"Olivia Allen-Price: I want to talk about architecture for a moment - specifically residential architecture. In San Francisco. You expect to see stately Victorian homes with their bright colors and fancy decorative trim. Then there's Marina style homes with their big windows and stucco facades. But sprinkled in amidst these grander homes you might spot a few tiny cottages - the original tiny homes."
"Charity Vargas: I did see two over in the sunset. There was like two close together and I thought maybe they might be them, but I'm not sure. Olivia Allen-Price: Charity Vargas, our question asker this week, has seen some of these small dwellings dotted around the Richmond and Sunset districts near her home. And she's heard that the cottages are holdovers from the Great 1906 earthquake and fire, but wants to know more."
"We set out to answer Charity's question by searching for "earthquake shacks"...tiny homes built out of redwood and cedar after the 1906 earthquake and fire. Bay Curious editor and producer Katrina Schwartz found one high on a hill in Bernal Heights. Joan Hunter: You want a little tour? Ok, this is our tiny kitchen and I believe this rectangle room is the original earthquake shack and this part is added on, but it's kind of hard to say exactly."
Earthquake cottages are small redwood and cedar dwellings built after the 1906 earthquake and fire to shelter residents. Several survive in San Francisco neighborhoods such as Richmond, Sunset, and Bernal Heights. Some cottages remain intact as primary residences or as original cores with added-on rooms. Residents like Joan Hunter live in these cottages and report difficulty determining original versus added structures. Search efforts have located cottages on hills and tucked among larger Victorian and Marina-style homes. Modern efforts aim to document and preserve these tiny homes due to their historical and cultural significance.
Read at Kqed
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