The Octagon Home

The celebrated Octagon Home is completely detached and situated on park-like grounds in Russian Hill, surrounded by seasonal gardens where something is always in bloom. This enchanting, 3-level home affords an uncommon sense of seclusion and tranquility in the heart of the city. Healthful and Heartful living is enhanced by the home’s design. The 4BD/3.5BA home enables a flexible use for modern living. The upper two-level 2BD/2.5BA home is vacant for the new owner and briefly consists of: Main Level: 4 salons, one of which opens to the south deck with a staircase to the garden. A half bath is off the central foyer. 2nd Level: 2 bedrooms/2 baths and a kitchen. Top floor: octagonal cupola. Lower Level: 2 bedrooms/1 bath, office, primary kitchen and great room which opens to the southwest patio and garden. The detached carriage house includes a 2-car garage and a large, approx. 330sqft, separate room that would work beautifully as a spacious home gym or art studio.

One of only two surviving Octagon Houses in San Francisco, the Feusier Octagon House is one of the oldest houses on Russian Hill. It was built by 1857 as it appears in historic photos dated from 1858. Some sources date it as early as 1852. It is on the National Register, #74000554 and it is San Francisco Landmark #36. It contributes to the Russian Hill Paris Block Historic District which is on the National Register of Historic Places (and which comprises the flat block of Green Street, encompassing 1017 Green to 1067 Green, built 1857 through 1925). These five homes on the south side of the block survived the 1906 Earthquake and Fire as they were saved by residents who refused the order to leave - and by the sparseness of the development on the hilltop. The Russian Hill Paris Block Historic District is a group of 11 buildings on this block, each designed in a different architectural style, and which are set back from the street with fences, front gardens, and street trees.

Octagon Houses were all the rage in the mid-19th century based on the writings of Orson Squire Fowler, a New York Phrenologist. His book, A Home for All; or, the Gravel Hall and the Octagon Mode of Building, stipulated that one’s wellbeing was related to the shape and construction of his domicile: The Octagon form enabled every room to receive sunlight at some time of day, to maximize circulation of fresh air, and was therefore prescribed. The Feusier Octagon House and the Colonial Dames Octagon are the only two remaining Octagon Houses in the Bay Area, and there are only about 100 remaining in the US. Under the occupancy of the Feusier Family, the second owners of the property from the 1870’s to the 1950’s, 1067 Green was enhanced with a mansard roofed third story and an octagonal cupola.

Agent: Janet Feinberg Schindler
DRE# 00859528
Sotheby's International Realty
www.octagonhome.com