The oldest house in San Francisco is the Abner Phelps House. It was built around 1850. This historic SF landmark is currently located at 111 Oak Street in the city’s Haight Ashbury district.
Who was Abner Phelps?
Abner Bartholomew Phelps was born on 1 May 1804. in Thetford, Vermont, and was raised in Orford, New Hampshire. He had a twin sister called Annie.
He married his wife, Elizabeth Drew of Boston Massachusetts in 1834 and together they had three children who were born in Louisiana. Unfortunately, Elizabeth died in 1844 in Louisiana. Their two younger children also died in Louisiana.
During the Mexican War, he served as an interpreter and secretary to General Joseph Lane.
Phelps later remarried and had seven more children with Charlotte Roussel, six of whom survived to adulthood. In San Francisco, he was a lawyer and had his office in the Montgomery Block.
Interesting Facts About the Abner Phelps House
The Abner Phelps House was supposedly the first prefab house. Abner Phelps’ great-granddaughter, Mrs. Victor E. Rosenstein, stated in 1961 that the house had been bought in New Orleans in 1850 and shipped in sections for Phelps’ wife, Augusta Roussell, who was born in New Orleans and feeling homesick. Then it was rebuilt in San Francisco sometime between 1850 and 1851.
Another earlier account from 1934 says that the house was built in Maine by John Middleton & Sons and shipped to San Francisco because there were no sawmills out in the area back in the 1850s.
A later report from the 1970s asserts that the house was constructed of California redwood based on an examination of the wood by researchers at UC Berkeley.
It’s current address at 1111 Oak Street was not its original location. It was first built on Divisidero Street, which was then a country path for farmers taking their cattle to and fro the Mission, a cow pasture at that time. At that time, Divisadero Street was outside of the city limits.
Its first numbered address was 329 Divisadero Street. It was then moved twice before finding itself at 1111 Oak Street.
In 1890, it was moved for road grading on Divisadero Street and repositioned at the same place. 14 years later in 1904, it was moved again so that stores could be built along Divisadero Street.
Abner’s son George was the last Phelps to stay in the house and he died in 1940. The home was purchased by a real estate agent David Finn in 1969.
In 1977, it was moved to Oak Street, reoriented to face north and set back to allow it to have a front yard.
Listed Building
The 3,537-square-foot building Abner Phelps House has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since May 23, 1979.
It is also San Francisco Designated Landmark number 32.
The historic building is privately own and not open to the public.
