The Eccentric Personalities Behind Sunnyside Conservatory, a 120-Year-Old Garden in San Francisco

View the full episode transcript.

San Francisco’s Sunnyside neighborhood, just west of Glen Park, isn’t actually very sunny. In fact, it’s one of the foggier places in the city.

One of its main thoroughfares, Monterey Boulevard, carries drivers west towards tonier places like St. Francis Wood, passing many houses and apartment buildings along the way. But slow down a little, and you might catch a glimpse of a building that feels out of the ordinary in this residential place — Sunnyside Conservatory.

Set back from the street and tucked behind a wrought iron gate, the octagonal redwood building has two stories of windows surrounded by a lush garden of towering palms, ferns and flowering bushes. It’s beautiful and old-world feeling, a unique Victorian gem on an otherwise busy street.

Bay Curious listener Mary Balmana often uses Monterey Boulevard to get to her home in Mission Terrace. She’s seen the conservatory hundreds of times, but hasn’t noticed anyone going inside.

“I don’t know anything about it, but I’ve passed it my whole life,” she said.

Now, she wants answers. What is the conservatory doing here in Sunnyside, who owns it and could she rent it out?

An inventor’s oasis

The Sunnyside Conservatory was built by William Augustus Merralls, a British inventor and eccentric. He bought a house along what is now Monterey Boulevard in 1897, when the area was mostly rural. Land was cheap, so he also bought up seven lots around his house and then set about making the grounds his own private oasis.

“He collected exotic plants, and he liked to have a place for them,” said Amy O’Hair, Sunnyside resident, local historian and author of the forthcoming book, History Walks in Sunnyside. She’s currently writing a book about the conservatory’s history.

Merralls made his money designing and patenting mining equipment. He had more than 20 different patents, mostly for machines that helped extract ever smaller amounts of gold from rock.

“He did well, but whatever he got he spent on his projects,” O’Hair said. “He had a restless mind, always wanting to invent new things.”

Some of his inventions were practical, others less so. He invented an automobile starter, a refrigerator and a “deep breathing developer,” a contraption for his wife, Temperance Laura, who was fascinated by alternative medicine. The details of how it actually worked have been lost to time.

In 1902, he built the conservatory, a building beautifully crafted out of redwood in Victorian style. In addition to collecting exotic plants, Merralls also loved astronomy. He built himself an observatory on the back of his house. And he loved luxury items; his house had two grand pianos and a private bowling alley.

“He apparently didn’t need to live amongst his peers,” O’Hair said. “He was a very independent-minded man, and he was happy out here in his own enclave with all of his toys in the house and all of those plants out here in the conservatory and a wife he loved.”

He and his wife, Temperance Laura, lived in Sunnyside, enjoying their house and its grounds until 1914, when Merralls tragically died in a train accident while visiting a friend in Alameda. By that point, he had sunk all his money into various pursuits that hadn’t paid off, and when he died, Temperance Laura couldn’t afford to keep living on their estate in Sunnyside. The bank repossessed the house.

Second act as swindler’s hideout

The property sat empty and neglected for three years before another odd couple, Ernest and Angele Van Beckh, came along and bought it in 1919. Ernest Van Beckh was a con man, a member of the “Big Five” whose exploits selling worthless mining shares to unsuspecting people and stealing their money were splashed across the newspapers in 1916.

Although the district attorney brought charges against Van Beckh, he got off when witnesses the prosecution had lined up to testify “just kind of went away,” as Amy put it. One went back to Montana. Another decided not to press charges. And Ernest avoided jail time.

“They made millions of dollars in the 1910s,” O’Hair said. “And some of that money went towards buying this property. This was their hideout.”

The Van Beckhs would live here for decades. Ernest died in 1951, but Angele stayed on through the early ‘60s, although she too started to have money problems.

“She slowly sold off all the property to a neighbor,” O’Hair said.

The neighbors were friends who built their own house on the other side of the conservatory — what is now 234 Monterey Boulevard. While Angele was living there, the two families enjoyed the conservatory and its grounds as one shared yard. But when they moved away, the property lines became a problem.

Saving the conservatory again and again

In 1974, Angele’s friends sold their house at 234 Monterey Boulevard and the property with the conservatory on it to a man named Robert Anderson. He started delineating the different lots with an eye to developing the property further.

At the same time, neighbors started getting interested in preserving the conservatory as a historic landmark. The Sunnyside Neighborhood Association had just formed, and its members started researching the conservatory’s history with a goal to get it landmarked by the city.

“They wanted to save it from demolition,” O’Hair said. After World War II, Sunnyside was rezoned to allow for more apartment buildings, which started popping up along Monterey Boulevard throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s. “And they didn’t want to see this property go for apartment buildings.”

