Chris McKeon was a San Francisco merchant builder who ran the Happy Homes Building Company in the Sunset District from 1936. He built the Rivera Heights tract near 29th Avenue and Rivera Street, built in Berkeley, sat on industry and bridge boards, and fought freeway plans for the city's west side. San Francisco Planning credits him with "approximately 15,000 houses and apartment units in the Bay Area."
Our sources are three SF Planning records: the Sunset District Residential Builders, 1925-1950 historic context statement (dated April 3, 2013), the Sunset survey's list of individually eligible Streamline Moderne buildings (July 1, 2013) and the survey FAQ. Those records follow McKeon's work from 1927 into the 1950s, and the builder table runs his firm's active years to 1966. The houses they describe are 1930s and 1940s Period Revival and Streamline Moderne designs, not mid-century modern ones.
Who Chris McKeon was
According to the context statement, Christopher Dennis McKeon was born in 1893. In 1927 he began his career as a carpenter, building working-class housing in the McLaren Park neighborhood. SF Planning's chapter on builders groups him with Sunset builders who came to house building from unrelated trades.
In the 1930s and 1940s he developed tracts in the Sunset District and in Berkeley. The context statement credits him with 154 houses in University Gardens, along Rose and Sacramento Streets in Berkeley, and with "dozens of houses" in Rivera Heights in the Sunset. By September 1936 he had acquired the Happy Homes Building Company, a firm he had worked for, and he focused his building on the Sunset District during and after World War II.
The statement's builder table lists his firm as "McKeon Happy Homes (aka McKeon Construction Co.)," with Chris McKeon as the person named, active years of 1940 to 1966, and "None listed" under architects. A draft SF Planning biography of McKeon lists him as a designer for the Happy Homes Building Company and as its owner from 1936. No outside architect appears in either record.
Rivera Heights
The Sunset tract SF Planning names for McKeon is Rivera Heights, McKeon's 1936 tract "centered on 29th Avenue at Rivera Street." The statement doesn't give a house count beyond "dozens," a street list or a closing year. It says McKeon lived in the tract for a short time, apparently only in the year he oversaw its construction and sales, and that the firm ran a temporary sales office on site during the first sales.
SF Planning also quotes a 1936 advertisement in which McKeon described his houses as "miniature chalets of France of the days of the monarchy." The context statement uses the line to illustrate the Period Revival houses that Sunset builders modeled on rural European buildings. It doesn't tie that advertisement to a named tract.
Sales offices and model homes
McKeon's offices moved several times, always inside the Sunset. The context statement places them on 30th Avenue from 1936 to 1939, on Taraval Street from 1939 to 1942, and at a second Taraval Street address from 1944 through 1955. It shows the Happy Homes sales office on Taraval Street and says that building is still standing. It adds that McKeon used three other Sunset sales offices during his career, including the temporary one at Rivera Heights.
SF Planning says the large merchant builders' sales offices "were often boldly modern in design, unlike the majority of their house designs," and that they served as advertising. It says fully furnished model homes were likely limited to the large merchant builders, including McKeon, Ray Galli and the Stoneson Brothers, though none of them appear to have used the strategy as thoroughly as Henry Doelger and the Standard Building Company. For those two firms, see our histories of Henry Doelger and the Gellert brothers' Sunstream Homes.
McKeon's Streamline Moderne houses
The Sunset survey's list of individually eligible Streamline Moderne, Art Deco and transitional buildings names 38 buildings that "appear eligible" as individual historic resources for their architecture. The list says these modern styles were a sharp break from the traditional and revival styles usually applied to Sunset houses. By our count, two of the 38 are credited to McKeon: a 1940 house on 35th Avenue listed under "Chris McKeon" and a 1941 house on Quintara Street listed under "Chris McKeon's Happy Homes."
That is the closest the city's records bring McKeon to modern design. A place on the survey list is not a landmark designation, and SF Planning's FAQ says a survey is "an information gathering tool."
