Haight-Ashbury Victorians & Walk to Eastside of Golden Gate Park

PARKING tips! Parking is not a big problem where we are meeting. (No parking restrictions on weekends, but check the signs.)

We'll do an hour or so of the Haight's Victorians. Then walk into the eastern end of GG Park for a walk and some touring there. Total distance about four miles. (We'll stop at the big Conservatory of Music band shell for lunch. I always get the clam chowder from Sam's Chowder House food truck. It always seems most attendees go their separate way from here. There's a lot going on at this location, two museums, Japanese Tea House, SF Botanical Garden, Stowe Lake etc. But you are very welcome to head back with me from here if you like?)

(Please don't be a no-show.) It's nice to give out name tags which I will do. I fill out the name tags just before I leave for the tour. This also gives me an easy way to take attendance. Name tags that are not picked up, are recorded as no-shows. If you get too many no-shows recorded in your personal Meet-up profile you'll have to be cancelled from this Meetup.
(To cancel your RSVP look for the, "Edit Attendance" tab at the bottom right hand corner of the screen.)

The Victorians in the Haight are some of the most elaborate in San Francisco.

What follows goes into the research done for the tour. It may be of interest if you like the details?
For a detailed history of about six Victorian houses near the tour, click the link, (Detailed info 1071 Page St. & 21 Baker St.) etc.
Additionally the Victorian Alliance of SF, archive link, also has two pages of history, each, about the following houses along or near our route:
23 Baker St.
110 Lyon St.
1283 Page St.
1461 Page St.

There are ten officially designated city and national landmarks in the area.
301 Lyon, Clunie House
1111 Oak, Phelps House
1153 Oak, Mish House
Stanyan Park Hotel
710-720 Steiner St. famous Painted Ladies
Southwest corner of Haight/Ashbury (Location of first head shop. An historic site, designated as a national landmark, now donated and maintained by a non-profit.)

The Haight, historically called an "electric streetcar suburb", was least affected by the '06 earthquake and fires. And was almost fully built out by then.

Imagine what it must have been like when there were row after row, of these new, efflorescent, floriated, flamboyant fantasy creations. Sparkling new in the bright San Francisco sunshine. Baseball was being played at a stadium at Clayton & Haight, starting in 1885, for the California League.

Roughly over 48,000 Victorians were built in SF, (1860s to 1890s), with about a third remaining. Bay Area entrepreneurship with the wealth of the best building material, old growth redwood, a driving force?

The information below is provided if you are interested in more details about SF Victorian architecture.

Looking at a San Francisco Victorian, what to look for:
(There are five Styles)

1. Flat front Italianate- (earliest Victorians). (French 2nd Empire appear)
2. Italianate with slanted bay windows.
3. San Francisco Stick Style (also called East Lake). Simpler square bay windows now used. Overall much more elaborate decoration, ornament and gingerbread used.
4. Queen Anne Tower House&Witches Cap, with angled or rounded bay windows & front gable
5. Queen Anne Row House, 1, 1-1/2 or two stories. Large front gable. Possible moongate entry.

Features & "Gingerbread"
Type of Entry & Doorway(maybe a rounded or partial Moongate entry)-
Decorative Ironwork-
Floral Decor-Garlands (one of many types of decorations known as *"Gingerbread")
Fish scale&Diamond shingles-
Towers & Witch's Cap-
Stained Glass or Beveled Glass-
Carvings of grotesque faces-
Sunbursts- often painted gold, half or full.
Gables (Queen Anne's) in a variety of material- (mainly redwood)
Newel Posts and Finials on Tower tops and roof peaks-

If you would like a scholarly and detailed explanation with photos, click.