Certainly one of San Francisco’s strangest houses simply hit the market

Half a house in San Francisco could be yours for $13.9 million.

The idiosyncratic 1969 California Street mansion listed this week is unique for its seemingly incomplete form and turbulent history. The 9,000-square-foot, five-bedroom home features four levels, diamond-pattern lead windows, and a soaring 11.5-foot ceiling, which the blurb describes as “a Gravitas rarely seen in today’s market.”

Built by one of the most important men in San Francisco at the time, Michael Henry de Young, the historic Tobin House is one of the few surviving houses on this block from a century ago.

1969 California Street, San Francisco.

Andrew Chamings

As a young journalist from St. Louis, de Young and his brother Charles moved to San Francisco and in 1865 founded the San Francisco Chronicle. In the 1910s, Michael acquired two lots adjacent to his ornate Victorian mansion on California Street.

Originally planned as one of two twin houses for his daughters Constance and Helen, de Young commissioned the famous architect Willis Polk to design what was a very modern apartment complex for the time.

1969 California Street, San Francisco.

Jacob Elliott for Sotheby’s International Realty

Polk’s ambitious idea for the Tobin House (named after Constance’s husband Joseph Tobin) and its neighbors was that they mirror each other and share an archway that would form a tunnel leading to Michael’s enormous mansion. But that plan would never fully materialize after Helen decided not to move to San Francisco near her sister and father, and instead to stay at their peninsular estate. Some old newspaper stories tell of a “serious quarrel” between the sisters, and this story has become part of the half-arch lore, although it is difficult to confirm.

The left side of the tall arch failed to find its twin, leaving the striking architectural incongruity, with the semi-arch crashing into the red brick wall of its modern neighbor, rendering it useless.

1969 California Street, San Francisco.

Jacob Elliott for Sotheby’s International Realty

From the street, the high archway and roof rise tall, with an almost medieval appearance. Its design was considered very modern at the time – the steep Tudor-style slate-clad roof and stark gray facade replaced the ornate Victorian intricacies of the era. A single gargoyle (technically grotesque as no water flows through it) of a lion graces the facade, and the building somehow never got painted.

The semi-arch continues deep into the block, with several semi-arches abutting against the neighbor’s house in the narrow alley that should have been a tunnel.

Michael died in 1925, and his mansion was leveled in 1941, leaving half the house (now San Francisco Historic Landmark 260) as the only remnant of a time when the de Youngs owned the entire block.

1969 California Street, San Francisco.

Jacob Elliott for Sotheby’s International Realty

The Tobin House was bought in the 1940s by an eccentric opera singer named Gualtiero Bartalini, who reportedly threw lavish parties there. More recently it housed the Anthony Meier Fine Arts Gallery.

1969 California listed by Joe Lucier and Stacey Caen of Sotheby’s International Realty. Read our full story of the building and block here.