The 1943 "crescent" setback plan
McKeon tried to change how Sunset blocks looked. In 1943, as Secretary of the Associated Home Builders of San Francisco, he led a "crescent" setback proposal. Corner houses would have been built right to the property line, with houses stepping back gradually to a nine-foot setback at the middle of the block. Builders supported it. SF Planning says neighborhood residents strongly resisted the plan, and the Board of Supervisors narrowly rejected it. The Sunset's uniform front setbacks stayed.
Boards and the freeway fights
The context statement lists McKeon's roles in the building industry and in civic life:
roles on the State Contractors License Board over 24 years;
director of the Associated Home Builders of San Francisco by December 1940, and its Secretary in 1943;
roles in the San Francisco Property Owners Association;
a seat on the Golden Gate Bridge board of directors.
As the Sunset grew, so did the push for new roads, such as extending Highway One through St. Francis Wood. SF Planning says McKeon organized the West of Twin Peaks Freeway Fighters and headed the Mayor's Citizens Committee on Freeways to challenge proposed freeways in San Francisco and San Mateo Counties.
His death and the 15,000 figure
The context statement's text says McKeon died in 1968. Its bibliography dates the newspaper clippings on his death to August 30 and 31, 1967, so the year is uncertain. By then, SF Planning says, he had built approximately 15,000 houses and apartment units in the Bay Area. That figure comes from a newspaper clipping the statement cites. The statement names no tracts outside San Francisco and Berkeley, and no postwar tracts by name, so we can't say where most of those units stand.
How SF Planning treats a McKeon house
McKeon is not among the master builders the context statement names for judging significance. Those are Henry Doelger, the Stoneson Brothers, Oliver Rousseau and the Standard Building Company, with Lang Realty and Ray Galli added for tracts. That doesn't rule a McKeon house out: the two Streamline Moderne houses above were listed for their architecture.
Citywide, SF Planning's survey FAQ explains, some changes to buildings more than 50 years old trigger state-mandated environmental review, which can add fees and review time. Finished survey results help the department process permits more quickly. The survey "evaluated buildings only from the public right-of-way" and does not stop owners from changing the exterior or interior. For how historic status works statewide, see Is My House Historic in California?
What to check before you buy or remodel
Check who built it. Pull the house's original permit and its assessor's record. Look for Happy Homes or McKeon as the builder or owner of record.
Look up the survey result. Ask SF Planning whether the parcel was rated in the Sunset survey before you plan exterior work.
Check the permit history for ground-floor rooms, window changes and façade work.
Don't date a house by style alone. The records tie McKeon to both Period Revival and Streamline Moderne designs.
For the Stoneson brothers, another Sunset firm in the same context statement, see Stoneson Brothers Builders. For homes across the city, see San Francisco mid-century homes.
FAQ
What was Happy Homes?
The Happy Homes Building Company was a San Francisco building firm that Chris McKeon acquired by September 1936. SF Planning's table lists his firm as "McKeon Happy Homes (aka McKeon Construction Co.)," active 1940 to 1966.
Where is Rivera Heights?
In the Sunset District. SF Planning describes it as McKeon's 1936 tract centered on 29th Avenue at Rivera Street, without a full street list.
Did Chris McKeon build mid-century modern houses?
Not in the records we read. The closest are two Streamline Moderne houses from 1940 and 1941 on the Sunset survey's eligible list.
Do Rivera Heights deeds carry racial restrictions?
SF Planning's context statement says "a review of select deeds" found that Rivera Heights "contained no such restrictions," a finding based on a sample. Our restrictive covenant modification guide covers removing old covenant language from a deed.
Related reading
Sunstream Homes and the Gellert Brothers: A San Francisco History
Stoneson Brothers Builders: Lakeside, Stonestown and the Sunset
Fernando Nelson and Sons in the Sunset and West of Twin Peaks
Sunset District Builders Context Statement: A Guide for Owners
More guides on this topic: Mid-Century Modern Architects & Builders
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Researching a McKeon or Happy Homes house in the Sunset? 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.
