Exceptional San Francisco Home

The house at 714 23rd Avenue was built in 1922. The first World War had ended a few years earlier and the country was proceeding on a path of prosperity heading into the Roaring ‘20s. During this time, the Richmond District boomed with construction. Although the neighborhood had been settled as early as the 1860s, and scattered residential development had spread slowly outward from Arguello Street toward Ocean Beach over the decades, the 1920s saw block upon block of houses spring into existence seemingly overnight. Many were built speculatively – singly or in small groupings – employing similar forms and designs that were quickly erected and sold to San Franciscans who wanted the latest in modern suburban housing in the quieter outer neighborhoods. The growing popularity of the private automobile, at the time, allowed people to live farther from downtown, making the area especially popular. Ultimately, the Richmond District was built out by the late 1920s, with further new construction curtailed by the Depression and World War II. Thus, architectural character throughout the neighborhood has changed little since the 1920s.
 
In 1921, prominent developer, Gustave Moeller, purchased the subject property and the property to the south. He may have also bought other groupings of properties on the same block, since many of the houses beyond the pair share a common character. Moeller was born in Germany in 1870 and was orphaned as a young boy. He went to sea at the age of 14 and sailed around the world, visiting many ports, until 1894, when he landed in San Francisco and decided to stay. He started out as a grocery or dry goods merchant, but soon saw great opportunities in real estate. He enlisted a number of friends to go in with him on purchasing blocks of property, then developed them on a speculative basis. He eventually became the president of the real estate and insurance firm Gus Moeller & Sons. His work spread beyond San Francisco and included the development of Millbrae Highlands neighborhood in San Mateo County.
 
Upon completion of the house in early 1922, it was sold to Charles and Deborah Mendler. They were both born in California in 1878. Charles was a jeweler and they had an adult daughter named Bessie, who was a school teacher. Bessie married in 1933 and she and her husband, Jean Pajus, a Frenchman and fellow school teacher, appear to have lived in the Mendler house for a while. They eventually established their own household and in 1939, when Deborah passed away, Charles went to live with them. He sold the house at 714 23rd Avenue to a woman named Margaret Robertson. Biographical details on Margaret are sparse, but the connection between she and Charles Mendler went beyond a real estate transaction. A few years later, in June 1944, she and Charles Mendler married. He was 69 and she was 38. They moved to a house on Ewing Terrace and Margaret sold 714 23rd Avenue in 1947.
 
The next owners were Manuel J. and Mercedes Mello. Manuel was Portuguese, born in the Azores Islands in 1879, and was employed as the superintendent of a copper mine. California’s copper mines are primarily located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, so Manuel must have been away from home frequently. He probably began his mining career in Chile, which is one of the world’s top copper producers. It is also where his wife, Mercedes was born in 1898. The Mello family appears to have lived in that country from at least 1925 to 1932, before moving to America. All four of the Mello’s children were born in Chile and, in 1950, lived at home on 23rd Avenue. Their daughter Martha was employed as a railway clerk; Bertha was a clerk at a loan company; Armando was a mechanic; and youngest son Andrea, age 18, was not employed. Manuel Mello died in 1954 and ownership of the house passed to Mercedes, who owned and lived in it until 1964.
 
In 1964, the house was sold to Toshio and Mitzie M. Otsubo. Toshio was born in San Francisco in 1923 and worked as a mail carrier in Berkeley. Mitzie was born in Placer County in 1923. The Otsubo family lived at 714 23rd Avenue until 1993, when it was sold to most recent owners Stephen C. Artus and Barbara Heebner.
 
The front facade of 714 23rd Avenue adopts a common organization seen throughout San Francisco; that of a street-level garage, with entry steps to one side, rising to a first-story entrance, with the prominent windows of the main living areas on upper stories. The paneled wood garage door sits at the sidewalk, with a tradesman’s entrance to its right. This door allowed household workers and tradespeople to enter the utilitarian areas of the property – garage, basement, and rear yard – without traipsing through the family living areas. At the right side of the facade, entry steps, sheltered entirely within a vestibule with a tall shouldered arch opening, climb from the sidewalk to the front door. The first story is separated from the raised basement level by a simple watertable molding and features a shallow angled bay window. The first and second stories are defined by a shallow overhang accented by a cornice band and scrolled brackets. Four windows are symmetrically placed across the flat plane of the second story. A cornice band runs across the top of the window openings and extended scroll brackets create a paneled effect on the upper facade, which is crowned by a deep cornice adorned with a dentil molding and paired modillions with shaped ends.