Neighbors were successful in getting the conservatory landmarked in 1975, which theoretically should have preserved it. However, the owner, Robert Anderson, still managed to get a permit to demolish it. Neighbors had no idea about his plan until they spotted construction equipment at work.

“I was riding my bicycle along Monterey Boulevard,” neighbor Greg Garr said in an interview with Amy O’Hair. “I think I was going to City College at that time. And I passed by the Sunnyside Conservatory, and I saw heavy equipment in there. And part of the building had been removed. And I said, ‘What the heck? I mean, are they demolishing it?’ I knew it was a registered historic landmark.”

He called his representative and City Hall, clamoring to stop the demolition. Those efforts were successful, but the damage had been done. The structure was damaged, and almost all the windows had been knocked out.

“It was an emergency now,” O’Hair said. “The city needed to buy the property. What good is a landmark if you don’t own the property under it?”

In 1980, the city bought the land from Robert Anderson using the Open Space Fund. And for many years after, the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association did its best to look after the building, but it fell into disrepair.

“All those years in the 90s when it had no glass, and you could climb right over [the fence], there was always graffiti and beer bottles,” O’Hair remembered. “And Rec and Park didn’t really take care of the grounds.”

In fact, it was another neighbor, Ted Kipping, who tended the beautiful trees and plants William Merralls had planted all those years ago.

“One time, when I was talking to him, he said, ‘I spent $1,000 a month on water,’” O’Hair said. “I don’t know if it’s true. But he was very important to preserving some of the specialness of the grounds, for which I’m thankful.”

Renovating the conservatory

In 1999, another neighborhood group formed — Friends of Sunnyside Conservatory. They set ambitious fundraising goals and worked with San Francisco Rec and Park to execute a multimillion-dollar renovation of the building that would restore it to its original glory.

When the building was under renovation, yet another neighbor came forward with a piece of history to share. When the building and grounds were sold in 1974, and it looked like the old place might be demolished by Robert Anderson, this neighbor had saved the wooden spire from the top of the building.

He kept it in his garage for 30 years, bringing it out and offering it to the builders as they renovated. Unfortunately, by then it was rotting, but the builders made an exact replica and covered it in copper. That spire sits on top of the building to this day.

“This is a community-led effort, top to bottom,” O’Hair said.

The conservatory has since become a symbol for Sunnyside residents. It was the first campaign that brought neighbors together, fighting for something that makes their corner of San Francisco special and unique.

San Francisco Rec and Park now maintains the building and grounds, but they do rent it out. Sunnyside neighborhood groups get a bit of a deal, but there have been plenty of weddings, too.

Episode Transcript

Olivia Allen-Price: If you’ve been listening to the show for a while you may have intuited by now, but San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park is one of my absolute favorite places. I love all its nooks and crannies, the unique playgrounds, those long undulating pathways. But I’d argue the crown jewel of the park is the Conservatory of Flowers, partly because of the incredible and rare plants housed inside…

News Clip: The rare corpse flower at the Conservatory of flowers is now open to view and smell.

Olivia Allen-Price: Like the corpse flower, which only blooms for 48 hours every 3-5 years! And stands more than 6 feet tall.

The Conservatory of Flowers is also renowned for its architecture. A Victorian glass building – delicate, intricate – topped with a stately domed roof. It’s like nothing else in the city! Or so I thought.

Turns out San Francisco has another conservatory across town near Glen Park. It’s much smaller, only a quarter the size, but still lovely. I’m talking about Sunnyside Conservatory.

Mary Balmana: My name is Mary Balmana. I live in the Mission Terrace area of San Francisco, and I don’t know anything about it, but I’ve passed it my whole life, basically.

Olivia Allen-Price: Mary drives by Sunnyside Conservatory on Monterey Boulevard often, but never sees anyone going in or out. She wants to know its history – and how such a curious building ended up in what is otherwise a very residential area.

Bay Curious editor and producer Katrina Schwartz is here to tell us all about it. Hi, Katrina.

Katrina Schwartz: Hi Olivia

Olivia Allen-Price: Maybe you could start by just painting a picture of the conservatory as it looks now.

Katrina Schwartz: The Sunnyside Conservatory is set back from the street a little ways and is surrounded by a lush garden with huge palm trees, ferns and beautiful flowering bushes. It kind of feels like a cloud forest right in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

Olivia Allen-Price: What about the building itself?

Katrina Schwartz: The building is made of redwood and features a two story octagonal center that dominates the senses. Two levels of windows that let in beautiful amounts of light…

Olivia Allen-Price: What kind of fabulous plants are inside? Anything to rival the corpse flower?

