Front (South) Elevation
George F. Bowman House in San Francisco, California
The prolific Samuel Newsom was the architect of this house,
designed and built sometime around 1892. One of my books dates it
to 1890 and claims it was for a member of the E. T. Sheppard family, who
lived next door. That may be so, but old San Francisco city directories
list Bowman as the first resident in 1893. It is an early example of
the California interpretation of the Shingle Style, designed by a man more
often associated with Victorian flamboyance than quiet and casual charm.
The Newsom brothers omission from the pantheon of architects who
founded the "First Bay Tradition" may be due in part to the colorful
Willis Polk, who dubbed them the "Gruesomes" of the architectural
world. He derided their designs as superficial and without an understanding
of the styles being imitated. That seems pretty harsh, considering the overall
quality of the house pictured. It is a marvelous concoction of Queen
Anne and Colonial forms covered in shingles, one that seems to have set the
tone for its later and better known Shingle Style neighbors further down
the street. The entrance composition with its zigzagging steps and
rounded tower form; the way each floor overhangs the one underneath; and
the hooded oriel window bulging out at the apex of the roof, are all
executed with great panache. The house has aged quite well, showing
only a few signs of possible remuddling. The second floor casement
(or sliding glass) windows probably replaced originals that were either
single or double-hung. Photograph taken in 1999 by Howard J. Partridge.
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