After the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, the U.S. Army (and some other government agencies) built thousands of small, redwood houses, in three different sizes, at a cost of $100 to $150 each, to house the thousands of people made homeless by the earthquake and subsequent fires. Over the years, people moved them, combined or added to them to make larger houses, but mostly tore them down. There are about 25 or so remaining in the city today, and for some strange reason about half of them are in Bernal Heights, the neighborhood where I live.
Five of them are pretty close to my house, so I wandered up and down (but it felt like mostly up) the hills of Bernal to visit them. Three of them are houses I've passed a zillion times and never realized what they (originally) were.
Just a couple of blocks from my house, a few doors down from my friend Jorge (who saw me walk by and yelled hello from the window), is 615 Ellsworth.
It's a "Type A" shack, only 10 feet by 14 feet, but the original shack is probably just the living room or something. In the second photo, you can see where they built the main part of the house behind the shack.
I'm sure that all these houses have lots of modern stuff like insulation, drywall, electric outlets, etc., that have been added over the years. It can't be easy getting a little wooden shack up to today's building codes.
Another block or two further I found this pretty little house at 673 Moultrie Street. It was made by combining two "Type B" shacks (14 feet by 18 feet), although you can only see one shack from the front of the house. I love how cozy this one feels.
This one at 48 Cortland Avenue I've passed by a million times. There's no info about what type of shack it is, but I'm guessing a "Type C," which is 15 feet by 25 feet, and I'm also guessing there's a lot more house behind it.
This house, at 848 Moultrie Street is (according to the San Francisco Chronicle) only suspected to be an earthquake shack. It also has a lot more house added onto the back.
This house is new to me, as it's on a section of Moultrie I've never walked down before, so it was kind of a thrill to see it, even if it is only a suspect.
And, finally, another house that I've never seen before at 20 Newman Street, made from two "Type B" shacks. You can see how the two shacks are oriented perpendicular to each other.
And, as a bonus, a few other nice things from my wanderings:
A mural I've always liked (and a little part of another mural). Have I mentioned that San Francisco is full of murals?
Another cute mural on someone's house.
Something very strange on the sidewalk. What is it? The remains of an art project? A random design made out of some strange substance that someone spilled? A sign from aliens?
This is a really cute Little Free Library. It's got a whole bunch of cute little windows and doors and decorations so that it looks like a house for Borrowers or Minpins or something.
More info about Earthquake shacks here:
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