Gilded Age San Francisco Estate Built for Timber Baron Lists for $27 Million

A Gilded Age mansion originally built for one of San Francisco’s timber barons has come to market in Pacific Heights for $27 million.

Known as the Doe House, the residence at 2120 Washington Street was built in 1908 for Frank P. Doe, president of the wholesale lumber firm that bore his name.

The home was completed just two years after the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed much of the city. In those years, the city’s wealthiest families were rebuilding, and the industries supplying materials, like the Frank P. Doe Lumber Company, did well.

More than a century later, the house is still one of the more substantial private homes in the neighborhood, with Stacey Caen of Sotheby's International Realty holding the listing.

The historic estate borders Lafayette Park on one of Pacific Heights’ most storied blocks. Just next door is the former home of James D. Phelan, the onetime San Francisco mayor and U.S. senator. The Adolph Spreckels Mansion is down the street.

According to the listing, this is the first sale in nearly 30 years among the five historic homes in this grouping.

The house has seven bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms and 8,175 square feet of living space spread across four levels. It sits on a flat double lot—a rarity in this part of the city, where steep streets and narrow parcels are the norm.

The lot also provides ample outdoor space, with front and side courtyards that set the house back from the sidewalk and a terraced garden framing the rear of the property.

In 2011, the property went through a renovation by San Francisco-based Butler Armsden Architects. The firm left the home’s original structure intact and focused on how the rooms work together, reworking the floor plan without stripping out its period character.

The main level is arranged for entertaining, with multiple formal and informal living spaces defined by neoclassical details and high ceilings. At the center of the floor, a great room with floor-to-ceiling windows showcases views of the bay.

The floor above has two bedrooms with private baths, one overlooking Lafayette Park and the other facing the water, plus a third bedroom with its own half bath. The primary suite includes a custom soaking tub and walk-in closet storage.

On the top floor, a playful chartreuse-green lounge comes with views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Three more bedrooms, one with a private bath, round out the level. The garden level adds two more bedrooms, each with its own bathroom.

The home is a few blocks from the shops and restaurants along Fillmore Street.

Grand homes from this era rarely come up for sale, especially ones that have maintained their original footprint. Doe House offers just that, along with an update from one of the city’s top architects.