SF Billionaire Lists Historic Mega-Mansion in the City for Nearly $20M
SFGATE Contributor Anna Marie Erwert
Built in 1927 by Albert Farr, 3699 Washington St. in San Francisco’s Presidio Heights neighborhood is listed at $19.5 million.
In 1927, one of San Francisco’s most renowned architects built this mansion on a corner lot in the prestigious Presidio Heights. Then, it was home to a prominent man with ties to the city’s most iconic landmark.
A hundred years later, its owner was a visionary tech venture capitalist, the backer of many multimillion and billion dollar companies. Now, for the first time in 40 years, 3699 Washington St. is for sale, asking $19.5 million.
The 9,984-square-foot mansion was built by Albert Farr, a very successful and highly regarded 20th-century architect, and one of the first Bay Area “starchitects.” His impressive works spanned both the San Francisco and Monterey bays — mansions in neighborhoods like Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights and Russian Hill — as well as notable buildings and homes to the north and south of San Francisco.
Farr’s history page on NoeHill tells us that his legacy includes four buildings on the National Register of Historic Places: Aetna Springs Resort in Napa County; Benbow Inn in Humboldt County; Wolf House in Sonoma County’s Jack London State Historic Park; and Phillipshurst-Riverwood in Santa Cruz County.
Because of his skills and success, Farr was in high demand among Bay Area elites — and this was the case with 3699 Washington St.
“This Italianate-style mansion was created by Albert Farr for Leland Rosener, an engineer connected to the building of the Golden Gate Bridge,” said listing agent Neal Ward of Compass.
The home’s orientation, with its unobstructed San Francisco Bay views, was almost certainly planned for Rosener. Ward wrote in an email that there’s still “a perch in one of the windows of the home where [Rosener] could observe the building of the Golden Gate through his telescope.”
Surrounded by similarly grand and historic homes, with brick and edifices, mullioned windows and turrets, 3699 Washington St. rests on a 6,250-square-foot lot, lushly landscaped and gated for privacy. From the street, this five-bedroom home, with six full baths and two half-baths, looks very much as it would have a century ago, when Farr built it.
