At Home with the Eichlers - Page 2

1. San Francisco: the Marina (circa 1927-'28)

The first reference to Eichler in a San Francisco directory finds Joe and Lillian living in an attractive, three-story apartment house of the type typical of the Marina district, a row house with Tudor half-timbered detailing. The building, at 1430 Francisco Street, is a block from Fort Mason.

Back then, Joe was working at his father-in-law's dairy and poultry firm, Nye & Nissen, with offices on Clay Street—not far from today's Embarcadero Center. At the time it would have been near the city's produce center.

Joe and Lillian had their first child while living on Francisco, Richard, in 1928.

2. San Francisco: Pacific Heights (1930)

It might have been with an eye to increasing the family's size that in 1930 the Eichlers moved a dozen blocks uphill to a brand new building, 1945 Broadway Street, in Pacific Heights. They rented apartment 33, which had enough room for a servant, Ada Weber.

It's a stylish seven-story apartment house, with gilded Spanish Baroque detailing inside and out. Given Joe's position and taste, chances are the Eichler apartment had a view of the new Golden Gate Bridge.