The Painted Ladies – San Francisco

Wonderful and colorful Victorian homes are located in several areas of San Francisco, in the western and southern parts of the city. The most famous place where they are located in a row, is the street Steiner is now on the revival of these houses with a fancy name”Painted ladie” around this American city.

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The era houses “Painted ladies” started from 1849 and lasted to 1915. and during this time in San Francisco was built more than 48 million homes, has become a highlight of their bright coloring and filigree carving architectural details. The colors were quite diverse, even in a newspaper in 1885 wrote that the now fashionable to paint the house all bright colors, and they are: red, yellow, chocolate, orange … and the upper floors if not painted in red or blue in the yellow or brown!

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With this variety of colors, they are called “Painted ladie” , literally “Painted Ladies”, most of them were built in 1892-1896. This name came about because the writers Elizabeth Lipsticks (Elizabeth Pomada) and Michael Larsen (Michael Larsen), who in 1978 published a book about the unusual area of San Francisco Victorian: “Painted Ladies – San Francisco’s Resplendent Victorians” – “Painted lady – Dazzling Victorian San Francisco. ” It is in the Victorian and Edwardian fashion began to decorate homes threaded decor and coloring them in three or more colors. After the release of the title of the book «Painted ladies» so ingrained among Americans, which then began to call this term all the houses built in the late XIX century, these homes can be seen in Baltimore (Maryland), Cincinnati (Ohio), Cape May (New Jersey), St. Louis (MO), and in other cities.

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But the house “Painted ladies” that now there is only a small part of the pre-existing. Many mansions were destroyed during the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco, and followed it fires. Also during the First and Second World Wars, the buildings were painted in a less noticeable gray or blue-gray. A 16 thousand buildings were simply destroyed, while the rest suffered greatly in appearance with them was removed siding, bricks and other decorative items. And those that have survived over time were lined with brick. Many surviving buildings is turned on Steiner Street.

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For a long time after the war the house were the same gray and inconspicuous, but once an artist Butch Kardum, who lived in one of the houses of the Victorian style has taken a very important decision to repaint their home, which was at that time a white, blue-green, which caused many mixed reactions, some criticized him, others inspired by his idea began to repaint their homes in multi-colored paint. By Butch soon joined by like-minded people – Tony Kataletich Bob Banner and Dzhazon Wonder. Due to which dozens of homes “Painted ladies” re zapestrili bright colors and a 1970s Victorian homes revival process has reached its peak, a variety of colors were painted as a whole streets and neighborhoods. But it’s great that well and to this day there is a restoration of these wonderful houses.

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Now Steiner Street with this colorful Victorian houses “Painted ladies” is a historical site that is continually attracts tourists here often make films, TV shows and commercials. Images of houses can be found on postcards, brochures and magazines. Houses are sold very rarely, and the last one to sell was put up for sale for $ 3,999,999 in 2010, the year.

Source – Wikipedia