2nd most expensive home sale in 2025
The 'Jewett House' was a rare contemporary home custom-built for an SF power couple
SF Gate
Built in 1987, the “Jewett House” at 2990 Broadway St. sold for $26.5 million, making it the second-most expensive single-family home sold in San Francisco so far in 2025.
Custom-built for a billionaire family in the 1980s, the “Jewett House” at 2990 Broadway on San Francisco’s famous ultra-high-end Gold Coast, aka Billionaires’ Row, has sold for the first time.
The 10,180-square-foot mansion was built for George “Fritz” Jewett Jr. and Lucy Jewett, a philanthropic power couple devoted to the arts. George was the heir to a logging fortune, but was a prominent businessman in his own right, as well as active on numerous civic and charitable boards. Both George and Lucy spent copious time and money supporting causes such as the San Francisco Ballet, the ARCS Foundation and numerous other organizations devoted to science, education, conservation and medicine. The Jewetts were also avid — and very adept — sailors: Both of them were inducted into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame (and Lucy was only the second woman in history to earn that honor).
George and Lucy commissioned architect Sandy Walker to build their family home at 2990 Broadway in the late 1980s. At the time, the 0.18-acre lot was — to quote the official listing — “the most coveted, cornerstone location as the last house on Outer Broadway.”
Walker’s design is contemporary, setting it apart from its more traditional neighbors. The mansion has four bedrooms and six full bathrooms, as well as four partial bathrooms. The multilevel mansion makes the most of its setting, with each main floor looking out over postcard bay views, framed in soaring walls of glass.
The mansion’s modern angles are distinct, a clear departure from the stately historic homes by architects such as Albert Farr, Willis Polk and William Wurster, whose grand creations began to rise on the Gold Coast at the start of the 20th century. “This property is the most important contemporary architectural home along the Pacific Heights’ Gold Coast,” co-listing agent Stacey Caen of Sotheby’s International Realty told SFGATE over email when she was interviewed about the home in October of last year. “This single-owner sale is very rare and highly attractive to the ultra-high-net-worth buyer.”
The Jewetts likely held on to 2990 Broadway because it was the perfect home for their glamorous lifestyle, affording an unobstructed view of the water they loved to sail, and an elegant setting for visiting dignitaries: The Jewetts’ son George told the San Francisco Business Times that his parents “used [the mansion] to entertain guests at the home such as former U.S. President George H.W. Bush and the UK's Prince Philip.”
George “Fritz” Jewett Jr. died in 2008; Lucy Jewett kept the home until her death in 2023. In June of 2024, the property went on the market for the first time, then asking $38 million. By October of 2024, that price had dipped to $32 million, a price still high enough to keep the listing among the city’s most expensive. Now, a year after its debut, Jewett House has passed into new hands, with a final closing price of $26.5 million. This transaction represents the sale of the second-most expensive home sold in San Francisco so far in 2025, behind the former Shorenstein mansion at 260 Sea Cliff Ave., which sold off-market this January for $30 million.
