This Sunday, neighborhood group The Victorian Alliance will host its 43rd annual house tour, giving neighbors the rare opportunity to peek inside some of Alamo Square's oldest residences.
The tour is intended to give lovers of historic homes a chance to see their unique interior details, from stained glass to pressed-tin ceilings to gaslights, up close. The stops include the historic Westerfeld House (formerly home to an occult filmmaker and a lion cub), as well as one of the Painted Ladies.
The tour was inspired by The Storied Houses Of Alamo Square, a book written by longtime local resident Joe Pecora. In his book, Pecora covers not just the creation of some of the oldest houses in San Francisco, but the fight to preserve them as well.
In a blog post for The New Fillmore, Pecora describes how his move to the neighborhood in 1979 piqued his interest in the historic homes. "In the last 30 years or so, the Alamo Square neighborhood has undergone a slow but steady transformation," he wrote. "Today, there is a growing population of middle-class families with children, a handsome inventory of largely restored and well-kept historic homes, and a park that has become one of the city’s main attractions. This is a far cry from a time when much of the neighborhood's vintage residential stock was in disrepair or condemned."
The Westerfeld House. (Photo: rulenumberone2/Flickr)
The tour will take place this Sunday, October 18th, from 1-5pm. Tickets cost $55, with proceeds going towards the The Victorian Alliance Grant Program. Since 1977, the program has donated over $300,000 to support the renovation of historic houses and buildings throughout San Francisco. It's helped fund the restoration of the front doors at the Shrine of St. Francis, the light installations at the Palace of Fine Arts, and the restoration of the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.