4329 & 4331 Kirkham Street -- 2005 Activities

Kirkham Shacks Main Page -- 2005 -- 2004 -- 2003 -- 2002

December 17, 2005: John Freeman, Woody LaBounty, Arnold Woods, David Gallagher and Chris VerPlanck work in a rainstorm to get Shack Two tarped, and see if Shack One is now leak-proof. (It is mostly.)

December 13, 2005: John Freeman puts in Shack One's new door!

December 13, 2005: Woody LaBounty meets with Laurence Kornfield and property interests at Yerba Buena Lane about placing an earthquake shack on display near Yerba Buena Gardens.

November 9, 2005: John Freeman put in Shack One's new door frame and front window frame.

November 6, 2005: David Gallagher, John Freeman, Chris VerPlanck and Woody LaBounty finish the roof on Shack One.

October 30, 2005: Eric Schneiwind, David Gallagher, Brady Lea and Woody LaBounty shingle to the ridgeline and tarp up the opening on the other shacks as the rainy season looms. Meanwhile, a new exhibit idea with the City's building department becomes a possibility...

October 29, 2005: Shingling is almost finished on Shack One as David Gallagher and Woody LaBounty nail the day away. John Freeman gets closer to getting the second window in place, and lots of scraping of floor mastic goes on.

October 27, 2005: Sadly, the California Historical Society reports the move to a downtown bank is too expensive, but they're looking into other locations.

October 26, 2005: Woody LaBounty meets with many city agencies at City Hall to find a place for Shack One to be on display in April 2006 (the 100th anniversary of the great earthquake and fire).

October 11, 2005: California Historical Society and Pankow Construction come out to evaluate whether we can fit a Shack into a downtown bank building (and what it would cost!).

October 6, 2005: John Freeman gets an operating window into Shack One! Representatives from the Presidio Trust come out for advice on restoring the Goldie Shacks. (Take a look at the 2002 - 2003 activities to read more about our history with the Presidio Trust.)

October 4, 2005: KGO radio comes out to interview us as we keep up the shingling on Shack One.

October 1, 2005: Chris VerPlanck, Arnold Woods, Gordon Cutts and Woody LaBounty peel old paint, scrape old wallpaper and start shingling in earnest on Shack One.

September 24, 2005: John Freeman, David Gallagher and Chris VerPlanck finish repairing rafters on Shack One and place second window.

September 22, 2005: Woody LaBounty removes added interior wall from Shack Three.

September 16, 2005: John Freeman, Gordon Cutts and Woody LaBounty put up more new walling on Shack One and get the first window frame in!

September 10, 2005: John Freeman, Reed Walker, Arnold Woods, James Cutts, Gordon Cutts, David Gallagher, Don Stace, and David Gallagher take off the rest of the plywood and extra roofing from Shacks One & Two; scrape off old wallpaper and repair rafters and eaves.

September 5, 2005: Woody LaBounty gives a slide show presentation on shacks and the Kirkies for the San Francisco History Day event in Golden Gate Park.

August 30, 2005: WNP meets with the California Historical Society and Union Bank of California to try and figure a way to get a shack displayed in the Financial District by April 2006.

July 27, 2005: The Victorian Alliance gets a slide show lecture on shacks from Woody LaBounty, and some leads develop in finding a home for some of the Kirkies...

July 23, 2005: Work party of Arnold Woods, Chris VerPlanck, Woody LaBounty, John Freeman, and David Gallagher replace Shack One flooring, clean off roofs of Shack One and Two and scrape old mastic off the floor of Shack Two... Whew!

July 12, 2005: John Freeman and Woody LaBounty work on Shack One's floors.

June 11, 2005: A work party of volunteers tackles "Shack One", adding new redwood wall, while others pull nails and strip flooring from two of the other "Type A" cottages. National Geographic comes out to take photos for a future article. See photos of the work day!

June 10, 2005: Ocean Sash and Door provide replica windows and door for "Shack One" at a substantial discount!

May 29, 2005: David Gallagher, Chris VerPlanck and Woody LaBounty strip the old mastic flooring off Shack One.

May 26, 2005: Dan Langlands donates electrician time to hook us up. Now we have electricity! Thanks Dan.

May 2, 2005: National Geographic photo shoot is scheduled for June 11, 2005.

May 1, 2005: Archeology team finds in the sand of the Kirkham street site: a small vial of black pills still sealed and intact, a small metal toy battleship (3/4 of it), a pair of 1920s?-era eye glasses, and a SF Muni token.

April 30, 2005: Chris VerPlanck measures and assesses the "Type A" shacks in preparation for plans and a materials list.

April 24-25, 2005: The archeological team finds: a 1911 penny and a 1982 penny found in the same screen of dirt; a lego; a piece of purple glass (pre 1918); a worked piece of tabular shell; a religious medal of Virgin Mary, a bone button, and a tiny glass bottle either a perfume vial or possibly a medicine bottle.