Katrina Schwartz: Sadly, this conservatory no longer has plants inside at all. It’s now used as an events space. But when it was first built in 1902, it was the pride of its owner – who was just the first of a line of quirky residents the property has had over its 100 or so years. Let’s meet some of them.

Amy O’Hair: It was built by an eccentric and unique man.

Katrina Schwartz: Amy O’Hair runs the Sunnyside History Project and lives nearby.

Amy O’Hair: He was an inventor, William Augustus Merralls, he moved here to Sunnyside when there was very little on Monterey Boulevard.

Katrina Schwartz: Even though Sunnyside is part of San Francisco now, back then the area was rural. Picture a smattering of houses and dairy farms. Merralls bought a big house here in 1897 and then several adjoining plots of land over the next few years.

Amy O’Hair: He accumulated seven lots, and then built his conservatory in 1902. He collected exotic plants and he liked to have a place for them.

Katrina Schwartz: Merralls made his money engineering mining equipment — but his true heart’s desire was invention. Over the years he invented dozens of things, some useful stuff, and some less so. Amy actually met his great grandson, who had some of Merralls’ old papers.

Amy O’Hair: I thought I’d show you some stuff. Things that belonged to William Merrill’s like his patents. So I have all the patents for things that he made. This is a stamp mill. That’s a thing that crushes rock.

Katrina Schwartz in scene: Look at those seals.

Amy O’Hair: Yes, they’re very fancy.

Amy O’Hair: This is a letter he wrote while he was in New York City raising money for the automobile starters.

Katrina Schwartz in scene: Will you read a little bit of it?

Amy O’Hair: Darling, you should see the Merralls starter at work on that big engine. You would be tickled to pieces. It is a dandy. And when you come on for Thanksgiving, you shall be the first lady to ride in an automobile that has the only commercial, perfect self-starter in the world, and that one is a Merralls.

Katrina Schwartz in scene: He’s like promoting himself to his wife.

Amy O’Hair: To his wife, for God’s sake.

Katrina Schwartz: The thing is, Merralls probably had his hand in one too many projects. He had a tendency to move on before things were finished and he was sued a number of times. By the time of his death in 1914, he was having money problems.

Olivia Allen-Price: Mmm. Unfortunately, you can’t just create the thing, but you have to sell it too…

Katrina Schwartz: Yes, and unfortunately that meant that when he died, the bank repossessed the whole property, including the conservatory.

Olivia Allen-Price: What happened to it?

Katrina Schwartz: The house and its grounds sat empty for three years and then another couple bought it. The next in the line of curious owners…

Amy O’Hair: The name of this couple was Ernest and Angel Van Beck. They were very strange.

Katrina Schwartz: Ernest Van Bech was essentially a scam artist. He made a boatload of money selling worthless mining bonds to people…basically swindling them out of their money. The district attorney even brought charges, but when the witnesses didn’t show up to testify, they had to let Ernest go. And he lived out his life on the property with the conservatory.

Amy O’Hair: Ernest would not show his face. There were a lot of rumors about him.

Olivia Allen-Price: Kind of the Boo Radley of Sunnyside.

Katrina Schwartz: He really was. The neighborhood kids were all afraid of him. But after decades living in the house next to the conservatory he died in 1951. His wife, Angele, kept living there, but she needed money.

Amy O’Hair: She slowly sold off all the property to a neighbor.

Katrina Schwartz: The neighbors were friends of hers. They built a house on the other side of the conservatory — the east wing of the building was actually in their backyard. At the time, that wasn’t a big deal because Angele and her friends basically shared the conservatory and its grounds like one big yard.

Katrina Schwartz: But eventually Angele moved away and her friends sold their home – and they leave behind the conservatory, which now straddles two properties.

Olivia Allen-Price: Is this foreshadowing?

Katrina Schwartz: This is foreshadowing.

Olivia Allen-Price: We’ll find out what happened after this quick break.

Sponsor message

Olivia Allen-Price: Alright, Katrina, you were telling us what happened to the conservatory after Angele Van Beck and her friends next door moved away and sold the property.

Katrina Schwartz: The bulk of the conservatory and its grounds ended up in the hands of a man named Robert Anderson.

Amy O’Hair: It’s 1975 by now, and there’s a lot of local interest in the conservatory as a historic structure.

Katrina Schwartz: People who live nearby had grown attached to the conservatory. They view it as a symbol of the neighborhood. A group called the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association forms and they start researching the history of the conservatory in order to get it landmarked as a historic building.

Amy O’Hair: They wanted to save it from demolition because in the 50s and 60s and 70s, along Monterey Boulevard, we’d had so many empty lots, and it was rezoned after the war, that apartment buildings were growing up all the way along it.

Katrina Schwartz: The neighbors succeeded in getting the building landmarked, but that didn’t keep it safe.

