by Michael Helquist
Copyright 2007 All rights reserved, Michael Helquist
Author’s Note: Buildings are sometimes like intricate puzzles requiring much study, the pursuit of different possible solutions, and a fair amount of luck. The building profiled this month -- 546 Central Avenue -- has posed any number of questions, and a few remain unanswered due to publication deadlines. Allow me to describe some of the twisting research paths already undertaken.
A common first step in determing a San Francisco building’s history is a visit to the city’s main water department office at 425 Mason. At the customer service desk, you can request and receive the application for water service for any address in the city. Generally the original date the application is filed is the approximate time when a new building’s construction has been completed. The document, often 100 years old itself, also provides the name of the building owner, the size of the building (in square feet per floor as well as the number of floors of residency), a sketched “footprint” of the building’s perimeter, surveyor’s notations of the property in relation to nearby streets, and the specific services to be provided (e.g. two basins, two WCs, etc). Most of this information is essential for further research.
The document for 546 Central (actually 542-544-546 since there are three residential units) yielded the name of the applicant, Richard English, and the date of likely building completion: March 29, 1895. The 105 year-old building is three stories for two families. The property line begins 75 feet south of Grove Street, according to the application. So far so good. But then it is clear that the original address was 516A Central, since this number is crossed out with 546 superimposed.
This change in address is not necessarily confusing as block addresses often changed as other buildings appeared on previously vacant lots.
On to the San Francisco History Room in the Main Library. Checking large and unwieldly “block books” here reveals the early plots of every city block with corresponding names of property owners. The block books provide addresses street names and the block layout not actual addresses. Knowing the block number, you can quickly find that, in 1894, a year before 546 Central was completed, Richard English owned the third lot from the corner of Grove Street. You might reasonably conclude, using the information from the water department, that the third lot was first numbered 516 Central but was later re-numbered 546. Here’s the first problem: the current 546 Central is actually the fourth lot from the corner of Grove, preceded by the corner grocery store, the large pink building with four flats and the green building with two units. The surveyor’s notes of property lines also indicate that the current 546 is the fourth piece of property. The block books from 1901 and 1906 confirm this finding.
From the block books, you should also copy the names of the other nearby property owners, as these may answer questions later on. The corner lot was owned by Charles Strum and the fourth lot belonged to Ames Fiala.
The next ready resource is the Index to the Great Register, also available in the library’s history room. The index lists by city precinct the registration of voters. Not all years are available in hard copy. The 1907 Index offers up another surprise: Richard English is registered as a voter residing at 516 Central but at 544 Central resides two other voters, Thomas Ernst and Thomas Keef, while Fritz Ernst and four other men are living at 546. So, both 516 and 546 are recognized addresses on the block, but Richard English lives in the building at 516, not 546, although the tap record records his ownership of 546. How can you trace the original residents of the building in question when all these directions appear to be mixed up? Are the early records inaccurate or did English own one property but reside in another on the same block?
Early city directories, located on the fifth floor of the library, often provide answers. But not always. For example, Richard English is listed in the 1889 directory as a foreman living at 421 Lott (the early name for Central Avenue) but by 1896 he is residing at 516 Central. The Fiala family (remember, they owned the fourth lot from Grove, current site of 546, according to the block book) are living at 514 Central; he owns a restaurant in the city. Charles Sturm continues to own a grocery store on the “SE corner of Grove and Central”; no address is provided. The 1901 directory listings are basically the same except that Anna Sturm, not Charles, is now listed as the proprietor of the corner grocery store. The 1903-1904 directory notes that Anna Sturm is a widow and is residing at 546 Central Avenue! How did that happen? Now is the corner lot been given the address 546? Research time is running short, but skipping ahead to the 1923 directory reveals that John and Olga Sturm are now residing at 544 Central; he is a gardener. He is also a likely descendant of the Charles Sturm who owned the corner lot in 1894.
If time permitted, this puzzling array of switching addresses could likely be resolved by searches on microfilm of real estate sales, by pulling down year by year one city directory after another and scouring the backgrounds of the other nearby buildings and their residents while trying not to awaken some of the regular users of the library or getting distracted by the policemen walking the aisles trying to locate the gentleman who has been cursing loudly.
Allow me to present the incomplete picture of what is reasonably accurate before we jump ahead to the more certain recent and current owners and occupants.
The fourth lot on Central Avenue from the intersection of Grove Street was first owned in 1894 by Ames Fiala, an immigrant from Hungary, who was the proprietor of a restaurant at 29 Third Street. Fiala’s address has been variously listed as 514 and 530 Lott (Central); the city directory records his being at 514 Central at least until 1904.
The third lot from Grove Street was owned in 1894 by Richard English, an Irish immigrant who became a naturalized citizen in San Francisco in 1886. English was a laborer and then a foreman living in 1888 at the “corner of Fulton and Broderick”, in 1889 at 421 Lott (current home of NOPNA vice-president Debra Varner), in 1892 at 1705 Fulton, and finally in 1896 at 516 Central where he remained until his death. His son Patrick became a laboratory assistant; his wife, Margaret, remained at 516 Central at least until 1923. Richard English is also the designated owner of the building currently at 546 Central.
