San Francisco-based Theresa Doss recently shared some historical facts about her 1920s-built bungalow in San Francisco. Theresa Doss was brought into her place in 1999 and has spent her all childhood there.
San Francisco-based Theresa Doss recently took to her social media and shared a long post sharing some historical facts about her 1920s-built bungalow in San Francisco, California. Theresa Doss shared a post for those looking forward to the spring season. She shared that getting a photo of her Circa 1920 bungalow is complicated as it is covered with vintage roses. She also shared that this place has a storied history for this area in Marin County, Ca. The original cabin was built by a dentist who immigrated from Germany and lived in San Francisco.
It was his family’s summer home on 60 acres. It evolved into a boys’ camp and, in 1970, was a five-acre property rented to some of the original members of the band The New Riders of the Purple Sage. Their first album (with Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead) was recorded that year. Legend has it. This was a “Dead House”. Our 80-year-old neighbour and his wife bought it and kicked out the New Riders. He told tales of them riding horses through the house (yes, inside the house) and how the driveway was “lined in beer pull tabs” when he moved in.
Theresa shared that she has dug up some “treasures” from those wild west Marin days, including cut crystals, tiny glass vials and a silver comb. It was a hippy haven for her, and she loved it.
Theresa Doss was bought into the circa bungalow place in 1999. she shared that her property is now one acre. Her house had just been renovated, and she shared that The renovators of the bungalow did an excellent job of preserving the character and keeping the vintage charm. Still, the landscape was bare other than the giant Jubea palms, which are over 100 years old, as are the redwoods, Douglas firs, and live oaks and bay laurels which grow everywhere in these parts.
She shared that her bungalow wasn’t fenced, and deer grazed here for breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus a midnight snack. She also dug out lots of Himalayan blackberry, vinca, and ivy, which all constantly invade still.
Theresa’s passion is growing and preserving old rare rose varieties. She produces about 130 types, from Tea and China roses, once blooming Gallicas and Damasks, Bourbon and Hybrid Perpetual roses, gigantic Ramblers that scramble onto trellises and climb high into live oak trees, many Large Flowering Climbers, as well as Polyanthas, Hybrid Musks and more.
Theresa also shared that as a board member of a non-profit called ‘The Friends of Vintage Roses’, their mission is to preserve a vast collection of thousands of varieties that grow in the garden of their curator, Gregg Lowery, about an hour north of here, in Sebastopol. She added that most of her old roses had been lost forever because modern breeders push the idea that new is better and crowd the market with new varieties.
