Ansel Adams home for sale

Childhood home in San Francisco has hit the market for $5.5 million. Based on what homes go for in the Bay area, this looks like a good deal.

This house has been modernized beyond all comprehension. There is absolutely nothing left of Arts and Crafts. All character has been drained into the sewer...

Apparently there were two houses, next to each other at one point in time.
One was swallowed up by a sinkhole and there was a movement to make that land an "Ansel Adams Grove" or something.
But another house was built on the property. Maybe it's that house that's for sale.
Excerpt from an article from sf.curbed.com:

Brendan Quirk said:

This house has been modernized beyond all comprehension. There is absolutely nothing left of Arts and Crafts. All character has been drained into the sewer...

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You mean the one he sold 60 years ago.?
It was built over 100 years ago.

It was ramshackle by modern standards. It was built to archaic codes, or what past for codes in 1903 and then 1930.
Funky plumbing, no insulation, out of square everything, single pane windows........ UN-Grounded 2-Wire electrical, etc etc etc
What did you expect people to do with it exactly.?
The new owners want it to be livable for them, today

Yep, 2 prong AC outlets are concerning, sink holes maybe a bit more so

VinceInMT said:

Childhood home in San Francisco has hit the market for $5.5 million. Based on what homes go for in the Bay area, this looks like a good deal.

Storied SF home of Ansel Adams hits the market

Ansel Adams grew up in this home near the Presidio and lived there until 1957 when he moved to Carmel.

www.sfgate.com

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It may be a "good deal" but I cannot imagine living in the hellhole SF has become.

AnselMortensen said:

Apparently there were two houses, next to each other at one point in time.

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There still are - they're connected by a little hallway:



The "house next door" was probably on that land to the right.

This is from Sotheby's site:



The second, connected building was added in 1929, according to the article.

Too many steps to get into the front door especially carrying all that camera gear.

chuckroast said:

It may be a "good deal" but I cannot imagine living in the hellhole SF has become.

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It depends on what part of the city or what part of the Bay Area. One of my kids lives in MountainView and that’s pretty nice.

VinceInMT said:

It depends on what part of the city or what part of the Bay Area. One of my kids lives in MountainView and that’s pretty nice.

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I have been going to SF for years. The last time I was there, I stepped out of my billion dollar hotel to the scene of people relieving themselves on the middle of the sidewalk. Downtown smells like urine and weed. This is the consistent experience of my colleagues who've been there in the past few years (pre Pandemic, even) as well. The city in utter collapse. It's tragic.

The house is located at 129 24th Ave, in the cul-de-sac at 24th Ave. and W. Clay St. It is literally a stone's throw from the south-west corner of the Presidio. It is a short walk to China Beach or Baker Beach, and not at all far from Land's End and Golden Gate Park. This is pretty far from my concept of, 'hell hole'.

San Francisco is a pretty big place with a very diverse population and geography. You might wanna take a look at a map or maybe, get out and walk around a little ways from your billion dollar hotel before slinging shit on the whole city/county.

BradS said:

San Francisco is a pretty big place with a very diverse population

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And I think that just about sums up any attempt to discuss whether city X has gone to sh** or not.

Which is to say, back to the topic of the Adams place, please. Moderator announcement over.

Zillow shows a bit of the property under discussion.

Well, if I was somehow in the market for a $5.5 Million USD house, San Francisco and that one would certainly be intriguing.
I haven't lived in a really cold climate since 1961

Living in that part of the City, that close to the Presidio and with views of the Golden Gate and Marin headlands, would be like a dream to me...but as Tevia says, "If I were a rich man...."

Alright, I have an important question: where was the darkroom in that maze of a house?

Another big sinkholes opened up in that neighborhood this past winter. You'd have to be nuts to buy there, even if you could afford it. There are all kinds of old abandoned water tunnels going through there, and what lies below is mostly poorly consolidated mudstone, though not as Jello-ish as in the nearby Marina district. Besides, for slightly less than a million you can get your own two story condo right on the water. The main residence is in the rusty camper shell itself; and when the tide is high, you simply move to the top floor, and sleep on the camper roof instead. And free crab dinner every night, once the tide moves out. Or if the tide is just too high, it might be the crabs that get a free dinner!

