White House: Just listed for $5.5 million this house is in a Buy
- Just listed for $5.5 million, this house is located in a historic San Francisco neighborhood
White House
- A house in the upscale, historic St.
- Francis Wood neighborhood of San Francisco is being offered for the highest price per square foot that the neighborhood has ever seen.
- A residence located at 55 Santa Paula Ave. in San Francisco’s historic St.
- Francis Wood neighborhood has been listed for an unusually high $5.5 million.
- Real estate agents claim that at $2,011 per square foot, it breaks the previous record for the highest price per square foot in St.
- Francis Wood since at least 2000.
White House
- The present sellers paid $2.6 million for the house in December 2019.
- They decided to remodel the house to make it their own, as many first-time homeowners do.
- Then COVID-19 struck.
- Renovations that were supposed to take a few months turned into a three-year project in “an effort to make every square foot count,” according to Sotheby’s International Realty listing agent Grant Beggs.
- The renovations had new significance because the family would now reside and work from the house.
- In an interview over the phone, Beggs stated, “The sellers wanted a sanctuary.
- ” “They completely redesigned the interior.”
The owners’ goal was to create a space that was open to the outdoors and had a lot of natural light. - Beggs remarked, “In the St.
- Francis Wood neighborhood, this design is very unusual.
White House
- ” “The interior is distinctive, reminiscent of something you would find in Presidio Heights or Pacific Heights, even though the exterior still looks like a home you would expect to find in St.
- Francis Wood.”
- The exterior of the house, which was designed by Swedish architect Ivar D.
- Peterson in 1924, is mainly original.
- Inside, however, there’s a striking black hearth, black window trim, and black door frames that contrast with glass, skylights, and sand-colored wood floors.
- A floating wine cellar divides the formal dining room from the marble-topped kitchen island.
- The house has three bathrooms and five bedrooms.
- There is a walk-in closet and a bay view in the master suite.
- A terraced backyard with a gas fire pit for dining al fresco is located off the lower level.
- Beggs anticipated a sizable turnout from the neighbors he had invited to the neighborhood open house for the Santa Paula house.
- The greatest turnout he had ever seen at a neighborhood open house was something he had not anticipated.
Beggs clarified, “The neighbors have been watching the renovations go on for three years. - “They were eager to see the Santa Paula house inside.”
The locality
The first architect to oversee the St. - Francis Wood project in 1912 was John Galen Howard, a former supervising architect for the University of California and one of Julia Morgan’s first employers.
- Howard’s influence is complemented by the influence of numerous well-known architects.
- The College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley stated that the developers of St.
- Francis Wood “encouraged houses designed by prominent architects for specific clients, unlike many residential developments that offered only stock plans.”
- Harry Shepherd’s landscape designs and the works of architects Julia Morgan, William Merchant, and Gertrude Comfort Morrow are all prominently displayed here.
- Other elements, such as community parks, were created by the well-known Olmsted Brothers on a national and worldwide scale.
- The Olmsted firm is also responsible for the famous circle fountain and entrance gates at St.
- Francis Wood.
The aesthetics of St. - Francis Woods set it apart from other San Francisco neighborhoods.
- Its original purpose, which was to create a private, wooded setting with a view of the sea, has mostly been maintained today.
- Broad, winding streets meander between immaculately landscaped lots that are home to opulent, European-inspired homes.
- Despite the neighborhood’s central location in the busy southwest section of the city, a sense of suburban sanctuary is created by the abundance of parks and resident-only fountains.
- The neighborhood’s racist past nearly prevented it from being listed on the National Register of Historic Places, despite its obvious physical beauty.
- Many San Franciscans were against the neighborhood receiving this designation, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, citing the neighborhood’s original covenants that forbade people of color from residing there:
- “When St.
- Francis Wood was established in 1912, a clause specifically prohibited people of ‘African, Japanese, Chinese or of any Mongolian descent’ from owning property in the neighborhood.
- ” (Hearst owns both SFGATE and The Chronicle, but they have different newsrooms.)
