Sunstream Homes was the brand that the Standard Building Company, led by brothers Carl and Fred Gellert, launched in San Francisco's Sunset District in 1939. The firm went on to build Lakeshore Park, Midtown Terrace and other San Francisco tracts, and SF Planning credits it with Serramonte in Daly City. The San Francisco Planning Department's 2013 Sunset District context statement calls the Gellert brothers "among the largest and most successful merchant builders in San Francisco's history."
This guide follows that context statement (Sunset District Residential Builders, 1925-1950, dated April 3, 2013), the Sunset survey's 2013 lists of eligible buildings, a 2008 Parkside District context statement produced for the city, and the City of Daly City's General Plan. Where they disagree, we give both.
Who the Gellert brothers were
According to SF Planning, Carl Gellert was born in 1899 and Fred in 1902. By 1922 they are credited with their first house in the Sunset District.
By 1926 the city directory listed the brothers and their father as builders, based in the Mission Terrace neighborhood. Through the 1920s Carl and Fred worked as small-scale contractors, mostly building individual houses. In 1932 they founded the Standard Building Company; 1932 is the first year the company appears in San Francisco city directories. Carl was its president, SF Planning notes. The firm's headquarters were on Judah Street from 1935 to 1946, then on 19th Avenue in the Sunset.
Ardenwood Way and the 1930s row houses
In 1932, the same year they founded the company, the Gellerts built their first full-block subdivision on Ardenwood Way off Sloat Boulevard, near the Sunset District's southern edge. SF Planning describes it as 24 fully detached, "expressive Period Revival houses."
Like other merchant builders, the firm first built fully expressed versions of Period Revival styles. By the late 1930s it dropped the heavy ornament for "restrained house designs that were quicker and less expensive to construct," and began building single-family row houses on a large scale. SF Planning says the Gellerts, along with other Sunset builders, benefited from FHA loan policies that let them build entire blocks quickly. Looking ahead to 1939, Carl Gellert said, "The advantages of buying on the FHA have had time to sink into the public's mind."
Ground floors varied by builder. SF Planning contrasts a Rousseau tract's finished ground-floor social room with the Standard Building Company's unfinished ground story, which the firm advertised as a "huge basement capable of garaging four cars or allowing an ample social hall" or a large laundry.
The Sunset survey's July 2013 lists show how the firm's 1930s work is judged today. By our count, the Period Revival list credits 10 of its 46 individually eligible buildings to the Standard Building Company, dated 1931 to 1939, and the Streamline Moderne and Art Deco list credits it with one 1940 building out of 38.
Sunstream Homes: the 1939 brand
The Standard Building Company introduced Sunstream Homes in 1939 as a low-cost brand of single-family houses in the Sunset District. SF Planning explains the name as a merger of "sun" (from the Sunset District) and "streamline," reflecting the company's promise of a "streamlined lifestyle." The campaign included:
Billboards. More than 100 billboards, each 5 by 10 feet, posted at corners through the neighborhood.
A first block. The first Sunstream Homes went up on 31st Avenue between Quintara and Rivera Streets.
Furnished model homes. A major furniture dealer furnished a new model every six weeks, often in "modern classical" or "Swedish modern" design. Early models paired "Sunstream" with the nearest street, such as the Sunstream Rivera; later ones had names like the Sunstream June Bride and the Sunstream Security.
Shared ad costs. The company paid 60% of model home advertising and its furnishings store paid 40%.
A repair crew. The Standard Free Service Department, an on-call repair service for buyers in their first few years, with a truck stocked with hinges, tiles and paint.
Radio. A half-hour Sunday program, "I Want a Home," with music and a regular five-minute talk on FHA loans.
By 1940 the company's sales had doubled those of the year before, SF Planning reports, citing a 1940 trade journal. The Sunstream name was later applied to costlier houses across the city and outside the Sunset, and the company kept building them into the 1970s.
War work, Lakeshore Park and Pinelake Park
After the United States entered World War II, the company suspended private house building. The Gellerts turned to military housing and defense projects in Oakland, Pittsburg, Stockton, Richmond and on Treasure Island.
After the war the firm resumed work on Lakeshore Park, a subdivision begun in 1941 just south of the Sunset District. SF Planning describes the Lakeshore Park houses as fully detached, typically split-level or ranch-style plans, with double garages. The firm also built the Lakeshore Plaza Shopping Center. Nearby, the 2008 Parkside context statement says Pinelake Park, begun by the Parkside Realty Company in 1927, "was aggressively developed by the Standard Building Company with 'Sunstream' ranch-style houses" in the late 1940s.
