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The focus of this series
is architects who had an influence over the way Pacific Heights looks
today. The distinctive group of six properties on the west side of Lyon
Street, at the end of Green, are unusual in that they project into what
is otherwise Presidio National Park land. Many maps showing the
boundaries of the Park fail to acknowledge this indentation.
 August Goonie Headman was born in Roseburg, Oregon on April 13, 1883.
His father, Abraham, was a machinist and brought the family to San
Francisco before August reached his teens. After completing his high
school education, August began work as a draftsman with established firms
Havens & Toepke and Salfield & Kohlberg, in the evenings attending
classes at the Hopkins Art Institute, the Mechanics Institute, and the
Humboldt Evening Technical School. Recognizing the need for specific
architectural training among draftsmen, Headman founded the San
Francisco Architectural Club in September 1901, which soon had an impact
locally on the level of architectural draftsmanship and artistic design.
The club became one of the leading architectural clubs in the U.S. and
Headman continued his involvement with it over the years, giving his
time freely to the younger members.
In 1905, Headman traveled east to attend the University of
Pennsylvania, graduating from the Department of Architecture in 1907. He
followed that with a spell with Walker & Gilette in New York and then
traveled to Paris to study at an atelier of the École des Beaux-Arts.
Perhaps lacking the financial resources to commit to a diploma course
there, or realizing the opportunities that awaited him in the
reconstruction of San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake and fire,
Headman returned to his adopted city in 1909, entering into a
partnership with established architect Perseo Righetti (1871-1928).
Together Righetti & Headman designed a large number of downtown
apartment buildings and hotels. One of the earliest commissions they
won, in August 1909, was to design the replacement Native Sons of the
Golden West building at 414 Mason between Geary and Post, on the same
city block as the St. Francis Hotel, which fronts on Powell. This was to
replace the five-story Class C building designed by
Adolph Lutgens in
1895, which had been irreparably damaged by the fire following the 1906
earthquake. The Native Sons fraternal organization decided on a
top-quality Class A steel-framed eight-story structure at a cost of
$210,000, containing over 57,000 square feet of usable space, which
remains today a desirable office and meeting venue downtown. The steel
frame was built by the Pacific Rolling Mill Company and one girder, at
65 tons, was the largest manufactured in California to that point.
Ernest H. Hildebrand (1880-1963), a former classmate of Headman’s at the
University of Pennsylvania, was an associate architect with Righetti &
Headman on the project.
In addition to multi-unit apartment buildings and hotels, Righetti &
Headman designed some fine duplexes and single-family homes, for
example, 2230-32 Green Street (1910), 1827-31 Jones Street (1911), and
80 West Clay Park (1912). The Righetti & Headman partnership was
dissolved in 1914 and Headman established his own practice.
The group of buildings which is the subject of this article has a
history dating back to 1833. In that year Corporal Apolinario Miranda, a
cavalryman with the Company of San Francisco based at the Presidio
petitioned his Commandant of Arms, Jose Sanchez, that he be granted a
100 vara (approx. 275 by 275 feet) plot of land on the edge of the
Presidio, called El Ojo de Agua de Figueroa after a nearby spring. The
petition claimed that Miranda was about to retire (although he was only
40 years old at the time) and had already built a ‘temporary house’ on
the property. The grant was signed by Sanchez on September 16, 1833. It
is likely that the inspiration for Miranda’s petition came from his
wife, Juana Briones. The two had married in May 1820 at Mission Dolores.
Juana Briones was a devout, enterprising woman, a rancher and a healer
of the sick. The couple had eight children by 1841, but Apolinario
proved to be an abusive husband, causing Juana to report him to his
superiors and eventually to separate from him. She established another
homestead for her family on the trail leading from the Presidio to Yerba
Buena cove, close to where Sts. Peter and Paul Church is now, in North
Beach. A plaque dedicated by the Board of Supervisors on October 5, 1997
(‘Juana Briones Day’) honors her achievements as the First Woman Settler
of San Francisco. After Apolinario Miranda died in 1847, Juana
petitioned to perfect her claim to the property on the edge of the
Presidio and the ‘Miranda Grant’, as it became known, was eventually
confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in January 1861. By then Juana had
moved south to live on a 4,439 acre ranch she had bought for $300 in
June 1847, the Rancho La Purisma Concepción, land which is today Los
Altos Hills. She sold the Miranda Grant to Matilda Hill in April 1862.
The Miranda Grant was transferred several times subsequently. By 1894 it
was owned by Emma L. O’Connor and it was purchased soon afterwards by
Frederick T. Duhring. The City had mapped Lyon and Green Streets through
the middle of it, which split it into three parcels, one on the
southeast corner of the intersection, another on the northeast corner,
and the third on the west side of Lyon Street, spanning Green. In March
1909, Duhring’s quiet title action (McInerney Judgment), necessary
following the loss of the City’s records in the 1906 earthquake and
fire, was approved by a Superior Court judge.
The parcel on the west side of Lyon changed hands again and in November
1922 was sold by John and Adela Gantner to Carlo Matraia. Matraia
immediately deeded one-third interests both to August Headman and to
real estate broker Robert A. Wilson. The parcel was then divided into
six lots. Headman provided the consistent Italian Renaissance design of
the group and Wilson marketed them. All of the properties started life
as duplexes, except for Matraia’s own house at 2601 Lyon, squarely
opposite Green Street, for which Headman designed a lovely villa with an
attractive Beaux-Arts double-curved staircase. Matraia lived there until
1940 and it was the home of Bob Lurie, former owner of the San Francisco
Giants, from 1980 to 1994.
 Headman kept the southernmost property (2525-27 Lyon) for himself and it
is the only one with a two-story living room in the upper unit.
Sadly, he died at his new home on October 28, 1925 after an extended
illness following an operation in December 1924. His wife Irene Flint
Headman continued to own the property until 1941.
Headman’s death at the age of only 42 was a significant loss not only to
his family, including his three brothers and his parents, both of whom
were still alive, but also to the architectural community. A resolution
passed by the San Francisco Chapter of the American Institute of
Architects (AIA), written by Ernest H. Hildebrand, his former classmate
and associate, and Morris M. Bruce, Secretary of the Chapter from
1917-1920, included these words: “Mr. Headman was a facile draftsman of
unusual skill and an architect of distinction who had the rare
combination of an artistic temperament coupled with executive ability.
His high ideals and fine character were an inspiration to all who knew
him and his ability and integrity were a never failing source of
strength and assurance to those with whom he worked and those whom he
served. Few architects have labored more conscientiously and
intelligently for the upholding of the traditions of faithful service
and devotion to the client and the community.”
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