Oblique Rear Elevation
Leonard C. Hammond House in San Francisco, California

The difficult nature of the long, narrow, steeply sloping site becomes even more apparent from the rear.  The house almost tapers to a point as it cascades down the hill in several steps.  A variance allowed the architect,William Knowles*, to extend the home's upper levels a little beyond the stone wall that marks the edge of the property.  That provided at least some relief, but even so, the house and lot are almost unworkably narrow.  Knowles successfully disguises the true length of the rear elevation by breaking it up into smaller rowhouse like units.  The composition seems to take its cue from the kind of Colonial architecture that one might find in a New England fishing village.  This is a fine example of what architectural historians now identify as the First Bay Tradition.  Some distance up the hill (about where the vines begin to cover the stone wall) is the neighboring Rose House, which itself is adjacent to the Porter House.  Photograph taken in 2001 by Howard J. Partridge.

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