San Francisco’s Beloved “Starship Home” Sells with Proprietor James T. Kirk’s Blessing
2334 46th Avenue (Zillow)
James T. Kirk bravely went where he had been many times before – and left the probate with an agreement to sell San Francisco’s beloved Starship House.
Kirk – yes, that’s his real name – had struggled for years to hold onto his family home, a two-bedroom bath a few blocks from Ocean Beach in the Sunset. He was born shortly before the TV premiere of “Star Trek” and has lived there for decades with homemade creations, including a replica of the bridge of the spaceship Enterprise. A Batmobile-clad car is parked in front of it and visitors are welcome.
The house is a beacon for the “wonderfully strange” and a “resource for thousands of people each year,” said supervisor Gordan Mar, who represents the Western San Francisco neighborhood.
The wonderfully weird Starshiphouse on 46th near Taraval is a landmark and resource for thousands of people each year. James T. Kirk (yes, that’s his real name) is in a dispute in a probate court to buy the house from his mother’s estate. pic.twitter.com/4ygDAcrsOx
– Gordon Mar (@ D4GordonMar) December 5, 2021
At an estate hearing this week, Kirk and his neighborhood friend Jason Hodge agreed to beat a $ 1 million offer. Instead, prospective buyers turned out to be “pretty cool and like what Kirk does,” said Hodge, a firefighter married to California state treasurer, Fiona Ma.
After Hodge was certain that Kirk would not be evicted out of hand, they struck a handshake deal with the buyers that allowed Kirk and all tenants to stay at market rents for a year or two, while “the captain” did the next “Makes an option for his universe,” said Hodge. The buyers live in San Jose and plan to make the Outer Sunset their primary residence.
While the lease terms have yet to be put into writing and the probate process has made Kirk “a little numb,” he said it was time to move on. “It will open a new chapter in my life,” he said.
Kirk has been struggling with his two sisters to keep the house since their mother died about three years ago. The artist and craftsman had never had a bank account or a credit card, which made it difficult to secure a loan.
Photos via Jesse Chandler
Hodge was so committed that he put his beach bar in southern California as a security. He also organized a GoFundMe that raised more than $ 22,000 to help Kirk keep the property.
“The house is such a community resource,” said Hodge. “Kirk never turns people away when people need shelter.”
Kirk thanked his supporters, some of whom had never seen the tinfoil stalactites in the garage or jammed in the tape room. Some donors said the house represented the stranger days in San Francisco’s past, before people needed an income of $ 350,000 to buy a home at average price and properties that sold for millions above the asking price.
“This is the weirdness of San Francisco that makes the city great and is slowly dying out,” wrote one $ 20 donor. “We have to support such people to stay here.”
Hodge said the GoFundMe money that has not yet been spent on legal fees will help Kirk sign a lease with the new owners. After the estate closes, he will receive a third of the proceeds to find a new home for his treasures, including a giant ping pong table that takes up much of the courtyard and oversized paintings inspired by hieroglyphics.
Hodge is also trying to find a more permanent form of income for Kirk. He was recently approved as the captain of Batmobile tours of San Francisco on Airbnb and has already signed up.
Kirk hopes he can find another spot in the neighborhood to recreate his strange but inviting home. “What I am doing is not going to stop,” he said.
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