Gardner Dailey (1895–1967) ran his own architecture office in San Francisco from 1926 or 1927 until his death. He started with period-style houses, then in the mid-1930s turned to modern design. San Francisco Planning names him, with William Wurster, as the architects most closely associated with developing the Second Bay Tradition style. If a listing or a neighbor says your house is "a Dailey," this guide shows what the official records credit to him and how to check a claim.
It draws on two San Francisco Planning Department documents: the San Francisco Modern Architecture and Landscape Design 1935–1970 historic context statement, taken to the Historic Preservation Commission for a February 2, 2011 hearing, and the department's draft architect biographies, which repeat its Dailey profile. His papers are at UC Berkeley's Environmental Design Archives.
Watch the spelling. Records file him as "Gardner A. Dailey," with an "e." "Gardner Daily" turns up often, even in a web address that SF Planning's own biography cites, so search both spellings.
His practice in the records
The context statement's profile lists him as "Principal, Gardner A. Dailey, Architect, San Francisco," from 1926 to 1967. The Berkeley archive's collection page says he opened his office in 1926. SF Planning's narrative puts it a little later: after a 1926 trip through Europe to study architecture, "within a year, he had opened his own architectural firm." Before that he worked in landscape design, starting in landscape architect Donald McLaren's San Francisco office.
The office was small. The context statement, citing a published history of Bay Area architects, says it never had more than three associates, and one of them was a young Joseph Esherick. Esherick's own entry in the statement lists him as a draftsperson for Dailey from 1938 to 1942.
The work was broad: medical, commercial, residential, educational and recreational buildings, for clients that included Stanford University, UC Berkeley and San Francisco's Recreation and Parks Department. SF Planning also lists:
the Brazil Pavilion at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, designed for the government of Brazil;
work shown in the Museum of Modern Art's 1944 show "Built in USA" and in the San Francisco Museum of Art's 1949 show "Domestic Architecture of the San Francisco Bay Region";
awards from House Beautiful, House & Garden, Life, Good Housekeeping and Ladies' Home Journal in their house competitions;
service on the San Francisco Planning Commission, including a year as its president, and membership in Telesis, a group of architects, landscape designers and planners.
The Berkeley page adds that the San Francisco Art Commission gave him an Award of Honor for distinguished work in architecture in 1950.
From period houses to Bay Region modern
The context statement says the mid-1930s brought "a major stylistic shift" in his work. He broke from the traditional and medieval mansion styles of his earlier houses to a modern look that "fused the austerity of the International Style with the curves of Streamline Moderne."
SF Planning describes his houses as having an "unpretentious air," tall, vertically oriented windows, and wide sliding glass and screen doors to cut down the separation between inside and outside. He often worked with landscape architect Thomas Church. In the 1949 exhibition catalog, Dailey compared a house set in a sea of lawn and base plantings to a roast surrounded by parsley.
The statement sets the Second Bay Tradition's period in San Francisco at 1937 to about 1964. It starts the period with houses by Dailey, William Wurster and John E. Dinwiddie. Its list of the style's features includes:
a plain, simple or vernacular look, with small scale and little ornament;
wood shingles or wood siding, often redwood, and board and batten;
flat, gently pitched or canted roofs, with overhanging eaves and exposed rafter tails;
post-and-beam framing, large areas of glass or ribbon windows, and open or flexible plans;
rear yards treated as part of the living area, often with a designed modern garden.
The list calls the style horizontal, but a footnote adds that "Gardner Dailey, however, espoused verticality." That fits the tall windows SF Planning notes in his houses.
Dailey also wrote about the postwar house. In the 1949 catalog, as the statement quotes it, he described a "Large-Small House" with "one very large room," the rest "compressed wherever possible to eliminate wasted space, long halls, and stairs." He listed dual-purpose rooms such as the living-dining room and the dining-kitchen room, and more built-in storage. The statement also reports his note that some designers had gone back to a low-pitched roof.
