When we began investigating 559 Texas Street on the southeast slope of Potrero Hill, it was with the aim to present the property as a candidate for redevelopment. Before long, our digging turned up over a century of history, and our approach turned to telling the story of the family that called this modest dwelling home for generations. The more we learned, the more compelling the case for saving this old house became.

Pull up a seat and get comfortable, and let’s begin.

View from Potrero Nuevo looking west to Mission Dolores and Twin Peaks in the distance, 1860. Source: Antique Maps Inc.

Wackenruder map of Potrero Nuevo, 1861. Source: FoundSF

Before it was Potrero Hill, the area was Potrero Nuevo meaning new pasture. From the late 1700s, Spanish colonizers grazed cattle on its grassy landscape that stretched east to the shore of the San Francisco Bay. Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, and in 1844 the Mexican government granted the ranch to the sons of Don Francisco de Haro, the first (1834) and fifth (1838-1839) Chief Administrator of San Francisco (then Yerba Buena). Two years later, at the onset of the Mexican-American War, de Haro became owner of the land when both sons were killed at the order of the US Army Major John C. Fremont.

An effort to divide Potrero Nuevo into sellable lots and capitalize on the Gold Rush-era population boom all but failed due to its remote location, and de Haro’s death in 1849 essentially ended the family’s legal ownership. Then, the arrival of the first transcontinental railroad connecting the area to San Francisco proper via the Long Bridge in 1865 ushered in a wave of real estate speculation. Demand for housing accompanied industrialization along the waterfront and Third Street hub (in modern day Dogpatch), and residential development on the hill was booming by the early 1900s.

Street view of Potrero Hill looking west on 20th Street near Wisconsin Street, 1922. Source: OpenSFHistory

Pre-1906 documentation for homes in San Francisco is largely non-existent, having been destroyed in the great earthquake and fires that consumed the city that year. As a result, many structures from the period have been assigned a 1900 build date in public records. Such is the case with 559 Texas Street, apparently, unknown when or by whom it was constructed.

559 Texas Street as it appears today, marketed and listed exclusively by cooperating broker Century 21 Baldini Realty. Listing photos courtesy of SFAR MLS.

Italian-born Giuseppe Gallerani (born 1875) boarded the SS Werra to the United States in 1893, landing in Boston via New York, NY. He was living in San Francisco by 1911 when he married Italia Marcucci (born 1885), also an Italian native, who immigrated to San Jose, also by way of New York, NY, a year earlier on the SS Duca D’Aosta. All three of their children (Adelmo, born 1912; Alvira, born 1916; Amos, born 1919) were born in San Francisco. The 1917 San Francisco City Directory lists Giuseppe (“Joseph”) and Italia residing at 559 Texas Street, and US Census records show the entire family there in 1920.

Marriage Certificate of Joseph Gallerani and Italia Marcucci, 3 September 1911, San Jose, California.

Giuseppe appears in the 1922 San Francisco City Directory as a polisher by trade, employed by Vermont Marble Company. The company had established a distribution center in San Francisco, as well as Boston among seven other US cities, by 1886. Its greatest influx of immigrant workers came through Ellis Island at the turn of the 20th century, including a large number of stone carvers from Italy. Whether Giuseppe emigrated specifically to work for the company or found employment with it at some later time, his association with both cities and documented previous occupation as a bricklayer is fitting.

Geopolitical tension in Europe, and the eventual outbreak of WWII followed by Italy joining the Axis powers in opposition to US alliances, was surely cause for concern in the Gallerani and Magagnini households. (Giuseppe and Italia divorced between 1930 and 1938, and Italia married Arturo Magagnini in 1939.) Separately, they filed Declaration of Intention for US citizenship in 1938 and 1942. Those documents show Italia remained on Potrero Hill while Giuseppe had relocated to the South of Market area. Of note, Adelmo and Amos both served in the war while Alvira worked in a factory as of 1945.

Postcard depicting Vermont Marble Company’s exhibit at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915. Source: CardCow

Giuseppe passed away in 1957, and Italia died in 1974. Their youngest son, Amos, who was born on Texas Street, lived in the family home for 82 years. Affectionately nicknamed “Moose” since childhood after the manner in which his mother would call for him from the front porch (“A-moose”), he was later known as the Mayor of Potrero Hill among neighbors. Amos worked for the City and County of San Francisco for 45 years, organized neighborhood reunions at the Italian-American Social Club, and is remembered as “everybody’s friend and a friend to everyone.”

Ownership of 559 Texas Street was delivered to Alvira upon Amos’ death in 2001, and subsequently in 2002 passed to Alvira’s heirs with whom it lies today. An adjoining vacant lot at 567 Texas Street, part of the estate, was sold in 2017. And, at last, the house has been put on the market for the first time in over a century… possibly ever.

To date, the property has not been included in the SF Survey of historic, cultural and architectural places although it is eligible for Historic Resource status based on age alone. Whatever official determination of significance it may or may not someday receive, the American Dream lived within its four walls is at once remarkable and relatable, important in its own right and worth sharing. As the world turns, 559 Texas Street will, with any luck, find a preservation-minded buyer who will steward it into its next hundred years.

The home is listed for sale at $998,000, offers reviewed as received.