’s and 1880’s in the area) such as ornate plasterwork and a walnut stair balustrade. Many who commented on the post feared that the integrity of the house would be compromised (if not completely destroyed) in the future.
Fascinated by it, I saved the house on Zillow so that I could learn of its ultimate fate. Today I finally found out. The following “before” photos from the 2022 listing are paired with “after” photos from the current listing in 2024. These images all originated on Zillow and are presented here without captions or comments:
This concludes our tour! If you would like to see more images of the house, both before and after it was transformed, here are two links:
I remember that house from old house dreams. That really got my hopes up with the exterior shots. We see that too much now, where they save the exterior but completely gut the inside. Very symbolic of people and society today, like a hipster house, puts on the exterior image of a real person with substance/character but lacks any substance/character on the inside.
Agreed; it perfectly captures the vapid character of recent design trends which are not likely to improve anytime soon in the current idiocracy we find ourselves living in.
Little more than a facadectomy, this house is now a good example of history being valued for superficial (marketable) curb appeal only. In that respect, it is the perfect reflection of our shallow, dumbed-down and media-driven culture which is largely ignorant of (and largely unappreciative of) actual history.
When I saw the outside, I was thinking: all right! And then… What a shame.
Yes, this one really hurts. Hopefully the woodwork and plaster medallions, etc., ended up in an architectural salvage store but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were simply trashed.
Omg. This is awful. Why do people buy houses to do this to them? Why not build new.
One thing that may explain this is that the builder might have been forced to retain the facade due to the fact that the house is listed as “contributing” to the Mission Dolores Historic District. Had the city not deemed this particular house as significant, I have no doubt that we would be looking at a very different facade at this location. Most such designations are purely honorary with no teeth to them, so it is also possible that the facade was retained just for curb appeal (as opposed to trying to market an exterior as utterly forgettable as the current interior).
Nice to see you here, Christine! I’m your old neighbor from Notwin. Still in the same house? I miss our coffee jaunts and house gawking… lots of great memories! Has it really been 20 years?!