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Touring San Francisco's Most Expensive Home For Sale

This article is more than 10 years old.

San Francisco's most expensive home for sale sits on Pacific Avenue, perched high above the sloping street, in the tony neighborhood of Pacific Heights. Tucked behind metal gates, the "pedestrian entrance" is comprised of front steps that lead past a painstakingly manicured yard up to a buttercream-colored Victorian mansion finished in white trim.

As my hosts usher me through the front door, the bustle of the hilly street outside dies away, replaced by a hushed quiet interrupted only by the muffled gurgling of running water, a side effect of the solarium down the hall.

This is 2724 Pacific Avenue. Donning a $30 million price tag, it is currently San Francisco's priciest property on the market, eclipsing a new development on nearby Billionaire's Row asking $28.75 million and a Presidio Heights copy of Versaille's Petit Trianon asking $21 million.

Encompassing three parcels that total 26,000 square feet -- almost two-thirds of an acre -- this urban mansion is more than six times larger than the average 4,000-square foot lot available in San Francisco, its co-listing agents assert. "This is probably the third largest residential parcel in the city," says Steve Gothelf, a luxury real estate broker with Pacific Union International, an affiliate of Christie's International Real Estate.

Designed in the American Queen Anne style, the 13,500-square foot house was originally built in 1894 by Captain Hermann Meyer, a German seaman who was outlived by his wife and eight children. In 1944 the Hermann family sold the house to Countess Suzanne de Tessan, the wealthy Verdier heiress whose father founded San Francisco's famed (and now closed) City of Paris department store. The Countess added more land to the estate and hosted countless society parties here until her death in 1982. The current owner, Doug Engmann, a former chairman of the Pacific Stock Exchange, acquired the home in 1983.

"Having only had three owners over  the lifetime of the property, we have been able to keep [it] in tact," says Lynn Moore, a Pacific Union International broker and the home's co-listing agent alongside Gothelf.

Now Engmann is selling it -- and FORBES has been granted an exclusive tour of the space.

2724 Pacific Ave touts a main house with seven bedrooms, seven full baths, and staff quarters stretched across four stories. The kitchen is expansive, though in need of updating. The top floor boasts a multimedia area, a gym and a spa replete with hot tub, sauna and steam room. Multiple staircases lead to grand entertaining rooms decorated in wood paneling and hand-painted wall paper. There's also a library and a home office.

The most unique amenity of the house is undoubtedly the solarium, a glass-enclosed sun room sporting black-and-white tile flooring and a foliage-flanked pond populated with koi fish that peek out of the water in hopes of being fed. The pond once served as the Countess de Tessan's shallow exercise pool.

"It's probably the only solarium in San Francisco that I'm aware of, especially of this scale," notes Gothelf, as we enter the space, sunlight illuminating the space as the sound of running water echoes around us.

Next we climb the stairs and venture out onto the wraparound porches to take in palatial views of the city. Straight ahead, miles past the adjoining estate owned by the Dolby family (of Dolby Labs), lies the peak of the Transamerica Pyramid; to the left, past Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi's red brick manse, lies the Bay and in it the infamous island of Alcatraz.

Outside there are grassy lawns, trees and gardens including one secluded, sunken flowery alcove decorated with a bandstand. Underneath the outdoor deck, down a spiral staircase, is a walkway studded with apple trees -- the property's so-called "apple orchard." It leads to an original carriage house that has since been converted into a recreation lounge.

Claiming more than 140 feet of street frontage, the massive home has one other major amenity: private parking, a notable feature in a city where parking is scarce enough to command five-figure sums for available spots. 2724 Pacific Ave has four subterranean parking spots located underneath the house, each with its own buttercream-hued garage door and direct access to the street. A long private driveway, located around the side of the property, also allows for parking for an additional 12 to 14 cars.

The brokers suspect the pricey pad will sell to a wealthy family with young children. The Pacific Heights neighborhood is one of San Francisco's wealthiest, home to many of the city's richest residents including FORBES 400 members Larry Ellison and Gordon Getty, and wealthy techies like Mark Pincus and David Sacks.

For an exclusive look inside San Francisco's $30 million Pacific Heights estate, check out the video below.

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