Steiner Street in San Francisco is a famous tourist destination known for its colorful buildings designed in the Victorian style. Although the wonderful and colorful Victorian houses are located in several areas of San Francisco (in the Western and Southern parts of the city), the most famous place, where they settled in a row, is the Steiner St. It is from this location, the restoration process of these houses with a fancy name "Painted ladies" began.
The majority of these houses were built in 1892-1896, but, in fact, the epoch of "Painted Ladies" houses began in 1849 and lasted until 1915. During that time, there were built more than 48 million buildings in the Victorian style, the main highlight of which was bright colors and filigree architectural details. They were literally painted in all colors of the rainbow, which is why they are called "Painted Ladies."
However, in fact, their name appeared thanks to the writers Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen, who in 1978 published a book about this street: «Painted Ladies — San Francisco’s Resplendent Victorians.» After the release of this book the name "Painted Ladies" became so ingrained among Americans that then all buildings built in the late nineteenth century were called using the term and still are. The Victorian houses can be seen in Baltimore (Maryland), Cincinnati (Ohio), Cape May (New Jersey), St. Louis (Missouri), as well as in other cities.
Until 1906 the number of "Painted Ladies" houses was significantly bigger than now, since many of them were destroyed by the earthquake of 1906 and the ensuing fires. Also, during the First and Second World wars, the buildings were painted in less conspicuous colors such as gray or blue-gray. 16 thousand buildings were simply destroyed, the rest suffered greatly in appearance, their siding, bricks, and other decorative details were removed.
Steiner Street, San Francisco is one of the few streets where these buildings remained virtually unchanged.
For a long time after the wars, the houses were gray and unremarkable, but once an artist named Butch Kardum, who lived in one of the houses, decided to paint his house to make it blue-green, which was at that time white. It, in turn, caused many mixed reactions, some criticized him, while others, inspired by his idea, began to repaint their own houses. Some time later, Butch met like-minded people such as Tony Canaletich, Bob Buckter, and Jazon Wonders. They all repainted dozens of houses, "Painted Ladies" and by the 1970s, many neighborhoods and streets were changed. The process continues to this day.
Now Steiner Street in San Francisco with its colorful Victorian houses "Painted Ladies" is a historical place that continually attracts tourists. It often hosts movies, TV shows, commercials, etc. Images of this street can be seen on postcards, brochures, and magazines. Houses there are sold very rarely, the last sale was $ 3,999,999 in the year of 2010.
Location: Steiner St, San Francisco, CA, USA
Steiner Street, San Francisco And Its Victorian Houses
Reviewed by Unknown
on
11/06/2016
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