Campaign to purchase 50 Irving Street begins Timelines: 40 Years of Family House History

January 1, 1980

Dr. Ray Linegar of UCSF Medical Center told Dr. Arthur “Art” Ablin that a building on 50 Irving Street in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset District and directly adjacent to the UCSF Parnassus campus, was coming up for sale. Dr. Ablin negotiated a $500,000 price, put down $1,000, and arranged a $499,000 note. Then, Dr. Joe Kushner, Dr. Seymour Zoger, and Art met with Stanley Herzstein, a member of The Koret Foundation Board of Directors, who secured a $250,000 gift to help purchase 50 Irving Street. John Foote, who had lost a daughter to cancer, had a law partner, George Argyris, whose wife, Marcia Argyris, ran the Foremost-McKesson Foundation (now known as the McKesson Foundation.) She secured a $150,000 grant from the foundation, and because of these gifts, the first capital campaign was started among the founding board members of Family House San Francisco.