Oliver M. Rousseau (born 1891, San Francisco - d. 1977, San Francisco) was a home builder, developer, contractor, and architect, who worked in the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
, in particular the
Sunset District
The Sunset District is a neighborhood located in the southwest quadrant of San Francisco, California, United States.
Location
The Sunset District is the largest neighborhood within the city and county of San Francisco. Golden Gate Park forms the ...
of
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, as well as
Hayward. Homes he built are commonly referred to as "Rousseaus", and were a departure from the cookie-cutter homes prevalent in the Sunset at the time.
Herb Caen
Herbert Eugene Caen (; April 3, 1916 February 1, 1997) was a San Francisco humorist and journalist whose daily column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, and offbeat puns and anecdotes—"A continuous love let ...
wrote, upon his death, "Another Memorial Day death: Oliver Rousseau, who built good houses while all about him, the pure schlock was rising."
"Brightening the Sunset: Oliver Rousseau, a Depression-era builder, infused the city with rows of romantic homes", ''San Francisco Chronicle'', August 7, 2004
/ref>
References
External links
"The Outer Sunset" weblog, with images of Rousseaus
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Architects from California
Architecture in the San Francisco Bay Area
1891 births
1977 deaths
History of Hayward, California
Sunset District, San Francisco
20th-century American architects