Gray paint has been everywhere for the last 10 years, but does it really belong on a Painted
Lady??
Hi everyone, Ken Here, welcome to "ThisHouse"!
Today we are going back in time to discover San Francisco’s colorful, and gray past.
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In the mid 1800s, San Francisco was experiencing a major boom in its population.
With new jobs being added to the city every day, there a was a massive demand for housing.
Up through the turn of the century, the city saw nearly 50,000 middle class single family
homes added to the skyline, mostly being built in what are considered Victorian era styles,
predominantly Italianate and Queen Anne homes.
As was fashionable for the time, they were all painted bright, cheerful colors.
By the year 1900, the city mostly consisted of nearly identical homes lining the streets
for as far as the eye could see.
But this all changed when the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake wreaked havoc on the city.
Thousands of homes came crashing down, and several thousand more burned in the aftermath
as fire raged through the neighborhoods.
But nevertheless, because these homes had been mass produced, tens of thousands of them
survived catastrophe.
But the same could not be said for surviving desirability.
Since the time of their construction, amenities such as indoor plumbing and electric lighting
had become common place.
Retrofitting these old homes was incredibly expensive, so instead of spending a fortune
connecting them to the grid, most people chose the most economical decision, which was to
simply tear them down and build new homes in their place.
By the time World War 2 rolled around, an estimated 16,000 Victorian era row homes had
been replaced with new buildings.
It was around this time that many of the surviving ones began to fall into disrepair as their
wood gingerbreading began to rot and their porches began to sag, causing people to strip
them of their details.
Of course, the nation was preoccupied with fighting overseas, leading to worker shortages
and resource rationing for the war efforts, so these architectural elements were not replaced.
Instead, many homes disappeared in plain sight, being covered over by tar paper, aluminum
siding, and stucco.
But for most families, this was still to expensive of an endeavor, leading many to choose to
repaint their homes.
And the color they chose was Battleship Gray.
It was not because gray was in fashion, at least not yet.
It was because the US Navy had produced so much of this paint that there was a massive
surplus.
People could paint their entire houses, protecting the wood work from the elements for mere pennies
on the dollar.
In less than 100 years, San Francisco went from a city of 50,000 cheerful, rainbow colored
homes to a sea of gray paint concealing deteriorating wood work.
But then, in 1963, things started to change.
Artist Butch Kardum was tired of the grey paint covering his elegant Italianate home,
so he painted it bright colors.
Initially, neighbors were appalled by the one colorful house on the block breaking up
their gloomy grey streetscape.
Then something interesting happened, residents of San Francisco began to copy Butch’s work.
Within 7 years, the colorist movement was in full swing.
Neighborhoods were brought back to life with cheerful paint colors as people began to restore
their homes with gingerbreading and remove tar paper.
Thanks to one bold artist, San Francisco now boasts several rows of brightly colored Queen
Annes and Italianates such as the Painted Ladies on Postcard Row, sometimes referred
to as The Seven Sisters which have become an iconic landmark of San Francisco.
Over the last 60 years, San Francisco has been transformed from a gray city to a wonderland
of colorful residences, just enough time for the gray scape to have skipped a couple generations.
Today, many people are painting over their restored homes in grey and black paint, not
because they are cheap as they were during war time, no, these homes sell for upwards
of 8 million dollars, they are painting over them because it is trendy.
Will we see San Francisco lose its charm once again?
Is history repeating itself through a different cause?
Let me know your thoughts down below in the comments section.
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