Monday, October 30, 2006


Luigi Mastropasqua, architect of Canessa after the 1906 earthquake and fire designed this little building on Kearny at Clay, once former Mayor Willie Brown's campaign headquarters.

Mastropasqua also designed at least two San Francisco landmarks, Julius's Castle, most easily reached by walking a few blocks up the hill from Canessa. If you can see the city below the rail of the Bay Bridge as you come into San Francisco, you can't miss Julius's Castle. "Built in 1922, this fanciful castle-as-restaurant was designed, not surprisingly, by an architect who moonlighted as a cartoonist, Louis Mastropasqua of la vita italiana. This crenellated edifice seems to hang like magic from its vantage point just below Telegraph Hill's other famous landmark, Coit Tower."

The other landmark is one of the twelve buildings on 15-84 Macondray Lane Roughly 900-982 Green at 1918-1960 Jones (National Register Landmark 87002286, Charles Bovone House, 68 Macondray.