San Francisco Housing - Sunset District

Many, many San Francisco houses are attached, one to the other, block by block.  

My son's family lives in the Sunset District which is south of Golden Gate Park and stretches down to the ocean.  As we walk the neighborhood, I'm struck by how these houses were, for the most part, built up against each other.  There are minor cosmetic differences - window shapes particularly - but most have steps up to the front door and a tiny garage.  Many of the steps have been covered over, so they are now inside with an iron gate. And some use color to make their house more distinctive. 

Here are some examples:

A 2013 report by Mary Brown  for the San Francisco Planning Department - SUNSET DISTRICT

RESIDENTIAL BUILDERS, 1925-1950  Historic Context Statement - tells us:

"The vast majority of construction activity in the Sunset District occurred between 1925 and 1950. The mid-1920s witnessed the introduction of the form and massing of residential buildings constructed in the neighborhood for the following 25 years: a stucco-clad, single-family house, with integrated garage at the ground story and living spaces above. The houses were tightly packed on 25-foot-wide lots, giving the appearance of small-scale attached row houses. The end date of 1950 was chosen to mark the slowing down of the frenzied construction activity that occurred following the end of World War II and the shift from single-family houses to multi-family complexes and residential towers. Major factors that influenced design and construction of residential tracts during this 25-year period included infrastructure development, such as the construction of streetcar tunnels and graded streets to cross the sand dunes, the mass adoption of automobiles, the Great Depression and resultant federal government intervention to stimulate building and increase home ownership, population shifts associated with the defense industry, and the postwar population boom."

This is just one paragraph from the 115 page report, which includes lots of photos of houses, and descriptions of the different styles and architectural features.  

The missing house below was a meth lab that blew up in February 2023..  The two next to it were badly damaged and many of the houses on the block had windows blown out.  \

Here's what it looked like a couple of days after the explosion.  You can see moe pictures of it here (below the Frank Lloyd Wright houses in Oak Park).

I'd note that this house is not far from Golden Gate Park which has bison in one area.