Find your Niche on 17th Ave

I headed out to find this house a couple weeks ago:


Can you guess why? What is up with these things?:


I could have sworn there were a couple houses on the block with this detail, but not here. However I discovered that almost every house on the west side of 17th between Kirkham and Lawton have niches:

Here are a few:



This house has a neat entrance:


And the original garage doors (another favorite disappearing detail of mine):

Updates

I went for a bike ride, intending to take a bunch of photos, but all I got was this place on Kirkham at about Funston.



Look familiar? I posted about a similar one on 19th Ave. last year.

And remember this building at Irving and 9th? It was actually Henry Doelger's office building. Duh. Thanks David. And, also duh, I didn't know this Doelger window was there either, in the little building behind the driveway, even though I inadvertently took a picture of it.


My on purpose (advertant?) photo isn't great. Go look at David's in Flickr.

Cousins in the Richmond

I finally stopped to take pictures of three buildings on outer Fulton. They have the same detail as some buildings on Judah.









I often wonder if houses in the Richmond and Sunset with similar details were built by the same companies, or if the builders just shopped at the same decoration supplier.

Here is the post about the 31st & Judah versions.


I like the place where these two meet.













And this one is a different layout, but it has the same detail across the top.

29th Ave

I was walking down 29th Ave the other day to find this house. It is a cousin to one of my favorites.


I love pink, but this is one case where the color doesn't do the house justice.

(No, the Photoshop Fairy has not visited my computer yet).


I think there is another house in this style at about 15th and Rivera.

Also passed the corner of "z9th" and Ortega.

26th and Moraga

Remember when I said that it was rare to see the same misspelled street name on all four corners of an intersection? Well, I was at the corner of "Z6" and Moraga toady and guess what?

This last one is really weird. It looks like the "Z" was initially left off, giving the opportunity to put in a "2". Instead, yet another Z was scratched in.

I also said that Moorish arches are rare in the Sunset. Not so much it seems. Here they are mixed with faux half-timbers.


Here's the reason I was at 26th and Moraga.


Another curlicue (more here and here):

Events and Curls in the Neighborhood

Need to know what's going on in the neighborhood? Visit the Sunset District Events Calendar to find out about everything from birding to ukulele lessons. There are also handy links to local places, organizations, and City government.

All around the neighborhood I keep coming across the curl from what I call the "Pagoda House".

On the top of arches:


Kind of randomly placed:


And way off on a back wall.



They are not all the exact same piece, but similar enough. There's even one one the market I have featured a couple times.

Blocks

Note to self: do not use this photo when talking about the fact that all Sunset homes are not alike.


It's not much better in color.

Contrast that block to this one:
First a bunch of dreary 1970's flats.

This 1904 gem opposite.
And finally this turn of the century (20th Century) beauty near the end of the block.

Don't see a lot of roofs like this in the Sunset.


And that's not the half of it. Check it out next time you go to the beach, this is the 1400 block of 47th between Irving and Judah.

Pagoda

The windows of this house always look like a pagoda to me. Something about the curls, I think.

Kind of incongruous with the classic looking entranceway.

Now I see different versions of it everywhere. Fancy:


Plain:

Not pagoda-ish at all with the "curl" moved down to the sides:


Nice. No urns, though.
Pretty, but still not a pagoda. One urn.

Bogie, can I borrow some flour?

Round windows, metal rails, glass blocks, I love them all.


Whenever I look at this house, built in 1940 according to the City, I expect Humphrey Bogart to come down the stairs.


On a foggy day like this it feels even more like I'm in a black and white movie.



Added March 2011: I got to see the inside.