The C. A. Belden House is a historic building in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States. It was designed by Walter J. Mathews in the Queen Anne style[2][3] and completed in 1889.
C. A. Belden House | |
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| Location | 2004-2010 Gough St., San Francisco, California |
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| Coordinates | 37°47′29″N 122°25′28″W / 37.79139°N 122.42444°W |
| Area | 0.2 acres (0.081 ha) |
| Built | 1889 |
| Architect | Walter J. Mathews |
| Architectural style | Queen Anne |
| NRHP reference No. | 83001229[1] |
| Added to NRHP | August 11, 1983 |
Description edit
The house is on Gough Street, facing Lafayette Park. Designed by Walter J. Mathews, a prominent Bay Area architect, it is unusual in San Francisco in being purely Queen Anne in style.[4] It is three stories tall, with a steeply pitched gable roof and two corner turrets with conical roofs; the turrets and the first floor have fish-scale shingles, while the remainder of the house is clad in horizontal siding.[4] The main facade, facing the park, is decorated with carved and plaster areas that have been compared to "patterns appliqued on a Victorian sampler":[5] the pediment under the gable is richly carved, two sunbursts flank a pair of windows on the third floor, and below an arched window porch on the second floor is a panel with a grinning mythological beast.[4] The house's style has been characterized as "[a] full flowering of Queen Anne exuberance".[6]
History edit
It was built on the lot at number 2004 in 1889 for Charles A. Belden, treasurer of an importing company, whose family lived there until 1900. In 1907 it was purchased by John A. Buck, who had the house at 2010 Gough Street demolished. The Bucks lived there until 1933, after which time it became a home for elderly women. In 1961 the Bucks sold the building to the Hudec Trust; in 1967 it was bought by John Fell Stevenson, a son of Adlai Stevenson II, and his wife, who lived there until 1973. The Bucks added decorative ironwork, and later altered the interior somewhat for retirement home use, including partitioning the third floor, which had originally been an open servants' dormitory and children's play area; the Stevensons made further interior changes.[4] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 11, 1983, at which time its owners were restoring it.[4]
References edit
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ "Belden, C.A., House, San Francisco, CA". PCAD. Retrieved 2018-12-29.
- ^ Peter Booth Wiley (2000). National Trust Guide: San Francisco. New York: Wiley. p. 272. ISBN 9780471191209.
- ^ a b c d e "National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form: C. A. Belden House". United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. February 3, 1983.
- ^ Sally B. Woodbridge (2005). San Francisco Architecture: An Illustrated Guide to the Outstanding Buildings, Public Artworks, and Parks in the Bay Area of California. Berkeley: Ten Speed. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-58008-674-5.
- ^ Roger Olmsted; T. H. Watkins; Junior League of San Francisco (1968). Here Today: San Francisco's Architectural Heritage. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. p. 269. OCLC 452042.
External links edit
Media related to C. A. Belden House at Wikimedia Commons
