4058 26th Street

Built in 1893 by William C. Hamerton, this house was originally constructed in the Stick-Eastlake style. Hamerton, one of ten builders who developed much of Noe Valley during its Victorian Era, built the house as a speculative development. As seen in a historic photograph from 1905, the original design featured a French cap surmounted by iron cresting. A rectangular bay rose at the right, from the basement to the top of the house. A porch with turned columns, a squeezed pediment, and doughnuts is seen on the left. The window trim showcased typical Eastlake ornaments such as studs, brackets, and drips. The house is balloon-framed wood construction, with first growth redwood 2×4’s extending nearly 30 feet, from the basement to the roof. The house has two stories over a basement, with a pitched roof hidden behind a false front.

In the 1960’s or 1970’s the rectangular bay was removed, a garage was added, and the original Victorian decorative elements were removed. Redwood shingles were added to the upper two stories and a brick veneer added at ground level.

In 2020 the current owners created a new Victorian inspired façade. Inspiration came from walking around San Francisco, and appreciating the work of many architects and builders from the late 1800’s. The brick veneer at the basement level, the shingles, and the 1970’s era decorative elements were removed. The current design features three pediments with applied elements and a covered porch. The cornice is supported by custom made wooden corbels engraved with floral inspired motifs. Corbels supporting the pediments are of cast Stonecrete and redwood. A gargoyle sits above the front porch, an angel above the upper windows and several Diana cast corbels support some pediments. The spandrels are turned redwood with gold leaf highlights. The new double hung mahogany windows with divided lights are double paned. The front door is solid white oak with leaded glass sidelights built by the current owner. The interior front staircase is original, as well as the fireplace surround. Most interior doors, door hardware, and moulding are original to the house.

Hamerton kept the house until April 1895 and then sold to Alida Gunn, a widow (b. 1861, California). She lived here with her daughter Catherine Murray, her nephew Walter Arnhein, and in 1900 added a lodger David F. Hazel, a streetcar conductor. By 1904, she sold her home to Caroline and Henry von Konsky. The von Konsky family stayed until 1952.

Henry von Konsky was born in Germany and educated at university there.  He served as a junior officer in the Franco-Prussian War. After Prussia won the war, von Konsky came to the United States, living first in a Nevada mining town. He began a career in German language newspapers by moving first to Fredericksburg, Texas, where he edited a German-language newspaper and later to Cincinnati, Ohio where he met and married Caroline. In early 1893, unusual notices were sent to California newspapers that a man known as “Count” von Konsky had gone missing from Cincinnati, where he had been in charge of a German language newspaper, the Weekly Yolksfreund. The newspaper’s funds were short by $25,000 when von Konsky departed. Because 1893 is also the year Caroline and Henry von Konsky came to San Francisco, it seems that the two men may have been one and the same. In San Francisco, von Konsky began working as the city editor of the California Demokrat, a daily German-language newspaper. He went on to have a distinguished career, becoming general editor in 1901 and continued that role until 1906. While at the California Demokrat he also wrote two German language books, Die Erben des Prospektors and Yaleska, both thinly-disguised accounts of his early years in America. He died at the age of 59 in September 1906. His obituaries described him as a brilliant journalist and esteemed friend without reference to the Cincinnati incident.

His widow Caroline continued to live in this house until her death in about 1944, along with their sons, Cleveland, who worked in the emerging electrification industry of San Francisco, Harold, a jewelry engraver, Walter, and Adolf. Harold would eventually inherit the house in 1944 and lived there until 1952. During the following forty years the home was bought and sold by seven owners until the current owners purchased it in 1994. The report for this house was commissioned by the current owners, Lucy Irwin and Ian Christoph.

WiIliam Kostura, (2018). Historic Resource Evaluation for 4058 26th Street 2018.

Edited by Lucy Irwin and Gail Baugh, 2024.