HOME / 2026 Historic House Fall Tour / 338 Lexington Street – A TREA Home
338 Lexington Street – A TREA Home
Architecture
You’ll note the symmetry of the facade is disrupted only by the entrance on the right side, which is protected by a bracketed flat pediment, which uses the same molding profiles as the matching pediments over each of the windows.
It is worth comparing 338 to its neighbors on Lexington Street given their shared builder. There are small variations in the bandsaw-cut decorations below the pediments and on the porch brackets, and there are more decorative segmented or arched pediments on 330 Lexington. Notably, two homes on the row still have their original cast- and wrought-iron Victorian garden gates and fences; most of these small front gardens across San Francisco were removed to allow for the addition of automobile garages.
A few of the homes on the row have also seen the addition of bay windows and other more substantial renovations, but overall the row remains mostly intact and is a good example of affordable real estate development of the 1870s.
HISTORY
When The Real Estate Associates (TREA) completed construction of 338 Lexington on March 7, 1876, it was to be one of 15 flat front Italianate homes built in this same row along what was originally Stevenson Street. This particular home was built for Mrs. E. Mitchell, an adjuster in the Coiner’s Department of the US Mint. The home’s address was originally 1918 Stevenson Street until the street name was changed to Lexington sometime between 1895 and 1900. Today, in 2026, it celebrates its 150th anniversary!
TREA, founded and incorporated by William Hollis in 1866, was one of the first companies to mass produce detached housing for families of varying income levels. During the 1870’s, TREA built more than one thousand Italianate houses based on designs in pattern books. TREA crews were capable of building a typical house in sixty days. The most expensive homes cost $6,000 or more, and the more affordable homes were in the range of $2,500 to $4,000. The buyer made a down payment between twenty and fifty percent and had from one to twelve years to amortize the loan at an interest rate of eight to ten percent. TREA was dissolved in 1881, a victim of the depression that had lingered since 1877 and, perhaps, of its own business practices.
While the home was originally built for Mrs. Mitchell, there is no indication that she ever resided at the property. City directories indicate the building was occupied by a variety of tenants over the years, including stairbuilders, clerks, and other professions. However, John Mayer acquired the property by 1894. Mr. Mayer and his business partner Fritz Kayser were the proprietors of Colosseum Liquor Saloon. John’s daughter Freda married a gentleman named John Plato in 1902. Freda went on to own the home until her death in 1966.
Elizabeth Fromer, 338 Lexington’s current owner, acquired the property in 1987 and promptly began several improvements, including upgrading the foundation from its original brick, adding the garage, and adding an internal staircase from the garage to the first floor – the only internal garage stairway on the row. She renovated the kitchen, both bathrooms, and several elements of the exterior. In 2021, she renovated the small cottage in the back yard, originally built by John Plato in 1924, which he signed along with several other projects around the house.
Tourgoers may also take interest in 330 Lexington Street, a pink TREA home at the end of the row. There were originally two other homes, 320 and 326, which stood just North of 330 Lexington but were destroyed during the fires following the 1906 earthquake. 330 Lexington survived with only minimal burn damage to the North-West side of the building and represents the “fire line,” where the 1906 fires died out before destroying more of the city’s properties.
Researched by Max Mertens, Adam Klafter, and Nicole Diaconoff
Edited by Julie Zigoris and Elizabeth Fromer