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Overview

The peripatetic architect and building contractor Dominick Peter Benson (1853-1927) designed this remarkable Queen Anne Revival style residence in San Diego's Bankers Hill area. Soon after the completion of Long-Waterman, Benson formed an architectural partnership with architect Anton Reif (1851-1926). The pair then relocated to Salt Lake City,UT, by 1891, where they remained briefly, before returning to CA.

Building History

John S. Long and his wife purchased for $5,000 three lots in the Bankers Hill neighborhood from John W. Collins on 01/18/1889. Long, who co-owned the Coronado Fruit Package Company and also ran a veneer business, had some financial difficulties completing this grand house at a time of economic recession in Southern CA. With debts mounting, Long returned the three lots and a partly-finished dwelling to Collins, who then sold the house to CA Governor, Robert Whitney Waterman (1826-1891) and his wife Jane Gardner for the price of $17,000. The house benefited from Long's brief ownership, as he furnished many of the costly wooden materials found on its interior. Long's Coronado Beach veneer firm possessed a rotary veneer-cutting apparatus that produced many of redwood and other wooden surfaces on the interior. As noted by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1975: "Part of the interior of the house is paneled with a finely finished and highly polished redwood. It was stated that it required six men laboring six months to give the woodwork its lustrous finish." (See Kim Spurgeon, Supervisor, Historic American Buildings Survey.gov, "Long-Waterman House: Photographs Reduced Copies of Measured Drawings Written and Historical and Descriptive Data," Summer 1975, p. 2.) Construction occurred between roughly between 02/1889 and 09/1889.

Unfortunately for Gov. Waterman, he lived only about a year and a half after completing the dwelling in 09/1889. Waterman's widow remained in the grand house until about 1895 at which time she sold it to Fred A. Hart, who then presented it to his daughter Florence Hart Gilbert and her new husband dentist A.H. Gilbert. Florence Hart Gilbert remained in the house until she passed away in 1976.

The Long-Waterman House was later transformed into an office building before 1998. (See Kenneth Naverson, Beautiful America's California Victorians, [Woodburn, OR: Beautiful America Publishing Company, 1998], p. 75.)

Building Notes

Placed on the National Register of Historic Places, added 1976 Building #76000516.

Alteration

As noted by the Historic American Buildings Survey, the house underwent little alteration between 1889 and 1976. The Gilberts electrified the dwelling in 1908 and equipped it with a central heating system in 1942. It also noted that a porch on the west was enclosed for interior space. (See Kim Spurgeon, Supervisor, Historic American Buildings Survey.gov, "Long-Waterman House: Photographs Reduced Copies of Measured Drawings Written and Historical and Descriptive Data," Summer 1975, p. 2.)

The house underwent alterations when it became an office building after Florence Gilbert passed away.