What SF Planning credits to him in San Francisco
The context statement says at least 13 of Dailey's house designs were built in San Francisco between 1937 and 1942, and that nearly half of his San Francisco designs went up before World War II. SF Planning's project list for the city includes these homes and residential buildings (we give the street and year, not the house number):
1937: an apartment building on Francisco Street;
1938: houses on Scott Street and on Montclair Terrace in Russian Hill, a house in the Jordan Park neighborhood, a Clay Street building now listed as a condominium, and an addition to another Clay Street building;
1939: a house on Normandie Terrace;
1940 to 1942: a house, an apartment building and a private residence on Filbert Street, and a 1941 house on Broadway that the statement places next door to a 1939 Wurster house;
1942: his own house on Telegraph Hill Boulevard;
1949 and 1951: houses on Broadway and on Raycliff Terrace;
1961: a house on Union Street.
The statement describes the 1938 Montclair Terrace building as stucco-clad, with Streamline Moderne curves on International Style volumes. It says that the same year's Scott Street house showed a stronger International Style influence, with a walled entry courtyard that extended the private living space outdoors.
Public and institutional work on the same list includes the Lincoln Park Clubhouse (1936), the Red Cross Building at 1550 Sutter Street (1950, now demolished), a 1965 remodel of the de Young Museum and Saint Luke's Hospital (1967).
On the Peninsula and in the South Bay
SF Planning's "other notable projects" list is shorter on the Peninsula. It includes:
structures at Lake Merced Golf & Country Club in Daly City (1934);
a house in Woodside (1937) and another in Woodside (1939);
the Good Housekeeping Model Home in Menlo Park (1939);
a house in Hillsborough (year not given);
the Physics Lecture Hall at Stanford University (1957);
a Gardner Dailey house in Saratoga (year not given).
The list names no Dailey house in Palo Alto, Los Altos or San Jose. That doesn't prove there are none; it means SF Planning's list doesn't name one.
Is my house a Gardner Dailey?
If a house is credited to him, work through the records in this order:
Find the original building permit. It may name the architect. The assessor's record gives the year built, which should fit his practice years, 1926 to 1967.
Check SF Planning's lists. The context statement and the biography list the San Francisco works above. A house that isn't listed may still be his, but you'll need another record.
Ask the archive. The firm's archive at UC Berkeley's Environmental Design Archives holds office records, mostly photographic portfolios, and project records with specifications, drawings and some correspondence. A project file is strong evidence.
Don't date by style alone. His early houses were period-revival mansions, not modern, so a Dailey house can look nothing like the glass-walled houses he is known for.
For more on reading a house's age from its parts, see our guide to dating a house by its features.
Owning a Dailey house today
A Dailey credit doesn't make a house a landmark. A draft SF Planning biography labels him an "Architect of Merit," but that label is not a designation. The context statement's recommendations name Dailey among the Bay Tradition architects it suggests for further study, and they warn that "early residential buildings by Gardner Dailey, William Wurster, and Henry Hill have been altered nearly beyond recognition." The statement's photos of the Montclair Terrace building say "unsympathetic alterations" have reduced its original character-defining features.
Before exterior work, ask the city whether the property has been surveyed or designated. Our guide Is My House Historic in California? explains the lists and how review works. For the architects behind the region's tract houses, see Eichler Architects: Who Designed Which Homes. For mid-century houses in the city, start with our San Francisco page. This is general information, not legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Gardner Dailey house mid-century modern?
It depends on the year. SF Planning's context statement starts the Second Bay Tradition period, 1937 to about 1964, with houses by Dailey, Wurster and Dinwiddie. His houses from before the mid-1930s were in traditional and medieval mansion styles, so check the date first.
Did Gardner Dailey design tract houses?
None of the records read for this guide credit him with a tract. SF Planning's lists are custom houses, apartment buildings and public buildings, plus the 1939 Good Housekeeping Model Home in Menlo Park.
Where are his papers?
At UC Berkeley's Environmental Design Archives, in the Gardner A. Dailey collection of office and project records.
Related reading
Eichler Architects: Who Designed Which Homes, Tract by Tract
Is My House Historic in California? Lists, Criteria and Review
Joseph Esherick: San Francisco Architect Between Two Bay Traditions
Warren Callister: Bay Area Architect of Sculptural, Vaulted Roofs
More guides on this topic: Mid-Century Modern Architects & Builders
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Researching a Gardner Dailey house? Call or text the Boyenga Team at Compass at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or contact the Boyenga Team to talk through the house and its history.
