The Flood’s Winter Residence
Posted on 10/25/24Exploring photographic sets from the past offers a fascinating glimpse into lives beyond what a few snapshots reveal. This photo study takes images from one of the OldHouseDreams website headers that Kelly put together and dives deeper, uncovering the story behind them. Like all of us in life, there are good times, bad times, corruption, and other types of events that make our lives what they are and almost never captured in these photos.
Today's house is the early residence of James Leary Flood, son of James Clair Flood, who inherited the Comstock Lode fortune in 1889 and his wife Marie Rosena "Rose" Flood. It is said that while she was appearing at a San Francisco dance hall, he fell in love with Rose Fritz, a dancer who had been with the Victoria Loftus British Blondes. She was never accepted into the Flood family. Irrespective of Flood's father threatening to disown him, they married and rented the second and third floor flat of a home at 1890 Page Street in San Francisco. While they lived in this home, they also acquired a summer home in Alma, Santa Clara County. In August of 1893 they took in and "adopted" a baby named Constance Marguerite and change her name to Constance May. She was known as Constance May Flood and described her years with the Floods as feeling spoiled and had her own pony at Almadale, the summer home, until the turn of the century.
Special thanks to JimH for the challenging research behind this story.
The house the Flood rented does not appear on the Sanborn Map from 1889, but it does appear a decade later. Therefore, we can assume it was built during that ten-year period.
In the upper left corner, you’ll find the residence that Flood resided in numbered 1890. The neighborhood was still sparsely developed at the time, but the two older homes at 414 and 410, visible in the photo, remain standing.
A close-up of the home on the map shows it was labeled as two flats, indicating apartment units. The apartment was owned by Dr. Henry Salfield whom resided on the first level and leased the second and third floors of the home out for a 3-year lease.
Here are two photographs of Marie Rosena Flood. Her maiden name was Fritz and was known as Rose by friends and family.
James Flood’s father threatened to disinherit him if he married Rosina, but he did anyway and clearly the threat was idle.
Constance Mae (May) was born in May of 1893. She grew up in the Flood household believing she was the daughter of Rose and James Leary Flood and that her aunt was Maude. She was well known as the daughter of James Leary Flood by servants and friends. She didn’t know at that time she had been adopted as a baby.
Her stage name was Violet Elwood, possibly shown in a photo from the late 1870s. Her family was from Kansas City, Missouri. She ran away from the Fritz family home. James was madly in love with her, enraging his father, who tried to stop the relationship. Despite this, James married Rose. After returning from Europe, they visited her family in Kansas City and invited her 11-year-old sister, Maud, to live with them at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
The house still exists today and remains surprisingly intact on the exterior, though a few elements have changed over time.
The tower still stands today, though the window has been replaced.
The only missing element is the railing from the false balcony, but the unique detail beneath it remains intact.
The chimney appears to have been rebuilt or covered over, altering its original design. Perhaps damaged by the great 1906 earthquake.
The ornamental details on the exterior of the home remain in remarkable condition, preserving much of the original craftsmanship.
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