Pacific Heights Architects #22 - Julius E. Krafft

The focus of this series is architects who made a contribution to the way Pacific Heights looks today. Julius Krafft lived in Pacific Heights and designed many magnificent homes that survive today.

Julius Ernest Krafft was born in Stuttgart, Germany on November 11, 1855 and emigrated to the United States in 1872, settling first in Chicago. After 2 years he moved out to the West Coast, living first in Oakland and moving into San Francisco in 1881. He was employed as a draftsman by architects John P. Gaynor and Thomas J. Welsh. Krafft worked for the prolific Welsh for 12 years before starting his own practice in 1888 with an office on Market Street.

Two of his earlier commissions were for the German Lutheran Church. In 1891 he designed the relatively small Immanuel Lutheran Church built on Alameda. In 1894 he designed the much larger St. Paulus Lutheran Church, a reproduction of the magnificent cathedral at Chartres in France. Both of Krafft's churches were of redwood construction in a late-Victorian Gothic Revival style. St. Paulus, on the corner of Eddy and Gough, was S. F. Landmark #116 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but was tragically destroyed by a fire in November 1995.

Krafft was also a designer of grand Queen Anne Victorian mansions, only a few of which are still intact, with those usually having been converted to apartments or offices. In Pacific Heights examples include 1819 Jackson (1889, now 6 apartments), 1735 Pacific (1890, now offices), 2266 Pacific (1895, converted to 4 condominiums), and 2109 Broadway (1896, recently restored to a single-family home and with a garage added).

Three downtown apartment buildings were also designed by Krafft, but all were destroyed in 1906. However, fine surviving examples of Krafft’s residential architecture in Pacific Heights include 2224 Baker, 2601 Broadway and 2612 Scott (all from 1898), 2614-18 Jackson (now 4 condominiums, built in 1899), 2120 Broadway and 1701 Scott (both in 1900), 2420 Pacific (1901), 2020 Jackson and 2555 Webster (both from 1902).

Krafft’s 2120 Broadway (now Hamlin School) and 3512 Clay in Presidio Heights are featured in Randolph Delehanty and Richard Sexton's 1991 book In the Victorian Style. They both have rectangular floor plans, benefitting from their wide lots. They differ significantly in style, however. Delehanty describes 3512 Clay as Colonial Revival, with its lovely semi-circular bay windows with double-hung sashes and curved glass and a peaked roof with dormer windows; and 2120 Broadway as an Edwardian Palazzo, having no front bay windows, triangular pediments, and a flat roof with a rectangular projecting cornice.

2020 Jackson was commissioned in 1902 by Isaias William Hellman as a wedding gift for his daughter Clara, who was marrying attorney Emanuel S. Heller. Hellman had emigrated to the United States from Bavaria in 1859, founded the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Los Angeles in 1871, and moved to San Francisco in 1890 where he established the Nevada National Bank and the Union Trust Company. In 1898 Krafft had designed 2612 Scott for Hellman’s son Isaias Warren Hellman. In 1904 Edward Harriman, an investor who had gained control of the Wells Fargo Express Company, moved its headquarters to New York City and in April 1905 he arranged the merger of its banking operations with the Nevada National Bank. The senior Hellman became the President of the newly created Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank.

On the morning of April 18, 1906, a major earthquake hit San Francisco and between that and the three-day fire that followed, the business center of the City was virtually destroyed. Hellman relocated Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank’s operations to the house he had built at 2020 Jackson, where it continued to accept deposits and pay out cash. The bank was able to wire its correspondents: "Building Destroyed. Vaults Intact. Credit Unaffected."

2020 Jackson has continued to serve as a stage for significant events over the last 100 years, including hosting the main reception for delegates to the 1945 international conference in San Francisco which led to the creation of the United Nations. It was University High School’s Decorator Showcase house in 1991.

The arched entrance has a hand-forged wrought-iron and etched-glass door. An elegant foyer leads into a magnificent hall, with a fireplace framed in rich hardwood to complement the paneled walls, box-beamed ceilings, and herringbone hardwood floors. To the south side of the hall is a formal living room with coved ceilings molded intricately in plaster. This room features a marble fireplace encased in a mantle of handcrafted Indonesian mahogany. This rare wood is also used to accentuate architectural details throughout the entire room. Three pairs of south-facing French doors open to balconies. On the north side of the hall is a formal dining room, for entertaining on a grand scale. This room has Gothic architectural detail, a stone fireplace, and a Bay view. Arched doors lead to a limestone terrace lined with balustrades and enjoying views of Alcatraz, Angel Island, and Marin.

A grand staircase to the second level is bathed in natural light by a stained-glass window. The master suite now occupies the entire south half of this floor. This suite has a marble fireplace, two separate bathrooms, and large dressing rooms. On the north side of this level is a wood-paneled library with a marble fireplace, a wet bar, and a Bay view. Another family bedroom with Bay views, a fireplace, and a private bathroom completes this level.

Leading to the top floor is a sky-lit extension of the main staircase, added by the designer owners in the major remodel prior to the 1991 Showcase. Updated for modern living, this level now features a media room, an office, two guest suites on the south side, each with its own bathroom, and two more bedrooms on the view north side, which share a bathroom.

Krafft married his wife Anna and moved into her house at 2829 Divisadero in 1896. They had two sons and two daughters. After the 1906 earthquake, Krafft reestablished his practice in the Grant Building (114 Sansome), as J. E. Krafft and Sons. He also designed at least 3 downtown commercial buildings - 60 Kearny at the corner of Post (1907, for the Bullock and Jones Co., since demolished), 966-70 Market (1907), and 251-53 Post (1908, the Mercedes Building). In 1909 he moved his office to the newly-rebuilt Phelan Building (760 Market). After his death, on September 26, 1937, his architectural practice was continued by his sons, Elmer Jerome and Alfred Julius.