Henry Doelger

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Henry Doelger (pronounced DOLE-jer) (1896, San Francisco - 1978) was a San Francisco developer known for the creation of large low-cost housing tracts in San Francisco and Daly City.

Contents 1 Biography 2 See also 3 Books and articles 4 External links

[edit] Biography

Doelger was born behind his parents' bakery, at the corner of Mason and Pacific. His father died when he was 12 years old. Because of this, Doelger had to leave the eighth grade in order to help support his family. He did this along with his two brothers, Frank (older brother) and John Jr. (younger brother). Frank contributed to Henry's success. When Frank started his own business, he taught Henry about it. Later, Frank died of gangrene.

Doelger built large sections of San Francisco’s Sunset District during the 1940s. In 1947, Doelger and his associates started building what is now known as the Westlake district in Daly City. This is one of the earliest examples of a large-tract suburb. Life Magazine featured photographs of the numerous rows of houses in the 1950s, which were immortalized in the song Little Boxes. The homes were all similar in design and each had a single palm tree planted in front of them.

Henry Doelger died in 1978 at the age of 82.

[edit] See also

• Little Boxes

[edit] Books and articles

• Brechin, Gray. (1990). "Mr. Levitt of the Sunset". San Francisco Focus, June 23, 1990.
• Keil, Rob. (2006). Little Boxes: The Architecture of a Classic Midcentury Suburb. Daly City, CA: Advection Media. ISBN 0977923649.

[edit] External links

• "Visionary's 'ticky-tacky' landmarks" by Ken Garcia, San Francisco Chronicle, October 15, 2002.
• "Praising San Francisco's Champion of Conformity" by Patricia Leigh Brown, New York Times, January 29, 2003.
• "Profile: Builder Henry Doelger" by Rob Keil, Daly City History Online (website), 2005.
• "Streetwise: Doelger City" by Steve LaBounty, Western Neighborhoods Project (website), November 1999.
• "The Changing Physical Landscape of the Sunset District: The Late 1800s through the Mid-1900s" by Lorri Ungaretti, Encyclopedia of San Francisco (website), 2004.
• Westlake Resource