1409 Sutter St
San Francisco, CA 94109, USA

Theodore F. Payne House (Evans Pacific building) - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance

The Importance of the Payne House in California history may be found in its architecture, in the role of the Payne family in early San Francisco history, and in William Curlett, its architect.

As a visual statement alone, the house is a landmark. It has received the highest rating given for buildings on the 1976 Architectural Survey by the San Francisco Department of City Planning. The Payne House is the last of a number of large hones which stood on Sutter Street between Franklin and Gough Street.

Stylistic labels, such as Stick and Stick Eastlake, have been placed on the Payne House by the authors of A Guide to Northern California Architecture and Here Today. However, it is the transitional nature of the 1409 Sutter Street which makes it particularly unusual. Characteristics such as an asymmetrical plan, highly variable surface treatments, and a corner tower suggest evolution towards the Queen Anne. Uninterrupted horizontal banding, striking similarity between main and second floor plans, lack of curving surfaces (the tower is octagonal in plan vs. circular), absence of common Queen Anne ornament such as garlands and open spooling, and the strict vertical proportions of the windows and of the house itself, are of earlier styles.

The house is a successful combination of earlier "Victorian" styles such as Eastlake and Stick and the later Queen Anne Style. It retains dignity, and an emphasis on height introduces spaciousness and openness.

A significant feature of 1409 Sutter Street is the building as a statement of technology. Evidence of the importance of technology in this building includes its plumbing, central heating, and the machine-made hardware and materials used throughout. The toilet rooms are fully integrated into the house plan and not just hung on a porch or verandah—an Intermediate step between the back yard privy and a modern bathroom. House plans published by Samuel and Joseph Newsom at this time show the water closet either in a bathroom or at an isolated location, suggesting that the transition to a fully integrated bathroom was not yet complete. The Payne House had bath or toilet rooms in the contemporary mode. Fixtures of today appeared in some form in this house. Lavatories and tubs had hot and cold running water.

1409 Sutter Street remains as one of the few examples of virtually unchanged pre-fire homes of San Francisco's wealthier class. It is a reminder of an adolescent city built of wood by California gold and Comstock silver. The earthquake and fire of 1906 was the turning point. The main commercial district of the rebuilt city soon scaled the nabobs' bastion. Nob Hill, and grew westward to Van Ness Avenue. Only a few of the homes of San Francisco's rich remain in this area.

William F. Curlett was a particularly noteworthy California architect. He was among the most prolific architects on the Pacific Coast in the final decades of the 19th and first decade of the 20th Century. His practice typified the successful architectural profession of that period. Contacts with the gentry and well-heeled were of paramount importance. Curlett had his wealthy friends both in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He built many buildings, both public and private, in each city and throughout California.

William Curlett possessed another trait critical to the success and survival of architects in his time. This was an ability to adapt the current stylistic vogue to one's own design. During some 40 years of practice, Curlett designed, in various associations with others, buildings of many different styles. His residences range from flamboyant Queen Anne examples, such as the William Crocker House, to more sober period revival houses after 1900, such as the 1912 "Roman Renaissance" Villa Montalvo in Saratoga for Senator James D. Phelan. Work done for the Paynes shows this same capacity for design in different styles. The Payne country home in Menlo Park, now Douglas Hall at Menlo School, is 1906 "Roman Renaissance". His commercial and public projects ranged in style from Richardson Romanesque, such as the Los Angeles County Courthouse (with Cuthbertson and Elsen), and the 1890 California State Bank, Sacramento (with Cuthbertson), to the 1902 Mutual Building in San Francisco (now Citizens Federal Savings), an eclectic combination of Classic, Roman, and Flemish forms.

By the time 1409 Sutter Street was completed in circa 1881, the Payne family had been established as people of importance in San Francisco. In fact, Payne wealth and influence has roots in the first years of the California Gold Rush. The family sire, Theodore, was born in New York City in December I8l6 and arrived in San Francisco in 1849. Theodore Payne, like so many newcomers to San Francisco, arrived without material resources; only in his case, he lost them when his steamship sank before its scheduled arrival. Quoting from his biography appearing in California Fifty Years of Progress;

"The surviving sons of Mr. Payne, Theodore F. and Warren R. Payne, are at the present time in the enjoyment of an active business life, with a deep interest in the welfaire of the community that claims them as a part, and improving and enlarging the heritage relinquished to their care by their father, Theodore Payne. During his lifetime Theodore Payne was not only regarded as a prominent business man, an expert on realty matters, but also as (Mie of the most influential and substantial men of the community."

1409 Sutter Street was built for Theodore Payne's son, Theodore F. Payne, said his wife, Pauline, who had the good fortune of being the niece of a very wealthy man. Her unmarried uncle, William S. O'Brien, one of the Comstock "Silver Kings", had at the time of this death amassed a fortune estimated from twelve to fifteen million dollars (1878 value). This had come from the Great Bonanza, the fabulously rich Consolidated-Virginia Mine in Virginia City, Nevada.

O'Brien did not live long to enjoy his fortune. He passed away on May 2, 1878, about the time bonanza ore from the Consolidated-Virginia ran out and the mine and Virginia City entered its final decline, marking the end of San Francisco and Virginia City's intimate connection of two decades.

In 1877 word reached O'Brien that his brother, Patrick, had died leaving a wife and daughter, Mary Pauline O'Brien, destitute. William brought the pair west from Brooklyn, New York and put them up in his Sutter Street home. When news of the bonanza king's death was published all over the country, out of the woodwork came the supposedly dead, but very much alive, brother Patrick to stake his claim. In order to prevent a will breaking lawsuit, the other heirs, two sisters, three nieces and three nephews, paid over $600,000 to father and daughter. This, in combination with $800,000 already willed to Mary Pauline, made her a very wealthy young lady Indeed. She personally received more than twice as much as any other heir. One can safely conclude that Comstock silver paid for the Payne House and the lot it stands on, at least in part. Block books from 1894 to 1906 list the owner as "Mary O'Brien", Mary Pauline's name prior to marriage to Theodore F. Payne.

Theodore F. and Warren R. Payne continued the realty practice in a manner established by their father's example. Business directory listings from I883 to 1909 without exception list the brothers as "capitalists", which leaves the actual profession of these men somewhat in question, but infers no lack of financial resources. Real estate is listed at least once so there is some indication of the brothers' occupation. Theodore F. maintained an office downtown at a number of different locations over the years. He practiced with Warren for much of this time. The first business directory published following the earthquake and fire, in 1908, lists the business address of Theodore F. and Warren R. Payne as 1407 Sutter Street. This location is in a small wooden commercial building the Payne's built on the easterly portion of the Theodore F. Payne House grounds. It still stands today.

The last directory listing for Theodore was in 1909, evidence of his death about this time. Pauline passed away in February 1922, some eight months after the family home in Menlo Park was sold.