A Little Willis Polk Gift

     I guess gift-giving is like home building. Who doesn't love a unique personalized gift that says "I carefully chose this for you." And I even give credit to those who just give it their best shot. Because, the thought really does count. Especially, when you can see the thinking behind it! 
     My brother has a knack for this type of gifting. One year he gave me a refurbished sign I had carved for my grandmothers house. The sign we believed stolen long ago. He found it in a sorry state while clearing brush at the fence-line. Repaired and renewed, it now graces the wall above my doorway. He's given other meaningful, memorable gifts over the years, many Polk drawings and ephemera, but this year was something I didn't even know existed! 

I received a very rare pamphlet on HOME BUILDING written by Willis Polk that was an insert in The San Francisco Bulletin from 1920. It's a mixed bag of advice, but on the whole prescient about how neighborhoods change due to lack of planning. This was a big theme for Willis throughout his life. In particular, his drive to get San Francisco to adopt the Burnham Plan after the earthquake. While the plan would have made great, some argue much improved, changes to the San Francisco that came after, one must also consider the fact that Willis was running the Burnham office in San Francisco at this time. There was certainly an implicit bias. 
     I was prepared to be horrified reading the RESTRICTIONS chapter, but the focus was on land use restrictions - single family residential vs. multi-unit apartments which he saw ruining Broadway and other corridors. The racism I feared given the time was in the NEIGHBORHOOD DESIRABILITY SECTION. And even with the "undesirable" comments (apologies to all), it's an interesting take on neighborhoods he saw changing. And to be fair, he called out the Crocker spite fence in another section on nuisances too.

This may not have been the best gift for everyone, but for me this present on HOME BUILDING nailed it!

​Building pun intended.