Heck, Brad - you don't know how good you're got it. I drove through Sonora early today. Yeah, the main drag has gotten way over developed for my taste, and 120 has pretty bad traffic; but most of the side roads are still lovely. I get homesick for the hill country. But I was chasing the weather on the east side based on the forecast, and did get some wonderful cloud activity; also some darn cold windy nights up high. Couldn't even set up a tripod in the Bristlecone ridges at 11,000 ft. But my Fuji 6X9 RF came to the rescue handheld. One of the waterfalls at Sonora Pass was frozen this morning.

But for the rest of you. ... Don't take your stereotypes too far. Yes, crime is bad in certain neighborhoods, including downtown SF more than before. West Oakland has been a war zone as long as I can remember, and gives that city its bad reputation; but even more of Oakland, up in the hills, is highly affluent and lovely. After all, the Bay Area is the world epicenter of not only electronics tech, but also Biotech, Pharmaceutical R&D, and perhaps Ai soon too. We have the most open space and dedicated park space of any urban area in the US (Regional Parks, States Parks, and NP holdings); and the crime rate in those spaces is extremely low. I've never felt unsafe in any of those places. No- I wouldn't leave a camera bag in plain sight on a car seat in a parking lot - but I don't do that anywhere, period.

But that particular remodel - what a waste! Wholly out of character for the area, especially at that price. Looks more like something a SoCal or Central Valley developer would do, not a skilled local renovator with actual taste. Gosh knows how many of those stunts I've seen which instantly got "un-remodeled" by the new buyers at great further expense, just to bring back a prior vintage look instead. White paint on open ceiling beams. All the woodwork drywalled over. Probably even some of the flooring and decking is synthetic. Sick.

DREW WILEY said:

Another big sinkholes opened up in that neighborhood this past winter. You'd have to be nuts to buy there, even if you could afford it. There are all kinds of old abandoned water tunnels going through there, and what lies below is mostly poorly consolidated mudstone, though not as Jello-ish as in the nearby Marina district. Besides, for slightly less than a million you can get your own two story condo right on the water. The main residence is in the rusty camper shell itself; and when the tide is high, you simply move to the top floor, and sleep on the camper roof instead. And free crab dinner every night, once the tide moves out. Or if the tide is just too high, it might be the crabs that get a free dinner!

Heck, Brad - you don't know how good you're got it. I drove through Sonora early today. Yeah, the main drag has gotten way over developed for my taste, and 120 has pretty bad traffic; but most of the side roads are still lovely. I get homesick for the hill country. But I was chasing the weather on the east side based on the forecast, and did get some wonderful cloud activity; also some darn cold windy nights up high. Couldn't even set up a tripod in the Bristlecone ridges at 11,000 ft. But my Fuji 6X9 RF came to the rescue handheld. One of the waterfalls at Sonora Pass was frozen this morning.

But for the rest of you. ... Don't take your stereotypes too far. Yes, crime is bad in certain neighborhoods, including downtown SF more than before. West Oakland has been a war zone as long as I can remember, and gives that city its bad reputation; but even more of Oakland, up in the hills, is highly affluent and lovely. After all, the Bay Area is the world epicenter of not only electronics tech, but also Biotech, Pharmaceutical R&D, and perhaps Ai soon too. We have the most open space and dedicated park space of any urban area in the US (Regional Parks, States Parks, and NP holdings); and the crime rate in those spaces is extremely low. I've never felt unsafe in any of those places. No- I wouldn't leave a camera bag in plain sight on a car seat in a parking lot - but I don't do that anywhere, period.

But that particular remodel - what a waste! Wholly out of character for the area, especially at that price. Looks more like something a SoCal or Central Valley developer would do, not a skilled local renovator with actual taste. Gosh knows how many of those stunts I've seen which instantly got "un-remodeled" by the new buyers at great further expense, just to bring back a prior vintage look instead. White paint on open ceiling beams. All the woodwork drywalled over. Probably even some of the flooring and decking is synthetic. Sick.

