History

      This grand Italianate Victorian was constructed in 1865 by prominent post-Gold Rush house 

      builder Stephen L. Piper for Daniel Sylvester (b. Hessen, Germany 1832), his wife Maria (b. 1846)

      and their eight children. The home served as the farmhouse for a cattle grazing ranch which

      included the mansion and a number of stable and out-buildings, several of which can still be seen in 

      the area.  Piper later constructed the 'South San Francisco Opera House' ca. 1880, today the

      BayView Opera House, along the old stagecoach line designated as Railroad Avenue in 1878 and

      renamed Third Street in 1921. 

At the turn of the century, the Southern bay-shore area of San Francisco was a diverse community of Italian, French, Maltese, African American, German, Irish and Chinese immigrants and their decendants. French laundries and tanneries shared Railroad Avenue with Italian bakers and butchers;  Germans worked the shipyards; a Chinese shrimping community thrived near Hunter's Point; a fireworks factory operated on Yosemite Slough. The Bayview Racetrack, developed by Leland Stanford and partner Charles Crocker in 1888, entertained San Franciscans who rode the Bayview-Potrero Railroad from 'the City' (Montogomery at Post) station to the Victorian grandstands then located near the present day Third Street @ Williams Avenue.  Although primarily rural and largely unaffected by the 1906 earthquake, the Bayview district nevertheless shed the 19th Century 'country lane' names attached to its roadways and took on the sub-division designation of East-West numbered avenues and North-South lettered streets. The Sylvester House, originally built on Sumatra Road near Savanna Road, had entered the 20th century.

The Sylvester family sold the home in 1913 to a Genoese boat builder, Constantino Faggione, who moved the building two blocks to the South at 1556 Eighteenth Avenue South between 'K' and 'L' (now Revere Avenue between Keith and Lane streets), added the basement or ground floor as a wine making operation, and occupied the building with his sons  and their families until 1942. Silvio Faggione, third son, an architectural painter and artist, maintained a studio in the attic of the house and completed the 'Rosebud' painting and the decorative stencil and frieze work seen in the 'ballroom'.  Silivo, along with brother Augusto, decorated the interiors of numerous bank and civic buildings of the era, including the Castro theater, the Opera House and the original Bank of Italy building. Photographs of the Faiggione family may be seen in the front hallway. The wrap-around porch and sun-rooms, widow's walk, and second floor exterior ballustrades were lost to a lack of maintenance in the post WWII period when the building became a rooming house. A third owner occupied the property from 1963 until 1978, thankfully resisting the temptation to part with the original fireplaces, doors and mouldings.

The restored architectural gem as seen today is a testament to the vision and creative spirit of her current owner.

The Sylvester House celebrated its Historic Landmark status and  145th birthday in   2010.

Publications:

San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Examiner

Painted Ladies

House Beautiful

Art and Antiques

San Francisco Beautiful

On-Location - Still and Motion Picture siting

Awards:

2005 Robert Friese Preservation Award

House Visit:

          Tours of The Sylvester House are by appointment only. Contact us for details and information.

          Stay in the Sylvester House - see   www.vrbo.com   listing# 294011

          photographs by John Jacob Sims - reproduction by permission