The House of Victorian stylish

The Victorian Westerfield house in San Francisco served as a platform for the exploration of its architecture, history, and technique. The residence, designated as landmark 135, is located to the northwest of Alamo Square. It had long been regarded as a cultural cornerstone. The House's architecture was a product of Victoria's 1860–1900 architectural styles because it was constructed there in 1889. Second Empire, which was popular between 1855 and 1885, Stick Eastlake, which was popular between 1860 and 1890, Fork Victorian, which was popular between 1870 and 1910, Queen Anne, which was popular between 1880 and 1910, Richardsonian Romanesque, which was popular between 1880 and 1900, and Shingle, which was popular between 1880 and 1900, were among the styles used. It was averaged to have cost about $9, 985
How the Westerfield masion was built for the house that first lived there
The Westerfield house that is located on the Northwest side of the Alamo square at the Fulton Street was a home for the William Westerfield family (Maass, 1972). William who was a German born moved to Sanfransisco in the '70s and after establishing himself, he hired an architect to design a house for his family. His design specifications were 28 room masion with a rose garden around it and a carriage house. He had a family of 6 and the 28 rooms would be sufficient for all his family members. Since the house was built in 1889, the architecture design used then was the Stick/ Eastlake design. The design was such that it was a cultural touch stone made of furniture. Adult movement here was characterized by the parents and the servants. The children were also present members of the house. The social class structure of the house constituted the high class who were the house owners and the low class servants.


How the house had to change its design to accommodate different sets of occupants.
When William Westerfield died 6 year after the Westerfield house was built, the house was sold to John Mahoney. When Mr. Mahoney bought the house, he replaced the rose garden with flats to provide for the increasing housing demands. Mr. Mahoney turned the house into a hotel which was known as the St. Francis hotel. The change here done by Mr. Mahoney socially provided for the increasing house demand and architecturally changed the structure of the house surrounding into flats. There were three social classes here which included the high class who were the owners, the middle class who were the house occupants and the low class who were majorly the servants. Movement involved the adult occupants and the servants majorly. The children in this case were also present.
In 1928, the house was sold to a group of Russians who changed the structure of the house again. The ground floor ballroom was turned into a night club while the upper floors were used for meetings. The social structure of the house was changed since it changed from being a domestic house to a commercial house characterized with a lot of social movements owing to the different people moving in and out of the club house. The social structure majorly constituted the high class members who would visit for the meeting purposes. The low class social structure was also represented by the bar tenders majorly in the ground floor. It is due to this that the Westerfield house became known informally as the Russian house (Pomada & Larsen 1989). Architecturally, the house was converted into meeting room structures for the upper floors and clubhouse structure for the ground floor.
In 1948, the house structure was again changed (Pomada & Larsen 1989). This time, its architectural structure incorporated an apartment design. The social structure also changed since the occupants were African American musicians who played in the jazz clubs in the neighboring who were mostly middle class citizens. It was a 14 unit apartment that was rented out. The structure also consisted majorly of adults. There was no technological change. The next owner of the Westerfield house was Mr. Charles Fracchia whose intention was to convert the commercial house into a domestic house, however, he did not move in. In 1965 an underground filmmaker bought the house. The architectural design of the house changed to suit Kenneth Anger's film industry. Technological designs such as lighting and sound structures were also incorporated. It was under this roof that Kenneth filmed the cinema: Invocation of my demon brother. The social structure changed slightly since it majorly constituted the high class citizens. Its social structure also revolved around Satanism. The adult movement involved the church of Satan founder whose name was Lavey and also his pet lion that featured in many of Kenneth's Satanism films. The Manson family member, Bobby Beausoleil was also another frequent member of the house at the moment.
In 1968, the house had new occupants known as the members of the Family Dog. The architectural design was changed to suit the concerts that were performed in the Avalon Ballroom in the ground floor. Improvement of the technological structure was also carried out to suit the sound system that was present at the moment. The concerts that were carried out were the rock which means the architectural design also catered for the sound system like sound proof walls system. Social structure of the house now constituted rock performers who were majorly the middleclass members. It can be noted that the adult movement was characterized by several rock artists and the Big Brother and the Grateful Dead who were majorly present in the house.
There was another big change in the structure of the house in the '70s when the new occupants of the house rehabilitated the building by completely restructuring the servant quarters in the fourth floor. When comparing the value of the house when it was first built and when the new occupants bought it, there was a margin of about $ 35000.The new architectural design fitted in the Urban renewal plan. In 1986, a new occupant came in whose name was Jim Siegel. Siegel had bought the house under auction and the price he bought it with was about $ 175000 which was a very big price range between the latter and that had bought it with that was about $ 45000 or a difference of about $ 165000 between his price and the price William paid to build the house. The house had hundreds of repairs to be done and wild history that he wanted to bring back. He changed the whole ceiling set up using period wallpaper that were made by Bradbury, rewired the house, and changed the roofing set up and the plumbing one too. Siegel changed the architectural setup from the urban renewal projects that were the current architectural design at the moment. The interior and exterior woodwork were redesigned to the original work done by William's architect and the ground floor ballroom was restored to the original ballroom. He mentioned that he planned to preserve the structure of the house during his lifetime and wanted the house to become a house museum.
Conclusion
The Westerfield house whose lifespan ranged from 1889 when William was the owner to about 1986 when the owner was Siegel, can be seen to have undergone many changes due to the changing eras to fit within the demands of the occupants. The restructuring of the house caused major architectural changes, social changes and technological changes. The changes also attracted an increased cost in the value of the house. When comparing the value of the house when William bought it and when Siegel bought it, there is a very big price margin that had accumulated over the 100 years. Basing on the needs and the requirements of the occupants, we can also tell that the beliefs of the different occupants varied. The last discussed occupant, however dislikes the major changes that the house has undergone and decides on restoring the house to its original structure to be a picture of historical moments.


References
Maass, J. (1972). The Victorian home in America. New York: Hawthorn Books.
Pomada, E., & Larsen, M. (1989). The painted ladies revisited: San Francisco's resplendent Victorians inside and out. New York: Dutton