1111 Oak Street

1. 1850-1851

   Built by John Middleton and Sons and re-erected on a later site; accounts of both the date and the builder vary.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
2. 1875

   Built.

3. November 13, 1969

   The Abner Phelps House, dating from 1850-51 and called the oldest unaltered house in San Francisco, is a two-storey Gothic Revival wood-frame house over a basement, with a balcony-roofed veranda on Tuscan columns; moved to the rear of its lot in 1904, it occupies about a tenth of the site and is recorded in the Historic American Buildings Survey. The City Planning Commission voted 5-2 to approve designating the Abner Phelps House a city landmark, after rejecting a motion to postpone while the estate sought a buyer for the parcel.

   San Francisco City Planning Commission minutes, San Francisco Public Library (Internet Archive)
4. 1970

   Designated San Francisco Landmark No. 32, Abner Phelps House.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
5. November 19, 1970

   The Phelps House, a single-family house recently designated a historical landmark by the Board of Supervisors, stood at 329 Divisadero Street; plans were being made to move it to a new Western Addition site and donate it to the Negro Cultural and Historical Society.

   San Francisco City Planning Commission minutes, San Francisco Public Library (Internet Archive)
6. December 2, 1976

   The Abner Phelps House stood unoccupied except for a caretaker; plans approved that day would move it to the rear of the neighbouring Phelps Place site.

   San Francisco City Planning Commission minutes, San Francisco Public Library (Internet Archive)
7. December 2, 1976

   The City Planning Commission unanimously rezoned the neighbouring lots at 1107-43 Oak Street to C-2 for Phelps Place, a commercial plaza of restored Victorian frame buildings with about 14,000 square feet of offices and restaurants, to which the Abner Phelps House was to be moved, at the back of the site where it could be seen from the street (Resolution 7612).

   San Francisco City Planning Commission minutes, San Francisco Public Library (Internet Archive)
8. February 9, 1978

   The City Planning Commission unanimously granted a Certificate of Appropriateness to move the Abner Phelps House, Landmark No. 32, to a new site on Oak Street near Divisadero and rehabilitate it, on condition that its upper floors be structurally strengthened before the move (Resolution 7892); it asked the Landmarks Board to advise afterwards on designating the new site and rescinding the old one.

   San Francisco City Planning Commission minutes, San Francisco Public Library (Internet Archive)
9. May 1978

   Moved to this site, after earlier moves in the 1890s and in 1904.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination, National Park Service
10. Jul 2010

    Issued Permit 201007066033 $$$ $20,000

    Replace existing rear wood windows @ floors 2 and 3 in-like kind. replace existing rear wood siding @ floors 2 and 3 in-like kind.

11. 2016

    The Abner-Phelps House, a designated San Francisco landmark listed among properties whose existing designation could be expanded to record significance to the city's LGBTQ history.

    Donna J. Graves and Shayne E. Watson, Citywide Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco, San Francisco Planning Department, adopted by the Historic Preservation Commission November 18, 2015
12. Jul 2021

    Permit 202107134221 $$$ $30,000

    Reroofing - existing roofing to be removed and replaced. no floor plan changes, only new shingles on the roof. replace all aluminum valley flashing, eaz metal, and rake flashing with new copper flashing.

3 expired permits are omitted. The city's statement on early settlement era styles dates this house to about 1850 and calls it the oldest residence in San Francisco; the assessor's roll gives 1875. The nomination says outright that accounts of this building's date and builder vary; it gives 1850, 1850–51 and 1851 in different passages, and a sale to Abner Phelps in 1852.