News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
Crowds gather outside Delfina Pizzeria on California near Fillmore nearly every day at noon and nighttime. They’re waiting for a table, preferably one of the coveted spots out front. Soon the waiting may be more convivial — and the odds of snagging an outside table considerably improved — when the Fillmore Stoop is completed. It’s…
ARCHITECTURE | JOHN FIELD Although I’ve lived in Pacific Heights for many years and designed homes here, I never thought of myself as a Pacific Heights architect. When I was asked recently how many houses in the neighborhood I have designed, I had to stop and think. I’d never counted them. There must be 20…
Up the sidewalk to the imposing Victorian mansion at 2007 Franklin Street — the historic Haas-Lilienthal House — walks a group of senior travelers who call themselves road scholars. They are greeted by a gentleman in a vested suit and bowler hat, carrying a silver-headed cane, who welcomes them inside. It’s not John Gaul’s home,…
REAL ESTATE | Maria Marchetti We had an exceptional year for mansion sales in 2011, with 15 homes selling for more than $5 million. And we still have a handsome selection of high-end offerings available, including eight mansions listed over $10 million and nine more listed between $5 million and $10 million. Among them: The…
Luxury items from two favored members of the Pacific Heights social aristocracy will be offered at auction this week at Sotheby’s showrooms in New York. On December 8 and 9, property from the collection of Dodie Rosekrans will be auctioned, including furnishings and artwork from her home at 2840 Broadway designed by Willis Polk, one…
REAL ESTATE | Maria Marchetti Recent single family home sales in Pacific Heights are highlighted by the sale of 2950 Broadway, the 11,000-square-foot mansion on one of the largest parcels on the Gold Coast formerly owned by swashbuckling attorney Melvin Belli. The vast north and south facing formal gardens create an elegant foreground to the…
Herbst Manor in Pacific Heights was home to the late Lee Herbst Gruhn, who passed away in 2010. Think Herbst Theater and San Francisco society. Her prominent brick home with carousel horses in the windows on the corner of Pacific and Divisadero — designed in 1899 by esteemed architect Ernest Coxhead — is now for…
Curbed SF visits four pedigreed properties now for sale on Billionaire’s Row, the stretch of Broadway between Lyon and Divisadero that’s home to some of San Francisco’s grandest homes and wealthiest occupants. Read more
GARDENS | DEMI BOWLES LATHROP At the crest of Steiner and Jackson Streets rises a 12 story cooperative apartment building — each floor a full flat — designed in the Mediterranean Gothic Revival style in 1927 by prominent San Francisco architect Conrad Meussdorffer. Crowned with a penthouse at the top and a maisonette with a…
ORNITHOLOGY | Monte Travis When I saw a golden crowned hummingbird up at Alta Plaza Park near the tennis courts, I was confused. I was unaware of any species that sports a golden crown. But then I watched as she dipped her bill into the long red tubular-shaped flowers adorning the bushes and witnessed the…