San Diego Homescape
Recent Articles
If you're in the market for a new dining room set or coffee table but can't afford furniture store prices, look no further than the model home furnishings sale taking place next Saturday in Kearny Mesa from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
And even better, whatever you spend goes for a good cause.
The one-day “furniture fantasy sale,” as it's called, is sponsored by BIA Cares, the charitable arm of the San Diego County Building Industry Association. » Read More
Whether you're a fashionista who considers “Gossip Girl” star Blake Lively your idol, an eco-friendly student who thinks Al Gore is “the man” or a dude who decorates with books, you can find the back-to-dorm decor that reflects your personality and tastes.
The choices are more varied than ever in this year's crop of cool stuff to trick out your dorm room and turn it into a sweet space.
» Read More
Take a pictorial tour of 'San Diego County Victorians'
By Roger Showley
“San Diego County Victorians”
Author: Eric C. Pahlke, Our Heritage Press
Length: 75 pages
Cost: $24.99
Information: ourheritagepress.org or (619) 297-9327
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San Diego County boasts a small but rich collection of Victorian houses dating back to the 1870s, and now the Save Our Heritage Organisation has published an all-color paperback celebrating these exuberant artifacts from the past.
Author and photographer Eric C. Pahlke roamed the county looking for modest and little-known examples of this decorative architectural type as well as elaborately designed historic houses open to the public.
Included are the Villa Montezuma, the San Diego Historical Society's house museum in Sherman Heights, built in 1887 for an eccentric artist, Jesse Shepard; and the Britt-Scripps house, also built in 1887 at the height of San Diego's railroad boom, now a bed-and-breakfast inn just west of Balboa Park. As a contrast, Pahlke included farmhouses, a former chapel and examples of stained-glass windows and other Victorian decoration.
“When I began the research and photography for 'San Diego County Victorians,' ” Pahlke wrote in the introduction, “I wanted to display the diversity of construction, both in design and function, as well as the geographical spread of the Victorian influence. I wanted to use full color because, to me, Victorian means color, not just on the exterior, but on the rich woodwork and intricate wallpapers of their interiors.”
Quite a departure from today's look-alike tract homes and unadorned modern masterpieces by the architects who followed the Victorians! They are a pain to maintain, but we love them all.
Roger M. Showley: (619) 293-1286; roger.showley@uniontrib.com
ERIC C. PAHLKE photos
Lemon grower Victor Hinkle from Kansas built this house in 1892 in Pacific Beach. It was moved to Law Street in 1930. |
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The Castle House was built in Lakeside by grape grower G.H. Mansfield in 1887. |
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A sunburst design in the gables shines at this 1889 Sherman Heights house. |
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Cornelius Gorham built this Queen Anne gem in Logan Heights about 1894. |
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Victorian can be simple, as with this 1888 Eastlake house in Little Italy. |
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The 1887 Livingston house moved from Sherman Heights to Coronado in 1983. |
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