3549 23rd Street – The Thomas Maher House

Spring Valley Water Company’s tap records indicate Thomas C. Maher signed the water hookup on July 6, 1876, which was a common final step in the construction process that demonstrates the build year. At the time, the property’s original address was 637 23rd Street – the address likely changed as a result of new construction on the block, especially corner apartment buildings, which commonly resulted in renumbering street addresses in older homes. Regardless, we are excited to show off the home for the 150th anniversary of its construction.

At the time of construction, the home was a more modest affair than it appears today. Fire insurance maps show a 2-story cottage with a front porch and one-story kitchen extension at the rear, and a projecting bay on the east side of the home.

Maher’s socio-economic rise is well documented in directories and newspaper records. City directories show that Maher had recently been promoted from assistant pressman to pressman at the U.S. Mint, at the time he constructed his home. A pressman was one of the individuals who would operate the steam presses used to strike new coins. This is made more interesting when one considers that construction of the U.S Mint building at Fifth St and Mission Street, the Granite Lady, had just completed in November 1874 to replace the first mint building in San Francisco.

Maher was active in city politics, and in 1890 resigned from his position at the Mint (where he had been promoted to foreman of the metals melting department) in order to run for the California State Senate on the Republican ticket. Maher was successful in his bid and would serve one term from 1891-1894. It is possible that Maher decided around the same time that his home should better reflect his elevated social and political status or perhaps he needed additional space to welcome important guests or hold gatherings.

Whatever the motive, at some time in the 1890’s, Maher commissioned a significant addition to the front of his home on 23rd street, which is how the home appears today. The original cottage was lifted and moved back on the site, and a two-story Stick-style Italianate addition was constructed in its place. The single-story extension at the rear of the home was also further extended. It is worth noting that these homes were not meant to be frozen in time, but modified to fit the ever changing needs of their residents.

After leaving office, Thomas Maher continued to be active and influential in local party politics, often making the papers as “former senator Thomas Maher.” He continued to live at 3549 23rd until his death in 1922. Following his passing, the home remained in the Maher family until at least 1946 – 70 years after it was first constructed!

Directories list a Thomas D. Maher, likely the son of Thomas C., living in the home in the 1920s. Thomas D. Maher was a physician and surgeon and was listed as serving as Chief Medical Inspector of Schools and also on the Board of Health for some amount of time. The 1935 and 1946 block books list George V. Maher as the owner of the property – he had apparently followed in his family’s footsteps with a career at the U.S. Mint; an article published in 1940 stated that George was “Captain of the Mint Guard.”

Beginning in the 1950’s a number of different residents are listed as living in the home, before the current residents, Peter Khoury and Amy Tanner, and their family purchased the home in 2001. Peter and Amy undertook a renovation between 2012 and 2013, installing a powder room on the first floor and renovating the many earlier additions at the rear of the home to create a more modern kitchen and breakfast space.