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	Photo: Bill Myers

    Anxious to leave their cramped San Francisco house with a postage stamp–size garden, Dian and Jerry McPherson needed an upgrade—and fast.
With no preconceived ideas of where they’d move, Dian McPherson took it upon herself to start the search in Alameda. However, after a long, unsuccessful day hunting through the city’s available properties in their price range, she was ready to throw in the towel and look elsewhere. She asked her real estate agent to drive her back to the BART station, so they departed by way of the Fernside District. It was a quiet, glum ride, until she looked up to see a for sale sign in front of the house she suddenly had to have. “I’m sure I scared my agent when I told her to stop the car so abruptly,” she laughs, remembering the dramatic moment.
    Before them stood a historic house much bigger, older and pricier than what the McPhersons had intended to consider, but Dian McPherson was so taken by the Victorian manse that her agent got instant access for her client to see it right then and there.
Built in 1878, five blocks away from its current location, the house was created as part of a matching pair of side-by-side houses for two unidentified sisters.             After the sisters had a great falling-out, this house was moved circa 1884 by horse-drawn caissons and permanently placed in its current double-wide lot where it eventually became a one-of-a-kind house after its counterpart burned down.
    After seeing the house and learning of its history, the McPhersons could not turn their back, despite the high asking price. The couple met with the homeowners (the third owners since the house was built) and explained how much the house meant to them. “When I told them how I came upon the place in such an unexpected manner, it turned out that they, too, came by the house in almost the same way, so we had an instant connection with each other,” explains Dian McPherson.
    With that, a friendship and an equitable real estate deal were born. That was in 1994.
    As the fourth owners of this storied residence, the McPhersons have taken great pride in preserving its rich history. They appreciate and support preserving historic houses, but not without an insider’s understanding of what that means. While city ordinances dictate that the facades of historic homes be kept intact, some in the preservation community would like to see such houses’ entire contents equally maintained. However, Dian McPherson is quick to note, “There needs to be a happy medium in preserving architecture. The only way these historic structures are going to survive is if people are allowed to modify their insides for modern living.”
    The McPhersons, however, have changed very little inside their abode. Aside from the inclusion of interior bathrooms, a modernized kitchen and the addition of a family room in back of the house—all done years before the McPhersons moved in—almost everything else is original, which means everything is very old.
    “Things are always in need of repair around here. Just recently the plaster-and-lathe ceiling completely fell in the guest bedroom. Thank God no one was in there at the time. Luckily, we usually have some warning before things like that happen. But it’s a bit like running the Queen Mary at times. Keeping ahead of the maintenance can be staggering,” she explains.
    Fortunately for Dian McPherson, executive director of sales for a firm specializing in the interior design of large corporate work spaces, she isn’t fazed by this sort of thing. While she and her husband would rather not be hoisting up fallen ceilings if they can help it, she enjoys enhancing the interior design aspects of the home. In addition to the home’s assortment of antique and contemporary furnishings, she proudly displays her varied personal collections that run the gamut from Chinese jade fruit to European ashtrays to Roseville pottery. “I’ve been collecting since I was 9 years old. It started with a piece of costume jewelry I still have, so you can imagine I have accumulated lots of objects over the years—so many that I constantly have to pull collections out of storage and rotate them. Every season brings something different to each room,” she says.
    A tour through the home is a visit through the McPhersons’ personal history as well as through the history of Alameda and the individuals who have modified, maintained and adored this special house.