Atherton House
- Style
- Queen Anne
- City
- San Francisco, CA
- Collection
- painted victorians
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The Atherton House, also known as the Faxon Atherton Mansion, was built in 1881-1882 for Dominga de Goñi Atherton after the death of her husband Faxon Atherton, in a Queen Anne style blended with Stick-Eastlake detailing that contemporaries called eclectic, even bizarre. Its architect is uncertain, attributed either to John Marquis or the Moore Brothers, who are also described elsewhere as the house's original builders.
the building
Horizontal lines, clipped gable. The house favors horizontal massing, a clipped gable, and a short tower over the tall, narrow verticality typical of many Queen Anne houses, a combination contemporaries found unusual enough to call picturesque yet already outdated at its 1882 housewarming.
Tilden's alterations. Newspaper reports from the 1882 housewarming noted that the house's tall rooms created a claustrophobic effect on visitors. Possibly in response, Dominga Atherton hired architect Charles Lee Tilden to improve the house afterward.
the style
The Atherton House blends Queen Anne with Stick-Eastlake detailing, a combination observers at the time described as both eclectic and bizarre, favoring horizontal lines and a clipped gable over the storybook turrets more common to the style.
More on Queen Annesignificance
The Atherton House is individually recognized as a California Historical Landmark, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and designated a San Francisco Landmark, one of Pacific Heights' most decorated surviving Victorian mansions.
nearby
- Tobin House
- C. A. Belden House
- Bush Street Temple
- Spreckels Mansion
- Haas–Lilienthal House
- Theodore F. Payne House