Houzz Tour: San Francisco’s Haas-Lilienthal House
For 128 years the large house has stood at the intersection of Franklin and Jackson streets in San Francisco, and time has done little to diminish the beauty of the Queen Anne–style Victorian with its distinctive witch’s cap turret and its elaborate trim decked with flowers, garlands and sunbursts. Not only has the Haas-Lilienthal house survived the ravages of the passing years and two earthquakes (1906 and 1989), but it has withstood a force that is sometimes more ruthless: development. When it was built, it was surrounded by homes of a similar style and size. Now, save for a couple of contemporaries, it counts apartment buildings and a Whole Foods Market as neighbors.
For three generations it sheltered the family and descendants of William Haas, a Bavarian immigrant who came to San Francisco as a 19-year-old after failing to strike gold in Idaho. He joined his cousin’s wholesale grocery business and eventually earned upper-middle-class wealth in produce baskets (he was appointed president of the company in 1897). In 1973 his grandchildren, fearing that the home and its many original details, fixtures and furnishings might be lost forever, donated the building and much of its contents to the Foundation for San Francisco’s Architectural Heritage (SF Heritage). Since then the organization has made its offices on the second floor of the house, and thousands of visitors go through every year on docent-led tours, but only two people have actually lived there full-time. One of them agreed to give us a special behind-the-scenes tour.
Houzz at a Glance
Style: Queen Anne Victorian
Year built: 1886
Distinction: A survivor of two earthquakes and heavy neighborhood development, the house is a museum of Victorian architecture and interior design. The Foundation for San Francisco’s Architectural Heritage (SF Heritage) offers docent-led tours.
After the SF Heritage board decided the home needed more consistent hands-on attention, it created a full-time caretaker position in 1981. Today Heather Kraft is the second person to hold the job. In exchange for watching over the house, she has been given a small apartment (a couple of bedrooms connected by a water closet) on the second floor of the 11,500-square-foot home. She’s been living there for nearly a decade, so it’s quite possible she knows the house better than anyone else.
Let’s just get this out of the way: Kraft, who also works as a caterer and personal chef, says her caretaking job generates a lot of curiosity about ghosts. “When people find out I live here, the first thing they ask is whether the house is haunted,” she says, laughing. “In all these years, I have never seen a ghost here. When I was living in a Victorian house in Haight-Ashbury, I did see and feel some odd things, but never here.”
However, that’s not to say she hasn’t heard anything otherworldly in the house that the National Trust for Historic Preservation recently designated a National Treasure. “I’ve heard sounds — footsteps, voices and laughter,” she says. “But I’m much more afraid of living people than dead people.”
Of course, the house has a security system, but as part of her job, Kraft usually walks through the rooms at night, including this formal parlor at the front of the house, before she turns off the lights. She’s never encountered anyone who didn’t belong there after hours, living or not.
With its original embossed wall covering, custom furniture and redwood built-ins and paneling finished to look like oak (the more expensive and thus prestigious wood at that time), the dining room appears much today as it did when William and Bertha Haas gathered their children around the table. What many visitors might not know is that the family still visits the house every Christmas Eve. Although the home’s first husband and wife were both Jewish, they started the tradition of celebrating Christmas in America. To this day their descendants mark the occasion here. (Check out the remarkable photo albumof the gatherings from 1954 to 1971 housed at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life.)
But they aren’t the only family who dines at the house — it is available for event rental, and for a fee, anyone can sup at this table. As a caretaker’s perk, Kraft is also allowed to host the occasional dinner party in this room. “It’s very interesting; people feel that they have to behave differently, more formally, here,” she says.
Houzz Tour: San Francisco’s Haas-Lilienthal House
Houzz Tour: San Francisco’s Haas-Lilienthal House
