Victorian Glory in San Francisco and the Bay Area [Hardcover]

Paul Duchscherer (Author), Douglas Keister (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 29, 2001

Few cities can claim the instantaneous association with Victorian style that is enjoyed by San Francisco. Beyond the polychrome Victorian houses, there is a cumulative visual impact of all types of architecture, both exterior and interior. This beautiful book contains 260 color photos and includes sections devoted to Victorian House planning, the Edwardian Era, before and after transformations and Victorian Revival Interiors.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Paul Duchscherer and Douglas Keister are a best-selling author/ photographer team in the field of American Architecture and Interiors.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Viking Studio (October 29, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670893765
• ISBN-13: 978-0670893768
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,506,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If only I had the money . . ., October 10, 2003

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Victorian Glory in San Francisco and the Bay Area (Hardcover)

I attended college in the Bay Area in the early `60s and have been nostalgically in love with San Francisco and Marin ever since. I spent many, many hours hiking around the city with a couple of friends, climbing the hills, exploring narrow passages between buildings, and generally gawking at the 19th century architecture. I also knew a girl whose grandmother (or aunt, or something) lived in one of the "Painted Ladies" on Alamo Square, the strip now known as "Postcard Row," so I actually got to see the inside of one of the gorgeous homes detailed and depicted in this book. If you're not from there, you likely lump together all of San Francisco's historic domestic architecture as "Victorian" -- but you would be wrong. There's Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Stick Style, Shingle Style, Queen Anne, and Colonial Revival, plus various hybrids among and later additions to all of those. Duchscherer is a longtime resident of the city and a highly regarded architectural historian and he leads the reader through the art and business behind these homes, while Keister's lush photography of busy (and occasionally overdone) Victorian interiors will have you drooling on the page. One of my personal favorites is the Westerfeld House in the Western Addition, built in 1889, which includes a fifth floor (!) tower room with an amazing view. Another is Falkirk (originally the Robert Dollar Mansion), built in San Rafael in 1888, a much more rambling Tudor extravaganza filled with a king's ransom in paneling and wainscotting; it was saved from demolition and entirely renovated (thank God) after I left the area, and I shall have to go and visit it the next time I get out there. What a book!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From architectural roots to hybrid styles, December 13, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Victorian Glory in San Francisco and the Bay Area (Hardcover)

This survey of Victorian beauties of California's San Francisco Bay Area provides a blend of regional history and architectural insights, surveying the changing Victorian house styles of the region and featuring a wealth of fine color examples. From architectural roots to hybrid styles, Book Of The Courtesans is packed with detail.