Greetings my Favorite PeopleToday we’re dipping into San Francisco history and delivering tips on some good buys. For the good buys, you can head straight to the bottom of this email. If you want to get your feet wet with some local lore, stay with me up here–

SF History is one of my favorite subjects so I may run on here. If you’re not into lots of reading, just scan this stuff and you’ll get the gist of it.

If you’re wondering who slept in your home and how they spent their waking hours, there’s a plethora of resources available to you. Here are a handful of fun ones:

The San Francisco History Center has a handout on how to research your home. Most of the resources they recommend are at the San Francisco History Room, located on the top floor of the Main Library.

I love the History Room—a quiet elegant place lined with wood paneling where people speak in hushed towns and wear cotton gloves to handle old books and records. The staff there is inordinately helpful and will help you find anything you need.

They also have a —rich photo collection that you can survey online. Click on this link and you can search their database of images. I love looking up old street corners and doing a “then and now” comparison. You can also order copies of just about any photo (cost is $15-20) – an ideal Christmas or birthday gift!

Along the lines of “San Francisco Then and Now” a great book by that title– with a series of color photographs of San Francisco compared side-by-side with seventy archival photographs from the 1850s to the 1950s. There’s a copy of this at the History Room and each time I’m there I get lost in it.

More cool links for San Francisco History are on the SF City Guides site. The City Guides are a group of dedicated volunteers who offer historic walking tours all over the City. Even if you’re a native San Franciscan who thinks they know it all, you’ll love taking one of these walks. I did one of Pacific Heights years ago and quickly learned how to date a Victorian home within 10 years just by studying the windows and trim.

Finally for those in District 4 (Realtor’s nomenclature for West of Twin Peaks neighborhoods) OutsideLands.org has lots of quirky historical information about the Parkside, West Portal and OMI (along with other outlying neighborhoods.) My favorite section here is a message board called the “Your Stories.” Last time I checked, there were threads dedicated to 1950s gas stations and the Magnolia Pub back in the day when they served anatomically correct desserts.

OK, enough about history – now onto the hot buys of the week: 543-545 23rd Avenue - Two big houses on one lot. $1,799,000. So maybe the rear house isn’t huge (like the 4-bedroom/4-bath front one with its two master suites) but it’s still good-sized with 3-bedrooms/3-baths and family room down. Everything in both homes is brand-spanking new from the hardwood floors and French doors to the cherry cabinetry and marble front stairs.

The listing agent is promoting this as ‘two units’ without specifying it as two separate houses, so it’s flying under the radar as a great value. Good block with nice architectural unity.

1307 Bay Street, #2 – Half floor 3-bedroom condo. $999,000. 1920’s corner building with mullioned windows and a gracious front stairway. Formal dining room, fireplace, big foyer. Windows are double-paned: close your eyes and I swear you would never know you were right on busy Bay Street. One parking, deeded storage common garden.

There were lots of Realtors buzzing around this one on Tuesday Tour. My guess is that it will go with multiple offers.

1097 Howard, #304. Warehouse loft condominium. $649,000. A decent-size loft (+/- 950 sf) that’s in a warehouse conversion rarely comes up in this price range. It’s a concrete building, so you don’t get the brick and timber finishings, but the ceilings are nice and high, and the arched window overlooking the street is huge. Has parking. Has storage. Plus a cool common roof deck with barbecue and City views.

The Lighthouse Lofts at 1097 Howard have an interesting history – originally they were sold as shells with the plumbing stubbed in. Consequently no two lofts are alike as each buyer owner finished off their own unit

219 Brannan, #10B. 1-BR/1Ba luxury view condo. $739,000. The Brannan is considered one of the premiere developments in South Beach. Everything about it feels right, from the courtyard entrance to the nicest front desk staff in town.

The unit has sparkling skyline views from every room (at night it’s like being inside a Christmas tree) and a deck with a sweeping view of the Bay Bridge. We’ve got parking. We’ve got storage. We’ve got a pool. We’ve got a private health club. And we’ve got a price that’s a notch below what the unit one floor above sold for last summer.

This is my listing. Call me if you want to see it (738-7040) and I’ll let you know the showing schedule.

I also have a line on a 2 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath home with rooms down on a great block in the Haight Ashbury. There are some Western views and two-car parking. Price will be in the $1.3-$1.5 range. This is not yet on the market. Email or call if you want more information.

And remember, if there’s anything I can do to assist you or your friends real estate-wise, please give me a call. I’d be more than happy to help.

See you next week!

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 23rd, 2006 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Hot Properties, Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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