Exceptional San Francisco Home

IIn the prosperous period between World Wars, San Francisco's population boomed and the city grew westward from its downtown core. Houses and all the trappings of complete communities, including small business districts, churches, and schools, sprang up in progression as the city grew into the Western Addition, then the Inner Richmond and Sunset Districts, and eventually the Outer Richmond and Sunset Districts. At 36th Avenue, in the Outer Richmond, the subject house was constructed on what was originally vacant expanses of sand dunes stretching to Ocean Beach. In 1927, when it was built, the dunes were being quickly re-imagined into densely-built neighborhood blocks, with a neighborhood commercial corridor along Balboa Street to serve them.
 
The house at 740 36th Avenue was built by contractor John M. Peters, who built at least two other houses on the same street. They are recognizable by their characteristic two story height and multi-lite arched front windows, identical to those at 740 36th Avenue. Peters was Swedish and had immigrated to America at the age of 16, in 1888. He found work as a builder, married, and his family lived in the Inner Richmond District, not far from his building projects. Peters' son, Calvin, was a carpenter and probably assisted in his father's work.
 
This first known occupants of the house at 740 36th Avenue were John J. and Elsie Gillespie. John Gillespie worked as a clerk and, later, “customersman” at stock brokerage Slaughter & Russell. He was born in Wisconsin in 1894 and Elsie was born in Illinois the same year. They had no children and lived in the house into the late 1930s.
 
By 1940, the house was occupied by William and Helen McIntosh. William McIntosh worked as a superintendent carpenter for a construction company. He was born in Scotland in 1884. Helen was born in England in 1886. The couple had two adult daughters who lived with them; Helen, who worked as a statistician for a dried fruit exporter, and Jeanette, who worked as a clerk for Union Oil. In 1950, the McIntoshes still lived in the house, although Jeanette had moved away. They stayed at the address until 1959.
 
In 1960, John J. and Jess Binns lived at 740 36th Avenue. John Binns was born in 1900 and graduated from West Point in 1923. He was a career military man, achieving the rank of Major General in the Army, and served in both World War II and the Korean War. By the time the Binnses lived at the subject property, he was likely retired. The Binnses only stayed at the address for about a year.
 
In 1961, the house was purchased by Ted L. and Patricia Rausch. Ted had grown up in Santa Cruz and attended San Francisco State University. In 1958, he established Ted L. Rausch & Company, a customs and freight business that eventually had offices up and down the West Coast and in Chicago. In 1980, Ted represented the United States in facilitating the first trade and shipping arrangement with China. Ted and Patricia later divorced and Ted remarried Evelyn Rausch. Together, they owned the property for many years, until Ted's passing in 2021.