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Exactly. I make no moral judgement regarding a person's taste in renovation, but I was responding to the notion that the photograph I was looking at reflected Arts and Crafts style. I understand that old houses have "outdated" components and style. My house, a foursquare, was begun in 1904 and finished in 1914. Yes, I have some two prong outlets, and knob and tube wiring in the wall. But nearly all of the baseboards, casings, doors, and picture rails are original and unpainted. All floors are original maple. This gives me a good picture of the prevailing Craftsman style it was built in. Whether one LIKES that, is a matter of taste. I do. Others don't.

Sorry for the diversion from photographic discourse.

The steps. 18 steps! I suppose for hilly SF it's not noticed.

Alan Edward Klein said:

The steps. 18 steps! I suppose for hilly SF it's not noticed.

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It’s not noticed by people who are fit. I have people tell me that single-story living is the goal when one gets “old” but I’m not clear on what “old” is. I’m in my 70s and run over 25 miles/week and it’s not exactly one-level here where I run.

Brendan - Knob and tube wiring would be a no-no regardless, and wouldn't pass inspection. But rewiring a house that size and with no intent to preserve original woodwork would be fairly simple, especially since knob and tube is mainly in the attic. But I don't see the esthetic question itself irrelevant if someone were to throw AA into the equation. He hated sterile architecture. Sure, we all have to live within our means; and I had to sell my own craftsman style home prior to retirement due to all the constant forest fire prevention work each year it involved, and am now stuck with a basic city stucco box itself needing a lot of remodeling, but at least in a comfortable coastal climate. But up the hill from me are many many examples of classic period architecture, including where Dorothea Lange lived. I've worked on those kinds of buildings, consulted on their remodeling issues, and was deeply involved on the supply side too. And I'm certain the ghost of Ansel wouldn't be interested in haunting that boringly redone SF house.

If it weren't for the SF location, a property like that an hour inland might fetch $400,000. Of course, even paying the 5 million cash, you still never really own the thing, given that the property taxes alone would probably be around 50K per year.

People who do spend that kind of money in this area lean heavily into an almost Zen style of lovely woodwork everywhere. They support a lot of highly skilled craftsmen. Some projects run 20 or more years. I was pretty tight with that crowd. Some of them even studied traditional woodworking in Japan and Beijing first. That style caught on here due to architects like Julia Morgan, Bernard Maybeck, and Frank Lloyd Wright. I lived in a couple of Julia Morgan homes in exchange for labor.

And how does this tie into photography? More deeply than you might think. One of these craftsmen was nephew to Dorothea Lange and son in law to Rondal Partridge, a key assistant to both Dorothea and AA. I got a lot of insider history from him. Similarly, another highly skilled woodworker and builder who was a client of mine had deep ties to the Weston family. Then the fellow who was selling my prints bounced back and forth between a museum career introducing Asian modernist works to the US, and his own passion for fine woodworking, which included Ellison's incredible house and yachts, and then later, had a PBS feature of his joinery skills acquired from spending a year studying the special techniques behind the Forbidden City in Beijing. All these people were highly educated and had a serious appreciation for the "West Coast school" of photography, as well as for maintaining the integrity of the local architectural heritage.

The sizes and shapes of the alcoves in these classic homes determined the size of paintings or framed photos themselves. It's not like in Miami or Vegas where someone goes out and buys something ostentatiously huge and garish for sake of a big blank wall. Spaces are more intimate, and more likely to be surrounded by vintage wooden architectural detail. And by doing my own hardwood framing tailored to each specific image, it gave me an edge. But that was quite awhile back. I've kept up reasonably well with all my still living connections; but at a certain point, family responsibilities inevitably cut into my photo momentum, though I've never slowed down shooting or printing per se.

Wasn't AA's darkroom in the basement? I thought I read that somewhere...

Andrew O'Neill said:

Wasn't AA's darkroom in the basement? I thought I read that somewhere...

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The house in this post has no basement.

Andrew O'Neill said:

Wasn't AA's darkroom in the basement? I thought I read that somewhere...

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Maybe in his Carmel location but unlike other areas of the country, basements are uncommon in California. In all my time spent in that state I only ever saw one. That was in a relative’s house in Santa Barbara where he housed his HO railroad layout and that was only a half basement.

The last time I was there, about 10 or so years ago, the funny looking siding(?) was still in place and stone bench and miniature fountain in the front entrance was still in place.