Amy O’Hair: But then Robert Anderson decided he actually would build some apartment buildings and he got a permit to demolish the conservatory, which he attempted to do at the end of 1978. And it was only saved because of two people who had their eye on the conservatory. Greg Gaar is one.

Greg Garr: Well, I was riding my bicycle along Monterey Boulevard. I think I was going to City College at that time. And I passed by the Sunnyside Conservatory and I saw heavy equipment in there. And part of the building had been removed. And I said, what the heck? I mean, are they demolishing it? I knew it was a registered historic landmark.

Katrina Schwartz: Greg Garr and other neighbors started frantically calling city hall and they got the demolition halted.

Amy O’Hair: When they were done, the glass was knocked out of most of the windows.

Music starts

Olivia Allen-Price: This seems like an impasse. Robert Anderson can’t knock the conservatory down and build anything new – but he owns it. So what happens?

Katrina Schwartz: Well, the city buys the land from him. But there wasn’t any money to renovate the building then.

Amy O’Hair: Sunnyside Neighborhood Association tried to get it renovated and they looked after it.

Katrina Schwartz: They scraped graffiti off the building and boarded up all the broken windows to keep rain out. But unfortunately the whole thing was falling into disrepair.

At some point in the 1980s, the east wing of the conservatory – the part that crossed over onto another property – it gets knocked down, leaving the building looking kind of lopsided.

Amy O’Hair: And it is a loss, because it’s no longer, it’s whole, whole self.

Olivia Allen-Price: Wait, after saving it from being knocked down by the developer…part of it was still demolished?

Katrina Schwartz: Yes, sadly. Amy says the circumstances are a bit mysterious, but that eastern wing is in photos of the conservatory through early 1980 and then it’s just gone. If you go there now, there’s a fence right up against the main part of the building.

Olivia Allen-Price: Sounds like these neighbors really had to be vigilant to keep this thing from being torn down completely.

Katrina Schwartz: You know, they did their best. And there was a man who lived behind the conservatory…

Amy O’Hair: Whose name was Ted Kipping. And he was a professional botanist, arborist, and plant collector, and photographer, speaker. Very ambitious, very dedicated. He took care of the grounds in the 90s.

Katrina Schwartz: The conservatory becomes something of a pet project for him. A very expensive one…

Amy O’Hair: One time, when I was talking to him, he said, I spent $1,000 a month on water.

Olivia Allen-Price: How does it turn into the beautiful building it is today?

Katrina Schwartz: A group called the Friends of Sunnyside Conservatory forms in 1999 and spend about 10 years raising money and getting San Francisco Rec and Park on board. They did a big multimillion dollar renovation in the 2000s.

Reopening video clip: We’re here at the Sunnyside’s Conservatory that’s re-opening and this has been a long fought community effort to make this happen.

Katrina Schwartz: There was a big party at the conservatory to celebrate its reopening in 2009. Then mayor Gavin Newsom was there.

Gavin Newsom: In a hundred years they’ll be talking about, in 2009…

Katrina Schwartz: Everyone was so excited that this neighborhood gem had been restored.

Reopening video clip: Here’s the original spire. It was somewhere up there.

Olivia Allen-Price: The conservatory has a spire?

Katrina Schwartz: Yes — the original 1902 building that William Merralls built had a redwood spire on top. And a neighbor kept that spire in his garage for 30 years.

Amy O’Hair: This man volunteered this finial, redwood finial from the original building and said, well, here it is. You know, you can put it back on the new building.

Olivia Allen-Price: And did they?

Katrina Schwartz: Well, by then it was fairly rotten. So, instead they made an exact replica, covered it in copper and that’s what’s now on top of the current building.

Olivia Allen-Price: A bit of a cherry on top, if you will. So now the neighborhood has this pretty special place for everyone to enjoy.

Katrina Schwartz: Not only that, but working to preserve the conservatory brought the community together

Olivia Allen-Price: Thanks for sharing this history with us, Katrina.

Katrina Schwartz: My pleasure. And if you haven’t been to the Sunnyside Conservatory, you should really check it out!

Olivia Allen-Price: One thing I love about the Bay Area is that most neighborhoods have little gems like this one. They’re usually not things people would go out of their way to visit…but they do make each little corner of this area special. If you’ve got a spot near you that you’ve always wondered about, head on over to bay curious dot org and submit a question.

If you’re interested to know more about Sunnyside, Amy O’Hair has a book called History Walks of Sunnyside coming out very soon. So keep your eyes peeled for that.

If you’ve been enjoying the double dose of Bay Curious we’ve been putting out this month, consider making a donation to KQED to support our work. Every little bit helps, just head over to KQED dot or slash donate.

Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.

Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen Price.

With extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.

Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.

I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a great week.