Building at Haight & Ashbury Landmarked (Aug 2006)

By Breezy Duncan

There's a famous Herb Greene picture of 557 Ashbury. Partially obstructing the view of the facade is a group of shaggy guys, who lived a block up the hill, loitering across the road around a Haight-Ashbury street sign that is no longer there today.

While that photo made the facade of 557 Ashbury famous, the heyday of the Grateful Dead and their legions of fans marks only a modest length of the building's 103-year lifespan. And now, the structure that has served as a residence, retail space and hippie crossroads is an official city landmark.

The Landmarks Board voted 6-0 on March 15 to landmark the building, and the Board of Supervisor's sealed the deal this summer by passing an ordinance permanently protecting the structure's place in history.

“It was the epicenter of the hippie movement and some of the coolest music this planet has ever seen,” said District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who authored the legislation. “The building represents a very critical part of Haight-Ashbury’s development."

The upper levels of the building were constructed in 1903. Originally standing six feet above ground level, the entire structure was lifted another six feet in 1907 to build retail space beneath the residence.

The house was designed by property owner Richard Doolan’s brother, Frank. Doolan––who once listed his occupation as “capitalist”––and remained in the Doolin family until 1973.

Norman Larson, who has owned the property since 1980 and tirelessly restored it since 1985, submitted a 60+ page Landmark Designation Report to the city in March detailing the building's history. The varied, colorful commercial uses of the lower level (1500-1512 Haight St.) as chronicled in the report contrast nicely with the residence's traditional, Colonial Revival architecture––which was a nod to the East Coast and not that common in the Bay Area.

“Norm and I used to paint this building inside and out,” said Bob Arnold, whose store, Lost Horizon, leases 1506 Haight St. from Larson. “He did the hardwood floors last year. The whole building shook. You could hear the sander going back and forth.”

Arnold grew up in the Haight and inherited the business from his mother when she died in 1992. She had owned the business since 1969.
Like the corner itself, the quirky shop has attracted all sorts of visitors throughout the years. Arnold has sold merchandise to the likes of PeeWee Herman, Tommy Lee and Cyndi Lauper.

Since taking over, Arnold has watched Larson work on the building. Much of the original architecture, including a support beam that runs the length of all three shops, has been preserved.

“Norm loved every minute of it,” Arnold said. “He has dreamed of making it a landmark for a while.”

Lost Horizon has made a name for its self showcasing witty t-shirts and hats. Two stores down, right at the corner, is Haight Ashbury T-Shirts, owned by longtime Haight Street merchant Paul Marti.

Interestingly, Marti's shop––which sells a bevy of psychedelic rock band shirts––is the only single location small business at the marquee intersection of the famously free-spirited neighborhood. Ben & Jerry's and Gap have outlets nationwide, and Aaardvark's Old Ark has three shops.in and around L.A.

But Marti's and Arnold's stores are not the first funky shops to occupy the building's retail space.

The Haight's first hippie clothing store operated at 1510 Haight St. from 1965 to 1968. Proprietor Peggy Caserta named the shop Mnasidika after a character from a 19th-century lesbian poem called “The Songs of Bilitis." That poem inspired the name of the nation's first lesbian organization, the Daughters of Bilitis. Caserta had an affair, as well as a shared drug habit, with Janis Joplin, which is detailed in the 1973 book Going Down With Janis.

Holcombe Jewelers occupied the corner storefront, where Marti's store is today, for 51 years (1937-1988). Other businesses that have rented the building's commercial spaces include Jimmy's Shoe Shine Parlor (1930-1945), Walter E. McGuire's real estate and insurance firm (1930-1961), a string of barbershops since 1907 that ended with the Haight Family Barber Shop (1936-1967, a very bad year for barbers), a cigar manufacturer (1915-1942), haberdasher (1919-1932), optomitrist, pre-prohibition saloons (1907-1918), tattoo parlor, dry cleaner, plumber and real estate office.