April 23, 2005: Becky Urbano, the architectural conservator at Carey & Company, comes out to take a sample of the abundant wallpaper found inside the interior walls of the cottages. We hope to get more information on the date it was put up.

April 18, 2005: On the 99th anniversary of the great earthquake and fire, Evening Magazine (KPIX 5) features a story on Woody LaBounty and the Kirkham shacks.

April 17, 2005: Holly, Jon and Gabrielle of the archeology team at the Kirkham site find: "a Mother Goose cardboard game box and the playing board..in pieces, a 1908 dime, a flashlight, 2 boxes of matches with matches intact, a San Francisco 5 cent token, a lady's glove, a handkerchief, a dark red glass disc... either a fruit jar lid or tail light, and lots of wallpaper scraps."

April 14 - 19, 2005: Woody LaBounty works on stripping non-historical material out of the cottages to prepare for renovation. While taking out an interior wall he finds a 1910 calendar tacked up inside, giving us a good date for the addition.

April 10, 2005: Stacy Kozakavich and Gabrielle Merel research census records and directories to find out more about the Kirkham shacks' past residents. Looks like original owner Felix (or "Frank") Irvine rented the cottages rather quickly. In the 1910 census Frank Palmer was listed as head of household and Felix lived around the corner at 1486 49th Avenue (La Playa now).

April 9, 2005: Chris VerPlanck and Richard Brandi do a detailed measurement and assessment of the larger "Type B" shack to draw up plans and a materials list.

March 28, 2005: National Geographic asks to come photograph the shacks in June as part of an article on the San Francisco's earthquake centennial.

March 18, 2005: The archeology team keeps digging at the Kirkham street site, unearthing papers and nails.

March 16, 2005: Yohei Kondo, a graduate student from Kyoto University in Japan visits the shacks as part of his research.

March 11, 2005: A San Francisco Chronicle article details moving day with photos!

March 7, 2005: An article about the shacks and the move appears in "Preservation", the National Trust's online magazine.

March 6, 2005: The archeology team scours the footprints of the removed Kirkham shacks and finds marbles, cans with labels intact, cards with "ladies" on them, papers, a 1920 wheat penny, a toy green trolley or train car, a wooden hanger from a local dry cleaners, and lots of cat or raccoon droppings!

March 5, 2005: After two and a half years of waiting, the Kirkham Shacks move to the Zoo! Major thanks to the heroes at Sheedy Crane and Mayta-Jensen, especially Rich Battaini and Reed Walker. The ease and professionalism to cart these buildings high into the air just amazed everyone. For photos of the move (courtesy of N. Moses Corrette), take a look here!

February 28, 2005: We find a bumblebee nest in the back cottages attic... what next? Locusts? Bee removal guy is called.

February 17, 2005: Rich Battaini from Sheedy Crane and Reed Walker meet at the site and figure out how the craning and moving of the shacks will proceed. A date is set! Saturday, March 5, 2005!

February 13, 2005: The archeology team digs until rain forces them off.

February 12, 2005: Reed Walker and his Mayta Jensen carpenters work on splitting the shacks apart at 4331 Kirkham (the two Type A shacks in the back of the lot).

January 31, 2005: OK, so it only took 3 hours and 45 minutes at the Building Department and the Central Permit Bureau, but with help from Laurence Kornfield and Anita Lee, we got the permits for the Kirkham Shacks to move to the zoo! The public has 15 days to appeal, then we'll be free to act.

January 30, 2005: The archeology team keeps laboring away, sorting through lots and lots of burned nails...

January 23, 2005: Our archeology team expanded their work: "Artifacts of note were some type of jewelry that had a purple glass cone-shaped "gem" to one side, opposite side missing and the center appears possibly a clear glass disk or bead with a kitty face underneath. Found some interesting shells of various types. And there are so many nails and window glass fragments!!!"

January 16, 2005: The volunteer archeology team put in a 5' x 5' foot test unit where a former outhouse stood. After going down about 4-5 inches the team came up with metal, glass, ceramics, and shell. Holly: "The prized find of the day was when Jon found a 1895 Indian head penny in good shape in the screen."

January 8, 2005: George Zlatunich at Lakeside Hardware and Lumber Co. (visit them at Taraval and 44th Avenue!) donated materials and tools to the archeology team to use in excavating the Kirkham shack site. Thanks George!

Kirkham Shacks Main Page -- 2005 -- 2004 -- 2003 -- 2002

Images: 1) Laurence Kornfield and Anita Lee deluged with the permit paperwork. 2) Gabrielle O'Connell-Merel and Joshua Sanders sift on January 30, 2005.

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Page launched 19 February 2005; updated 31 December 2005.