Grand San Francisco Home with with Ocean and Park Views!

The house at 4535 Balboa Street was built in 1936, as the nation struggled to pull itself out of the Great Depression. Widespread economic hardship kept construction at a standstill for many years, but San Francisco's western neighborhoods represented an area of opportunity. Many builders tried to turn a profit by buying up lots and building groups of near-identical houses on speculation. The one-off custom house was more rare, but based on its unique character and later real estate ads that touted it as “custom built,” 4535 Balboa Avenue may have been one of those unusual Depression-era projects built by someone with strong enough financial resources to commission the design and construction of this fully-detached French Provincial style house.
 
The earliest known owners of the house at 4535 Balboa Street were Arthur W. and Adele Poulin, who were in residence by 1939. Arthur Poulin was born in California in 1899 and was employed as a weight master for a steel company. He and Adele had a teenage son, Arthur Jr., and Arthur's widowed mother and aunt, Alice Poulin and Mary Hughes, lived with the family. During World War II, Arthur served as a deputy air raid warden for the neighborhood in which they lived.
 
The Poulins moved away by the mid-1940s and John W. and Martha B. Luxford became the residents. They had a young son and daughter; Terry, 11, and Judy, 9. John Luxford was 38, born in Colorado, and employed as an electrical engineer who worked on power plane equipment. Martha, 40, was born in Maryland. 
 
In 1952, newspapers ran ads for sale of the house and it was purchased by Wellington and Josephine Glover. Wellington was enlisted in the US Army. The Glovers did not stay long and, by 1955, George R. and Metta B. Weddleton owned the house. George Weddleton was an accountant for the San Francisco Naval Shipyard cafeteria.
 
The Weddletons sold the house sometime in the late 1950s and it was purchased by Daniel L. and Margaret T. Strout. Daniel Strout was the manager of the Irving Theater in the Sunset District. In 1960, the Strouts put the house up for sale. Ads promoted “First offering for the discriminating buyer! Custom built, detached, 4 bedroom home, done in excellent taste and flare. See this charming home.” Ads also noted that it was artistically decorated and had a “high up view of park and ocean.” The Strouts may have had trouble selling the house. It sat vacant in 1962 and sale ads ran again in 1963. It is unclear if the house was sold or began to be rented out, as a number of names appear associated with the address, simultaneously and in quick succession, in years following. 
 
By 1965, Mrs. Eloise Conklin lived in the house. Newspapers also indicate that William Earl Heinrich and his wife, and Don Tatum were residents the same year. Tatum was caught burglarizing a building on Market Street, which is why his name and address turned up in newspapers. In 1966, Eloise Conklin's name appears again, as does Teddy Griffin, who was issued a marriage license that year. In 1968 and 1969, the residents were Harold and Lyn Isbell. Harold Isbell was a teacher at San Francisco Women's College.
 
In 1969, the house was once again for sale and the new owners were Hubert and Ilse Schmuederreich. Hubert worked as a clerk. Again, numerous sales appear to have happened in quick succession and various names are associated with the house during the 1970s. Robert F. Cowan was associated with the address as early as 1970, when newspapers reported that he and his wife had a baby and gave 4535 Balboa as their home address. It was not until 1977 that they were noted to the be the property owners in city directories, however. In the mean time, residents included Robert Zaro in 1974, who was the vice president and manager of the Wells Fargo Bank in Menlo Park, and Kevin Sweeny in 1975. By 1978 and into the 1980s, Kurt and Ilse Schmidt occupied the house. Kurt was a meat cutter. Robert Cowan was listed at the address again in 1982. Newspaper ads for sale of the house appeared again in the late 1990s and it had two additional owners in the early 2000s. It was a house that sheltered many lives under its roof over its eight decade history.
 
The house at 4535 Balboa Street is French Provincial in style. After World War I, returning G.I.s brought reminiscences of European architecture back with them and Old World styles like the French Provincial became very popular. Especially amid the struggles of the 1930s, comfortingly traditional, upliftingly idyllic, and slightly fantastical styles were an indicator of people's yearning for better times and escapism.
 
The house at 4535 Balboa Street is clad with stucco siding. The first story of the primary facade is the location of the garage entrance, with a roll-up paneled wood door. The primary entrance is tucked around the corner on the east facade, removing it from the street. It is sheltered within a shallow porch with arched openings and a diminutive gable roof covered with red clay tile. This is unusual in San Francisco where houses are usually situated cheek by jowl, necessitating entrances be placed at the street. 
 
The main living levels of the house are located on the second and third stories. The second story looks out on the street through a  Palladian window with a metal balconette in front. Palladian windows consist of a round arch window flanked by two narrower rectangular windows. They reference Classical architecture and originated during the Renaissance, but came to be used widely and are often found on houses of various styles that incorporate a distinctive front window. The third story windows have traditional rectangular openings, but also feature metal balconettes that reference the French aesthetic. 
 
That French aesthetic is also found in the steeply pitched pent roof at the front of the otherwise flat roofline. Clad in clay tile, as was common in the Mediterranean styles, its form and pitch reference French Mansard roofs, which were traditionally designed to house additional living space within their rafters. During the French Second Empire, this allowed building owners to evade the taxes that the French government imposed for each additional story of a building. With no need for creative property tax evasion in San Francisco, the Mansard-like roof of 4535 Balboa Street simply evokes the romantic fashions of late 19th century France.