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Old Houses
I am not old enough to have installed new knob and tube wiring, but I certainly have extended it slightly.
This was before we had "Romex". I have removed it, replaced it repaired it and explained it to people.
When I went to work for Brookline Electric Inc. in 1971 as a union electrician, there was something called
the Request Assistance Program, and it was funded by the City or the State. The purpose was
to help owners bring old buildings in the Western Addition up to code. The Western Addition is an area
in the center of the city (Fillmore district) where at that time there were lots of old Victorian buildings that
were run down and unsafe.
When I first came to the city in 1970, I went to the union hall and applied for work.
The dispatcher there told me he was happy to find someone who knew about knob and tube wiring.
He assigned me to John Brookman's company Brookline Electric Inc. My first job was
working on a building kitty-corner from the Market Street Safeway. The building itself was located on
Duboce at 14th St. John Brookman had a contract to rewire the building and the foreman was his
brother Ralph Brookman. This was a unique relationship for a union company.
Things certainly went smoothly, because we knew the owner's brother was always on site and
he could answer any questions that came up.
Later when I went back into business on my own working as Aries Electric Co. I took almost any kind of
work that came along but ultimately a friend asked me: "Since you like old houses so much, why don't you
specialize in them and turn down the commercial jobs that seem to give you a headache?"
Ever since then I've been happy to work on old houses although we do small commercial jobs now as well.
I still prefer to work directly for homeowners.
If you have an old house, be it Victorian, Edwardian, Eastlake/Stick or other "painted lady"
Victorian, you have found the right place.
Brookline Aries Electric Co
121 Santa Rosa Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94112-1929
415-239-5393
John A. Peters
Cell: (415) 509-3599 Cell
Email: japeters@pacbell.net