The Charles Sturm family owned the corner lot at Central and Grove since at least 1894. Sturm was a nightclerk at the New Washington Hotel, 346 Fourth Street, in 1888. Three years later he was involved in the grocery business with a store at the corner of 11th and Folsom. By 1896 he established his grocery and liquor sales business at the corner of Grove and Central. The business remained in the family into the 1920s and perhaps longer. The address given for the store in 1903 was 546 Central; his descendant, John Sturm, resided at 544 Central with his wife Olga in 1923. More than 100 years later, the location remains a grocery store, now the address is 560 Central.
What is my best guess to this elusive past, given the incomplete information discovered? The immigrant from Ireland, Richard English, built the three-level structure known today as 542-544-546 Central. I am uncertain of the tangle of addresses, 514 and 516 Central and the respective owners, English and the Fiala family. With the construction of new buildings on the eastside of the 500 Central block, addresses were adjusted accordingly. It is not surprising that one of the buildings in the middle of the block, today’s 546, was once designated as either 514 or 516 Central since the two-building apartment complex at the opposite end of the 500 block has a Hayes Street address.
Thank you for following along, if you could, this convoluted re-telling of properties along Central Avenue. The current residents of 546, and 544, Central have a much more straightforward story.
Johnie Perry, originally from Texas, served in the Army during World War II. Discharged in 1945, he first looked for a job in Portland, Oregon. Not finding what he wanted there, he headed south to San Francisco in 1946 where he began working for the federal government as a plumber.
Perry only had to see one other property in 1955 to know that 546 Central was the one he wanted to purchase. He bought the building from Byard and Margot Peterson and moved into the upstairs flat at 546 with his wife, Lettie. Perry remembers the 500 Central block as being quiet and very comfortable with a diverse population: there were three other African American families residing on the block. Grocery stores were conveniently situated on either end of the block, just as today. The building directly south of his housed the Deauville French Laundry (today it is the Diamond Youth Center).
The Perry’s building always had three units, but the street-level flat, 542, was only brought up to code in the mid 1980’s. To meet the code requirements, Perry undertook some major remodeling with the help of his downstairs neighbor, Carl Jamerson. They tore out and replaced all the walls in all three units. At the same time he remodeled the kitchen, installing wall tiles, a new floor, and an expanse of cabinets.
After living together at 546 Central for 31 years, Lettie Perry passed away. In 1988 Johnie and Beatrice Perry were married. Beatrice, a native of southwest Louisiana, first came to California to attend high school in Los Angeles. She slowly became acquainted with San Francisco while visiting friends in the city. Although Mrs. Perry has lived here since 1980, she confides that the city is just a place she settled, not somewhere she loves. “I miss the outdoors and having a big yard and the warm weather like those I had in Louisiana and Los Angeles,” she explains. “I guess I’m still a country girl at heart.” Mrs. Perry worked for 15 years as a nurse at San Francisco General Hospital; she is now a nurse in private practice.
Ascending the long flight of stairs up to 546, one finds to the right a large and comfortable living room with slanted bay windows and a side window affording ample light. The room is expansive enough for two full sofas as well as easy chairs. The original fireplace and mantle, now outfitted with a gas stove, is to one side. Wall-to-wall dusty rose carpeting provides a special warmth throughout the flat.
Down the hallway from the living room is one bedroom with its own side window. Further along is the bath to the left and the master bedroom to the right. Mrs. Perry bemoans the typical Victorian’s lack of closet space, but is pleased that the full attic provides ample storage room. Next is the dining room with windows overlooking the garden area and patio. A large dining table is set for holiday festivities. The remodeled kitchen and laundry room shares the same view.
Carl and Lou Jamerson moved into the lower flat at 542 in 1955 with two children. The couple had known each other since grade and high school in Louisiana. When Carl returned from the war, he and Lou started dating, soon married, and before long re-located to San Francisco, where Lou’s father and aunts and uncles lived. One of her aunts was Lettie Perry. Mr. Jamerson was a construction contractor, a trade that helped greatly in the later remodeling of the building.
Unlike her upstairs neighbor and friend, Lou had no trouble adjusting to San Francisco. “I had no problem whatsoever with the weather,” she says. In her opinion, “This is God’s country!” The Jamersons raised their family -- they had two more children, and, Lou offers, “We just kept adding on more rooms.” Later she began working in health care programs. Carl Jamerson passed away in 1993.
Mrs. Jamerson now lives at 544 with her grandson, one of three grandchildren. The flat is very similar in layout to the upstairs unit at 546 with bay windows, installed gas stove, and remodeled kitchen. Mrs. Jamerson remembers moving to Central Avenue and appreciating the convenience of the bus lines, the nearby schools, the two grocery stores on the block, and the laundry next door. She notes that there was a third grocery store on the northeast corner of Hayes and Central, where Central Coffee is located today. She also recalls the Petrini Supermarket being built on Fulton Street soon after she and her husband moved into their home. “On opening day there was a circus for the kids.”
The Perrys and Mrs. Jamerson are all active in the 500 Central Avenue Block Club. The association, one of the oldest neighborhood groups in the city, dates back to the mid-1970’s. Neighbors meet regularly to discuss safety issues and measures to keep their block safe, clean, and friendly.
City directories, Sanborn Maps, SF Block Books, SF Water Department Tap Records.