North Elevation
Polk - Williams House in San Francisco, California

Willis Jefferson Polk was the architect of this Shingle Style double house in 1892.  The cozy composition has an almost medieval village quality to it, something very characteristic of the English Arts and Crafts movement.  The influence of McKim, Mead, and White is also evident in the design.  Polk had previously worked with A. Page Brown, one of the graduates of that prestigious New York firm.  He had also worked for a short time with Ernest Coxhead, another Shingle Style designer, when Coxhead had an office in Los Angeles.  In this image, Willis Polk's house and studio appear on the left, and Mrs. Virgil Williams house on the right, which includes the big windowed gable.  The Polk side is deceptively small.  It actually clings to the side of a steep hill for seven stories.  Photograph taken in 1999 by Howard J. Partridge.

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