Historic preservation

Old-world craftsmanship

Historic preservation of the Bay Area’s many architecturally significant Victorian and Queen Anne homes requires the careful removal, categorizing, storage, and replication of all the ornate moldings, custom doors, true divided-light windows, and elaborate exterior trims such as dentil blocking, corbels, copper, flashings, astragals, corinthian tapered columns, and turrets. Each preservation project is unique, and capable craftsman are in short supply.

Krueger Bros. has the experience, expertise, creativity, and patience needed to restore these priceless Bay Area icons to their original splendor.

16th Street, San Francisco

Built in 1903, this custom 2-unit Victorian in the heart of San Francisco sustained serious fire damage. Reconstruction to the front exterior included Corinthian tapered wood columns, custom corbels, decorative custom trim including an entry hood, radius wood sash, dentil blocking, custom wood trim, and siding.

Each flat contained 11 rooms with 12-foot ceilings throughout. Interior restoration included custom 8-ft doors with operable overhead transom windows, custom wood entry stairs and handrails, 1" x 4" fir flooring , 10-foot room dividers, and topped off with a custom hand-carved Carrera marble fireplace.

There are very few Bay Area builders that could perform the work needed to fully restore this architecturally significant building.

burned ornate woodwork next to newly built replacement

newly rebuilt, but unpainted, decorative woodwork

woodwork rom previous slide finished, painted, and in place

fireplace before restoration—burned and broken bricks

fireplace after restoration; marble mantle, fresh cream walls

interior shot that shows decorative woodwork, elaborate custom windows, and moldings

interior shot with elaborate plaster molding for chandelier, arched doorway, wood floors, large window

close up of beautiful embossed silver and black doorknob on mauve painted door

shot of finished home exterior from ground looking up

Del Mar Theater, Santa Cruz

The ornate art deco Del Mar Theater was built in 1936 and damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta quake. Preservation involved replacing or restoring plaster cast moldings, vaulted ceilings, and a multi-color paint scheme.

inside del mar theatre upstairs lounge area. ornate details on ceilings with elaborate paint job in gold, red, and slate blue

Keith Avenue, Oakland

This historic carriage house was originally constructed in 1877 with hand-forged square nails and hand-sawn exterior siding. The entire roof superstructure was destroyed by fire, with fire, water, and smoke damage to the remaining interior architectural finishes. The rebuild included a grand mahogany staircase, custom panel-doors and casing trim, custom baseboards, five-piece crown molding, ornamental fireplaces and custom hardwood flooring throughout.

McAllister St., San Francisco

This 10-unit Victorian-era apartment building in San Francisco suffered extensive exterior fire damage, with additional damage to the roof and all interior apartment units and common areas.

Our exterior restoration efforts consisted of replication of all custom wood millwork including corbels, dentil blocking, custom radius wood sash windows, milled exterior siding, and custom plaster-cast trim.

Interior repairs included custom stairs and stair railings, plaster-board walls and ceiling, custom wood trim and hardwood flooring in all rooms.