Long, strange trip to 557 Ashbury St.
Norm Larson stood taller than everyone else in the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Saturday night. His long white beard covered much of his custom orange and pink paisley shirt, and the rest was hidden beneath Larson’s tuxedo. As he relished a sip of his Chardonnay, Larson was approached by a fan who said, “I just had to come by and tell you that I think you’re fantastic.”
The giddy 78-year-old was thrilled to attend San Francisco Heritage’s 43rd annual gala. The night’s theme was the 50th anniversary of 1967’s famed “Summer of Love,” and Larson, for those who don’t study San Francisco building preservation, is the owner of 557 Ashbury St. That’s the building at Haight and Ashbury streets where hippies and tourists have posed for photographs over the past five decades.
The sold-out fundraising gala attracted 415 attendees, who donned either their black-tie finest or their grooviest hippie costumes. A few dozen sported over-thetop wigs, bell bottoms and fringe vests. I was particularly impressed with the man who glued plastic sideburns to his face. A queue of history lovers formed at the face-painting station while another rum-fueled line led to a vintage VW bus transformed into a photo booth.
Massive cardboard flowers lined the foyer and main ballroom, and dozens of dinner tables were decked out in neon linens and gerbera daisies. Crystal chandeliers hung overhead, reflecting a trippy kaleidoscope of color projected alongside the ballroom’s stage. The party planners at San Francisco Heritage had managed to maintain the high-end ambiance of the Ritz while transforming the party space into a psychedelic soiree.
Technically, I should disclose a bias. San Francisco Heritage’s board president and the night’s gala chair is Nancy Gille, a longtime family friend. She is also a preservation powerhouse. Gille cares so deeply and genuinely about maintaining the spirit, culture and aesthetic of the city, she sweetly choked up during her short speech. It was Gille, in her flower headband and braids, who introduced me to Larson.
“I had a series of career failures as a young guy,” Larson boldly began as Janis Joplin boomed from a speaker next to his Lincolnesque frame. Immaculate, weathered hands rested at the base of his wineglass as it sat firmly atop a tie-dye tablecloth.
The Berkeley native thoughtfully continued, “I was beginning to pick up vibes that it was finally time to figure out who I was.”
As he spoke, Larson habitually stroked his long beard. He struck me as instantly likable, although I’ll generally like anyone who talks about receiving instructions from “vibes.” It was time to sit down to a formal dinner and live auction to raise money for preservation, but Larson was still in the midst of his journey, which involved living in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran — and we still hadn’t gotten close to his buying the building at Haight and Ashbury.
Basically, Larson bought 557 Ashbury in 1980 with money he’d saved from teaching English to soldiers in the Middle East. He’s renovated the whole residential and commercial space, and his particular apartment is filled with Iranian art and historical artifacts. He owns three buildings in San Francisco, and (naturally) Larson couldn’t be happier with that advice from the vibes.
San Francisco Heritage was hoping to score some positive vibes of its own.
“Tonight is an opportunity to highlight the significance of the counterculture and the importance of celebrating historical places of the era,” said San Francisco Heritage’s President Mike Buhler in a ’60s-era bejeweled medallion. Buhler runs the nonprofit full-time out of the stunning Haas-Lilienthal House on Franklin Street, a Victorian that the organization is spending more than $4 million to renovate.
But the night’s real goal was to raise money for the Landmark Fund, a project to protect the city’s most vulnerable historic places. Specifically, the gala’s focus was on securing City Landmark or Legacy Business Registry designation for the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic, Britex Fabrics, Sam’s Grill and Ingleside Presbyterian Church.
Larson’s already got his landmark status. 557 Ashbury St. is listed on the National Register of Historic Places — a big deal in the preservation world.
Late in the evening, I found Larson exactly where his journey had led him — to the dance floor of the Ritz-Carlton. A plastic daisy was tucked into his tuxedo lapel, and the longtime Haight-Ashbury resident bent over to yell above the live band. “I’m just thrilled,” he said, grinning. “I finally feel like a hippie.”
“I was beginning to pick up vibes that it was finally time to figure out who I was.” Norm Larson, owner of historic Haight-Ashbury house