737 Buena Vista Ave West

Both Jack London and Danny Glover have called the former Spreckels Mansion home.  And at one point in the 1960’s, the ballroom atop the 8,400-square-foot pad at 737 Buena Vista Avenue West had been converted into “Buena Vista Studios,” a studio in which the Grateful Dead recorded a few of their first demo tracks.

Purchased by Glover for $1,550,000 in 1990, the mansion was granted to Glover’s ex-wife in 2003.  And last week, the Spreckels Mansion quietly sold to a buyer hidden behind an LLC (“737 Buena Vista”) for $10,000,000.

Designed by Edward Vogel and built for Richard Spreckels in 1897, the mansion had been offered for rent in 2009 for $14,000 a month.

UPDATE:  Considering Mr. Nash was kind enough to weigh in on our post about his former gate next door, we probably should have caught our earlier mistake identifying 737 Buena Vista Avenue as one of his previous homes.  Since corrected above.

6 thoughts on “Storied Spreckels Mansion Quietly Sells For $10M”
  1. huh? I thought THE Spreckels mansion was at Washington and Octavia, currently occupied by Danielle Steele (of excessive residential parking permit infamy).

    [Editor’s Note: Same Spreckels family, different Spreckels Mansion (they built more than one).]

  2. This Spreckels Mansion pre-dates the one built on Washington and Octavia. Trivia: three lots to the north, set back from the street, is the old caretaker’s Victorian home. Now there are two apartment buildings in between.

  3. This is the exclamation point of the gentrification of San Francisco. There is no going back now. $10 million for a house, however grand, (that used to be?) very near the famous outdoor drug market of the Haight!

    This is more than Danielle Steel paid for the other Spreckels Mansion, facing the park, with the best view of the bay on the north side, on half a city block.

    Just as in Manhattan, there are no bad neighborhoods any more, and the house itself is the major predictor of value. “Location, location, location”, is now “location, location, house.”

  4. City property taxes will go up. Here is the current information from the propertymap.sfplanning.org website.

    Address: 737 BUENA VISTA WEST AV
    Parcel: 1256012
    Assessed Values:
    Land: $956,459.00
    Structure: $2,039,990.00
    Year Built: 1900
    Building Area: 8,407 sq ft
    Parcel Area: 7,496 sq ft
    Units: 1
    Stories: 3

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