2004 Gough St
San Francisco, CA 94109, USA

C. A. Belden House (2004 Gough Street;2004 Gough Street Residence)- National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

The Residence at 2004 Gough Street is a notable architectural example of the Queen Anne style. This style, which became popular in San Francisco in the 1890s, was characterized by asymmetrical composition and a variety of wall textures and colors. Gable roofs and turrets, elaborate details and tall decorative chimneys added to the exuberant appearance. 2004 Gough displays nearly all of these typical exterior features. In a city known for its Victorian-era residential structures, its exterior is distinctive because it reflects little influence of other decorative styles such as Eastlake or Colonial Revival—it is solidly Queen Anne. The building's architectural integrity is complemented by its scale and location. The three-story structure is situated in the center of the Gough Street block facing Lafayette Square in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. It is free-standing with a vacant lot to the north and a smaller and recessed Eastlake residence to the south. Later. residential structures at the northern half of the block are of the same scale and height as 2004 Gough. Beyond the immediate block, the structure is framed by four- to ten-story apartment buildings constructed in the 1920s and 1930s. As a visually prominent residence form an earlier era, 2004 Gough adds a slice of life that once existed in fashionable Pacific Heights.

The succession of important San Francisco families associated with the structure further indicate its architectural prominence. The residence was built in 1889 by Charles A. Belden, the treasurer of W.W. Montague & Company, importers of stoves and metals. The Belden family lived in the house until 1900. Between that time and 1907 the occupants are not known but the building's survival of the 1906 earthquake and fire is dramatically documented in a photograph showing 2004 Gough and adjacent residences in the foreground with the ruins of San Francisco in the background (Van Ness Avenue, two blocks east was the fire break at the western edge of the city). In 1907 John A. Buck, vice-president of the National Ice and Cold Storage Co., purchased the house at 2004 Gough and demolished the adjacent residence at 2010 in order to use the space for parking and storage. Buck died in 1923 and his widow lived there until 1933. After that time the house became an old lady’s home and underwent interior modifications but remained in the Buck family until 1961. It was owned by the Hudec Trust until 1967 when it was purchased by John Fell Stevenson (son of Adlai Stevenson) and his wife, Natalie (daughter of Nathaniel Owings of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill). The Stevenson’s, who lived there until 1973, remodeled the library, dining room and kitchen. In 1982 the owners Louis R. Peters and John A. New Meyer began the restoration of the exterior and interior of the residence.

Walter J. Mathews, architect of 2004 Gough, was a long-practicing and prolific Bay Area architect. Bom in Wisconsin in 1850, he worked in Los Angeles until 1877 when he went into partnership with his father, Julius Mathews of San Francisco. In In 1886 he established his own architectural practice. In 1914, when he was 74 years old, a local publication noted that he was the oldest practicing architect in the San Francisco chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The article stated that if all the structures Mathews designed or was associated with were placed in a row, they would extend four miles. Structures he is noted for include:

First Unitarian Church, Oakland Union Savings Bank Oakland Orpheum Theater, Oakland Immigration Station, Angel Island, San Francisco Redondo Beach Hotel, Redondo, CA