CASE STUDY: SAN FRANCISCO'S VICTORIAN "PAINTED LADY" HOUSES San Francisco has become one of the most expensive American cities to live in, a popular destination for young, high-earning tech workers looking for an amazing property. Many of them have bought some of the city’s Victorian houses, transforming their interiors imaginatively by working with the period features, but decorating in a multitude of styles. San Francisco’s Victorian building boom began after the 1849 Gold Rush. At that time, there were around 58,000 Victorian homes in the city, many of them were destroyed in the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire. Today just 14,000 remain. Originally, these houses were painted a chalky white to cover their wood structure and resemble stone. Later, during the First and Second World Wars, many were coated in a battleship grey, using army surplus navy paint. And so, they remained until the 1960s, when a group of artists began experimenting with vivid colors on the façades – from lime and vermilion to gold and turquoise. People began to copy their neighbors and soon entire streets were transformed with color. The houses were called the “Painted Ladies”. The most famous examples are a group of houses next to Alamo Square, built in the 1890s and painted in soft pastels. These buildings have regularly appeared in films, television and advertising campaigns, gaining the epithet "Postcard Row". Adapted from: https://www.ft.com/content/ca 9 Complete the sentences. ____________________ in San Francisco have recently become the most desirable and required types of houses. People who bought these houses, transformed their ____________________ and decorated them in different ____________________. Many of the 58,000 Victorian homes were destroyed in the devastating ____________________. In the past, those houses were painted a ____________________ to cover their wood structure and resemble ____________________. During the First and Second World Wars, ____________________ was used to paint the Victorian houses. In the 1960s, the ____________________ of these Victorian houses were painted with vivid colors by a " next to Alamo Square are painted in ". 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. . The most famous " 7. . They are so famous that they have regularly appeared in ____________________ and gained the nickname " 8.