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According to the journal, Progressive Architecture, this house was planned by architects Dinwiddie and Hill to be convertible to satisfy changing living needs. It wrote: "An attempt to obtain a measure of security in an insecure world, this city house is so planned that, while it makes an efficient home for one family, it is readily convertible for two and presumably could be rented or sold at the drop of a hat. In effect, this house consists of two small apartments, one above the other. The owners now use the whole house, but the conversion could be made simply by addition of a partition with a door on the stair landing." (See "House at San Francisco," Progressive Architecture, vol. XXVII no. 8, 08/1946, p. 87.) The owners of the residence finished the house minimally at the beginning, making the project more affordable. The house as originally configured had two garages directly on street. The first floor had its kitchen facing southwest toward the street, as was a dressing room and bath combination. A murphy bed descended from the living room's southwest wall. The rest of the living room was one large space, with a large fireplace on the north wall, that looked out on an expansive city view. This house occupied a steep hillside, the first floor located above an exposed ground floor. In the beginning, it contained a largely unfinished living room used an exercise and recreation room. This living room shared a chimney with the living room above. A plumbing stack served a downstairs bath and a laundry just below the upstairs kitchen and bath. The exterior featured flush wood siding and a clean rectangular appearance, consistent with the San Francisco townhouses of William W. Wurster (1895-1973), the most publicized Bay Area Regionalist of the 1930s. Its economical character proved popular during the late Depression period and just after the war, when construction costs were high due to materials shortages.

PCAD id: 18601