These detached houses date from the late 1940s on. The Parkside statement says that after the war Period Revival detailing became less common, "both to control costs and to offer a 'modern' look." Neither source calls the Gellert houses mid-century modern. For San Francisco's mid-century modern houses, see our San Francisco page.
Midtown Terrace, Serramonte and the firm's scale
SF Planning credits the Standard Building Company with approximately 25,000 housing units in the Bay Area, citing a 1979 study, including:
the large-scale Midtown Terrace development near Twin Peaks;
tracts in Forest Knolls, Country Club Acres, Forest Hill, Lake Merced and Mount Sutro;
"dozens of blocks" of single-family houses in the Sunset District;
Serramonte Center in 1966, part of what the context statement calls the company's largest development, a planned community and shopping center described in a 1966 newspaper article as having 10,000 units.
The 2008 Parkside statement gives a different count: it notes that a 1983 thesis credits the Gellerts with 20,000 houses in San Francisco between 1920 and 1945. SF Planning's figure covers Bay Area housing units; the thesis figure covers San Francisco houses through 1945.
Daly City's 2030 General Plan describes Serramonte as the city's newest large-scale subdivision, built in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Its houses sit in strips along moderately steep hillsides, typically "a two story structure with the living area over a two car garage" at about 14 units per acre. The city's General Plan environmental report says Henry Doelger "and other builders" built thousands of homes in St. Francis Heights and Serramonte, without naming the other builders. For Doelger's own work, see our history of Henry Doelger and Westlake.
The firm grew in pieces. Crews had 10 to 20 carpenters each, and each crew focused on one house plan. Over time, SF Planning says, the company formed dozens of smaller firms for construction, sales, advertising, realty and land investment. A longtime employee recalled names such as Bay Area Contractors, Trelleg Construction Co. ("Gellert" spelled backward) and Salta ("Atlas" backward).
Old deed restrictions
SF Planning's 2013 context statement lists the Standard Building Company, with Henry Doelger and others, among the largest private San Francisco builders of the 1920s to 1950s that "included racial covenants or discriminatory practices." It says that even after court rulings against such covenants beginning in 1948, the company was accused of refusing to show or sell houses to African Americans, and that picketing, a 1961 sit-in and pressure from the city's political and civic leaders "ultimately compelled the company to cease" the practice. To remove old covenant language from a deed, see our guide to restrictive covenant modification.
Owning a Gellert-built house today
Confirm the builder. The Parkside statement says postwar houses by different builders are "so similar it is difficult to identify the builder." Check the original building permit and the assessor's record, not looks alone.
Expect a designer, not an architect. SF Planning's builder table lists the company as active 1932 to 1972 with no associated architect. The Parkside statement says these merchant builders did not employ architects but did use building designers.
Check historic status in San Francisco. SF Planning's survey FAQ says the survey is not a landmark designation, but certain alterations to buildings over 50 years old require environmental review. Ask the Planning Department before exterior work.
Read the windows. Sunset tract houses of 1925 to 1950 were built with wood sash windows, and "aluminum sliders were not installed prior to the 1950s."
In Daly City, confirm zoning and any design review with the city's Planning Division before adding on.
This is general information, not legal advice. Check with the city or an attorney for your property.
Frequently asked questions
Are Sunstream homes mid-century modern?
Not the 1939 originals. SF Planning describes the late-1930s Sunset houses as restrained row houses that followed the firm's Period Revival work. The postwar Lakeshore Park split-levels and ranch houses date from the mid-century years, but neither source calls them mid-century modern.
Who designed Gellert houses?
No architect is named. SF Planning's builder table lists none for the Standard Building Company, and the Parkside statement says Sunset and Parkside merchant builders used building designers instead.
Did the Gellerts build Serramonte?
SF Planning credits the Standard Building Company with Serramonte Center in 1966 and the planned community around it. Daly City's General Plan environmental report says only that Henry Doelger "and other builders" built homes in St. Francis Heights and Serramonte, without naming the others.
How many houses did the Gellerts build?
SF Planning gives approximately 25,000 Bay Area housing units; a 1983 thesis cited in the Parkside statement gives 20,000 San Francisco houses for 1920 to 1945. No official house-by-house count exists in the sources we read.
Related reading
Mid-Century Modern vs. Ranch: How to Tell California Houses Apart
Is My House Historic in California? Lists, Criteria and Review
Chris McKeon's Happy Homes: A Sunset District Builder History
More guides on this topic: Mid-Century Modern Architects & Builders
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Researching a Sunstream or Standard Building Company 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.
