Painted Ladies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Painted Ladies is a term used for Victorian houses and Edwardian houses and buildings painted in three or more colors which embellish or enchance their architectural details. The term was first used for San Francisco Victorian houses by writers Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen in their 1978 book Painted Ladies - San Francisco's Resplendent Victorians.^[1] Since then the term has also been used to describe groups of colorful Victorian houses in other American cities, such as the Charles Village neighborhood in Baltimore City, Lafayette Square in St. Louis, the greater San Francisco and New Orleans areas, Columbia-Tusculum in Cincinnati and the city of Cape May, New Jersey.^[2][3][4]

Some preservationists use the term polychrome for the style.

Contents 1 San Francisco's Painted Ladies 2 Other uses of the term 3 Gallery 4 References 5 Further reading

[edit] San Francisco's Painted Ladies

About 48,000 houses in the Victorian and Edwardian styles were built in San Francisco between 1849 and 1915 (with the change from Victorian to Edwardian being circa the death of Queen Victoria in 1901), and many were painted in bright colors. As one newspaper critic noted in 1885, "...red, yellow, chocolate, orange, everything that is loud is in fashion...if the upper stories are not of red or blue... they are painted up into uncouth panels of yellow and brown..."^[5] While many of the mansions of Nob Hill were destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, thousands of the mass-produced, more modest houses survived in the western and southern neighborhoods of the city.

During World War I and World War II, many of these houses were battleship gray with war-surplus Navy paint. Another sixteen thousand were demolished, and many others had the Victorian decor stripped off or covered with tarpaper, brick, stucco, or aluminum siding.

In 1963, San Francisco artist Butch Kardum began combining intense blues and greens on the exterior of his Italianate-style Victorian House. His house was criticized by some, but other neighbors began to copy the bright colors on their own houses. Kardum became a color designer, and he and other artists such as Tony Cataletich, Bob Buckter, and Jazon Wonders began to transform dozens of gray houses into Painted Ladies. By the 1970s, the colorist movement, as it was called, had changed entire streets and neighborhoods. This process continues as of 2007.

One of the best known groups of "Painted Ladies" is the row of Victorian houses at 712–720 Steiner St., bordering Alamo Square park, in San Francisco. This block appears very frequently in media and mass-market photographs of the city and its tourist attractions. It is sometimes known as "Postcard Row." The houses were built between 1892 and 1896 by developer Matthew Kavanaugh, who lived next door in the 1892 mansion at 722 Steiner St. These houses also appear in the opening credits of the television series Full House.

[edit] Other uses of the term

"Painted ladies" are also several species of butterflies in the genus Vanessa.

An unrelated term, "painted lady", is archaic slang referring to a prostitute who wore cosmetics in an era when respectable women did not do so.

[edit] Gallery

	Painted Lady on Jones Street, Nob Hill, in San Francisco, California

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Michael Larsen and Elizabeth Pomada, Painted Ladies- San Francisco's Resplendent Victorians E.P. Dutton, New York, 1978
• Michael Larsen and Elizabeth Pomada, Daughters of Painted Ladies, E.P. Dutton, New York, 1987
• Michael Larsen and Elizabeth Pomada, The Painted Ladies Guide to Victorian California E.P. Dutton, New York
• Michael Larsen and Elizabeth Pomada, America's Painted Ladies, E.P. Dutton, New York, 1992

v • d • e San Francisco Attractions Landmarks San Francisco cable car system • Lombard Street • Alcatraz Island • Ferry Building • Ghirardelli Square • Mission Dolores • Pier 39 • 49-Mile Scenic Drive • Nob Hill • San Francisco City Hall • San Francisco Public Library • F Market & Wharves historic streetcar line • Golden Gate Bridge • San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge • Transamerica Pyramid • Coit Tower • Cliff House • Fort Mason • Painted Ladies • Grace Cathedral Museums Exploratorium • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art • De Young Museum • California Palace of the Legion of Honor • Asian Art Museum of San Francisco • Cable Car Museum • Zeum • Guinness Museum of World Records • Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum • San Francisco Maritime Museum • Aquarium of the Bay • San Francisco Railway Museum • Musée Mécanique • California Academy of Sciences • Conservatory of Flowers • Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Zoos, Islands, Beaches & Parks Angel Island • Alamo Square • Crissy Field • Farallon Islands • Fort Point • Glen Canyon Park • Golden Gate Park • Ocean Beach • Palace of Fine Arts • The Presidio • Red Rock Island • San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park • San Francisco Zoo • Stern Grove • Treasure Island • Yerba Buena Gardens Entertainment American Conservatory Theater • Bill Graham Civic Auditorium • The Fillmore Sports California Victory • San Francisco 49ers • San Francisco Dragons • San Francisco Giants • San Francisco Seals • AT&T Park • Cow Palace • Candlestick Park • Kezar Stadium Famous Food Boudin Bakery's clam chowder filled bread bowls • Ghirardelli chocolate and sundaes • Top of the Mark • IT'S-IT Ice Cream • Sourdough bread • Dungeness crab • Rice-A-Roni Shopping Centers Chinatown • Fisherman's Wharf • Japantown • Metreon • Stonestown Galleria • Union Square • Westfield San Francisco Centre Points of Interest The Castro • Murals in Balmy Alley • North Beach• Haight-Ashbury • The ruins of Sutro Baths • Jack Kerouac Alley

Coordinates: 37°46′35″N 122°25′59″W / 37.77639, -122.43306