The quarterly Burlingame Historical Society meeting held on Thursday at the Lane room in the library was another uber-local affair. Having family members appear to describe their ancestors' contributions to our fair town is right in the sweet spot of the Society's mission. William Whifler grew up in Burlingame, mostly at the end of Drake Ave.-- the house he designed for his German mother (next door to the family homestead) at 1544 Drake is now on the National Historic Register. We covered the award when it happened in 2017 here. He graduated from BHS where he met his high school sweetheart and soon-to-be-wife, joined the Navy and eventually graduated from Stanford in the burgeoning field of electronics. He determined that "there wasn't much of a future in electronics" so he shifted to architecting and building many of his own designs.
Whifler's son, Graeme, was the featured speaker with two other siblings in attendance. Graeme is a film director having done early rock videos for The Residents and other Ess Eff bands before shifting to the horror film genre. The program kicked off with a montage of Whifler-designed houses in the area beautifully photographed and set to Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain. We were the first people to ever see it. It looks like the video on his website, but without the soundtrack which added a lot. I hope to be able to link to the full version in the future. Early family photos followed including looking past the end of Drake into a dairy farm field that abutted the old Mills Estate. That would be Devereaux and Ray Dr. today. Young Whifler used to take his .22 into the fields for plinking around. We also saw an early Eucalyptus grove that was harvested for oyster poles. I'm not totally sure what an oyster pole is, but perhaps someone will enlighten us.
Many of Whifler's houses are gone. His design aesthetic used large windows ("I make glass houses" and "no curtains allowed") with a Mid-century Modern theme. Some were the victims of remuddling and the OPEC energy crisis put a crimp on the style. But Whifler's lasting contribution to B'game is our City Hall. I've never been a big fan of the City Hall design, but I am willing to consider that my view may be tainted by some of the shenanigans I have seen over the years in Council chambers. It originally had a big fountain in front and that might make a good restoration project if the water nags would allow it. Maybe hearing about Whifler will cause people to leave City Hall where it is--remember this nonsense?
In 1967, Whifler founded the architecture program at CSM where he taught the local crop of students. You can get a good view of his work at the website dedicated to him here.
By request, Graeme finished with a discussion of his career in film. We did not see any of his video work for The Residents, but I found something that certainly looks like Graeme's work here. The video he did show reminded me of why I don't watch horror movies, but Graeme seemed pleased that people tell him he gives them nightmares. That is why the program was billed "For Adults". Here's Johnny....I mean Graeme
Love this post and the history. Thanks! Jen
Posted by: Jen Faber | October 25, 2023 at 07:45 AM