My Painted Lady
My house – an old “Stick” Victorian house in (...), California has a lot of history. The house is a Victorian farmhouse design which is typical of California houses built at the end of the 1800’s. These Victorians were called “Painted Ladies” because they were painted lots of bright colors, like my house now. This report covers three time periods: the early history (c. 1890-1930), middle history (1931- 1978) and modern history (1979 to today).
Early history of the house and property is based on research that I did at the (...) Library’s City Room, using the Sanborn maps collection and old city directories. I think the house was built around 1890. According to historical documents, we discovered that the property used to be the swine pasture for pigs kept by Mission (...) which is about (...). Then it was purchased by J.H. Morse, who planted fruit trees in the fertile ground. Originally, there were three structures on the property: the house, a horse barn and a
two-story carriage house where the carriage man lived. From 1910 to 1914 the house was occupied by the Moorhead family (very big family). This 1911 photo shows Melbourne Moorhead as a boy on the front steps. From 1915 to 1926 the house belonged to the Bauer family (another big family). Then Axel Carlson got a building permit worth $475 on June 27, 1926 to convert the house into a two family house.The second phase of history of my house on (...)– 1930-1978 – is called the two-family phase because, according to the census reports, one family lived upstairs and another family lived downstairs. Each apartment was very small. From 1932 to 1964, the house belonged to Alfred F. Purdy, a pharmacist, who lived downstairs, and he rented out the upstairs apartment to many tenants including a printer, a nurse, a shoe repairman and a salesman. In 1960, his son Dore, a clerk at Johnson & Johnson, inherited the house. Several years later Dore sold the house to Mrs. Marcella Hendry and she rented the upstairs to Mrs. Marcella Martin. In 1969, the house was vacant and then sold to Philip J. Jimenez. In 1970, the downstairs was occupied by D.C. McCavitt. From 1970 to 1978, the occupants of the house changed every year. Then in 1978 it was sold to (...) who began to convert it back to its original condition as a single residence.
Since 1978, (...) took out the kitchen from the upstairs bedroom, he removed an outside staircase going to the second floor and took out doors. In 1996, (...) bought the house. He put in a new kitchen, two bathrooms, sunroom addition, built a huge deck, put on a new roof and paved the driveway. In 2003 my family bought the house from the (...). First, we took out the carpet, removed lots of wallpaper, painted the walls, and replaced some windows. In 2007, we built a new garage and guest house that looks like an old barn.
My house is nearly 120 years old and there will always be lots of work to do on it. But it has survived several big earthquakes, conversion to and from a two-family house, and the wear and tear of dozens of owners and renters. There are other Painted Lady Victorian houses in the neighborhood but mine is one of the best!
My grade on that project is "E" (the best).
