From a school to a casino, a brief history of epic building moves in S.F. By Peter Hartlaub
The move of a 139-year-old home from 807 Franklin St. around the corner to Fulton Street on Sunday was the distraction San Francisco needed.
But the joyous event that dominated social media, as crews took down wires and trimmed roadside trees to facilitate the move, turns out to be just a small footnote in a city that can’t seem to keep its buildings in one place.
At one point in the 1940s and 1950s, house moves were so frequent there were three different San Francisco companies bidding for the jobs. It happened so often, sometimes dozens of moves in a year, that a Victorian on blocks could be on the city flag.
From a school to a casino, a brief history of epic building moves in S F
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From a school to a casino: Brief history of epic S F building moves
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San Francisco s bizarre history of (literally) moving houses
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A Victorian home being moved on Steiner Street via horse power, 1908, San Francisco.Archival / Unknown
Mark Twain didn t actually complain about the weather in San Francisco (the person who coined, The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco has never claimed the quote), but he did have another gripe with the city. An old house got loose from her moorings last night and drifted down Sutter Street towards Montgomery, the famed humorist wrote in the Daily Morning Call in 1886. For several days the vagrant two-story frame house has been wondering listlessly about Commercial Street, above this office, and she has finally stopped in the middle of the thoroughfare, and is staring dejectedly toward Montgomery street, as if she would like to go down there, but really do not feel equal to the exertion.