Historic Charm. Modern Comfort. Prime Location.

711 3rd Avenue

The house at 711 3rd Avenue was built in 1922. The first World War had ended a few years earlier and the country was proceeding on a path of prosperity heading into the Roaring ‘20s. During this time, the Inner Richmond District boomed with construction. Although the neighborhood had been settled as early as the 1860s, and scattered residential development had spread slowly outward from Arguello Street toward Ocean Beach over the decades, the 1920s saw block upon block of houses spring into existence seemingly overnight. Many were built speculatively – singly or in small groupings – employing similar forms and designs that were quickly erected and sold to San Franciscans who wanted the latest in modern suburban housing in the quieter outer neighborhoods. The growing popularity of the private automobile, at the time, allowed people to live farther from downtown, making the area especially popular. Ultimately, the Richmond District was built out by the late 1920s, with further new construction curtailed by the Depression and World War II. Thus, architectural character throughout the neighborhood has changed little since the 1920s.

John M. Peters was the contractor responsible for building the house. He appears to have purchased two lots, including the parcel to the south (717 3rd Avenue), and built both houses speculatively. Judging by the similar appearances of other nearby houses, he may have also undertook additional projects on the street in other years. Peters was born in Sweden in 1872 and immigrated to the United States as a teenager in 1888. He married Emma, a woman from Iowa, and they had two sons. The family lived on Balboa Street, only a few blocks from John’s projects on 3rd Avenue. In 1920, their eldest son, Calvin, was also working as a carpenter and very likely assisted his father with the construction of the 3rd Avenue houses.

Upon completion, John Peters sold the house at 711 3rd Avenue to Daniel J. and Luella M. Corcoran. Daniel was born in Ohio in 1880 to Irish parents and worked as a sales representative for Bancroft-Whitney, a firm that published law books. Luella was born in California in 1881 and was a housewife. The couple had married in Golden, Colorado in 1907 and had two daughters. In 1930, one of their daughters, Doris, lived at home and worked as a stenographer at a law firm. By 1940, Daniel and Luella were empty-nesters. Daniel died in 1949 and Luella continued to live at 711 3rd Avenue until 1961. She lived elsewhere in the last few years before her death in 1969, but had owned and lived in the house on 3rd Avenue for just shy of 40 years.

The house was owned briefly by the O’Shea family, who may have owned other houses on the street, but by 1963, Joseph R. and Dolores Paik owned the house. Joseph was born in Hawaii in 1912 and Dolores was born in Shanghai, China in 1928. They were married in San Francisco in 1953 and had three children; Josette, Daniel, and David. Around the time that the Paiks bought the house at 711 3rd Avenue, Joseph was employed as a television technician by a company called Kemper & Barrett. He eventually established his own business called Seven Hills Electronics. The Paik family continues to own the house today.

711 3rd Avenue was designed in a mixture of Edwardian and Mediterranean Revival aesthetics that is indicative of its construction date. The Edwardian Style was popular in the 1910s and early 1920s; representing a move away from Victorian intricacy, toward pared-down Classical ornamentation. As the Edwardian style encroached into the 1920s, the Mediterranean Revival style was beginning to take off. American soldiers returning from World War I brought home the influence of picturesque European architecture from France, Spain, and Italy. Both styles had similar Old World origins and lent themselves to efficient construction. Their affordable and quickly-applied stucco cladding and the wide availability of plaster ornament meant that the styles were used copiously by speculative builders. In 1922, as Edwardian was transitioning to Mediterranean, 711 3rd Avenue demonstrated a compatible combination of the two styles applied to a textbook speculative building scenario.

The front facade of 711 3rd Avenue adopts a common organization seen throughout San Francisco; that of a street-level garage, with entry steps to one side, rising to a first-story entrance, with at least one bay window dominating the upper facade. The garage opening is recessed to accommodate both the paneled wood garage door and a tradesman's entrance on the left side wall. This door allowed household workers and tradespeople to enter the utilitarian areas of the property and the rear yard without traipsing through the upper level living areas. To the right of the garage terrazzo entry steps, flanked by stepped cheek walls, climb from the sidewalk to the front door, which is sheltered within a recessed vestibule. To the left, an angled bay window dominates the first story. It is capped by a Mediterranean-influenced red clay tile hip roof with a Classical molding of dentils and egg-and-dart at the cornice. The second story features two pairs of double-hung windows set symmetrically on the facade. The flat roofline is finished by a parapet that is adorned with a red clay tile pent roof, over a heavy box cornice that is supported by both scrolled brackets and intermediate modillions.

711 3rd Avenue, circa 1950.